France

In the United States, Cassoulet Toulousaine is the most well-known of the three classic cassoulets of southwestern France, and maybe the easiest to get the ingredients for because D'Artagnan sells an excellent Cassoulet Kit.

This is maybe the most expensive cassoulet to make because of the confit duck legs, but the flavor is extraordinary! It takes a couple of days to make, so plan ahead. The general procedure is:

1. Prepare all ingredients.
2. Make a rich pork stock.
3. Soak the beans overnight, then boil them until tender.
4. Assemble the cassoulet.
5. Add the stock and bake for hours at low heat.

Be sure the read the note at the end about the celebrated cassoulet crust.

This one is for a special occasion! You make a simple stuffing of mostly crab meat, fold fillets of sole over the filling, and poach. When it's done you reduce the cooking liquid and enrich it with lobster stock and butter.

A paupiette is just a thin fillet of fish or piece of meat filled with something savory. They are typically braised or baked in wine or stock. They're very popular in France, and you can often buy them ready-to-cook.

This French trout dish is easy to prepare and you can have it on the table in half an hour. Besides the fish, it uses only 5 ingredients that you probably have in the house already, so it's a good recipe to know if you're sometimes lucky enough to get fresh trout!

The Clafoutis Limousin, or cherry clafoutis, is the best known of this traditional and simple dessert style. It can also be made apples, pears, plums, or berries. If a menu says only Clafoutis (also spelled clafouti), they mean the cherry version.

The clafoutis is not elegant or elaborate, it's simple country fare, essentially just a pancake batter poured over cherries and baked, served warm from the oven.

The flamiche is a leek quiche. It's a mild dish because the oniony leeks are first stewed until they are tender. Some cheese enriches the flavor while keeping this quiche suitable for vegetarians.

I don't know where the name comes from: leeks are poireaux. I got this recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but they make no mention of the etymology of the name.

We love fresh trout. This is an easy and delicious recipe for a weeknight. You can use either slivered almonds (shown here) or sliced almonds. The slivered ones retain more crunch and less of the buttery goodness, so it's easy to choose.

This is a tasty soup with few ingredients. The veloute technique is easy, just like making a roux-thickened sauce, so if you find that easy then the whole thing is easy.

The French name for this fall and winter warmer is Potage Veloute aux Champignons.  The French classify soups in three broad ways: a potage is a thick soup, a soupe is a thin soup with veggies and whatever else in it, and a consomme is a perfectly translucent broth clarified from an excellent stock. This potage can be made with chicken, beef, ham, or vegetable stock, or if you use dried mushrooms then the strained mushroom soaking liquid can be used for some or all of the stock. 

For the dinner at which this was served, it was followed by the fish course and one of our diners is vegetarian, so I made a veggie stock from the trimmings of the vegetable course and added the mushroom soaking liquid from some dried wild mushrooms.

This is a simple and delicious preparation for fillets of sole or trout that is easy to make on a weeknight. You toast the sliced almonds in butter, and then pan-fry the fish in butter and dress it with the almonds.

I did the one in the photo with a full cup of almonds because Lorna likes it that way!

Here's the classic French escargot, plump vineyard snails drowning in herbed garlic butter. Old recipes are pretty slow and labor intensive, starting with purging the snails by feeding them cornmeal or something similar, then boiling and cleaning them before finally replacing them in their shells and broiling them with "snail butter". 

I did not pick plump snails from my neighborhood vineyard! I bought the snails cleaned and precooked in a can, and I bought the snail shells on Amazon. 

You see them here served in snail shells on a snail dish. I bought the dishes on Amazon for pretty small money, and special snail tongs for picking up the hot snail shells without spilling the yummy butter.

If you have the snail dishes, then you can do without the shells and the tongs and simply serve them in the wells of the dish with the melted snail butter in the wells, but this is a more eyecatching way to serve them. Please see the notes below.

This recipe is for 18 snails, because that what comes in a small can. The snail dishes that I found hold seven, but on the other hand not all of my diners was ready for a full dish of these garlicky mollusks.