from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
The Romans thought the occasional orange carrot was special, but orange-colored carrots did not dominate the market until the 19th century. Nevertheless, despite their popularity, you can still buy carrots with white, yellow, red,
green, purple, and black flesh.
Photograph courtesy of USDA
Agricultural Research Service.
Photographer Stephen Ausmus.
Carrots
The carrot's origins and carrots in France today.
Carrots came to the rest of the world from Afghanistan. (Just about the only good thing that I can think of as having come to us from Afghanistan)! Despite their origins, carrots are an important part of French cuisine. Your day may begin with a glass of fresh carrot juice from a breakfast menu. French lunch and dinner menus will include carrots in soups and salads, and accompanying the main course, carrots may be the garnish, or they may flavor a stew, be cooked with a roast, or be part of a sauce. Finally, the dessert menu may include gâteau aux carottes and carrot cake.
Breakfast
Jus de Carotte - Carrot juice.
Photograph
courtesy of erik forsberg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hepp/14263461332/
In areas of France that are well known for their agricultural products, excellent strains of carrots have been developed, and their origin has become an important part of their marketing. Additionally, as you travel around France, you may be lucky to find a restaurant whose chef loves heirloom carrots.
In the Alsace, you may find the Carotte de Colmar à Coeur Rouge on the menu, or close to Paris, you may be offered the Marché de Paris, a nearly round-shaped carrot. If you have stopped in Meaux to see the home of one of France's two AOP Brie cheeses, you may not be aware that the surrounding area was once an important market gardening area and is still remembered for its heirloom, Carrotte de Meaux. Also, the Carotte de Jarnac-Champagne carrot has been cultivated for decades in the clay and limestone soils where the best Cognac originates. ( Here, the word Champagne refers to the type of soil, not to the bubbly stuff). However, the two most well-known carrots, with their names on menus all over France, are the Carotte Nantaise and the Carotte de Créances.
The Marche De Paris carrot
Photograph courtesy of Semaille.
Carrots on French menus:
St Jacques Poëlées à l'Aigre Doux, Carottes Glacées au Miel – King scallops lightly fried in a sweet and sour sauce and served with carrots glazed with honey. (Carrots may also be glazed with sugar, butter, olive oil, or syrup).
Honey-glazed
carrots with fresh thyme
Photograph
courtesy of Scott Veg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/thrivingveg/8624681400/
Raviolis aux Carottes Confites, Consommé de Jambon et Croustilles de Cheddar - Ravioli filled with carrots confits; that is practically a carrot jam, a conserve. The ravioli here is served in a ham consommé flavored with crispy and crunchy pieces of Cheddar cheese.
Filet de Pangasius sur une Purée de Patates Douces et Courge Musquée, Carottes Nantaise et Fenouil Braisé - Filet of Pangasius, the fish, served with a puree of sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carottes Nantaise and braised fennel.
Pangasius, Basa or Panga, is a farmed catfish from Vietnam, mostly seen when imported as frozen or chilled filets.
Nantes is the sixth-largest city in France and is considered by many Frenchmen and women to be the best city in France to live and work. Nantes is also famous for its agricultural products, including these carrots and the grapes that grow around the town. The local farmers developed the Nantes bright orange carrot that comes with a naturally sweet taste. The farmers around Nanres are also growing 80% of France’s favorite salad greens, mâche, lamb’s lettuce.
The Carotte Nantaise
Photograph
courtesy of Ferme de Sainte Marthe.
Filet de Maquereau Mariné, Carottes Nouvelles aux Agrumes – A filet of marinated mackerel served with young carrots and grapefruit.
Salade Maraîchère: Tomates, Concombres, Haricots Verts, Coeur d’Artichauts, Pommes de Terre, Carottes Râpées, Oeuf Dur – A market garden salad: Tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, artichoke hearts, potatoes, grated carrots, hard-boiled eggs.
Grated Carrots
Photograph courtesy of Marco Verch
https://www.flickr.com/photos/30478819@N08/46138391242/
Rôti de Boeuf, Braisé au Pinot Pomme De Terre Au Four, Crème Et Ciboulette, Carottes Vichy. – Roast beef braised with pinot noir wine accompanied by baked potatoes and served with a cream of chives sauce and Vichy carrots.
Carottes Vichy - Carottes Vichy is the name given to carrots, boiled in the town of Vichy’s famous lightly effervescent mineral water when served as a garnish glazed with butter. The town of Vichy in the Auvergne is famous for the food products named after it such as Vichyssoise and its mineral water. The town strives to put behind it its infamous role as the center of the French-German collaboration in WWII.
Potage aux Carottes Parfumé à l'Orange et au Gingembre – Carrot soup flavored with oranges and ginger.
Roasted carrot soup.
Photograph courtesy of stu_spivack
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/2949874829/
Carpaccio de Carottes et sa Terrine de Crevettes – A Carpaccio of carrots served with a pate of shrimp.
Foie Fras de Canard en Terrine, Carotte Violette Préparée Comme une Confiture - Fattened duck liver pate served with violet-colored carrots prepared as a jam, a confit. There is little or no difference between vegetables prepared as a confit or as a confiture; the menu listing is the chef’s choice.
Carrot confiture
Photograph
courtesy of A Prendre Sans Faim
Eglefin Fumé, Salade de Lentilles Vertes et Julienne de Carottes – Smoked haddock served with a salad of green lentils and carrots julienne.
Julienne is one of France’s popular sizes for cut vegetables. Julienned vegetables look somewhat like matchsticks. Here the carrots are cut into slices about 2mm square and about 5cm long.
Julienne de Carottes
Photograph courtesy of Phil! Gold
https://www.flickr.com/photos/phil_g/456138510/
Cabillaud Roti, Carottes Pourpre, Croquettes de Blé aux Herbes, Coulis d'Épinard - Roast cod served with purple carrots and croquettes of wheat with herbs and a spinach sauce.
Purple
carrots.
Photograph courtesy of Stacy Spensley
https://www.flickr.com/photos/notahipster/4333088128/
Thon, Sauce Vierge, Mousseline de Carottes, Brunoise de Légumes Poëlés – Tuna served with a sauce vierge and a very fine puree of carrots and 2mm thick cuts of lightly fried vegetables.
Mousseline - Before fine metal sieves became available, mousseline, muslin, the material, was traditionally used as a fine sieve and gave its name to very finely pureed vegetables, fruits, or mousses. A mousseline of carrots is a very fine puree of carrots.
Sauce Vierge - A virgin sauce; the name comes from the use of virgin olive oil. Sauce Vierge will most usually be on your menu with fish dishes. As its name suggests, it includes virgin olive oil, and with the oil will be fresh tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice, basil, red wine vinegar, salt, and black pepper. The sauce will be served slightly warm but not cooked as virgin olive oil loses flavor when cooked. The sauce will be poured on the fish just before it is served.
Mousseline
de Carottes.
Photograph and recipe courtesy of Super
Toinette.
Paleron
de Bœuf au Vin Rouge, Purée de Carottes
et Panais
- A cut from the chuck stewed in red wine and served with a puree of carrots
and parsnips.
Cabillaud En Croûte, Carottes de Créances, Beurre au Cidre – Cod with a pastry covering, served with the carrots from the Créances prepared in a cider butter.
Carottes de Créances, Label Rouge - These are France’s most highly rated carrots; they hold the Label Rouge, the red label for outstanding quality. These carrots are grown near the town of Créances close to the Atlantic coast in the department of Manche in Normandie. Since the 11th century, vegetables have been cultivated in the area. Today, with independent farmers, the creances produce a wide variety of high-quality vegetables, including Red Label leeks, the Poireaux de Créances, and Label Rouge. The Créances is also the name of the local dunes; here, the salt air, sandy soil, and the seaweed mulch the farmers use are responsible for the excellent taste of their vegetables.
Other ways to serve carrots:
Carottes Confites – Practically a carrot jam.
Crécy (à la) – A carrot
garnish or carrot-based dish from the area of Crécy, usually written as Cressy
in English.
Carottes Glacées – Glazed
carrots; lightly boiled carrots served with a touch of sugar and butter to make
them shine.
Carotte Nantaise or the Carotte Scarlett Nantes – A bright orange carrot developed
and grown around the city of Nantes in the Pays de Loire. (See Chapter N: Nantes).
Carottes Nouvelles or Petites Carottes – Young, small, early carrots.
Carottes Pourpres– Purple carrots.
Carottes Râpées – Grated carrots.
Carottes Vapeur – Steamed carrots.
Julienne de Carottes – Julienned vegetables look somewhat like matchsticks and are a popular cut for vegetables. (See Chapter D: Découpes de Fruits et Légumes, Julienne).
The Tourist information office in
Lessay has a French-language website:
Google or Bing translate apps
make the site readable in English.
http://www.canton-lessay.com/web/tourisme.html
If you love carrots, then on the second Saturday in August, there is the Fête de la Carotte à Créances, the Créances Carrot Festival. The website that covers the carrot fair is a French-language site; however, it is easily understood with the Google or Microsoft translation apps:
https://ville-creances.fr/vie-pratique/fete-de-carotte/
A
float at the Creances Fête de la Carottes.
Photograph
courtesy of the Ville Creances
Three km (two miles) to the east of Creances is the Lessay Abbey, the rebuilt version replacing the one destroyed in the French Revolution. In July and August, the Abbey hosts many concerts, and from the Abbey, it is a short drive to the small town of Lessay. Lessay has some excellent local restaurants and a dairy that produces a fantastic Camembert Normand, AOP.
Lessay
Abbey
Photograph courtesy of Daniel Jolivet
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sybarite48/41046449982/
Then, three km (two miles) away to the north in Saint-Germain-sur-Ay are an oyster farm, sandy beaches, and many small and good seafood and fish restaurants all around.
Oyster
farm at Saint-Germain-sur-Ay
Photograph
courtesy of France-Voyage
For those who like whelks and other shellfish
Two km (1 ½ miles) south of Créances is a village called Pirou; here, during the last weekend in April, they have a Foire aux Bulots a whelk. Their French language website is:
http://www.ville-pirou.fr/foire-aux-bulots.htm
The history of carrots.
Traders brought the carrots to Persia and the Middle East from Afghanistan, where the Romans were active. Both the Greeks and the Romans farmed carrots and even then noted that they preferred the few orange carrots that occasionally were harvested. The first carrots came in a few shades of mauve; maybe one in a hundred had a slight orange tinge. A few hundred years later, the Greeks would bring carrots to France.
Orange carrots
Carrots have been selectively bred over the centuries to produce different colors, reduce bitterness, increase sweetness, and minimize the woody core. Despite being cultivated for over 2,500 years and introduced into Europe over 2,000 years ago, it was not until the 16th century that carrots became popular in France, with the orange carrot becoming the most popular in the 19th. In French markets, as elsewhere, you may see white carrots, yellow carrots, black carrots, and others.
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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Copyright 2010, 2016, 2021, 2024.
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