French Dish Recommendations

My friend is having a french themed party and those who come must make a french dish. I don't have any knowledge of french food but was hoping someone could inform me of some good dishes that an amerature/semi-knowledgable cook could make.
I'm looking to impress.
I hope not to spend more than 50 dollars.



-Carlos

Do you have a specific course you're supposed to stick to? (salad, appetizer, hors d'oeuvres, main course, dessert), or will anything work?

I would like to do a main course but am open to anything that is good.

A cassoulet could be made in advance and would travel well, I think. Same goes for coq au vin.

For a novice, go with coq au vin. If you find a good recipe (Julia, for instance) and follow it, you can't go wrong. Buy a good chicken.

annieb wrote:For a novice, go with coq au vin. If you find a good recipe (Julia, for instance) and follow it, you can't go wrong. Buy a good chicken.

I agree that coq au vin would be good and easy; cassoulet strikes me as far more difficult to work, both regarding procurement of proper ingredients and effort required. Bœuf bourguignon is another relatively easy and wonderful classic, also one that would be easily made, transported and reheated without any loss in quality. These two dishes may have no touch the exotic to them any more but who cares: they're delicious if made well and if you get good ingredients and follow a good recipe, they will turn out well.

Antonius

tem wrote:A cassoulet could be made in advance and would travel well, I think. Same goes for coq au vin.

I think a cassoulet is a pretty complex dish to make properly, especially if you're going to include the traditional duck confit. And I think it tastes best with a crisped topping, which gets tricky in travel.

I recently made Julia Child's beef bourguignon (from "Mastering the Art..") and it is an excellent recipe that is rather simple to make from pretty inexpensive ingredients. It can be time-consuming, especially if you make your own brown beef stock for it, but much of the time is "inactive". It The payoff is an astoundingly rich stew that explodes with flavor. It doesn't involve any special cooking techniques that a novice couldn't handle.

We served it over buttered egg noodles.

Here's an adaptation of the recipe, but I'd highly recommend buying the book.

Best,
Michael

annieb wrote:For a novice, go with coq au vin. If you find a good recipe (Julia, for instance) and follow it, you can't go wrong. Buy a good chicken.

Wasn't the whole point of Coq a vin to use up an old, tough bird? Admittedly, an old bird will have more flavor than boneless, skinless shmoo from the supermarket, but with the long cooking, it isn't the tenderest, freshest bird that you need.

There was a CaV recipe on Good Eats a while back -- foodtv.com is sure to have it. It was a couple-day recipe (mostly marinating).

Beef Bourginon(sp) is a similar sort of dish. Simmer meat for a long time in red wine. Again good cut is a nonintuitive thing: don't use filet, use a tougher cut (but probably not skirt steak either), that's well marbled (get choice, not select).

Good doesn't necessarily imply young, to me. I think the best bet would be a larger free range bird from one of the local organic farms, like Wettstein's, etc.

JoelF wrote:Wasn't the whole point of Coq a vin to use up an old, tough bird? Admittedly, an old bird will have more flavor than boneless, skinless shmoo from the supermarket, but with the long cooking, it isn't the tenderest, freshest bird that you need.

...

Beef Bourginon(sp) is a similar sort of dish. Simmer meat for a long time in red wine. Again good cut is a nonintuitive thing: don't use filet, use a tougher cut (but probably not skirt steak either), that's well marbled (get choice, not select).

Yep, coq a vin is an "old rooster" recipe.

I used chuck roast for my recent Beef Bourg. Worked very well.

If the partygoers are reasonably gastronically adventurous how about escargot? We make it pretty regularly at home, and it's really straightforward. I think it's delicious and can be prepared in advance and heated up at the party. I'd be happy to post the recipe that I use - it passes muster with my 4 year old who is a bit of a foodie/critic and with my in-laws who rave about it so I think it might impress. Although using the ceramic escargot dishes is ideal, I've made it using mini muffin pie tins and small ceramic baking dishes and it's turned out just fine.

My very most favorite, relatively-easy, Springtime French recipe is blanquette de veau: white veal stew. It's a bit exotic, you certainly can do it for under $50, and there's even a recipe for doing it in a crockpot at:

http://frenchfood.about.com/cs/maincour ... teveau.htm

I guess I've always preferred to stew veal rather than beef: I like the texture better with the veal.

But you can't lose with any of these recipes!

Geo

How about a nice, traditional pate du foi--

Oh... nevermind.

In all seriousness, however, if the aim is to impress, how about doing a duck confit? It's extremely easy to make, and yet somehow it has this reputation among people who don't know food as being incredibly difficult. I've never tried, but if you crisp them up before you leave home, I imagine that refreshing them in the oven upon your arrival would work quite well.

I like the coq au vin suggestion. Jeffrey Steingarten has a lovely chapter in It Must Have Been Something I Ateabout his search for a store that would sell him an old rooster and some of its blood (yes, both traditional ingredients for the "classic" version). But it's a great dish even in a less . . . traditional form. On the other hand, coq au vin also has the disadvantage of containing whole chicken pieces and their bones in sauce, which makes it difficult to enjoy among strangers.

I think boeuf bourguignon would travel very well and would definitely impress a crowd (nothing says French like a dish that's cooked in red wine for hours).

Mr. T. wrote:If the partygoers are reasonably gastronically adventurous how about escargot? .... I'd be happy to post the recipe that I use - it passes muster with my 4 year old who is a bit of a foodie/critic .

OK, even though my kid eats sushi regularly, you've got me beat there, Mr. T! Hats off to you!

An easy, cheap french dish I like is salade nicoise: french tuna salad. My version (it's one of those empty-out-the-cupboard recipes, so there are many versions) contains canned (solid white) tuna, chopped nicoise or kalamata olives, capers, sometimes red bell peppers or cherry tomatoes in season, thinly sliced shallot or green onion, sliced hardboiled eggs in a simple homemade viniagrette (2 tbs vinegar, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 5-6 tbs olive oil.) You can do a warm version including tiny boiled potatoes, blanched green beans, and use a small seared and flaked tuna steak. Though it doesn't sound elegant, it looks very elegant on the plate

Or there's choucrute, which is sausages, potatoes and sauerkraut (from the German border.) Quiche is really, really easy, as well - but also has German influences that may not suit your theme. A quick google will offer you hundreds of recipes.

Seems also that you should be able to find an inexpensive French cheese and egg dish; souffle springs to mind, although it may not be for the faint of heart - and definitely won't travel well.

Can you do any of the cooking there? If so, french-style mussels (search recipes for moules marinieres) would be cheap and easy - if you could arrive with your mussels cleaned and in the steamer with your sauce ready, they'd steam up in a few minutes and be quite the spectacular presentation.

When I do coq au vin, I usually leave out the breasts, using them for something else. Supplement with extra chicken thighs. A thigh isn't hard to eat with knife and fork, too - only one big bone. (pull out the back before serving, and save it for yourself for later, unless you know folks there will want it)

Did you decide on anything, Carlos?

Quiche

Nope, the party is tommarow. I'll keep you posted... I'll take pics of the other dishes.

We decided on a French Apple Streusel. My girlfriend's momma found the recepie for us. Thanks youguys/gals for your help.