7 French winter dishes you should try in your life

7 French winter dishes you should try in your life

Galette des Rois

A puff pastry pie filled with a light almond cream.

Winter season in France is a celebration of traditional regional and family dishes, with special days such as the day of the Epiphany, during which the so-called King’s cake, “galette des rois” in French, is eaten to commemorate the visit of the Three Magi to the Christ Child.

Cold season is ski season in the Vosges, Alps or the Pyrenees Mountains with melted cheese recipe Tartiflette and raclette on the menu, but also traditional soups, cabbage and smocked meat.

As days drastically shorten and bleak weather prevails, every occasion is as good as any to find some comfort and warmth. Food is no exception.

Picture a cosy room, the sound of a crackling fire place, snow falling outside the window and you’ll get the sense of what a perfect French winter meal might be.

1- MARMITAKO (fish Basque stew)

This typical Basque Country dish is one of my favourites. The name in Basque means “from the pot”, a delicious stew made from bonito or tuna and potatoes. The origins of this fish soup or stew come from the Basque fishing boats, where the appointed cook had to be original and feed everyone with the left overs and trimmings of the day’s work.

Today it is a popular dish, in part due to the increasing popularity of Basque cuisine, and in part because it is one of the best-known ways to prepare tuna, a fish that is now widely prized for its nutritional value.

One of the secrets is to use the pimientos choriceros. These are dried red peppers that are very typical in Basque cooking and can be difficult to find outside of the Basque Country. Instead, you can add normal red chili pepper. While this can be done, and it will taste good, it won’t be as good as it would with the pimientos choriceros. It would be like substituting a sun-dried tomato for a normal tomato.

2- BOEUF BOURGUIGNON

Boeuf Bourguignon

One of the most French winter dish well known all over the world.

A tough cut of Charolais cattle, most often rump, oyster blade, shin or beef check studded with lardons to impart extra fat and flavour braised in a Burgundy red wine (non-negotiable) and a beef stock.

A bouquet garni gives it extra flavour, champignons and pearl onions are added at the end. Over time, the recipe evolved from honest peasant fare to haute cuisine, and Auguste Escoffier's 1903 recipe became the standard-bearer, although Escoffier used a whole piece of beef rather than smaller cubes.

Today's cuts of meat have sufficient marbling to render the larding technique unnecessary, but boeuf Bourguignon simply wouldn't be the same without smoky bacon, so these days it's included as a separate component. Like many long-cooked dishes, boeuf Bourguignon is even tastier the next day.

3- BOUILLABAISSE

This dish well-known all over the world come from the contraction of bouillir (to boil) and abaisser (to reduce). Originally it was in the 18th century when fishermen of Marseille or their wives would make a fire on the beach and boil the small, bony least saleable yet flavourful catch in a cauldron. Varieties of rock fish, olive oil onions, garlic and tomatoes would have played a role in this glorious dish, its magic lying in its intensity of flavour.

Over time, bouillabaisse evolved into one of the most luxurious seafood dishes in the world. Ingredients may include several varieties of whitefish, mussels, crabs, squid, and sometimes even lobster or eel. Another thing that makes Marseille's signature dish so distinctive is its vibrant orange color, as well as the flavors and aromas arising from a selection of Provence herbs and spices, especially saffron, fennel, and orange zest.

4- BAECKEOFFE (baker’s oven)

Baeckeoffe

You must try as soon as possible.

The Alsace Baeckeoffe is a regional French dish initially prepared at home by farmers' wives. This original meat casserole dish is exclusively cooked in Alsace, less known than other Alsatian specialities like the Sauerkraut.

The Alsatian stew is based on marinated vegetables and meats - pork, mutton and beef in a dry white wine and cook in an authentic terracotta casserole. After having marinated overnight, the Baeckeoffe used to be taken to the baker's to be oven baked for several hours. According to the tradition, meats must be arranged between layers of potatoes.

This stunning meal is generally served as Sunday family lunch, but also in famous Alsatian Winstub.

5- CASSOULET

This glorious celebration of rustic French cooking dates back to the medieval period.

Cassoulet

Amazing dish which each family prepare in its own secret.

A typical dish from the Languedoc region and cities of Castelnaudary, Carcassonne or Toulouse made up of a few essentials and other ingredients that vary depending on the cook. There is, of course, pork meat (loin, hock, cooking sausage) as well as duck confit, pork belly, local sausage, neck and breast of lamb. There are variants that include goose confit and goose fat.

As for the white beans, these tend to be regional varieties like Tarbes beans, which are long-grained, meaty and soft, with a fine skin that allows them to soak up other flavours. The secret to the success of this regional dish is in its cooking as it must simmer for a long time, wide at the top to give earthenware pot that is narrow at the base and the maximum amount of crust after being finished under the grill.

Cassoulet requires no accompaniments, only an excellent bottle of full-bodied red wine and an afternoon devoted to napping.

6- Petit sale au lentilles (Salted pork with lentils in broth)

Try this French petit salé aux lentilles, a pork classic for wintertime, which has to be cooked with the world-famous green French lentils known as lentilles du Puy.

It's a classic of French bourgeois cooking, old-fashioned food of the best kind. You can use several cuts of pork for this petit salé recipe such a succulent pork belly, ham hock, pork neck. For my recipe, I use salted pork ribs most of the time.

It's rather rustic and easy to make, even though there is a little forward planning required to salt the pork. Soaking the pork in cold water over night is the first way to prepare this dish. French often add some onion, a couple of garlic cloves, fresh carrot, some peppercorns, and a generous bouquet garni of fresh herbs and bring the whole lot to a light simmer for 2 hours. Serve this is in a shallow soup bowl with a robust red wine – it's especially good when it's cold and miserable outside. 

7- SOUPE A L’OIGNON (Onion soup)

Soupe a l’oignon

A classic but so tasty.

Is there anything more comforting on a chilly day than a hot bowl of French onion soup? Especially with a thick slice of toasted bread loaded with melty Gruyere or Comté cheese. This soup is traditionally made with beef stock meat stock, the onions must be cooked slowly to ensure they caramelise. Brandy or sherry is added at the end. The soup is then immediately served in the bowl or ramekin in which it was broiled.

Ancient in origin, the dish underwent a resurgence of popularity in the 1960s in the United States due to a greater interest in French cuisine. It is often finished by being placed under a grill.

If you use boxed stock, taste it first! If you don’t like the taste, don’t use it (if you cook a lot of beef or beef roasts, save the scraps and freeze them to make a stock with later.)

   BON APPETIT!