Dear Eric: Do the French still use butter and cream as extensively as they used to in their cooking?
Or are they now into the healthy cooking oils, too?
Sylvia Walsh
Dear Sylvia: When first reading your question, I immediately knew whom to contact for a comprehensive response: chef Denise Marchessault. For many years, Marchessault ran the popular French Mint Cooking School in Greater Victoria's Broadmead neighbourhood. She is a Le Cordon Bleu graduate and a recipient of the Grand Diplôme in recognition of her superior level of qualification in both cuisine and pastry.
Marchessault is very fond of French cuisine and has read about, watched and tasted its evolution.
"Yes, the French still use butter and cream, but not as much as you might imagine," Marchessault said.
Traditionally, the French cooked with fats of the land, she said. For example, those living in the diary producing regions of Normandy would have cooked with butter and cream, those in the southeast enjoyed a Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil, and the diets of those in the Aquitaine region would have included duck and goose fat. Marchessault says - and this may be a surprise to many - that duck and goose fat contain healthy cholesterol-fighting monounsaturated fat.
France, like other places in the world, has also been influenced by the cooking styles of other countries.
"These days French cooks have options well beyond their native terroir and oil is used as often as butter," Marchessault said. "Sunflower seed oil is the most popular cooking oil in France, according to André Dominé (author of Culinaria France), followed by peanut oil and olive oil."
Marchessault says that although the image of stodgy French food stubbornly persists, the era of heavy French food was all but abolished decades ago by a group of renegade chefs. One of them was legendary chef Paul Bocuse, who denounced heavy cuisine in favour of a lighter, healthier, more vibrant cuisine.
"[They created] a new set of rules, a manifesto, coined the '10 Commandments' that defined the lighter fare," Marchessault said.
"Thou shall not serve artery-clogging heavy sauces; thou shall respect the dietary needs of your guests; and thou shall not supersize. I'm paraphrasing here, but you get the idea."
She says in the 1970s the lighter fare was termed nouvelle cuisine and it should not to be confused with the plating trend of the era of minuscule portions served on impossibly large plates.
The trend toward lighter fare continues to this day in France.
Yes, as Marchessault said, you can still - thankfully - enjoy rich foods swimming in cream, but when I visited a few years ago I also found all kinds of dishes following the manifesto outlined above.
You'll also see the trend toward lighter fare on display in modern French Cookbooks, such as the Culinaria France noted above, and Michel Roux's book Desserts. In the introduction to that book, Roux writes this about his creations: Fruit plays the starring role, with sugar, cream and butter used in moderation.
The French-style recipe below is from Marchessault. This light dish with a world of flavour achieves that tasty goal not with butter or cream, but by simmering nutritious vegetables in a beguiling broth spiked with olive oil and wine.
VEGETABLES IN A COURT BOUILLON
Denise Marchessault says poaching vegetables in a court bouillon (pronounced koor bweeYAWN), a light aromatic broth, is a lovely way to brighten their flavours. She says to feel free to substitute any seasonal vegetables in place of the ones called for in the recipe. Serves four as a side dish; two as a light main course served over pasta or rice.
For court bouillon (poaching liquid)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and bruised with the side of a knife
- juice from half a lemon (reserve the
other half)
1/2 tsp whole coriander seeds, toasted until aromatic
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
3/4 cup water
- bouquet garni (1 sprig of thyme, 3 to 4
parsley stems, 2 bay leaves and 6 whole peppercorns wrapped in cheesecloth or bundled together in a couple of leek leaves and tied with kitchen string.)
- salt and pepper to taste
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Add the garlic, lemon juice, toasted coriander seeds, wine, water and bouquet garni and simmer (don't boil), uncovered, for 20 minutes.
Discard the bouquet garni and season the poaching liquid with salt and pepper.
For the vegetables 6 small carrots, diced or cut into sticks (or if very small, left whole)
1/2 cup mushrooms, wiped clean and quartered
1/2 cup small shallots, peeled and quartered
1 zucchini or two pattypan squash, sliced 1/2 cup fresh peas
2 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced
chopped parsley ? freshly
- drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
Gently poach the vegetables, except the diced tomatoes, one variety at a time, in the courtbouillon until just tender. (Don't be tempted to toss them all in at once; carrots need plenty of time to cook, peas do not.) Remove the cooked vegetables with a slotted spoon (don't worry if some of the onions come along for the ride) and set them aside before adding the next batch of vegetables.
When all the vegetables have been cooked, return them to the court bouillon along with the diced tomatoes. Gently reheat the mixture and check the seasoning; adding more lemon juice and salt as desired.
Place the vegetables in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Garnish with freshly chopped parsley.
Note from Eric Akis: When trying this recipe, I peeled the tomatoes by first bringing a pot of water to a boil. Now cut the stem end out of each tomato. Cut a small, shallow X into the blossom (curved) end of each tomato. Submerge the tomatoes into the boiling water for 1 minute. Lift out of the water and set on plate. When cool enough to handle, pull the skins off the tomatoes. Cut each tomato in half, remove and discard the seeds, and dice.
Eric Akis is the author of the best-selling Everyone Can Cook series of cookbooks. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday. Send questions to Eric's email address or to Ask Eric, Times Colonist, 2621 Douglas St., Victoria B.C., V8T 4M2.
