Behind the French Menu

Magret de Canard or Lou Magret. - Duck Breast in French Cuisine.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Magret de Canard Rôti - Roast duck breast.

Magret de Canard or Lou Magret - Duck breast. Duck breast is extremely popular in France and will usually be served roasted or fried. Duck is served rosé, slightly pink inside, so if you want your duck breast cooked in a manner other than rosé, you should inform the server when ordering. In France, it is unlikely that you will be asked how you would like your duck cooked.

The duck breast on your menu mostly comes from the breasts of ducks raised for fattened duck liver, fois gras. The breasts of these ducks are much thicker and tastier than most other duck breasts, and they come with a thick covering of fat. Some of the fat may remain when the duck is served; however, it is easily removed as a touch of your knife, and the fat separates.

Duck breast on your menu in France:

Lou Magret Grillé aux Sarments de Vigne – Duck breast grilled over vine prunings. The pruning’s from vineyards are much in demand, and as you may expect, they add unique flavors to dishes that are grilled or barbecued over them.

Vine Prunings.

Photograph courtesy of cavestmathieu

www.flickr.com/photos/cavestmathieu/7210028264/

When the term Lou Magret is on the menu, then the chances are that you in an area that was part of the pre-revolutionary French Province of Gascon. Gascon, Gascony. Gascony is now included in the region of Nouvelle Aquitaine with some parts in Occitanie. Here some locals still speak the Gascon dialect of Occitan alongside their perfect modern French. Lou Magret is Occitan for the French magret de canard, duck breast. Offering duck breast as a separate dish, rather than serving a whole duck, began in Nouvelle Aquitaine, and now Magret de Canard is on menus all over France.

Many of France’s regions had their names and borders changed .on 1-1-2016. Then, France reduced the number of regions from 22 to 13. For the visitor nothing has changed other than some confusion when using old guide books.

Apart from popularizing duck breast the old province of Gascon in Nouvelle Aquitaine, is famous for its AOP grape brandy Armagnac; the apéritif Floc de Gascogne; ducks; geese; truffles; foie gras; Monbazillac wine; D’Artagnan, the fourth musketeer; Cyrano de Bergerac; Cuisine Périgourdine and much more.

Carpaccio d’Magret d'Oie – Goose breast Carpaccio. Goose breast. Magret d’Oie, is also popular in France and will be prepared like duck breast. A goose breast is much larger than a duck’s breast and you will receive a half or less of a whole goose breast.

Carpaccio de Canard - Duck breast Carpaccio.

Photograph courtesy of Trip Advisor.

Magret de Canard au Miel - Duck breast in a honey sauce.

Magret de Canard au Poivre Vert – Duck breast in a green pepper sauce. For chefs, green pepper is the pepper of choice in almost all dishes with Au Poivre in their name. Green pepper corns allow the chef to offer the diner a controlled pepper experience.

Duck breast with green pepper sauce.

Photograph courtesy of Frédérique Voisin-Demery

www.flickr.com/photos/vialbost/4429028606/

Magret de Canard Fumé - Smoked breast of duck. Smoked breast of duck has a flavor slightly similar to cured ham and is extremely popular. Smoked duck breast may also be part of a salad and served warm or cold or it may be very thinly sliced and served cold with fresh melon instead of recipe where cured ham is called for. Smoked duck, like smoked turkey and smoked goose, are all very popular in France.

Smoked duck breast.

Grilled leeks, mashed potatoe, braised kale and braised red cabbage

With a creamy black currant sauce

Photograph courtesy of Edsel Little

www.flickr.com/photos/edsel_/3642318387/

Magret de Canard Sauvage aux Figues Fraîches – Breast of wild duck prepared with fresh figs. Canard sauvage, wild duck, in season will be on quite a number of menus. When wild duck is on the menu go for it; it is entirely different to farm-raised duck. The much darker meat offers a contrast in tastes and textures that outclasses farm-raised duck; a wholly pleasurable experience and as organic and free range as you can get. Wild duck will be on French menus between the end of September and the beginning of February. Each French department sets its own dates for hunting wild game, and so the dates when wild duck is on the menu will vary as you travel around France.

Wild mallard duck

The male has the white collar.

Photograph courtesy of Bring Back Words.

www.flickr.com/photos/backwords/5677301579/

When a menu does not identify the wild duck being served then it is almost always the canard colvert sauvage, the wild mallard duck. . The mallard duck is the most common wild duck in France and is probably the most common wild duck in the rest of the world, as well. In French, the duck’s name colvert refers to its green collar, the identifying mark of the male duck; the green collared duck. The mallard duck is also domesticated and farm-raised. If you are visiting France and wish to taste wild duck note that the duck hunting season, in most French departments, is from mid-September through the end of January.

Rémoulade au Magret de Canard Fumé et Cerneaux de Noix - Smoked duck breast served with a rémoulade sauce and walnuts. Sauce rémoulade is mayonnaise and mustard-based sauce made with cooked egg yolks, oil, and mustard; it is usually, but not always, prepared with added parsley and cornichons.

The duck breasts on French menus come from the mulard, the moullard duck, which is not to be confused with the mallard duck. The moullard is a cross between the canard de Pékin, the Pekin duck, and the Canard de Barbarie, the Muscovy duck. The Pekin duck, in the USA, is commonly called the Long Island duck.

For a few of the other duck dishes on French menus click here:

The Mallard duck in the languages of France’s neighbors:

(Catalan - ànec collverd ), (Dutch - wilde eend), (German – stockente). (Italian - germano reale), (Spanish - añade real , azulón), (Latin - anas platyrhynchos ).

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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

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Dreaming of the French Caribbean While Traveling in Mainland France?

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

The town of Saint Pierre in Martinique.

Photograph courtesy of Jean & Nathalie

www.flickr.com/photos/jries/1793239573/

Cuisine Antillaise is the French - Créole cuisine of the French Caribbean island regions of Martinique and Guadeloupe, and the French-administered islands of St. Barts and Saint Martin. French regions are somewhat similar to USA states or UK counties and, despite the distance, over 6,000 km (4,000 miles) from the French mainland; think of Hawaii and mainland USA. These islands are as much part of France as Paris; gendarmes direct the traffic there are croissants for breakfast and you have to pay in Euros.

The green arrows indicate the French Caribbean islands.

Still Dreaming?

Look for One of the Many Mainland Restaurants

Serving French-Créole Antillaise Cuisine.

By the number of restaurants offering Cuisine Antillaise in mainland France, it is undoubtedly the most popular of France’s islands’ cuisine and the one that I have enjoyed the most.

Your Créole Antillaise menu may offer:

Accras de Morue – Deep-fried cod fritters made from rehydrated cod. The cod used for this dish is hydrated salt cod. Dried cod was a staple food that could be stored and transported before there were refrigerators, and the French Caribbean settlers imported it as a cheap protein to feed their slaves. Salt cod has remained very popular in France and in her overseas departments and regions. Accras de Morue will be on many mainland menus without any reference to their Caribbean origins.

Accra de Morue, Sauce Chien

The word Chien does translate as a dog; however, this sauce has nothing whatsoever to do with dogs and the origin of the name is lost. The sauce is a mildly spicy 100% vegetable dip.

Photograph courtesy of L’Atelier d’Odile

Morue, dehydrated salt cod, also called in mainland France, Merluche and Stockfish, and is still, after hundreds of years, behind many French comfort foods, Salt cod dishes will be on the menus of the best restaurants and bistros in mainland France with the most famous dishes called Brandade de Morue and Brandade Nîmoise.

If you want fresh cod, then look on the menu for cabillaud or morue fraiche:

Colombo de Porc - A pork stew made with a blend of spices associated with Tamil Indian and Sri Lankan cuisine. The Colombo spice group includes coriander, turmeric, cumin, mustard, cloves, fenugreek, and pepper.

Fricassé de Lambis - Fried conch; the popular and tasty large sea snail, often incorrectly called a clam, that is on menus all over the Caribbean. The first fricassées were French stews made with chicken; however, that was originally. Today fricassées are also made with veal, vegetables, other poultry, and shellfish, and that includes the conch of which there are many different types. The most popular conch seen on Caribbean menus is the Queen Conch,

The Queen Conch.

Photograph courtesy of Ambergris Today.

Ragout de Cabri Antillaise – An Antillaise goat stew, usually served with rice. Tasty Antillaise ragouts, stews, use fewer vegetables and different herbs and spices than mainland ragouts. In modern French, a goat is a chèvre, and the word Cabri comes from Occitan, the French language of d’Oc brought to the islands by settlers. The early settlers were mostly from the region of Occitanie and Provence. Apart from bringing their language, the Provencal settlers would also have also brought goats. The southeastern part of France did not bring cow’s milk into their diet until the 20th century and are still famous for their many excellent goat's milk cheeses. Occitan or d’Oc is the language that lost out in the search for a single language to unite France; however, despite losing to out to modern French there are, still today, millions of French citizens who speak or understand some Occitan or one of its dialects alongside modern French. Provencal and Nicoise have Occitan origins.

(The new French super-region of Occitanie was created on 1-1-2018 from the old regions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Mid-Pyrénées).

Vivaneau Frit, Riz et Rondelles de Bananes Plantains - Fried snapper served with rice and round slices of fried plantain cooking bananas. The plantain cooking bananas used in this recipe are an essential part of many French-Créole dishes. The vivaneau on the menu is most probably the silk snapper; also called the yellow-eyed (red) snapper.

Photograph courtesy of Mexico-Fish, Marine Life, Birds, and Terrestrial Life.

Gratin Chouchou à la Morue – A dish of chayote, also called custard marrow, and rehydrated cod, usually served as an entrée, the French first course. For this dish, the recipe calls for the pale green to whitish vegetables to be baked like potatoes, and then after the skin is removed, mashed. The mashed chayote will be mixed with the rehydrated cod, and baked until it browns, just before serving grated Gruyere Cheese may sometimes be sprinkled on top for a golden-brown gratiné finish.

Chayote originated in Mexico but is now a Caribbean staple, and fresh chayote is also served as a salad or as part of a mixed salad. One of Chayote’s other French names is Christophine, in honor of Christopher Columbus who brought the vegetable to Europe from Mexico.

Chayote

Photograph courtesy of Leslie Seaton

www.flickr.com/photos/lacatholique/5194455316/

Blaff de Poisson – Fish marinated in lime juice and then boiled or baked; sweet potatoes or yams traditionally accompany this dish. With a menu listing like this ask what fish is being served. Blaff may be made with almost any fish, white meat or shellfish and nearly all Créole Antillaise menus will include at least one dish of blaff. All blaff dishes are marinated in lime before cooking, and the recipes come with accents of curry, and or coconut.

Blaff de poisson

Photograph courtesy of KreyolFood

www.flickr.com/photos/88832582@N08/8134575775/

Gateau Patate – A French Créole cake based on the patate douce, sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are those purple to brown, and sometimes almost white, skinned tubers that often come with pointed ends; they have a white to yellow to orange flesh inside. It was Christopher Columbus who brought the sweet potato to Spain from South America. From Spain, the sweet potato quickly reached all of southern Europe where it grows well but it was not accepted as part of modern French cuisine until the mid-20th century. (The potato reached Spain 40 years after Colombus when the area now called Peru when in1532, Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire and claimed the region and potatoes for Spain).

Sweet potatoes.

Photograph courtesy of Girija Patel

www.flickr.com/photos/159917264@N08/42839245415/

The sweet potato in the languages of France mainland neighbors:

(Catalan – moniato. batata), (Dutch - zoete aardappel or bataat), (German - süsskartoffel, batate, weisse kartoffel), (Italian - patata dolce, batat), (Spanish- patata dulce).

Crêpes Flambée au Rhum - Crepes flambéed in rum. The first crepes to be publicly flambéed in alcohol, according to tradition, were served to Great Britain’s Prince of Wales, in Monte Carlo, in 1896, by the chef Henri Charpentier. The Prince was asked to name the dish, and chose the name the Crêpes Suzette; that was in honor of an eight-year-old girl who accompanied her father, as the Prince’s dinner guest.

Crepes Flambé

Photograph courtesy of La Feuille de Vigne

Rum, with 40% alcohol, is made from distilled sugar cane, and France’s only AOC/AOP called Rhum Agricole is produced in Martinique. Martinique is a leading exporter of cane sugar, and so there is plenty available for making rum.

Rhum Agricole Martinique AOC six-years-old.

Photograph courtesy of liwi.s

www.flickr.com/photos/saleg-w/11619781865/

Martinique rum producers offer both white and dark rums with the best rums matured in oak barrels. When buying Rhum Agricole, look on the label for the age. Some rums may be labeled Rhum Vieux, old rum; however, the real age, if written at all, is written in years, as it is in the picture above. The age is not necessarily in the large print and from my experience only buy rum that is over three-years-old. The usual meanings of VSOP, VSOP, Napoleon, and XO, etc. when printed on the labels do not have the same meanings as they do for Cognac, Armagnac, and Calvados; look for the written age. All of the above is true, but at the same time, there are plenty of other rums from Guadeloupe and Martinique that do not have an AOP. Many are excellent but try them before buying a case.

The differences in the Créole cuisines begin with the different herbs, spices, fish, and meats that were locally available. To the local foods add the languages, traditions and cultural heritage brought by the French settlers, the slaves the French settlers brought from Africa, and later the indentured workers from India.

French - Créole from Louisiana

and French – Créole from the French Antilles.

Travelers arriving from the USA quickly realize that the French - Créole Antillaise cuisine is distinctly different to the French - Créole cuisine of Louisiana. That is not too surprising as Louisiana is 2,000 km (1,300 miles), from the French Caribbean. However, that difference is nothing compared with the French Island regions of Réunion and Mayotte in the Indian Ocean; they are 13,000 km (9,000 miles) away from the French Caribbean and 9,000 km (5,000 miles) away from mainland France. Even when a dish has the same French name the recipe can be very different as local ingredients take over.

The Créole language in the USA

In the USA, the largest French - Créole speaking group are the Haitian immigrants. A Haitian Créole speaker and Louisiana Créole speaker will need a translator to talk to each other unless they speak in English or modern French. Caribbean Haitian French - Créole cuisine is also markedly different to the Antillaise Créole cuisine due to the

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