A series of Provencal French Recipes and Cooking Information
Provencal recipes are a part of the French recipes and are used all over the country. In fact these recipes are made and appreciated in Lille, Brest and other places!
As a starter an awesome and hilarious video of :
One of the Provencal Recipes: Steamed Mussels in a White Wine Sauce
hosted by Chef Jean-Pierre.
(Please click on the Play Button above and be patient, the video may take a minute to load. It is hosted on youtube.com)
Enjoy the French Recipes from the Riviera in this Introduction Guide!
MMMMM---- Here are some Authentic Provencal Recipes for Every Cook!
As a French I could not miss to talk in this website about our cooking, "Cuisine"; how we call it here.
The French Riviera has a lot to offer on this particular topic. I love cooking, I love to eat and I am a true amateur of wines!!!
Like a lot of French, let’s use the proper word, I am an epicurean. Yes, I do.
My wife who is not French enjoy it too! She doesn’t like all our cooking but most of it, you can’t like it all! Everyone has different tastes, isn’t it?
This introduction Guide of Provencal French Recipes display my favourites. I keep here the recipes as simple as possible, mixing them from bread to "herbes de Provence"!
This guide also delves into a unique French regional cuisine. We work hard, life is often thought, meals MUST be THE moments to enjoy life with family and friends.
Easy to say but not easy to do, personally I always try to be available at lunch time and dinner with my family and share. Not always easy once again with our busy life but It Must be one of your priorities on your daily busy schedule...
My family and I we travel a lot and even having different background and culture we are open to any kind of food.
France is known worldwide for its food but this is not the only place where good food can be found.
I believe that French food is so famous because there is a culture going with it: "apéritif " (pre-dinner drink or pre-lunch drink!), long meals, sophisticated combinations of food, wines and so on.
Like in any country, in France each area has its own recipes and the food is very different from place to place. There are La Bouillabaisse from Marseille (You can t miss it!), La Choucroute from Alsace or Le Cassoulet from Castelnaudary and many more dishes.
But the Provencal cooking is very distinctive from the rest of "Cuisine Française" or French cooking.
As example, I would love if I had time to write a website on this delicious Indonesian Cuisine that I discovered thanks to my wife and her family. Maybe one day...
Let’s go back to our Provencal Cuisine now, known and appreciated all over the world!
This cuisine has a Mediterranean influence which brings recipes with hot spices and seafood. Because of the mountainous country, without the rich farmlands and herds of dairy cattle, Provencal cooking uses very little milk, and goat cheeses are predominant.
Garlic, olive oil and olives are the leitmotif, and the abundant "herbes de Provence" are the spirit of Provencal Recipes.
In this guide we talk about Provencal French Recipes. Why?
This is the reason you are reading this page, isn’t it?
The site is about: the French Riviera, its Cuisine has a large part in it.
This is also my area and about our typical food I should also write a site dedicated to it considering how it is important to us and me!
Why do I use the term Provencal French Recipes instead of French Riviera Recipes or Mediterranean Recipes?
In fact for the Recipes it doesn’t work as it does for the geographic borders. The cooking is linked with the history of the area.
The recipes from the South of France comprise a large area from Marseille to the Italian border including far inland.
The term used in French is the same than in English: "Cuisine Provençale", "Recettes Provençales" or Provencal Cooking, Provencal French Recipes.
The term Provencal is used generically to refer to the entire South-eastern French gastronomy.
Cooking schools in the South of France teach cooks about Provencal cooking more than other truly regional cooking.
Regarding regional cooking there is only one which has its own name in the area: "La Cuisine Niçoise" or cooking from Nice which is typical to this town and slightly different from Provencal cooking.
It has Italian roots as Nice has been an Italian town until the 18th century .
This cooking has definitely a huge stamp of the cooking from the South of Italy: La Liguria. All Provencal French Recipes from Nice have the name or adjective of the town in its name as: Salade Niçoise, Raviolis Niçoise, Daube Niçoise or Raviolis Niçois. All Niçois(e-s)" dishes !!!
Others cities or towns have Provencal French Recipes with their name on them as: Calissons d’Aix (so nice not Nice!), Tarte Tropézienne or Rouille Marseillaise; but Nice is the only city having its own regional cooking with dozens of recipes.
Mediterranean Recipes will not be correct too as it refers to Cuisine and recipes from the countries surrounding the Mediterranean as Morocco, Italy, Spain, Greece and others.
Today some dishes from these countries are commonly cooked here and also served in restaurants on the French Riviera.
They are now integrated in our Cuisine as Osso Bucco from Italy, Tabouli: a Middle Eastern Salad, Couscous and Tagine from North Africa, Paella from Spain and others.
These dishes are very common here, but the good thing is: we kept our Provencal Cuisine even if other flavours came to us.
This particular Cuisine: La Cuisine Provençale has in it tastes and flavours coming also from these countries as we use often similar ingredients.
Provencal cooking is a mix of spices, herbs, vegetables, fruits, fish, and meat with a lot of sun in it. All ingredients have to be FRESH; this is one of the secrets...
This cooking evokes images of sun-drenched fields, fragrant lavender, and rustic villages.
Provencal French Recipes vary from sophisticated lamb dish to simple "Pan Bagnat" sandwich and from heavy dish to healthy choice; there are also seasonal dishes.
A good Daube Niçoise or Nice Stew is more appreciated during winter than in summer.
As you can see this Cuisine suits also different tastes and needs.Sauces, desserts, starters, main courses, bread, cakes jams and much more make the Cuisine Provençale.
Provencal dishes for great picnics, brunch lunch, dinner - experiment with different combinations to create a meal with exciting flavours.
It doesn’t matter where you come from; in any country to make a good "Cuisine" is all about: love, passion, fresh ingredients (always!) and time (depending on the dish!) .
Start to create your own cookbook of Provencal French Recipes with this guide.
Be also creative in your recipes by adding your personal touch adapting for what is in your garden, market at the time and your tastes. ...
A recipe is merely words on paper; a guideline, a starting point from which to improvise.
It cannot pretend to replace the practiced hand and telling glance of a watchful cook.
For that reason feel free to stir your own ideas into your dishes.
When you cook it once, it becomes yours, so personalize it a bit.
Add more of an ingredient you like or less of something you don't like. Try substituting one ingredient for another.
Remember words have no flavour; you have to add your own!
This is the reason you are reading this page, isn’t it?
