Showing posts with label Cepes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cepes. Show all posts

Anguille, Anguille d'Europe – the European Freshwater Eel in French Cuisine.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 


 
A freshwater eel.
www.flickr.com/photos/devcentre/39748389/
 
The European Freshwater Eel.  

Anguille, Anguille d'Europe, Angèle or Pibales  –  The European eel, the Common eel, or the River eel. Eels are a traditional and popular dish all over Europe and no less so in France. Eels will be on the menus of the best French restaurants served on or off the bone, sautéed, baked, grilled, and smoked. Eels are also part of many French freshwater fish stews or prepared as an eel stew where they star on their own. Only Japan has more eel recipes. In the UK and parts of North America eels are prepared with traditional recipes but rarely seen there in top-of-the-line restaurants. Eels will be grilled, braised, or smoked to remove most of their natural fat. The eel has a pleasant but different flavor to fish with slightly flaky meat.          

The European eel on French menus:

 

Matelote d'Anguille –  A freshwater eel stew; a very popular and traditional dish. Most eel stews are made with red wine and are best accompanied by red wine. Other matelotes may be on the menu; they will freshwater fish stews; they may include brochet, pike;  perche, freshwater perch; tanche, tench; sandre, zander or pike-perch; and freshwater eels. 

 

Matelote d'Anguille

Photograph courtesy of CuisineAZ

 

Anguilles du Marais sur le Grill  Grilled eels from the marshes. This offering was on a menu in a restaurant close to the city of Angoulême. Angoulême is in the department of Charente, just twenty minutes away from the town of Cognac. The locals consider the Angouleme marsh eels to be the best. Restaurants offering these marsh eels are sure to put their provenance on the menu. The French word marais means marsh and the large and historic area of Paris called Le Marais was once marshland. (Many UK visitors will remember the name Angouleme from their schooldays. Countess Isabella of Angoulême (1188 -1246) was the Queen Consort and the second wife of King John of England).

   

Friture d'Anguilles du Lac de Grand-Lieu en Persillade - A fry-up of eels. These eels are from the Grand Lieu Lake to the South- West of the city of Nantes. Deep-fried eel is very popular, here it will have been cut into small pieces. The persillade is a flavoring of  parsley and garlic.

   

Grilled eel on a bed of spinach

Photograph courtesy of Laurel F

www.flickr.com/photos/laurelfan/4170471707/

     

Anguille Fumée, Moutarde Verte, Chou-Fleur, Câpres,  Verjus Smoked eels, green mustardcauliflower, capers and verjus. (Green mustard is usually a Dijon-style mustard colored with the juice of a green vegetable or herb).

 


Smoked Eels with Yuzu Hollandaise.
Yuzu is a member of the citrus family that originated in China. The fruit is very popular in Japan and it has a taste somewhere between that of a grapefruit and an orange.
Many French chefs have adopted this fruit for its unique taste.
Photograph courtesy of Charles Haynes
www.flickr.com/photos/haynes/15411860356/

 
Smoked
 Eels

Smoked eels that have been cured, not cooked, by smoking. Foods have been smoked by humans throughout history. Originally this was done as a preservative, but in more recent times fish, and eels, were readily preserved by refrigeration and freezing and so the smoking is generally done for the unique taste and flavor imparted by the smoking process. Cold and hot smoking produce very different flavors and textures.

Smoked eels of French menus:


Duo de Saumons Marinés et Fumés, Anguille Fumée – A matched serving of marinated salmon,  smoked salmon and smoked eel. An excellent contrast in tastes and textures.

   

Anguille Croustillante, Sabayon de Vinaigre de Cidre et Carottes au Gingembre - Crisply prepared eel served with a French take on the Italian dish of zabaglione prepared with cider vinegar. The connection to the Italian dish of zabaglione may seem dubious, but the sauce will still be tasty. Adding to the color and flavors are carrots and ginger.

Photograph courtesy of Julien Menichini

   

Anguille aux Cèpes – Eel served with France’s Porcini mushrooms. This will usually be fried eel.

     

Pressé de foie gras aux cèpes et anguille fumée à la vinaigrette de noisette - Pieces of foie gras, fattened duck's liver,  pressed together with French porcini mushrooms, smoked eel, and a vinaigrette made with hazelnut oil.

Photograph courtesy of Trip Advisor

 

 

 Anguille Fumée, Escortée d'Asperges Vertes - Smoked eel served with green asparagus.

                                                                            

 Anguille à la Broche - Eels, grilled on skewers; traditionally, that would be grilled over charcoal.

 

Pibales en Friture – A simple and very popular Basque recipe for deep-fried elvers.  To the fried elvers are added the Basque Espelette peppers.

 

Elvers - baby eels.

Alevins, Alevins d'Anguille, Gulas, Civelle or Pibale - Baby eels; elvers in English and pibale in Basque. A large elver is 5- 6 cm (2”) long. In season, in France, and elsewhere in Europe, elvers used to be very popular deep-fried fast food. Visitors could join the locals and walk down the street holding paper cones, snacking on deep-fried baby eels. However, elvers have been over-fished, and prices have sky-rocketed. With high prices, any baby eels on the menu will mostly be in upscale restaurants.

The French elver season begins when the baby eels begin to enter the rivers from the sea from the end of November-December or December-January. Elvers may be on the menu at other times, but after those dates that usually means they are frozen.

Elvers are caught at the mouth of rivers when trying to reach the river from where their parents came. Eels mate and are spawn in the Sargasso Sea and why and what happens when they get there and meet the American eels with whom they do not inter-breed remains a mystery.  The Sargasso Sea, located entirely within the Atlantic Ocean, is the only sea without a land boundary.

The reason for a possible international eel conspiracy taking place in the Sargasso Sea may be discussed at length over a hearty eel stew. Eel stew, with adult eels, is at its best when accompanied by a bottle of red wine.


European Elvers
Photograph courtesy of Sustainable Eel Group, (Photo credit ©Peter Walker)       

 
Jellied Eels

Cold jellied eels, are a traditional English dish that began in London’s East end about two-hundred years ago. There still remain, in London, a few specialist restaurants, that continue to serve eel pie and jellied eels made with the original recipes.

Eels in the languages of France’s neighbors:

(Catalan -anguila), (Dutch - aal ), (German – all, Europäischer aal), (Italian- anguilla, anghilla), (Spanish- änguila), (Latin - anguilla anguilla).

-----------

Searching for the meaning of words, names or phrases
on
a French menu?
 
Just add the word, words, or phrase that you are searching for to the words "Behind the French Menu" (best when including the inverted commas), and search with Google.  Behind the French Menu’s links, include hundreds of words, names, and phrases that are seen on French menus. There are over 450 articles that include over 4,000 French dishes with English translations and explanations.
 
----------

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2015, 2017, 2021
--------------------
 
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Caille - Quail. Quail on the Menu in France.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

  
Quail and their eggs.
Photograph courtesy of Yay Micro.
  
Farm-raised quail taste slightly sweeter than chicken and when simply roasted you will note that slightly sweeter taste.  N.B. Quail is also more easily flavored than chicken and so often that slightly sweeter taste is lost among the other flavors in the cooking process.

Roast quail for three.
Photograph Yay Micro

A serving of quail, a whole European quail, will most likely weigh in at less than 150 grams (5.30 ounces)  and that’s with the bones; if the quail are smaller you will often be served two.
  
Quail on the French menu:
   
Caille à la Stanislas - Quail in the manner prepared for Stanislas, Duke of Bar and Lorraine, France. In the original recipe, the quail was deboned, roasted and then served stuffed with fattened goose liver, foie gras de oie. Caille à la Stanislas is still on some French menus today; however, the amount of fois gras will be greatly reduced from the serving in the original dish. That should not be too surprising, given today's cost of foie gras in France.

Stanislas, before he became a French Duke, was a Polish king who was fired from that job, twice! Unemployed kings do not usually have good job prospects. Nevertheless, Stanislas received the title Duke of Lorraine with a job to go with it from his son-in-law, who was King Louis XV of France. Stanislas also received a chateau outside the city of Nancy in the Lorraine. The chateau was not a small one, and it is still known as the Versailles of the Lorraine. Stanislas's building of three stunning squares in the City of Nancy would make the city world-famous, and the squares are now UN World Heritage sites. Despite Stanislas's great works and (for the times) progressive rule, he is best remembered as the man who gave the name to the dessert Rhum Baba.  Rhum Baba or Rum Baba and other dishes that were first served in Stanislas's chateau.   The Savarin or Savarin au Rhum is based on the Rhum Baba but named after Jeanne Anthelme Brillat-Savarin who lived over 100 years later.

Fig and quail egg salad.
Photograph courtesy of Yay Micro
   
Caille Rôtie Farcie de Girolles, de Cèpes et de Roquette, Sauce Porto – Quail roasted while stuffed with the girolle chanterelle mushroom,  and cèpes, the French Porcini mushroom,  along with rocket leaves. The dish is served with a port wine sauce.  Despite France having its own Port style wines, both Port and Madeira wines will be in every French kitchen and in many sauces.
 
Caille Aux Raisins - Quail prepared and served with grapes.
  
California quail
www.flickr.com/photos/71073348@N08/6920753719/
     
La Crème de Topinambours en Cappuccino et Son Effilochée de Poitrine de Caille – A frothy cream of Jerusalem artichoke soup served with small pieces of quail breast.
 
 The use of the word cappuccino in this menu listing refers to the froth on the soup and not to coffee. When the Italians named their coffee creation cappuccino little attention was paid to the froth. Cappuccino coffee received its name from the color of the milky coffee, which is similar to the color of the hood of a Capuchin friar's robes. However, do not let us get confused by the facts.  On today's French menus cappuccino, apart from when the word is actually used for cappuccino coffee, means froth. The word effilochée in this menu listing indicates the way the quail meat has been cut. Your French-English dictionary  will show the translation of effilochée as frayed; however on a French menu effilochée refers to the way  meat is cut and here it indicates the slicing of quail breast into small pieces to serve in the soup.
  
Salade d'Oeuf de Caille, Pointe d'Asperge et Aiguillette de Canard -  A salad of quails’ eggs, they will be served either fried or boiled, whichever looks better, along with asperge, asparagus spears, and slices of  Magret de Canard, duck breast.
     
Fig and quail egg salad.
Photograph by Apolonia courtesy of freedigitalphotos
    
Salade de Cailles Rôties au Vinaigre Balsamique – A salad of roasted quail dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette.     
  
Quail Eggs
      
The European quail is a little smaller than the American quail. Despite the quail family's connection to pheasants you would not know it to taste one or to look at one. Farms that raise quail also raise these birds for their beautiful eggs; quail eggs are an essential part of quail farming economics.
    
Quail eggs
Photograph by Phiseksit courtesy of freedigitalphots.net
   
Quail eggs taste exactly the same as a chicken egg; however, if you were planning to make an omelet the size of a two chicken-egg omelet you will need about 10 quail eggs.
    
A hen’s egg and a quail egg.
Photograph courtesy of Yay Micro.
    
During the short hunting season, wild quail are legally hunted in France; if they appear on a restaurant’s menu the term used will be caille sauvage, wild quail. Wild quail are smaller and stronger tasting than the farmed variety, but they are also tougher and so they will be prepared with different recipes to farmed quail.
   
Wild quail in the bushes.
www.flickr.com/photos/sidm/4220112535/

In the Old Testament, Exodus 16, it is the quail, along with Manna that God sent for the Israelites to eat in the desert. The original recipe served at that time, has been lost in the sands of the Sinai desert. In France, there are many new and recreated recipes for quail.  

Caille - Quail in the languages of France's neighbors:
  
(Catalan - guatlla, guatla, guàtlera), (Dutch - kwartel), (German - wachtel), (Italian - quaglia comune), (Spanish -  codorniz común).

--------------------------------

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019.
 
--------------------------------

Searching for the meaning of words, names or phrases
on
French menus?
 
Just add the word, words, or phrase that you are searching for to the words "Behind the French Menu" (best when including the inverted commas), and search with Google, Bing, or another browser.  Behind the French Menu’s links, include hundreds of words, names, and phrases that are seen on French menus. There are over 450 articles that include over 4,000 French dishes with English translations and explanations.
 
Connected Posts:

  

  

 
  
 
  

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