Some basic ingredients you always have in a French kitchen…
This is a base which you can make a lot from (Cheese Soufflé, Quiche Lorraine, etc…) ; and it is a good base to improvise a recipe according to what are your leftovers in the fridge…Those are products you can keep for long…
In the cupboard
- Olive oil : the most perfumed of all oils, and recognized to be one of the most healthy (if not the most). Part of the “Mediterranean Food Paradox” , it is perfect for all salads, and can accommodate all by itself all vegetables and fish. It can be a dominating flavor in almost everything, if you so like…
- Vinegar : the most known is red wine vinegar. Many others are also good and a bit more original
like Reims vinegar or Vinegar with Provence herbs.
- Hot mustard : the most famous is from Dijon of course and it is the one you need to cook.
It is made of mustard seeds and vinegar and is
highly usefull in French Cooking.
- Nutmeg : it is a very precious spice because it perfumes many dishes with a delicate and original flavor. This is our favorite, you will notice it in many of our recipes. If you only have grated nutmeg, put more than if freshly grated.
- Onions : avoid sweet ones to cook – unless it’s specified on the recipe. Ours are about 8 centimeters (3 inches) large, brown outside, have a strong flavor and a strong smell when cut. So, be very careful
with your eyes when you slice them and prefer them cooked unless you like strong stuff !
- Garlic : one other base of the Mediterranean cooking ; it deserves its fame. It is very strong
when raw, so avoid it in your salads. But, when it is cooked, it is absolutely exceptional, and it is said to be good for health (blood pressure).
- Flour : regular white ; from wheat – not whole.
- Sugar : regular ; internationally the same
I guess.
Fresh Herbs
If you have a little time and patience, it is worth to grow herbs.
You do not need to have all the herbs on earth but just a few basic ones…
It makes all the difference (if you do not forget to water them !!!)
Basil : much used in the south of France and Italy ; Ok as a pot plant, it is a delight ! Fresh in your salads, chopped in a salad dressing, it is perfect cooked with meats or vegetables too. Preferably fresh but this is only possible during summer, it exists in small jars chopped and preserved in oil and the savor is very well restitued.
- Sage : its savor is so delicate and strong at the same time…it is perfect to flavor white meats and pasta. It needs to be cooked. Sage has its own “personality” and does not want to be mixed with any other herb.
- Parsley : most common, much used, it is Ok as a pot plant during the summer, but is very much fragile. Chopped fresh in salad dressings or cooked
in sauces , it is often used with chopped garlic (for escargots for example), or simply as a decoration.
- Sorrel : mostly used cooked, it spreads out a delicate sourness which is perfect with fish.
It really has its own “personality” too and the proof is that it is used to make an excellent soup.
- Coriander : this is our joker…not really necessary, and not the most classical, but it is lovely.
Its seeds are used as spices, but fresh, this herb is delicious. Perfect to perfume fish or salad dressing,
it is very much used in Chinese cooking also…
