from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
bryangnewman@gmail.com
Filet
de Veau Rôti, Beurre Café de Paris,
Ratatouille,
Pommes Anna
Roast
veal fillet, Café de Paris butter, ratatouille,
Anna potatoes.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/haydn/52300888828/
A Filet de Veau is the veal fillet, the tenderloin; it is the most expensive and tenderest of all veal cuts. However, it is not the most flavorful option. In France and elsewhere, a veal fillet will be served with a sauce, as it's the texture that truly makes this dish so special. Never order this cut well-done, as it has little natural fat and would quickly dry out. Even with barding (wrapping with bacon or pork fat cuts to prevent the filet from drying out). A well-done fillet would taste like cardboard. (See Chapter 1 for ordering a steak cooked the way you like it.)
Veal fillets on French
menus:
Filet de Veau Poêlé et sa Fondue
de Champignons - A fillet of veal lightly fried and served with button
mushrooms
that have been so well-cooked that they are nearly a sauce.
Fondue: The word comes from
the French verb fondre, which means to warm, mix, and melt; in this
case, that's vegetables that have been cooked to a soft, almost sauce-like
consistency.
Fondues also describe foods
cooked in a central pot on the diner's table. Cheese fondues are probably
of Swiss origin, while France and Switzerland debate the origins and ownership
of the various meat fondues. The first French cookbook published with a recipe
for a cheese fondue was a Fondue Fromage, aux Truffes Fraîches, a cheese
fondue with fresh truffles; the cheese would have been Gruyère or Parmesan. That early recipe
was published in Le
Cuisinier Moderne, The Modern Cook, a five-volume work
first published in 1735 and attributed to Vincent La Chapelle
(1690-1745). The original five volumes are available to read, without
charge, online at the French National Library.
Ris et Filet de Veau
au Raifort, Minute de Pousses d’Épinards - A dual
serving of veal sweetbreads and veal fillet
flavored with horseradish, accompanied by very
lightly fried spinach shoots.
Ris de Veau (Chapter 11) - Veal
sweetbreads; the joy of gourmands; one of the finest and most easily digested
cuts. Sweetbreads have a unique texture and are best with simple recipes, so
their delicate flavor is not obscured. Most French chefs only use lamb and
veal, while you might find the stronger-tasting sweetbreads from piglets, beef,
or goats in a French country restaurant.
Raifort: Horseradish.
The horseradish on French menus comes from farmed plants. The
origins of the English name horseradish are lost in culinary history, but
despite the name, this plant is not appreciated by horses. For those who like
foraging, wild horseradish grows all over Europe and has inviting white
flowers. The leaves of the plant may reach one meter (3') high, but the root is
the only part used.
Ris
et Filet de Veau, Sauce Bearnaise.
Veal sweetbreads and veal filet with Sauce Bearnaise.
Photograph
courtesy of Inspirational Food
www.flickr.com/photos/food-porn/36259352675/
Filet de Veau aux Herbes Fraîches Sauce Balsamique– A veal fillet cooked
in fresh herbs and a balsamic
vinegar sauce.
Balsamic vinegar: This vinegar comes from the Trebbiano grape, but
unlike most grape-based vinegars, it was never a wine. However, despite never
having been a wine, the vinegar itself does ferment. The unique taste is
not only due to the grape but also to the manner in which it is aged. The aging
process takes the vinegar through five different wooden barrels, each adding to
the flavor. As part of its aging, the cellar master, in a manner similar to
fine wines, must evaluate the exact amount of fermentation as the vinegar
passes through the five barrels: oak, chestnut, cherry, ash and finally
mulberry, before being bottled. A young balsamic vinegar will rarely be less
than five years old.
The finest balsamic vinegars are aged for 15 - 30
years and are more expensive than many fine wines. Foods and salads prepared
with balsamic vinegar offer a different and unique taste.
Filet de Veau de Nos Alpages, Sauce
à l'Ail Noir et Échalotes Confites – A
filler of veal from the calves raised on the herbs in our high pastures served
with a black
garlic sauce
and a shallot confit, a jam. (The term
alpage is used for the high pastures anywhere in France and not just those near
the Alps.)
Ail Noir - Black Garlic.
Within the limits of our Western languages, we easily identify the four tastes
that we call: sweet, sour, bitter and salty. However, there was always
another taste that would sometimes roll around in our mouths, but we had no
word for it; we just called it tasty. The word most frequently used when
discussing black garlic is umami, a Japanese term meaning delicious and
savory/tasty.
However, long before we were children, in 1907,
Professor Kikunae Ikeda at Tokyo University had already identified that other
taste, and he called it umami. The taste comes from MSG (monosodium
L-glutamate), which can occur naturally, and we sensed its effect on our taste
buds. (MSG can also be added as a taste enhancer). Many chefs define
umami as a hint of meat and savory with a note of balsamic vinegar; you know
the taste is there even if you do not use the word umami.
To produce black garlic, the producer begins with
white garlic, which is not fermented, pickled or caramelized; it is very, very
slowly cooked in a very humid and closed environment at 60 ᵒC (140ᵒF) for a period of
30–45 days until it turns black. The garlic that comes out of the cooker is
black, soft and chewy without any white garlic smell or taste, but its effect
on other dishes is impressive; it adds a unique flavor to the dishes with which
it is combined.
Veal fillet, the tenderloin, wrapped in ham.
Photograph
courtesy of stu_spivack
www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/445549684/
Filet
de Veau de Lait Grillé, Jus aux Morillons Légèrement Crémé,
Garniture – A grilled
milk-fed veal fillet accompanied by its natural cooking juices and served with
a lightly creamed sauce of half-free morel mushrooms and the grilled veal’s
natural cooking juices. Vegetables accompany the dish.
Morillons: The half-free morel mushrooms look somewhat similar
to and taste much like the regular morel
mushrooms, but with a much smaller
cap and a shorter stem that is more easily cooked.
The half-free morel mushroom
Photograph
courtesy of terry priest
www.flickr.com/photos/artfarmer/5617844058/
DO
NOT CONFUSE THE USA FILET MIGNON (which is beef) WITH THE FRENCH FILET
MIGNON DE VEAU (veal).
For the French Beef Filet Mignon, see Chapter 20.
The French language
owns the rights to the term Filet Mignon, and it translates as
a "Dainty Filet". The word is used for the narrow end of the
fillet, the tenderloin. A filet mignon de veau for veal is not to be
confused with the American use of the term filet mignon for beef. Additionally, a calf in the USA is not
necessarily a calf in France and the UK.
In France, at the age
of one year, a calf becomes a Jeune Bovin (a young bovine) and its meat
can no longer be sold as veal. The UK uses the same rules as France.
However, the USA has no legal age limit for a calf, though at two years of age, a calf or heifer becomes a cow, while a male, if castrated, becomes a steer, regardless of age.
Filet Mignon de Veau on French Menus :
Filet Mignon De
Veau Charolaise, Son Jus Aux Escargots Du Brionnais
Et Porto Rouge – A cut from a tenderloin of Charolais veal served with a
sauce made from the natural cooking juices and farmed petit
gris
snails,
from the Brionnaise area of the Saône-et-Loire in South Burgundy, and a red
Port wine
sauce.
Charolais: The Charolaise AOC
cattle were the third breed to receive an AOC for their consistently high
quality. To the French AOC has been added the Pan-European AOP.
Escargots: Ordering snails in
France should not be strange. If you like seafood such as mussels, conch,
winkles, and periwinkles, etc., you'll likely appreciate escargots, as they all
belong to the same family as snails. They are very close family members. "Escargots
du Brionnais" are the brand from a snail farm close to a village in
the Brionnais region of Burgundy, France.
The Brionnais are "gros gris," which
translates as the "large grey," though they are from the family of
the petit gris, the smaller of the two snails that are popular in
France.
The French know a thing or two about good food, and
snails are considered to be among the tastiest members of their extended
family. The central and very obvious difference is that escargots grow on
land and not in the sea.
The meat of all snails and
their seafood relatives is quite similar. Consider moules, mussels, or popular
sea snails like bulots,
whelks, and bigorneaux,
winkles or periwinkles. However, when asked, I do not say they
taste like chicken! Although the sauce and cooking method, like many chicken
dishes, may change the taste of your escargots. The texture of snail meat is similar to
that of their family members, so in if you like mussels and or cockles, you
will like snails. If you have been to the Caribbean and enjoyed conch, you will
enjoy France's snails even more.
Charolais cattle
Photograph courtesy of JPC24M
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cjp24/5870867411/
Filet Mignon De Veau, Fricassée De
Rattes Et Eryngii, Sauce Au Vin Rouge Et Morilles – A veal filet mignon
alongside a stew of ratte potatoes and farmed King Trumpet Oyster mushrooms served with a sauce made with red wine and wild morel
mushrooms.
Pommes de Terre Ratte or La Ratte: A small French potato,
also called the Asparge Potato. It is not a new variety in France but a
born-again potato. This potato originally came from Denmark, became popular and
then went out of fashion for a few years. The Ratte was reintroduced and
is again much appreciated for its taste and smooth, slightly buttery texture;
its name will be on many menus.
In French, ratte does mean a rat or possibly a
mouse; however, that just refers to its uncooked form. With a bit of
imagination, these potatoes may resemble a crouching mouse. This potato's fame
is in the taste, not the name.
Now, to decide whether the English translation of a ratte
should be a mouse or a rat, read Umberto Eco's book, "A Mouse or Rat:
Translation as Negotiation."
Eringy or Pleurote du Panicaut: The King
Oyster mushroom or King Trumpet Mushroom is the largest and meatiest
of the family of oyster mushrooms. It tastes and looks very different from the
rest of the oyster mushroom family. The King Oyster mushroom can be grilled,
roasted, sautéed, and is often part of stir-fried recipes. Unlike some other
mushrooms, which have tough stems, this mushroom is different, and its meaty
stem makes it a popular addition to vegetarian or vegan dishes. It can be
sliced lengthwise and grilled like a steak, shredded, or cut into rounds that
look like imitation scallops.
Morille: Morels are a prized family
of tasty mushrooms with a decidedly different look to most other mushrooms and
a slightly nutty taste. Morels lack the gills and domed caps of many other
mushrooms, but they all have white to ivory-coloured stems and a honeycombed conical
cap. Dried morel caps, which you may see in the market, appear
tube-shaped due to the drying process. However, when rehydrated, the conical
cap returns. The morels' taste and texture make them a French favorite; they
are served fresh from early spring through to the beginning of June. (The idea
that morel stems are not edible is an urban legend, though they are tougher
than the cap and require a longer cooking time.)
The Ratte du Touquet
This is a commercial brand of the Ratte potato only grown in the north
of France.
Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia
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