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SaligoBay
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Tripe in all its manifestations.   I've really tried, but the smell makes me feel sick. 

Pigs ears, par contre, are delicious.   Best cooked as described in an earlier post, and then breadcrumbed and grilled.   Wonderful!

Re the little pieces of bread that people use for pre-drink snacks with foie gras, lumpfish roe or whatever, they are fine if you brush them with melted butter and put them in the oven until golden.  It's a bother but you can do a large quantity at a time and freeze them.  

I think French sausages are 100% better than English ones, even the best varieties.

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[quote]Creme anglais...... Who fooled the French in to thinking it was custard !Iles Flottant.......What actually is it !Croque Madame...... Why does sticking a fried egg on a Monsieur make it even more culi...[/quote]

Even if someone fooled the French to call custard 'Crème anglaise' at least they have put a certain 'je ne sais quoi..?' by doing so.

And when you make a proper 'crème anglaise' with proper eggs, you are left with lots of egg whites.

Waste not, Want not and the French have turned these egg whites into a type of meringue (beat the egg whites as to make meringues and poach 3 to 4 spoon full of the stuff at a time in a pan of gently boiling water for barely 3 to 5 minutes) and serve it floating upon a dish of the afore made and mentioned 'custard'.

So there you are 'Iles Flottantes' to you.

Only snag the French are colour blind! Except for Bleu-Blanc-Rouge!!!!

Enjoy!
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Croque Monsieur:

 

I use 'english' sliced bread.

A decent jambon blanc

A bechamel with a good handful of decent grated emmantel added.

Have spare emmantel.

 

I toast lightly and butter one side.

I place one slice of ham on the butter.

I coat the ham with about 2-3 tablespoons of bechamel and put a little emmantel on top of this. I place the buttered side of the other piece of toast on the bechamel and then put around two to three tablespoons of bechamel on the top and a good coating of emmantel.

I place this on a grill tray in a preheated oven about 180°c. Takes about 10-20 minutes, really seems to depend on the oven. The last few minutes I usually put the grill on in the oven to brown it.

 

I know it is only a croque monsieur, but done like this they are really good and tasty and I reckon that the time I take and the products I use are reflected in the quality of the finished product.

 

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Definitely sounds better than the cold, stodgy things they sell round here!   Cheese is usually on top, melted, then left to go cold.   They look unappetising and........ very British!

Margaret, the quality of Saucisse de Toulouse (which is widely available everywhere) varies hugely.   There are some very good ones, and there are those that specialise in lumps of fat, gristle, and yes, I too have had a bit of bone in my sausage!

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Hi Miki,

"Calm down dear, it's not a real mouse"!!

First of all the reason I talked about frying a Croque Monsieur is because that IS the original recipe. I can't be held responsible for the dumbing down of the original recipe by lazy and greedy fast order chefs the length and breadth of France.

Secondly, yes, as a chef, I'm only too well aware of the individuality of taste, and my "don't you DARE" was meant to be a jokey bit of hyperbole.

And it seems to me that in a forum dealing with food and wine, publishing a recipe for something people say they don't like, is entirely appropriate. WHEN the reason they don't like it, is because they've never had the real thing.

I spend a lot of time explaining to my french guests that English food IS excellent, and that the reason they didn't like what they had when they ordered roast lamb in a Seaside Caff, was because it was a vile perversion of the real thing. And so it is with Croque Monsieur, IMO.

So, if you can get access to really good examples of the 3-4 basic ingredients, try it, especially if you have a sandwich maker, you just MIGHT be agreeably surprised.

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[quote]Even if someone fooled the French to call custard 'Crème anglaise' at least they have put a certain 'je ne sais quoi..?' by doing so. And when you make a proper 'crème anglaise' with proper eggs, you ...[/quote]

And I also say to you please walk the length and breadth of France and teach all the useless chefs how it should be done. Until then it remains total yuk to me !

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Ian......"Calm down dear, it's not a real mouse"!!

And I do think you should sit down with one of your "famous wines" and read it all carefully again. You really do take yourself too seriously. If you think a bluddy Croque Monsieur is something to flipping lecture me on, then gawd help us when something alittle more serious comes up !

The talk was what we don't like and I don't like Croque bleeding M's. Someone doesn't like duck but I do. So I tell 'em where to find beautifully served duck, I don't give them a recipe cos that isn't what this thread was about. I took it to mean, from the places that sell the damned awful products. We can all change the yuk to less yukky, for instance with croque Monsieur, take away the bread, ham and cheese (deep fried or whatever) and replace with fresh fruit salad on a sunny afternoon with a decent Barsac et voila croque Monsieur, Miki style !! and not a recipe book in sight !

The real thing is what we get in the shops/restos cause the French say they are the best, so please don't say but they don't make it how it is meant to be, you will ruin the "legend" that France guards so very jealously.

Now anyone else want to tell me that by changing this and that from the sh1te in the restos and shops, I will enjoy my food a lot more ?

OK, so shredded wheat, what's that about, ah yes I know, by changing it to look more like egg, bacon and tomatoes, it will taste so much better you know......

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Fat and grisle don't sound so bad when you consider what we found on the top of a pot of rillette de porc. It was a full nipple, cooked but other than that apparently untouched. All I can say is that it looked amazingly like a human one. And I can also say that that was truly revolting, just the idea of it being there, inspite of the fact that that is probably wot makes up rillette in the first place, they say the only thing they don't use on a pig is it's squeak.
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I don't know but I get this strange feeling that something tells me you lost your humour when you joined the board of the local GDF mob.

If you want to know, getting out the bed the wrong side this morning would have been difficult, I never got in it and that's no joke either but I had far more reason to be happy than not.

Please read it again, take a drink of whatever, read it again and then..... bin it or read it again but try it from a different angle than you have been doing so far and then ..................drop it for gooodness sake or let me know the shredded wheat answer. I can't believe you took that seriously as well but it takes all kinds I guess...(Won't bother with a LOL or a wink, it all seems pointless somehow)

Off to find Spock, I asked to be beamed up.....

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I have a recipe book dating from the 1930s, by a certain Ginette Mathiot, it is still in print and it is great. Totally impractical for everyday use, it is more like an aide mémoire for people who already know how to cook all the dishes but have forgotton the precise quantities. It has got pretty much all the things mentioned so far (should anybody be tempted to see if these things are really as awful as they sound). There are four different recipes for various tête de veau (yummy)two for andouilletes. Also for those who need it there is advice on how to treat your maids, and how to recognise whether or not the cows in the field of the farm where you are (naturally) buying your milk are healthy. It's a really fun thing to have, we bought it by mistake (it is in livre de poche and it is called La cuisine pour tous)thinking it was a basic French cookery book, which it is, but not one you can use if you don't know what the recipe is like.
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I agree on the offal type things and also on Harry's bread - but then I wouldn't buy white sliced in England either. On the offal side though, I do love kidneys and liver. What I really dislike is the majority of French cheeses and a camembert crouton in a restaurant in Evreux was one of the worst things I have ever tasted. French desserts do nothing to tempt me - everything in a French patisserie looks really sickly. In a restaurant, I usually end up with the Creme Brulee.

Someone mentioned veal - I love that. Also magret de canard - one of my favourites in restaurants - also confit de canard - whoever mentioned that - you don't have to eat the fat. I drain it and cook it in the bit of fat which is left. It is delicious. I also find that on the whole, steak in France is a safer bet than in England with regard to toughness.

As for chorizo, when I make pizza, I buy the cooked sliced type. But sometimes I have bought the uncooked sausage type, so I cut those up and dry fry them before putting them on pizza. I've only ever once had a good bought pizza in France.

Generally speaking though, I don't find that basic French food is much different to basic English food. A roast is a roast and I do prefer the way we serve a variety of vegetables at a meal. Many of our French friends just serve plain roast meat and then one vegetable and 30 years ago, they served the vegetable separately. A serving of peas on it's own is not very interesting. Of course the French recipes with sauces or caramalised onions etc are much more appetising, as are the cheesy things like raclette and fondue.

Personally, I think that Italy has a greater range of interesting recipes, not just pasta recipes, but ways of serving meats too.

As for croque monsieur - I can't remember the last time I bought one, or what it was like. I make my own, but I would only use smoked ham - I find jambon blanc to be pretty tasteless. Mind you, I prefer my own version - tuna instead of ham.

Bread is at the same time deteriorating and improving in France. Baguettes are often not as good as they used to be, but at least there is now a greater variety of bread. There are more artisinal bakers around selling bread made with unbleached flour. I love the darker breads which actually keep better too - not wholemeal - that is like eating baked gravel. Have any of you seen shops from the (I think) Vieux Petrin chain? Their bread is delicious. I still think the Germans are best for bread though - but they have to have something to be special as German cuisine is generally pretty boring.

I think that unless you can find really good restaurants (not necessarily expensive ones) in England or France, you usually find that you can take a basic recipe and improve on it when you make it yourself.
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I've been reading this topic with great interest and have concluded that my top 2 hates in France are

1) macedoine de legumes (tinned mixed veg in mayo sometimes wrapped up in a slice of ham)
2) quenelles (think long slimy dumplings sometimes with a fishy flavour)

Love duck - order it from a friend in the Landes, my duck comes in about 10 jars - 1 of foie, 2 confits (delish and dreat for unexpected guests), the bits, the carcass, jar of fat for cooking (try roast potatoes) and about 3 pots of graisserons which are nicer than rillettes in my book.

Also love boudin antillais, spicy black suasage, kids love boudin blanc and toulouse sausage. These are the kind of things I'd buy from a butcher. Took Matthieu, aged 6, for a doctors appointment late one evening and we went past a "brioche dorée" stand. He didn't want anything sweet but practically begged me for a croque monsieur which was hot and greasy but he loved it. I make mine at home with white or brown English bread from Auchan and add ham, slices of tomato and sometimes an egg, good fill-in meal.

My biggest enjoyment about living in France is the fact that being English I don't have to live up to any culinary expectations. Back in the UK, my dad worries about doing Rick Stein's gravadlax just right and my English girlfriends all have fave chefs that they try to live up to. My French friends have to live up to mum or mum-in-law's blanquette de veau. I can do what I want, don't have to make any excuses, and for the added fun, we often serve new world wine which gets French tongues wagging.

I think the most important thing about living in an adopted country is not to list the things you don't like, but the things you do...

Katie

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I will be eternally grateful to France and the French for teaching me the following:

- that a meal can be simple, quick to prepare and delicious (omlette aux herbes with a green salad and some good bread, for example)

- that a good vinaigrette transforms nasty, tasteless lettuce into a delicious side dish

- that children like green salad and spices, and can and should eat whatever their parents are having.

*However*, the UK has taught my French husband a lot about the alternatives to traditional French cooking, like the fact that no recipe is set in stone (now that was a revolution), that starters are optional, that puddings can be tasty, that wine is produced beyond French borders.

The end result is that we eat a wierd mix of French & UK food in our house. But because I'm essentially disorganised my attempts at "pure" French cooking usually fail because I lack time or an essential ingredient, so I end up adapting things to the point where the intention is lost entirely.

I resent feeling obliged to cook à la française when the outlaws invite themselves over (because they are entirely unadventurous eaters), am exasperated at the raised eyebrows when I dare to make blanquette with lamb instead of veal, bored by roasted meat served as dry as cork and devoid of sauce, revolted by the gristle-and-fat infested sausages and the mere thought of "fromage de tête".

Ramble over, thank you for listening!

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I love macedoine, bought, I never manage to get it dry enough when I do my own. I love quenelles as long as they are cooked until they soufflé, otherwise they are not nice.

Omlette's, how I have tried with omlettes. The only one that I will eat now is a spannish one with tater in it, but I would rather not. I do many things with nice fresh eggs, I just find omlettes a tedious waste of time. I am alone in this as the rest of the family love them and I don't know why.

Yes a good vinaigrette, how it can tart up lots of things, it is good if not great thing.

 

My friends know that they will have eclectic cuisine chez moi. They used to be nervous about it, now they have complexes..... such is life.

 

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*However*, the UK has taught my French husband a lot about the alternatives to traditional French cooking, like the fact that no recipe is set in stone (now that was a revolution), that starters are optional, that puddings can be tasty, that wine is produced beyond French borders.

You forgot to add that it's also possible to eat cheese after dessert and that you are allowed to drink wine without a meal which were two of my husband's discoveries along with your list.

Discussing our evening meal (chicken tikka masala) with a neighbour, she said "oh, was this because you had a fit of nostalgia for the UK?" I tried and failed to explain that no, this was just part of our standard selection of meals. We didn't just limit ourselves to steak frites.

Back to the original question; I'm like a lot of people here. I don't like andouille  or andouillete, tripe.... I'm not too sure about the little round pieces of bread because I've never tried them. The foie gras producers we asked, said that it was best served with good baguette. In regional food, i don't like pieds et paquets.

I'm a fussy eater. So many French people tell me my parents should have forced me (they did, it didn't work) and announce with great pride that they eat everything put in front of them. But when you ask them what they actually like, they often don't know too well and go on again about eating everything. I suppose in my mind, eating is about pleasure and if I don't like something i don't see why I should eat it and even less cook it for myself.

No-one has yet mentioned the great school cantine standard: boiled egg with spinach

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Ah Mistral, we have friends who don't like eggs or spinach. Their first lunch out at a restaurant and they ordered oeuf florentine.

Our gaffe was steack tartar. Raw egg in the middle of raw mince, how Mr Bean made me laugh, the difference we ate the meat, but I cannot eat raw egg.

We have heard of others who camped on tinned sausage and beans brought with them. Last night camping and went to a reso and ordered Cassoulet.

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"No-one has yet mentioned the great school cantine standard: boiled egg with spinach"

- oooh forgot that one, my MIL produced it at one of my first dinners chez eux. Made me want to go home instantly.

Pâté de lapin. That just stinks, and makes anyone who's eaten it stink too. Ditto soupe à l'oignon, with or without gruyère.

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It seems to me that Britsh people define themselves, to a greater extent than any others, by what they don't like or are against.

So we have the anti-hunt people, the anti-4x4 people, the workers against the management, the toffs against the oiks, the "Stop the Tories" people, the "Stop Portillo" Tories, the nimby groups against all developments of any kind near them. And now we have the LF Forum "I don't like..." people.

I like andouillette, I like smelly French cheeses, I like rillettes (with or without nipples - what's the difference?). Snails, brains, etc. what's the problem?

I hope I never become a member of an "I don't like" group. It's too narrow-minded and British - and I DON'T LIKE THAT.

Oh sod it! I'm one of them!

Patrick
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It was only meant to be good-natured, Patmobile!

A sort of self-defence reaction to the widespread and deeply-ingrained belief in France that because you're British you obviously don't know how to cook, and you have to be educated into appreciating good food, because only the French truly know the art of bien vivre.

I liked Mistral's observation about the Tikka Massala, soooooo true! 

 

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Patrick said ".....It seems to me that Britsh people define themselves, to a greater extent than any others, by what they don't like or are against"

Might be so Pat but I have never, ever known such traditionalists as the French. You might have noiticed just how many people on here have cooked for French friends or relatives and almost to a person they(we certainly have as well) have found that the French almost need to be force fed to try something not in their top 20 of edible French meals ! So imagine just how a "I don't like the food in the UK" thread would look like and how long it would go on for !! I don't like that too narrow minded and.....................too French

What's wrong with I don't like Tories, they're my favourite group

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[quote]Patrick said ".....It seems to me that Britsh people define themselves, to a greater extent than any others, by what they don't like or are against"Might be so Pat but I have never, ever known such tr...[/quote]

Well on about British food!

I don't like boiled cabbage Broccoli. Mint jelly with lamb. Leather cooked Beef. Chicken nuggets and all that 'kid menu' stuff which was the standard fare fed to my children in pubs. I confused many waiters (tresses) by ordering a standard meal and asking for a spare plate and my kids could enjoy the same as their parents!

Can't see that they have suffered!!...

Jamie Oliver and his campaign for better school meals is top in my household! It may be 30+years for my last school meal at my French school but they never were of the standard fed to the poor school kids of today.

 

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[quote]Well on about British food! I don't like boiled cabbage Broccoli. Mint jelly with lamb. Leather cooked Beef. Chicken nuggets and all that 'kid menu' stuff which was the standard fare fed to my c...[/quote]

I don't think anyone in the UK really eats boiled cabbage any more do they?!

The appalling kids' menus are unfortunately rife here too. In ordinary restaurant chains (and I'm not talking McDonald's) the offerings for children are usually of the jambon-frites/nuggets de poulet-frites variety. Even on Brittany Ferries which once aimed to pride itself on offering *proper* food to the gastronomically-challenged Brits.

I'm cheering for Jamie too. It's not just proper fresh tastes that kids need, it's high quality ingredients and no additives. Not sure many French schools can claim to offer that either.

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We eat boiled cabbage as do most members of my family. We also eat boiled sprouts. Like all cooking if things are overcooked and done to death they are revolting. I have never had a sprout in France yet that was not overcooked, but I live in hope.

In fact I believe that english cooking is the hardest thing I do. To get everything 'just right' with perfectly cooked veg means being tied to the cooker. I hate doing it, but actually love the meals I produce and am proud to give them to anyone.

 

And mint jelly, yuk, I much prefer mint sauce.

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