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French pastes, sauces and basics recipes

19 French pastes, sauces and basics recipes, each written for this site and each saying what its method turns on.

• Aïoli, sourced from France. Garlic pounded to a cream before any oil goes near it, in a mortar rather than a bowl, with olive oil that must go in slower than usual. Egg, vegetarian.
• Béchamel, sourced from France. A white sauce whose roux is cooked for flavour but not for colour, and which is then simmered far longer than most recipes admit. vegetarian.
• Chiboust Cream, sourced from France. Pastry cream lightened with hot meringue rather than cream, folded while the custard is still warm so the two can combine at all. Egg.
• Choux Pastry, sourced from France. A paste cooked on the hob before it is cooked in the oven, which is why it rises on steam with no raising agent in it. Egg, vegetarian.
• Court-bouillon, sourced from France. A poaching liquid simmered and then COOLED before the fish goes in, which is the step that stops the skin tearing. vegan.
• Crème Pâtissière, sourced from France. A custard that must be boiled rather than coddled, because the thing that thickens it and the thing that would thin it are both in the yolks. Egg, vegetarian.
• Crêpes, sourced from France. A thin batter rested an hour so the flour swells, where the first one is always wrong and is meant to be. Egg, vegetarian.
• Duck Confit, sourced from France. Duck legs salted overnight and cooked slowly submerged in fat, then stored under it, where the salt is rinsed off before cooking. Duck.
• Ganache, sourced from France. Chocolate and cream emulsified from the middle outwards, where stirring the whole bowl at once is what splits it. vegetarian.
• Mayonnaise, sourced from France. An emulsion of egg yolk and oil where the only difficulty is the first thirty millilitres, and the cure for a split one is another yolk. Egg, vegetarian.
• Meringue, sourced from France. Whites and sugar where the only reliable test is rubbing the mixture between finger and thumb, because grittiness means it will weep. Egg, vegetarian.
• Pâte Brisée, sourced from France. Shortcrust rubbed rather than creamed, where visible pieces of butter are what you are aiming for and a smooth dough is the failure. Egg, vegetarian.
• Persillade, sourced from France. Parsley and garlic chopped together and nothing else, with no oil in it and nothing pounded. vegan.
• Pistou, sourced from France. Basil, garlic and oil with no nuts in it, and the cheese handed round at the table rather than pounded in.
• Praline, sourced from France. Caramelised nuts ground in short bursts and stopped before the oil comes out, because five seconds past that it is a paste. vegan.
• Puff Pastry, sourced from France. A block of butter folded into dough until there are hundreds of layers, where both must be the same firmness at every fold. vegetarian.
• Rémoulade, sourced from France. Mayonnaise built stiffer than usual because every single thing added to it afterwards is wet. Egg, vegetarian.
• Saucisse de Toulouse, sourced from France. A coarse pork sausage with almost nothing in it but pork, salt and pepper, coiled rather than linked. Pork.
• Tapenade, sourced from France. Olives pounded to a coarse paste rather than blitzed smooth, with the capers that give it its name kept in. Fish.

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