Behind the French Menu

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.

Photograph courtesy of Stijn Nieuwendijk

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.

Photograph courtesy of wEnDy

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.

Photograph courtesy of Richard Lee

Assiette de Saumon Frais Mariné – A 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.

Photograph courtesy of Erich Ferdinand

Assiette Gourmande – On 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:

Atlantic Salmon – Saumon. Salmon on French Menus

Charcuterie-Traiteurs in France. The Ultimate Full Service Delicatessen?

French Fries, Frites, Pomme Frites, Chips in the UK. French Fries on French Menus.

Ham in France. The Ten Most Popular Hams. Ham in French Cuisine.

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Allis Shad
Photograph courtesy of EUNIS, the European Nature Information System

Shad or Allis shad are mild but tasty fish and, in the season, between April and June, a fish that will be on many French menus. A restaurant may offer thin slices of marinated or smoked shad or shad roe as an hors d'oeuvre with filets of shad as the main dish. Shad is a bony fish, and having the restaurant handle all those bones is a joy; the fish will be grilled, poached, or sautéed. Most Shad are caught when they are already mature and returning to their home river to spawn; a small shad will usually weigh at least 700 grams.

Eagles also like Shad, they feed them to their children.
Photograph courtesy of Andy Morffew
www.flickr.com/photos/andymorffew/25233551759/

Believe it or not, shads are part of the herring family; however, shads are cooked very differently from their smaller herring cousins in the kitchen. After the first bite, you will never compare a shad with a herring.

Shad on French menus:

Alose au Cidre –Shad poached in cider.

Alose à l'Oseille - Shad baked with sorrel, the herb.

Salade d'Oeufs d'Alose Sauce Gribiche - A salad of shad roe eggs. Shad roe is a delicacy, and here they are served with a Sauce Gribiche. Gribiche is a mayonnaise-based sauce made with hard-boiled egg yolks, mustard, and cornichons.

Alose Fumée, Rémoulade de Concombre, Radis, Oignons à la Crème de Tamara et Ciboulette - Smoked Shad served with a Cucumber Sauce Rémoulade, radishes and onions accompanied by a cream of taramasalata flavored with chives.

Sauce Rémoulade (Remoulade)- A mayonnaise and mustard sauce made with cooked egg yolks, oil, and mustard, usually with added parsley and sometimes with cornichons. Sauce Rémoulade will be served with many dishes and is a favorite with a mashed céleri-rave, celeriac. The sauce is also popular in the USA, where it is part of Cajun or Creole cuisine; my source was not sure which. In any case, Sauce Rémoulade becomes a lot spicier, and the recipe may be somewhat different.
Taramasalata - Taramasalata; one of the most well-known parts of most traditional Greek mezes. Taramasalata should be a light beige to a light creamy pink mixture of salted and cured carp roe, olive oil, garlic, onion, lemon juice, and breadcrumbs. Originally grey mullet roe was used, but that was changed to carp roe when grey mullet rose became too expensive. When you see bright pink versions of taramasalata, then you know that food coloring has been added to the roe of a fish that is almost certainly neither a grey mullet nor a carp.
In a Greek restaurant, I was told that this dish was initially served during the Christian holiday of Lent when meat was not eaten. Traditions, however, do change, and tourists to Greece provide a very important part of that nation's income, and so now taramasalata is available all year round.

Shad caught at the mouth of a river.
Photograph courtesy of Greg Miller
www.flickr.com/photos/gm_ncffb/445717271/

Alose de Loire, Beurre Blanc – Shad caught in the Loire River, the longest river in France; 1,020 km (634 miles). The fish will have been caught close to where the river reaches the sea when returning to the river to spawn. Here the fish will have been lightly fried in a Beurre Blanc Sauce. Beurre Blanc Sauce is one of the most favored French sauces for fish and seafood. Sauce Beurre Blanc or Sauce Beurre Nantaise is made with butter, a dry white wine, lemon, and shallots.

Fried shad roe.
Photograph courtesy of stu_spivack
www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/5676945671/

Pavé d'Alose Meunière, Fenouil Braisé et Légumes Printaniers - A thick cut of Shad prepared in a Sauce Meunier and served with braised fennel, the herb, and spring vegetables. A Sauce Meunier and parsley.

Shad are born in freshwater rivers and streams, and like salmon, they spend most of their lives in the sea before returning to their homeland streams to spawn. When they return to spawn, that is when most shad are caught at the entrance to the rivers.

Meunière - is a superb sauce for fish and very simply made; it is clarified butter, lemon juice, that is often translated in error as a dish prepared in the manner of a miller's wife. One of my correspondents on French cuisine, Michel Mass, points out that the miller's wife story is another urban legend probably explained because such recipes sometimes (though not always) imply that the fish should be rolled in flour before cooking. However, the word initially related to various species of freshwater fish that in the past went by the collective name of meuniers, most likely the then plentiful Common Bullhead, Chabot in French, and Chub, Chevaine in French. The mill ponds built close to water mills were a haven for fish and, consequently, anglers.
Today, unfortunately, we will rarely see Bullhead or Chubb on the menu, but you can order sole, trout, and almost any type of fish prepared à la meunière.

Shad in the languages of France's neighbors:

(Catalan -alosa ), (Dutch -elft ), (German – alse or maifisch), (Italian – aloa), (Spanish – sábalo), (Latin – alosa alosa).

Shad in other languages:

(Chinese (Mandarin) - 西鲱 ), (Danish - majsild ), Greek- Κέπα – kepa), (Hebrew - aloza), (Maltese – lacca), (Norwegian - maisild), (Polish – aloza finta), (Portugues –sável), (Rumanian - scrumbie de mare), (Russian - европейская алоза), (Swedish - majfisk), (Turkish – tirsi).

For assistance with the names of shad in other languages thanks go to: Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2016. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication www.fishbase.org, version (01/2016).

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