Showing posts with label Sauce Paloise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sauce Paloise. Show all posts

Menthe – Mint. Mint, Garden Mint, in French Cuisine.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

  
Mint
Photograph courtesy of jxson
www.flickr.com/photos/jxson/8289500341/


Menthe or Menthe Anglaise – Mint, Spearmint or Garden Mint is the mint most often seen in French and other Western European cuisines as well as those from North America.  Menthe Poivrée, peppermint, is a stronger hybrid of spearmint and the mint most used in desserts, pastries, and tea. Mélisse, Lemon Balm, is another close relative of spearmint and with its lemon and mint tang is used for salads, marinades, mayonnaise, herb vinegar, fish dishes, and fruit salads.   (Lemon Balm is also an ingredient of Benedictine, Chartreuse, and other French liquors).
  
Fresh raspberries, ice-cream,
and
Fresh mint.
  
Mint is everywhere in French cuisine.  You may find mint in France’s venerated Pastis, anis, licorice-flavored libations, flavored with mint syrup.  Mint accented salads and soups, especially cold soups, may follow as do mint entrées, (the French first course).  French main courses, the plat principal, are studded with mint sauces.  Roast lamb may be offered with Sauce à la Menthe Anglaise, English mint sauce, though Sauce Palois created from Sauce Béarnaise with mint replacing the tarragon and served warm is much more popular with lamb.  Whitefish dishes are perfect for mint accents with both spearmint and peppermint also used for decoration and to flavor fruit sauces and fruit salads.
   
Mint on French Menus:

Cocktail de Crevettes Sauce au Brandy et Menthe, Chiffonnade de Laitue – A shrimp cocktail served with a brandy and mint sauce on a bed of lightly sautéed lettuce. Chiffonade translates as rags in a French-English dictionary, but on a menu, it will indicate thin strips of lightly sautéed vegetables.  Chiffonades may include uncooked strips of vegetables that garnish other dishes or describe thin strips of smoked salmon, cured hams or other finely cut fish or meats. (BTW the first  recipes for seafood cocktails on French menus were imported from the USA). 
  
Green cucumber & mint gazpacho soup
 


Côtelettes d'Agneau Accompagnée de la Sauce à la Menthe et des Pommes de Terre Rôties - Grilled lamb chops served with a mint sauce and accompanied by roast potatoes.
   
with pea and mint crusts ready for the oven.
    
Filet de Dorade Royale Salsa Mangue, Menthe et Gingembre – Filet of Gilthead Seabream served with a mango salsa flavored with mint and ginger.
   
Profiteroles Menthe Pépites de Chocolat et son Chocolat Chaud  –  Profiteroles, French choux puff pastry balls with sweet, custard or ice-cream fillings covered with mint chocolate chips and a hot chocolate sauce.  (Pépites in your French-English dictionary may correctly translate as nuggets, but chicken nuggets including those Chicken McNuggets offered in the over 1,000 branches of McDonald’s France, will be on the French menus as Croquettes de Poule).
  
Traditional English fish and chips
Accompanied by mushy peas with a mint accent,
with a small serving of Tatar Sauce.
www.flickr.com/photos/cityfoodsters/18703607854/


Soupe de Fruits Rouges à la Graine de Vanille et Menthe Fraîche – A cold dessert soup made from red fruits and flavored with vanilla pods and fresh mint.
 
At the end of the meal a number of the mint family members may be offered in infusion or tisane, a herbal tea,  recommended to aid the digestion.
  
Sprig of flowering mint.
www.flickr.com/photos/mustangjoe/37513894771/

North American and UK mint jelly often offered with lamb will never be seen in a French home or restaurant. It would be considered worse than ketchup which, however,  more and more frequently does make French restaurant children’s menus. Every chef can make a fresh mint sauce, a bottle is not required.
   
Mint Martinis
www.flickr.com/photos/viclic/1506721012/

Mint has many other family members including Apple Mint, Pineapple Mint,
Orange Mint and Chocolate Mint.

Spearmint in the languages of France’s neighbors:
(Catalan - mentha spicata), (Dutch -  aarmunt, groene munt), (German - grüne minze), (Italian - mentastro verde), (Spanish - hierbabuena), (Latin - mentha spicata).
  
Peppermint in the languages of France’s neighbors:
(Catalan - menta pebrera), (Dutch - pepermunt), (German – pfefferminze), (Italian – menta piperata), (Spanish – mentha piperita), (Latin -  mentha piperita).

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Searching for the meaning of words, names or phrases
on
French menus?
 
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Copyright 2010, 2019, 2024
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com




Côte, Côtes, Côtières - A Bone-In Rib Steak, a Rib Roast, a Wine Growing Region, the Coast, and More. All will be on French menus.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 


A bone-in rib-eye.
www.flickr.com/photos/peanutian/2332671822/

The French diner, with his or her native language skills, will understand the meaning of the accents over and under letters and the masculine, feminine and plural variations that may appear on a menu. For visitors with only high-school French, the gender-linked variations alone can be a problem.   However, when dining in French restaurants, where many printed menus ignore the accents there will rarely be any problems.
  
Côte and Côtes
Bone-In Rib Steak/s, a Rib Roast, a Cutlet/s or a Chop/s and Vegetable Ribs:


Côte on French menus:
                                                                                                     
Côte d'Agneau Grillees Sauce Paloise – Grilled lamb chop served with a Sauce Paloise.  Sauce Paloise is a child of Sauce Bearnaise where the tarragon has been replaced by mint.
 
Côte de Bœuf, Frottée au Romarin et Cuite au Beurre Noisette – A bone-in beef rib steak flavored with rosemary and cooked in a beurre noisette. When ordering ask the weight as a single portion will often be intended for two diners, and the bone is generally 50-60% of the total weight.   A Beurre Noisette is a melted butter sauce where the butter has been allowed to cook until its color and taste resembles noisettes, hazelnuts.

Côte de Veau Rôtie au Jus, Beurre, Herbes -  A veal bone-in, roasted, rib steak served with a sauce made from the natural cooking juices flavored with butter and herbs.

Côtes
The plural of Côte:

Côtes on French menus:

Côtes de Bœuf de Charolais, Grillée à l'Os - A grilled bone-in beef rib roast from France’s famed Charolais beef.

Côtes de Porc Laquées – Glazed pork chops; they will have been basted in a honey or a fruit coating. Pork spareribs would be on the menu as echine de porc or travers de porc
  
Côté
Côté also indicates a side or a part, and your menu may offer:
   
Côté de Saumon Grillée à l’Orange.  A salmon filet grilled with an orange sauce. N.B. The same spelling is used when describing something that is close by, in French that's à côté.
  
A bone-in rib roast.
       


Côtes
May also indicate the ribs of vegetables.
  
Aligot au Fromage de Laguiole, Verts et Côtes de Blettesettes– The traditional and uniquely tasty Aligot dish of mashed potatoes and Laguiole cheese.   Here, the dish is served with the leaves and côtes, ribs, of Swiss chard.
  
Swiss chard
www.flickr.com/photos/tinfoilraccoon/48074592/
 

Côtelette
A cutlet or  chops.

The word côtelette or côte may be used interchangeably when referring to chops; though the use of the word côtelettes, cutlets, usually indicates smaller cuts. The menu may offer cutlets from pork, veal or lamb, but not from beef.

Côtelette de Porc Noir – A pork chop from the Porc Noir Gascon, the black pigs of Gascony.
   
Côtelettes d'Agneau - Lamb chops
www.flickr.com/photos/30216515@N05/6923392679/
   
Nos Côtes
Our coasts, and the fish and seafood that may be caught there.

On fish and seafood menus, the word côte or côtes indicates the coast, and fish and seafood caught off that coast.

Le Pavé de Cabillaud des Côtes Normande Rôti –  A large cut from a cod caught off our Normandy coast, served roasted.    

Roast Cod.
www.flickr.com/photos/sodexousa/5781078553/

Langouste de Nos Côtes Bretonnes Rôti ou Grillé, Pistou de Basilic - Rock lobster, the owner of the lobster tail, from our Brittany coasts roasted or grilled and served with a basil pistou basil sauce. The French pistou sauce appeared not long after the Italian pesto; they are close cousins.
  
   
Wines:

Wine-lists may carry the word Côte as part of a wine's name; then Côtes will indicate the hills, slopes, valleys within the borders of a wine appellation, a wine-growing area.
  
Côtes de Provence AOP -   This is the AOP for wines coming from specific wine-growing areas in Provence. The Côtes de Provence wines include red and white wines; however, more than half the wines produced are rosés.
  
Cotes de Provence
www.flickr.com/photos/jerosig/36670083676/

Côtes du Rhône AOC/AOP  – AOP wines from France’s Rhône Valley that include reds, rosés and some white wines. This is an enormous wine growing area that stretches for over 200 km (115 miles) from the North to the South of the Rhone valley along the River Rhône. Other appellations within the Côtes du Rhône include  the famous Château-Neuf-de Pape, and the Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise  one of France’s most famous fortified wines, as well as the Côtes du Rhône-Villages AOP wines, and the less well known, but unique pre-Champagne, sparkling-wine called the Clairette de Die AOP.
   
Côtes du Rhône Rosé
      


Côtières

Coastal. On your menu for fish and seafood caught locally.

Les Crevettes Côtières de Bretagne   Shrimps from the coastal waters of Brittany.
     
The Coast of Brittany.
The multi-colored cliffs of the Cap Frehel  along the Côtes d'Armor, Northern Brittany.

Coteau and Coteaux
A hillside or hillsides
   
Coteaux-du-Quercy AOP - An appellation for red and rosé wines in the old province of Quercy between the Cahors vineyards and the vines that produce the Chasselas de Moissac AOP table grapes in southwest France.

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

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2014, 2019, 2020
 
--------------------------------

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.


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