Friendly French food

Not ready to tackle French food? Banish your fear with these simple recipes with maximum flavours.

I DON’T care much for a cold, dry sandwich. But give me a hot sandwich dripping with béchamel and melted cheese, and toasty, buttery bits and heaven is not too far away.

Top it with poached egg and I’m there – I won’t even notice if there is no ham in the middle.

A croque madame is one of my favourite foods for a lazy Sunday brunch on the terrace. Simple and satisfying, it’s comfort food at its warmest – not the least calorific of foods but it brings happiness and that’s important on a weekend morning, no?

The difference between a croque madame and a croque monsieur is really just the egg on the sandwich for madame. Apparently, there is also a croque mademoiselle – a skinny version that chucks the ham and adds a salad.

There’s nothing to stop you from swapping the ham with sautéed mushrooms or smoked salmon ( in which case you have a croque Norwegian) either. Or making a croque nenek with a smudge of sambal ...

Using real cheese – the tasty and melty kind like emmental, gruyere or comte – makes all the difference in this sandwich. So please, no tasteles, you-can’t- even- call- itcheese cheese slices here.

French food is often maligned for its reputation for using too much butter and cheese. There are certainly famous examples:

Like Joel Robuchon’s unbelievably smooth mashed potato made in the 1: 2 ratio of cold butter to hot potato. Some even put the quantity of butter as high as 800g to a kilo of potato. Is it a wonder that this pomme puree melts in the mouth and melts the hearts of the Michelin guide inspectors to accord the chef three of the much coveted stars.

I tell you this to prep you for the onion soup recipe here. I love, love the taste of Chef Jean Michel Fraisse’s onion soup but must admit I was blown away by the amount of butter that goes into the recipe. But the chef insists. He says it is his best recipe for onion soup and I must agree – it is rich and has the deepest flavours.

In contrast, a former colleague of mine loved onion soup and took it as part of her diet regimen. By cutting down drastically on the butter, she gets a lean and still very fla-

vourful soup.

So if you are nervous about the butter, adjust it to your conscience. But if you want to know what real, traditional French food is about – and what makes this one of the world’s greatest gastronomy – make this recipe the way it is. At least once.

In the past, onion soup was even made with copious amounts of lard to give it an unbeatable flavour so using butter is an “improvement”.

According to Fraisse, the truly French way to serve onion soup is as a “dry” soup. While we often slurp soup with a slice of toast or crusty bread on the side, for onion soup, the bread is dropped into the soup and allowed to soak.

To make sure that the bread will soak up all of the soup, the slices are first dried out in the oven to make them really thirsty.

It is probably the only soup that is gratinated. After the bread is placed in the soup, grated cheese is generously sprinkled over it and the soup plate is shoved into a hot oven to melt and crisp the cheese and bread crust. This makes the soup insanely yummy.

Then there’s the French crepe, a paper- thin pancake that can be made savoury or sweet by using different toppings.

These are but just three of the French foods that are universally loved. They are foods that madame would prepare at home. They are also very easy to prepare and require very few ingredients – less than 10 – so are perfect as an introduction to cooking French food at home.

FRENCH ONION SOUP

4 servings

400g onion, peeled, halved and sliced

200g butter 1 litre chicken, beef, duck or vegetable stock

1/ 2 baguette or country bread 200g emmental, gruyere or comte cheese, grated

salt and pepper to taste Melt butter over low heat and cook onion until golden brown in colour, stirring occasionally. Add the stock and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Slice the baguette 2cm thick and bake in the oven at 150° C until