Showing posts with label Nice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nice. Show all posts

Salade Niçoise - Salad Nicoise. The Most Famous of all French Salads is Named after the City of Nice, on the Cote d’Azur, Provence, France.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

  
Salade Niçoise
This recipes permits both tuna and anchovies.

The Classic Salade Niçoise
  
The classic Salad Niçoise was an hors d’œuvre, an appetizer served before the first course, the French entrée.  The tradition of serving Salad Niçoise as an hors d’œuvre is now more honored in the breach than in the observance. Today, a Salade Niçoise will likely be a French entrée or the main dish when it its part of a light lunch.
   
Ordering Salade Niçoise

With few exceptions, most chefs from Nice agree that the recipe will include canned tuna or anchovies, but not both. Then are added tomatoes, the black Niçoise AOC olives, fava beans, cooked baby artichokes, sweet peppers, herbs, especially basil, and a vinaigrette dressing with the oil from Nice’s own AOP olive oil the, Huile d'Olive de Nice and red wine vinegar.
     
Among the variations that are accepted but  considered later additions are boiled potatoes, boiled eggs, spring onions, and boiled or steamed haricots verts France’s favorite fresh bean that we call the green bean or snap bean.
        
Haricot vert, the essential green bean in a Salade Niçoise
www.flickr.com/photos/olibac/4021008699/
                                      
Lettuce is often seen in a Salades Nicoise today though it is generally agreed that it is a recent addition, and it is still rare for a chef with Nice's culinary history on his or her mind to include lettuce.
   
One word of advice, when in Nice do not discuss with the locals the exact recipe as even the local gourmands disagree. You might end up as I did with my head in my hands along with wine and opinions coming from all sides even though we had finished dinner three hours before.  
            
Salade Niçoise first appeared on French menus in the latter part of the 19th century; less than 30 years after Nice lost its Italian rulers and became part of France. The name of the dish’s original creator is lost, probably during the Franco-Prussian war that ended in France becoming a Republic and Emperor Napoléon III being exiled to England where he later died and is buried.
  
The most authentic Salade Nicoise recipes that I have seen are the two reported by the famous cookbook author Elizabeth David (1913 – 1992).  Her book French Provincial Cooking was published in 1960; however, I read the Penguin Books Edition published posthumously in 1999 with a forward by Julia Child.

The recipes Elizabeth David highlights are from Henri Heyraud and Escoffier.

Henri Heraud’s recipe was from his book La Cuisine a Nice, the cuisine of Nice. Henri Heyraud, was a chef, teacher and historian of the cuisine served in France in the early 20th century,
     
In the footsteps of Escoffier
www.flickr.com/photos/edsel_/5880234487/

Henri Heraud’s recipe for Salade Niçoise:

Canned tuna in oil, peeled tomatoes and diced anchovy fillets, all seasoned with tarragon, chervil, and chopped chives and prepared with or without mustard.
   
This recipe shows that the accepted tradition where you can use tuna or anchovies, but not both was not there in the early years. Heraud uses both tuna and anchovies, and the only vegetables are tomatoes. The recipe also offers no vinaigrette dressing and the oil used is that that comes from the canned tuna. That would be a very rare offering today, but Herault published his recipe in 1922.
  
Escoffier’s recipe for Salade Niçoise:

Young artichoke hearts, black nice olives, uncooked sweet peppers, tomatoes and anchovy fillets all served with a vinaigrette dressing made of olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, mustard and the most important of French herb groups Les Fine Herbes.
      
Canned anchovies.
   
Escoffier, a Provencal favorite son, surprisingly does not use the Provencal herb group the Herbs de Provence, instead, he chooses Les Fine Herbes.  Escoffier. uses anchovy fillets, and no option of tuna is offered.
  
Nice and the Cote-d’Azur.
    
The Cote-d’Azur, the azure or blue coast was the name given to Nice and its coastal area in 1887 by the French writer and poet Stephen Liégeard (1830 -1925).  At that time the South of France was being discovered by wealthy British tourists who came from the rainy UK to the unclouded blue sky of coastal Provence.
            
The Promenade des Anglais in Nice.
www.flickr.com/photos/newmundane/5595810828/

Dining in Nice with its French, Provençal and Italian influences makes the visitor aware of the many other dishes that originated here including Ratatouille, Pissaladiere, and Socca
     
Ratatouille

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

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2013, 2018, 2019

--------------------------------
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Ratatouille, the essence of Provencal cuisine and Ratatouille’s Ancestor, the Bohémienne de Légumes.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 


Ratatouille
www.flickr.com/photos/pochove/8438320870/
  
The history and recipe of the most famous of all Provencal vegetable stews.

Ratatouille or Ratatouille Nicoise is a traditional recipe from the city of Nice in Provence, France and for at least 100 years before the movie, Ratatouille the dish was a favorite on Provencal menus. Since the movie, the original Ratatouille, or more often an adaptation of the original Ratatouille, is now on menus internationally. 
   

Remy the rat, the chef, from the movie Ratatouille
Gazing over Paris.
www.flickr.com/photos/fernandogaleano/781642430/

Ratatouille the classic recipe.
    
Ratatouille was originally called Ratatouille Nicoise and the classic recipe from NIce, was eggplants, that's aubergines in the UK, zucchinis, courgettes in the UK, onions, tomatoes, sweet peppers, garlic, herbs, and olive oil. Some of the vegetables will vary with the seasons, To those ingredients, chefs may add, champignons, button mushrooms, lardons which are fried or smoked bacon bits, and occasionally eggs. Quite a number of chefs present their Ratatouille with gruyère cheese browned on top or grated and placed on the side for the diner to add to his or her taste.
    

The ingredients

Search for the restaurants with a large turnover
They will be making ratatouille  fresh every day.
The reason is the virgin olive oil. Read on
  
A tasty ratatouille can only come from the freshest vegetables, and the finishing touch is that drizzle of a tasty virgin olive oil added cold at the last moment. All virgin oils lose their unique flavor when cooked or heated in any way. French diners know the difference between a freshly made ratatouille and a warmed up ratatouille, and that final touch of an excellent virgin olive oil is a must to keep the customers coming back.

Ratatouille
There are arguments among the Ratatouille faithful as some insist that a ratatouille must be cooked while layered while others maintain the original was a mixed stew.
www.flickr.com/photos/davidmarcel/48064682718/
      
Today, many ratatouille offerings are baked, and the dish does not suffer from that change. From my experience, the tastes may be similar, but the more you pay determines if the Ratatouille is served layered; only the texture may be different. You pay for the presentation.
  
Ratatouille
www.flickr.com/photos/foodista/3405362209/

Ratatouille hot or cold? You choose.
    
Ratatouille may be served hot or cold, and that was always part of the dish's history. Ratatouille began as a main dish and only later gained popularity as a side dish. Now in a return to its origins, Ratatouille is again offered as a main dish accompanied by rice or pasta. Despite the occasional disputes ratatouille did originate in the area of Nice and is just one the many famous and popular dishes Nice has given to the rest of Provence and France. 
    
Ratatouille is so now so popular with visitors to Provence that they are offered fast-food ratatouille versions where it will be served in toasted baguettes, as a ratatouille pizza or inside a Niçoise Fougasse or Fougassette.


Bohémienne de légumes the dish that preceded Ratatouille.
  
Bohémienne de Légumes – Ratatouille's ancestor; and still on some Provencal menus is the classic Bohémienne de Legumes. Bohémienne de Legumes is a vegetable stew that only includes eggplant, aubergines in the UK, and tomatoes. As with its descendant ratatouille, a bohémienne de légumes will be fried in olive oil with garlic and herbs. Modern versions may include onions, but that is about it, as adding anything else will turn a bohémienne de légumes into its grandchild, a ratatouille!

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

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2013, 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 search engine.   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.

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Dining in Nice on 'La Côte d'Azur'. The Cuisine of Nice, Cuisine Niçoise.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

  
 
www.flickr.com/photos/diekatrin/4520629896/ 

Nice and the Comté de Nice, the area around the city, was part of Italy until 1860, and quite a bit of Italian influence remains. To that add Nice's unique mixture of cultures, languages, and cuisines; that include traditional Provençal specialties and, Nice's own Niçoise Cuisine, its Cuisine Nissarde and language.  N.B. Even if your French is excellent, you will not understand the locals' private conversations as they will often be speaking Nice’s Provençal dialect called Nissarde or Nicoise Provencal.

You will find excellent restaurants in Nice serving the very best of French cuisine, but if you want to taste the traditional cuisine of Nice, look for restaurants serving Cuisine Nissarde.
               
The restaurants that show this "Cuisine Nissarde" symbol offer at least three authentic Niçoise/Nissarde dishes. 
  
Nissarde specialties:
         
Ravioli à la Niçoise – Raviolis stuffed with chopped meat from a daube de bœuf. A daube is traditional Provencal beef stew prepared with red wine.  The daube stuffing in the ravioli will, in season, include Swiss chard. The sauce for this ravioli dish was traditionally the gravy from the daube, but, today, some changes may be offered, and they will be available with grated Parmesan or Gruyere cheese.
                                  
Spaghettis à la Niçoise  -  Spaghetti in the manner of Nice. This spaghetti dish has a sauce made with tomatoes, Nice’s AOC black olives, sweet red peppers, anchoviesgarlic, herbs, and, of course, flavored just before serving with Nice's own AOC olive oil the Huile d'Olive de Nice AOC.
  
Spaghettis à la Niçoise
Filet de Dorade à la Niçoise  -  A filet of gilthead sea bream baked, in the oven with tomatoes, the Niçoise AOC olive, green peppers, and onions.
  
Salade Niçoise -  When in Nice you are never allowed to forget that this is the home of Salade Niçoise, probably France’s most famous salad. With few exceptions, most chefs from Nice agree that the recipe will include canned tuna or anchovies, but not both.  To the tuna or anchovies will be added tomatoes, the black Niçoise AOC olives, fava beans, cooked baby artichokes, sweet peppers, herbs, especially basil, and a vinaigrette dressing with the oil from Nice’s own AOC /AOP olive oil the, Huile d'Olive de Nice and red wine vinegar.
       
Ratatouille – The classic recipe is eggplants, (aubergines in the UK), zucchinis, (courgettes in the UK), onions, tomatoes, sweet peppers, garlic, herbs, and olive oil.  To those ingredients, chefs may add, mushrooms, lardons which are fried or lardons, smoked bacon bits, and occasionally eggs.  Some of the vegetables will vary with the seasons, and quite a number of chefs present their Ratatouille with Gruyère cheese browned on top or grated and placed on the side for the diner to add to his or her taste.
    
Ratatouille, the ingredients.
Photograph courtesy of Tom Dixon.
www.flickr.com/photos/twd3lr/7841981338/
                    
Pissaladiere Nicoise - Caramelized onions, olives, garlic, and anchovies served on a bread dough. The Pissaladiere is now often served as an entrée (the French first course)  in restaurants while traditionally it was a street food.
  
Pissaladiere Nicoise
   
Socca or Socca Niçoise -  A hot and crispy chickpea pancake made with farine de pois chiche, chickpea flour. It is the quintessential street food of Nice, baked over hot coals on steel platters and best eaten when still hot.     In Nice socca pancakes are more than a local recipe, they are a tradition, and socca pancakes began as a street-side specialty; they are intended to be eaten as they come out of the oven. Niçoise traditionalists accompany their early morning socca, that many locals still buy on the way to work, with a small glass of wine. The Nice socca pancakes are made with chick-pea flour, water, olive oil and salt along with every socca cook’s secret herbs.

   
Socca
    
Farcis Nicoise -  Stuffed vegetables in the manner or Nice. Tomatoes, eggplant,(UK aubergine)  and zucchini, (UK courgette), onions,  and, in season, the fleur de courgette, the zucchini flower which is a staple of Cuisine Nissarde.   The vegetables are stuffed with ground meat, ham, mushrooms, bread crumbs, and flavored with and herbs. They are baked and may be served hot or cold.
   
Panisses or Panisses Frit  –  Originally a Nice fast food that would be bought hot and eaten on the go. Now panisses have gone mainstream and will be on restaurant menus.  Panisses are made with farine de pois chiche, chickpea flour, in a variety of shapes and deep fried. They were traditionally served on their own with salt, but now today an optional addition of grated Parmesan or Gruyere cheese may be added.  In a restaurant, a Panisse may be used as a garnish or served with a salad.
   
Pan Bagnat - A Nicoise sandwich made from a split round roll soaked in olive oil, and filled with sweet peppers, black Nice olives,  onions, anchovies, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, and flavored with garlic and basil.  (Pan bagnat is Italian in origin).
   
Pan Bagnat
Photograph courtesy of Gunnar Grimnes
www.flickr.com/photos/gromgull/3544039328/
  
There are many excellent restaurants along the Nice promenade and many more inside the town.  If you have the time and a car, then there are many more restaurants in the hills behind the town; however, from experience, to avoid shocks, always check the prices in Nice restaurants before sitting down. With so many good restaurants and the Mediterranean Sea to entice you it is not surprising that, after Paris, Nice is the second most visited city, by tourists, in France.
  
Nice and the 'La Côte d'Azur'.

Nice, more than any other city or town along the Mediterranean made the South of France famous. It was here that the French Poet Stephen Liégeard (1830  - 1925) gave the whole Mediterranean coast the name to his book 'La Côte d'Azur' in 1887. In the 1860's the first English tourists arrived, and they fell in love with Nice's cuisine and weather and, unknowingly, founded the local tourism industry.  
     
Part of the Promenade des Anglais.
Photograph courtesy of Richard Whitaker
www.flickr.com/photos/richardwhitaker/18794583782/
    
The English tourists would walk up and down the seafront, and that parade where they could see and be seen that street would become the Promenade des Anglais, the English Promenade. Then from three words, 'La Côte d'Azur,' the whole of the Mediterranean coast got a considerable boost. From that magical name, "the blue coast," the poet Stephen Liégeard created a whole new industry that welcomed the millions of tourists who came to see. Stephen Liégeard got a street or rather an avenue, in Nice, named after him for that.
   
A view of the Beach from the Promenade des Anglais.
Photograph courtesy of Dhinal Chheda
www.flickr.com/photos/dhinalchheda/4748603689/
      
The Carnaval de Nice
                 
The Carnaval de Nice made its first public show in 1876 and has grown in extravagance ever since.  The celebrations are repeated nearly every day over a two-week period, mostly in February; the central attraction of the Carnaval de Nice, is the Bataille de Fleurs, the battle of the flowers. You may reserve a seat to watch by ordering online. 
  
The English language website of the Carnaval de Nice is:


There is much to keep you occupied outside of the restaurants and beaches along with celebrations on all French National Holidays. Nice has many museums, and below I have noted just two, there are many more. However, this post is part of Behind the French Menu and with too much time spent in museums, the food will get cold.
  
For more information look at the Nice Tourist Information Office English language website:

   
Inside the Matisse Museum.
www.flickr.com/photos/moonlightbulb/8260305598/  
   
 
Inside the Musée Marc Chagall
www.flickr.com/photos/historicalcouple/23612710998/
      
 ----------------------------------------------------------------
    

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2013, 2016. 2019.


Behind the French Menu’s links include hundreds of words, names, and phrases that are seen on French menus. There are over 400 articles that include over 3,000 French dishes with English translations and explanations. Add the word, words or phrase that you are searching for to the words "Behind the French Menu" and search with Google or Bing.
       
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