Showing posts with label charcuterie-traiteur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label charcuterie-traiteur. Show all posts

Assiette on French Menus. Ten of the Many Popular Quickly Prepared Dishes on French Menus.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

    

Even two plates do not make a real gourmet dish.
   
An assiette is a plate, and on your menu it will be a pre-prepared dish offering quickly prepared fresh dishes as entrees, side dishes and cheese and fruit dishes. All these plates will be made with familiar ingredients and they allow the chef to spend more time on more ambitious main dishes as not all the restaurant specialties may be passed to the sous-chef to prepare.
   
Assiette
   
A plate or dish. On a menu this may be anything from a simple dish of cold meats or a festive creation served as a work of art.
 
 Assiette Anglais - A plate of cold meats in the manner of the English. This name may date back to the Napoleonic wars!  Then the British soldiers were fed beef,  but after the first day, the same dish was provided cold.    
   
Assiette de Charcuterie – A plate of cold meats, cold cuts. Charcuterie-Traiteurs are France’s delicatessens.
    

A single counter in a large Charcuterie-Traiteur.
    
 Assiette de Frites - A plate of French-fried, potatoes, in the UK, a plate of chips.  In North America and the UK a plate of locally made French fries is rarely as tasty as a French “assiette de frites”. For some reason, only the French, Belgians, Swiss and most of the Dutch can consistently  make excellent French-fried potatoes. Nevertheless, to give credit, where credit is due, the Belgians were the force behind the original French fries.
  
Assiette de Fromage A cheese plate.  This indicates a plate with a pre-selected group of cheeses; usually, three or four different cheeses. Small restaurants may offer a limited selection of ripe cheeses rather than offering ten or more cheeses on a cheese board or trolley.  Keeping perfectly ripe cheeses available is very expensive and limiting the selection allows the restaurant to keep their costs down.
   

A cheese plate.
    
Assiette des Fruits et des Sorbets de Saison – An assortment of fresh fruits and sorbets made with the fresh fruits of the season.
  
     Assiette de Jambon de Pays - A plate of locally cured ham.
    
Assiette du Pêcheur - A fisherman's platter. This may be a mixed assortment of little fish or a large platter with fish, crustaceans and more, best to ask.
    

A fisherman’s platter.
    
Assiette de Saumon Frais MarinéA plate of freshly marinated salmon.  When well prepared I believe that marinated fresh salmon competes with the finest smoked salmon as the best way to serve cured salmon. 

Assiette Fitness -  A low-calorie dish.
    

My view of a low-calorie dish.
 
Assiette GourmandeOn a menu, this indicates a plate designed for gourmands; for lovers of good food. It should be something very special; not just something expensive or a heaped platter.  If this is on the menu without any detail, then, it is best to ask what this dish consists of. When you are offered, rarely seen dishes, and unique ingredients….only then go for it.
  
Assiette Valaisanne – A dish originating in the Swiss Canton of Valais; just across the border from the department of Haute-Savoie, France. This is a plate of assorted Valaisanne dried meats, cured ham and bacon, along with assorted cheeses; it is usually served with cornichons and brown or rye bread.
  

Assiette Valaisanne
Photograph courtesy of jo672.
      
There will be other “assiettes” on the menu, but the ten above present an idea of how an "assiette" may be served.
    
Connected Posts:
   
  
  
  

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2016


Pâtés and Terrines. An introduction to the meat, fish, vegetable and fruit pates on French menus.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

   
Meat and liver pates are sold in charcuterie-traiteurs.
The name for French full-service delicatessens.
Photograph courtesy of Christian MANGE
www.flickr.com/photos/23149310@N06/16528597829/

  
The words pâté and terrine are used interchangeably for pate on French menus. Note the word pâté, pate in English has an accent over the â and the é.  Pates are not limited to ground liver, meat, or fish served as a spreadable paste. Chefs often include other ingredients for contrasts in taste and texture. Accompanying many pates will be a fruit or vegetable jam or chutney and country bread or toast. Fruit and vegetable pâtés and or terrines may also be on the menu.
The English word tureen, meaning a covered cooking or serving dish was taken from the French word terrine in the 1800s. Then a terrine was used for baking or otherwise preparing a pate and did not also mean the pate inside the terrine. (Many other French cooking utensils have been given or received their names from the dish in which they were prepared. (e.g., A marmite is a French saltwater fish or seafood stew and also the dish in which it is made).
  
  
Look for pâté with the accents over the â and é 
 
Pâté with the accents over the â and é to a French diner only mean pate. The French word pâte with a single accent over the â has a very different meaning! That may cause some tasty confusion if you do not look out for it.   There is an explanation of the meanings behind pate with a single accent at the end of this post.
 









                    Terrines as cooking utensils.

Pates that may be on your menu in France:

Pâté Chaud – A liver and or meat pate; served hot. 

Pâté de Lapin Chaud – A hot rabbit pate.
 
Le Petit Pâté Chaud de Faisan, Fricassée de Champignons aux Senteurs de Truffes – A small, hot, pheasant pate served with sautéed button mushrooms and flavored with truffle essence.

Pâté de Campagne - A country-style pate. Country style pates are usually not finely ground and traditionally include both pork meat and pork liver. If the pâté is not pork, the menu will say so.
 
Terrine de Campagne et sa Confiture d'Oignons A country-style pork-based pate served with an onion jam.   
 
Terrine de Campagne Maison aux Pommes et Calvados – A country-style pork-based pate served with cooked apples and flavored with Calvados apple brandy.
   
Pâté de Campagne
www.flickr.com/photos/u-suke/2874026685/sizes/

Pâté de Foie Gras – A spreadable pate made from the fattened liver of ducks or geese.  Foie gras is an essential part of French cuisine; it is part of the French psyche.  The minimum amount of duck or goose liver in any dish that includes foie gras is regulated by French government regulations.  By law, a pate de foie gras must contain at least 50% fattened duck or goose liver. The other 50% usually includes pork, chicken liver, and eggs.  Pates made with different ingredients are not regulated. When pâté de foie gras is on your menu, and it does not explicitly note that the fattened liver is goose liver, oie, then it will be the less expensive fattened duck liver that is being used.
  
Pate de foie gras
www.flickr.com/photos/nikonvscanon/2835765695/

La Terrine de Foie Gras à la Gelée de Porto – A pate of fattened duck liver served with a jelly (aspic), flavored with Port wine.
 
La Terrine de Foie Gras d'Oie et sa Gelée au Pinot Gris Vendanges Tardives – A pate of fattened goose liver served with jelly from the liver’s cooking juices flavored with the sweet, white Late Harvest Pinot Gris AOC/AOP wine from the Alsace.  Sweet wines are, by tradition, served with fattened liver along with a sweet fruit or vegetable jam.  The first choice may be a white Sauterne from Bordeaux, but among many gourmands, the sweet late harvest wines of the Alsace may be preferred. I enjoy them both.

Pâté de Gibiers -  Wild game pate.  The game pate on most menus come from farmed animals.  If the pate was part of a hunting season menu that would be a "Menu de la Chasse". On a regular menu, a really wild game pate will be listed as "Pâte de Gibiers Sauvage."  Wild game animals are, during a short season, legally hunted. They include faisan, pheasant; sanglier, wild boarchevreuil, roe deer; and caille, quail.
  
Pâté de Gibier en Croûte et sa Salade de Mâche – A game pate cooked in a loaf of bread or in another covering and served with a lamb’s lettuce salad.

Pâté en Croûte de Gibier à Plumes et sa Compôte à l'Echalote – A game bird pate prepared inside a loaf of bread or other covering served with stewed, and sweetened shallots.

Pâté de Cerf aux Marrons – A venison pate served with chestnuts.

Pâté de Gibier aux Canneberges Maison, Toasts de Pain BlancWild game pate served with a special house cranberry sauce and toasted white bread.
     
Pâté en Croûte Pate cooked, and served, with a pastry, bread or other covering. The other coverings or coatings include vegetables, herbs, fruit, and leaves.  

Pâté en Croûte de Canard Mallard, Condiment Aigre-doux – A pate of mallard duck served with a sweet and sour condiment that the diner may add to his or her taste. (This is not a fattened duck pate).
  

Pâté en Croûte
www.flickr.com/photos/gail_thepinkpeppercorn/4234927109/
 
Le Pâté en Croûte, Jardinet de Saison – A pate prepared in a loaf of bread or other covering served with a small mixed salad.  (A jardinet is a small garden, here the name is used to indicate a small salad).
  
Pâté en Croûte de Perdreau et Pintade aux Poivres Verts, Salade de Navets et Coulis de Pruneaux – A pate of a young partridge and Guinea fowl prepared with green peppercorns and served with a turnip salad and stewed prunes.

Pâté Lorraine - A traditional pork meat pate, sometimes mixed with veal, from the Lorraine in the super-region of the Grande Est in Northern France. It is usually prepared with a pastry covering. It may be served hot or cold.
 
Pâté Hénaff  - Hénaff is the largest producer of pre-prepared pates and similar conserves in France – The product is highly rated and will be on some small restaurant menus.
  

Pâté Maison – The restaurant’s or chef’s special pate. When no further explanation is given, it pays to ask, or you may miss out on something special, though house pates are usually a mixed chicken liver and pork liver pate.

Pâté Forestière – A liver and or meat pâté with mushrooms.   

Paté Vigneron – A vintner’s pate.

Pâté Vigneron et sa Sauce au Vin  - A chopped meat and pork pate served with a wine sauce.

 Pâté Vigneron Chaud Maison – The house’s distinctive take on a wine grower’s pate served hot.
   
Pâté Vigneron - A vintner's pate.

Other terrines and pates:

Terrine de Foie de Volaille -  A chicken liver pate.

Terrine de Faisan aux Poires – A pheasant pate served with cooked pears.

Terrine de Gambas aux Légumes  Confits – A shrimp pate served with accompanied by vegetable confit, vegetables that have been slowly cooked, Vegetable confits often have the consistency of a jam.
  
A vegetable terrine with a salad.
www.flickr.com/photos/ladykeli/7437416918/
 
Terrine de Sanglier aux Noix, Chutney de Mirabelle – Wild boar pate prepared with walnuts and served with a Mirabelle plum chutney.  (The Mirabelle is a small yellow to reddish plum and France’s favorite for cooking).

Terrine du Pêcheur – A fisherman’s pate, a fish pate. 

Pâte, with a single accent over the â does not mean an English pate.

The word pâte, with the accent over the a, in French cuisine, has at least four different meanings, and none of them mean pate in English. The most well-known meaning of pâte indicates a pastry dough or batter.

The different types of pastry dough
all begin with the single accented pâte.

Pâte Brisée – A pastry used to make pie crusts for classic French tartes.
 
Pâte à Choux or Pâte Choux–  One of  France’s most popular puff pastries and it is the puff pastry used for éclairs, etc.,

Pâte Levée Feuilletée or Pâte à Croissants - The dough used for croissants.
   
Pâte à croissant
www.flickr.com/photos/29233640@N07/22984684289/

Pâtes on your menu may also mean pasta.
The pasta that we call spaghetti, linguine, vermicelli, etc.  

All French versions of pasta will be on the menu under the menu heading of pâtes.
     
Tagliatelles de Pâte Fraîche aux Epinards et Champignons des Bois – Fresh tagliatelle served with spinach and wild mushrooms.

Pâte Fraîche – Fresh pasta
www.flickr.com/photos/nicolasbuffler/16464743776/

Pâtes in a fromagerie, a cheese shop, or on the cheese trolley.

A fromage à pâte persillée is a blue-veined cheese. Roquefort and the Bleu d'Auvergne AOC are among the best of France’s many excellent blue cheeses. Caveat Emptor: Persillé, in French cuisine also has different meanings, mostly used for flavoring made with parsley and garlic while persil alone means parsley, the herb.
  
Fromages à pâte persillée - Blue cheese.
 
Pâte de fruits are densely made crystallized fruits.

The most well-known crystallized fruits are called fruits confits.
  
Pâte de fruits.
www.flickr.com/photos/merlejajoonas/15989174821/
   
My problems with French accents.

When I began to keep notes on my breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks in France, I did so along with the discussions about the dishes served. However, I ignored the French accents. The notes were only intended for my use, a crutch for my bad memory. Later, when it was suggested I print out my notes, I discovered that I had enough information for a book or two and lots of posts for a blog on French cuisine.  For the (still unpublished) book and this blog, I had to put the accents in after a large part was written. I have checked them, and despite my hard work, I may still have some errors left in and for those, I apologize.


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

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2012, 2017, 2019
 
--------------------------------

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