Olive Oil, the Staple Food of French Cuisine

Olive oil has the strongest aroma of all oils - it's slightly fruity but rather the smell one its own is easily recognizable and dominating. Olive oil is a part of the "French Paradox" making many French meals healthy in spite of high overall fat content. It is perfect for any salad, vegetable dish, and fish. The best olive oil is made of almost-ripe olives using the cold pressing technique, which excludes any chemical treatment. The first outcome of the pressing process is the highest-grade "extra virgin" oil, least sour and most fruity. It contains no more than 1% acids. Every next pressing gives more acid oils. However, it's not the best for frying

The lower-grade olive oil, with just "olive oil" on the label, is better for frying because it has a higher smoke point than extra virgin olive oil.

The Simplest Tip on the French Way of Eating

The typical French meal is heavy in fats. Many French recipes call for heavy cream and butter. In spite of this, there's reduced risk of cardiac disease and obesity in France compared with the U.S.



It is now thought that the consumption of red wines leading to reduction in cholesterol levels are at least partly responsible for this paradox. Indeed, practically all French meals are accompanied by wine. The French learn the art and science of properly combining different wines with different foods.



The simplest wine tip is probably this: red wine goes with meats, white wines goes with fish.

French Crepes Tips

Everybody loves French crepes. You can cook French crepes in any basic frying pan. The basic pancake cooking instruction is simple:

Sift the flour, mix well with salt. In a large bowl, make a hill out of the mix. Make a well in the flour hill, and pour in eggs. Then gradually stir in milk and melted butter. Mix well and bake! The ingredients and their proportions are vast and varied.

Chocolate, fresh fruits, ice-cream, whipped cream are the common fillings (or toppings) and their the varieties are endless. Crepes are usually folded two times or rolled as tortillas after the toppings are applied.

Storing Olive Oil

A changed smell or taste of olive oil may mean that the oil was not stored properly, for example, in a container made with reactive metal. Plastic containers can also react with olive oil so some of the plastic penetrates the oil. To avoid spoiling the oil, keep it in tightly sealed glass containers, in dark places, at room temperature or in the refrigerator.

Beef Burgundy Stew

Here's how you cook one of the most comon French meat dishes.

Take:

1 lb. boneless beef, cubed
3 Tbsp. flour
6 slicesb bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1.5 cups yellow onion wedges
1.5 cups sliced carrots
12 small mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup Burgundy
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup Steak Sauce
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

Cook:

1. Pat the flour into meat until it doesn't show pink juices over the flour any more.

2. Grill the bacon in oven until crisp. Reserving drippings, set bacon aside to drain.

3. In a frying pan, brown the meat in bacon drippings, add the bacon, onion, carrots, mushrooms, garlic, wine, and water.

4. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender. Stir in the rest ingredients and heat through.