from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
Anchovies going to school.
Photograph courtesy of Jean
www.flickr.com/photos/7326810@N08/1440550677/
Anchois
Anchoio in the Provencal language.
Anchovies.
The
anchovies on the menu in Europe and the East coast of North America will be the European anchovy. There are over one hundred members of the anchovy
family spread around the world so there
are plenty to choose from. In California and the North American west coast restaurants
will serve a close family member from the Pacific. The most significant use of
anchovies for the table are the canned and bottled anchovies. These preserved anchovies decorate and flavor our sauces and are essential for many Provencal dishes especially the most popular versions of Salade Nicoise.
Fresh anchovies are also, in season,
popular,
and whether grilled, fried, marinated, or smoked, will be on many French menus.
The
traditional preserved and strong tasting canned or bottled anchovies are packed
after being filleted, matured in brine, and packed in oil or salt. These characteristically strong-flavored anchovies
are brownish-red or grey. For an even more robust flavor, some
preserved anchovies will be rolled around capers.
Anchovy
filets in a jar.
From
the Carrefour supermarket.
In
French the small jars used for anchovies are called pots.
Filets d'Anchois à l'Huile d'Olive Carrefour
Canned and bottled
anchovies are made into dips and pastes have many uses in French cuisine apart
from their time-honored use in most versions of Salads Nicoise and French pizzas. The more potent
versions of France's Sauce Remoulade recipes often include anchovies, as do
many fish sauces, as well as the Beurre
Café de Paris, a compound butter. In the UK, Worcestershire sauce also
contains anchovies.
In France, in season, along
France’s Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts you will have the option of freshly marinated, grilled, or
smoked anchovies as well as fresh anchovy pastes and spreads. Fresh anchovies
have a very different taste to preserved anchovies; they are a mild, tasty fish
with a firm texture, and freshly grilled they
are a treat..
While resh anchovies are seen all
year round they will be on menus in the spring and autumn when they are really
abundant. If you haven’t tried fresh anchovies and you see them on the menu, don't
think twice, order them. Fresh European anchovies are
about 13 cm (5" long).
The smaller ones end up fileted in cans and jars.
Anchois Salés – Salted
anchovies.
Anchois Frais -
Fresh anchovies.
Anchois Frais Grillés –
Grilled fresh anchovies.
Anchois Fumés – Smoked anchovies,
Anchois Frais Marinés – Fresh marinated anchovies. If you have
chosen these you will be served white and or ivory-colored anchovy fillets
prepared in oil and vinegar. These are mostly on the menu in Provence and Occitanie where the
recipe is a popular Spanish import called Boquerones en Vinagre in Spain. Marinated
anchovies are much milder than the canned and bottled matured anchovies and the
vinegar chosen provides much of the flavor.
Filets d'Anchois Marinés also called Filets d’Anchois Blanc – In the UK and the USA, these freshly canned or
bottled fileted and marinated anchovies are often sold as “white
anchovies. They have none of the strong
taste of the salted variety, rather they will have been marinated in white wine
vinegar and their natural color does not change. They usually have a one year sell-by date,
Anchois de Norvège –These
are not anchovies; they will be other small fish, whitebait, or similar.
The two most popular anchovy sauces:
Beurre Café de Paris - A
cold compound butter made with flat parsley, tarragon, marjoram, basil, sage, garlic, shallots and matured anchovy filets. Much of the anchovy’s salt will have been
removed by the chef. so the anchovy taste will not be too salty. Slices of this
cold butter will be placed on a steak as it is served thereby creating a sauce that
melts as the diner eats. Despite its name this sauce has Swiss origins; it was
created by M. Boubier, in 1934 then the owner of the Café de Paris in Geneva,
Switzerland.
Sauce aux Anchois – A warm anchovy sauce simply made with the anchovies,
the Fines Herbes, olive oil and capers blended with fresh mayonnaise. In some recipes butter may replace the olive oil so
the exact recipe will depend on the chef.
N.B. The preserved anchovy pastes sold in tubes are very different, they
have a much stronger taste that comes from even more salt so they should be
used with care.
Fresh Anchovies on French menus:
Anchois de Collioure et Petite Salade de Chèvre
Chaud – Fresh anchovies from the
Mediterranean fishing village of Collioure served with a small salad
with warm goat’s
cheese.
Anchois Frais Avec
Aubergines et Poivrons Grillés –
Fresh anchovies served with grilled aubergines, eggplants, and bell peppers. Fresh
anchovies have white to ivory colored flesh and lots of omega-3. The grilling removes most of the natural oil but leaves enough to keep them
tasty.
Anchois Frais Grillés, Sauce Basilic – Grilled fresh
anchovies served with a basil sauce. A basil sauce may be a
French pistou sauce, similar
to the Italian pesto sauce, or something very different. Ask for more
information on your Sauce Basilic’s recipe.
Anchois Frais Grillés Avec Oignons – Fresh anchovies
grilled with onions.
grilled eggplants, aubergines, and zucchini courgettes,
and onions.
Photograph courtesy of John Ong
www.flickr.com/photos/puck777/2982220808/
Anchois Frais Marinés au Vinaigre de Xérès - Fresh anchovies marinated in sherry
vinegar.
Petite Friture de Calamars et Anchois, Sauce Tartare –
A small fish fry made with calamari and fresh anchovies served with a
Sauce Tatar.
Filet De Bar Snacké à la Plancha, Beurre d’Anchois, Légumes Verts - Filet of sea bass seared on the plancha and served with a compound anchovy butter;
accompanied by green vegetables.
Pissaladière - A pissaladière is caramelized onions,
olives, garlic, and anchovies served on a flatbread. A pissaladière is
quintessential street food from the City of Nice on the Mediterranean that now makes it to some fine tables
where it will be offered as an entrée (the French first course).
La Napolitaine: Mozzarella Française, Anchois,
Câpres, Oignons, Olives, Origan –
A
Neapolitan pizza
French style: French mozzarella cheese, anchovies, capers, onions, olives, oregano.
Anchovy
spreads and pastes:
Anchoïade,
Anchoyade, Anchoiade, or Anchouiado - An anchovy spread created in
Provence. If you like anchovies, garlic, and olive oil, this is for you. An
Anchoïade is crushed anchovies, mixed with crushed garlic in olive oil; the
puree may also be combined with a dash of vinegar. Spread your Anchoïade
thickly on
French country bread, a sliced baguette, or toast. Then order a glass of a
cold, dry, white wine. Finally, sit back and close your eyes and take a bite;
you may find yourself in anchovy, olive
oil, and
garlic heaven. Anchoïades may also be used in sauces that accompany other
dishes, including steaks, fish, and poultry.
There are variations in how Anchoïade is made, and many have
local followings along the Mediterranean coast. A popular variation that stands
out is tapenade.
Tapenade - An anchoïade made with added black or green olives and
crushed capers. Capers add
spice to the spread. Tapenade’s name comes from the Provençal word for capers,
tapenas. In the South of France, a tapenade may be an hors d'œuvre or spread on
salmon or meat and cooked. Anchovies are used in many, many French dishes, and
whether fresh or canned, they are absolutely essential in some Provencal
recipes
Buy
your Tapenade and take it home.
This
tapenade is made with black olives.
Les
Oliviers de Saint-Estève
Back in the oceans,
anchovies are an essential part of the seas' ecosystem. The vast numbers of
anchovies worldwide provide food for hundreds of other fish along with the
birds that clean up any that are missed. Hundreds
of tons South American anchovies end up as fish meal, an important part of the
diet of farmed fish as well as pet food.
A humpback whale
Scooping up hundred of anchovies at a time.
To make the schools of anchovies easier to round up, whales work
together
creating a ball of swimming
anchovies. Then they scoop them up. Here you
can see pelicans waiting
to pick up any anchovies that the whales miss.
Photograph courtesy of
Brad Schram
www.flickr.com/photos/chaparralbrad/7854545512/
Anchovies in History.
Historically the
matured anchovies we buy in cans or jars are, with their strong taste, linked
back to the ancient Romans where anchovies were the base for their famous and
extremely strong fermented fish sauce called garum. Back then, garum was
already an industrially produced smelly and robust fish sauce based on
anchovies and an essential part of Roman cuisine and a significant export. A
French friend and foodie pointed out that in Cetara,
Italy, some 64 km (38 miles) south of Naples on the
Amalfi coast, they produce an even more worthy successor to
garum. It is an amber-colored liquid called “Colatura di
Alici di Cetara.” It is quite strong and
rarely seen in France.
The anchovies we see
in jars, pots in French, owe their existence to Nicolas Appert
(1749 -1841). Fifty years before Pasteur and his discovery of pasteurization,
Appert invented an airtight container that cooked the food inside it and
preserved it. After fifteen years of experimentation. Appert received from Napoleon
I, in 1810, a prize
of 12,000 Francs for his innovation, that’s about US$
1,000,000 today. Appert’s
invention preserved
much more than anchovies and allowed the French navy to take on board food that
remained edible for long voyages.
Anchovies in the
languages of France’s neighbors:
(Catalan – anxoves),
(Dutch- ansjovissen), (German- anchovis, sardelle ), (Italy – acciuga, alice),
(Spanish- anchoa, boquerón), (Latin - engraulis encrasicolus, the European
anchovy).
Collioure
on France’s Mediterranean coast
Collioure is a small
and attractive town on France’s Mediterranean coast, just 24 km (15 miles) from
the Spanish border. The town earns its living from fishing, wine, and tourism,
and the local cuisine is much influenced by the area’s Catalan past. The most
famous fish from Collioure are its anchovies, they will be fresh on local menus
from April through September, and even their salted and canned varieties are a
treat that should not be missed.
There are still two
anchovy producers in Collioure that filet the anchovies by hand and salt and
bottle the anchovies in the traditional way. Fileting anchovies by hand is an
art, and at Anchois Roque and Maison Desclaux, you will have an
opportunity to watch the process and taste the product; and, of course, to buy.
Their websites give their opening times.
On the first weekend
in June, there is a Fête de l’Anchois, an anchovy fete, with the whole town celebrating. N.B.
The days may change in 2021, so check with the town’s Tourist Information Office website:
www.france-voyage.com/cities-towns/collioure-26195/tourist-office-collioure-7343.htm
All of this area was
once part of Northern Catalonia. Spain ceded the area to France in 1659. Many
of the locals still speak Catalan at home and among friends, and Catalan
cuisine will be on French menus throughout the region.
Art in Collioure
While
you are looking for the right restaurant to enjoy your fresh anchovies,
remember that Collioure was loved by Matisse and Andre Derain, amongst the many
artists who visited the town. The artists found the colors and light in and
around the town dazzlingly beautiful. Collioure became the perfect setting for
Matisse and Derain's short-lived venture into Fauvist art. Today, all along the
town's "Fauvism footpath, "you will find reproductions displayed on
the spots where the original works were painted. The local Tourist Information
Office will provide a map. Fauvism, the name of this short-lived school of
painting, came from an insult, meaning wild beasts. It was aimed at the
founders and their use of raw colors; the most well-known members of this group
were the then unappreciated Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet, Maurice de Vlaminck,
and Andre Derain.
The
town is still a center for artists who love the town, and many painters,
writers, and sculptors have made Collioure their home.
Henri Matisse: Landscape at Collioure
The original picture is part
of the collection at Moma, NY.
Photograph courtesy
of Wally Gobetz
www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/2372724450/
Around
Collioure
Just 13 km (8
miles) down the coastal road on the way
to Spain is Banyuls sur Mer, the town that gave its name to the Banyuls AOP, which
are fortified wines made in a similar manner to Sherry, Port, and Madeira. A fortified wine is made by ending the fermentation
that takes place in the barrels by adding an eau-de-vie, a grape alcohol, to
the wine. Ending the fermentation before it is naturally completed
controls the amount of alcohol in the wine and the level of sweetness.
From Collioure, 34 km
(21 miles) inland is Céret, the
self-proclaimed Cherry Capital of France. Céret is another small town also loved by many artists,
especially the cubists, including Picasso, When you visit Céret, make sure to include the Musée d'Art Moderne de Céret. Pierre Brune and Frank Burty Haviland created
this
modern art museum in 1950 with the support of their friends Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Haïm Soutine and Georges Braque who also donated
works..
How
to get to Collioure:
From
Paris to Collioure by TGV with one connection is just under six
hours. By car 881 km (550
miles), and that may take about eight hours. From Paris Orly airport to
Perpignan International airport by plane, under one hour and thirty minutes,
plus forty minutes from Perpignan to Collioure by car or bus.
From Marseilles to Collioure via
regular train, nearly seven hours, 351 km (220 miles). Approximately three and
one-half hours by road.
From
London to Collioure by train is approximately
eleven hours, with two connections. From London airport to Perpignan by plane
is two hours and five minutes plus forty minutes from Perpignan to Collioure by
car or bus.
--------------------------------
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
Copyright 2010, 2015, 2021
--------------------------------
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