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A year in a French market: Cèpe-tacular
By Ann | October 8, 2009
When it comes to French vocabulary, there are two areas that I don’t think I’ll ever master: 1) fish and/or seafood names, and 2) mushrooms.
French fish names remain exceedingly slippery, especially if one (ahem, me) is not that familiar with fish terms in English. For example:
Cod is cabillaud, except when it’s salted, when it’s morue.
Sea bass is bar, except in the south of France, where it’s called loup de mer.
Shrimp can come disguised as so many words: There is the widely acknowledged crevette. But also boucaud (tiny shrimp of one to two inches), gamba (we call them jumbo shrimp), or the eternally amusing bouquet (three to four inches), which will be forever burned into my memory, thanks to my dining humiliation, er, experience of a few weeks ago. (Read about it here.)
See what I mean?
Mushrooms are even more difficult. For one thing, have you ever noticed that we Anglophones tend to stick to non-English (furren) words when discussing mushrooms? Shiitake. Enoki. Portabella.
In French, white, or button, mushrooms are called champignon. Then again, all mushrooms are champignons.
Chanterelle are called girolle in French. Which is funny, because I thought “chanterelle” was French.
Morel (another word I thought was French) — morille.
And porcini? They’re known as cèpes (photo above).
I finally figured out enough fungi phraseology to purchase some cèpes at the market last week. They weren’t cheap — the two small specimens above cost 4€ — but they were delicious, with a distinct perfume, earthy and rich. I bet they’d be good in an omelette, or sauteed with a bit of butter and parsley. But I used them in a potato gratin, layering thin slices of potato with slivers of cèpe, drizzling with olive oil and baking in a 400ºF oven for about 25-30 minutes.
I have to admit, the result was cèpe-tacular.
Potatoes and cèpes
Serves four
1lb potatoes (Charlotte or Yukon gold)
3-4 fresh cèpe or porcini mushrooms
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt
1/4 cup water
Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Peel the potatoes and slice them thinly, about 1/4-inch thick. Clean the mushrooms (I admit it — I washed them with water, gasp!) and slice them very thinly. Drizzle a baking dish with olive oil. Arrange half the potato slices in and even layer. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and a small sprinkle of salt. Place the cèpe slices on top. Drizzle with olive oil (1 tablespoon or so). Finish with final layer of potato slices, season, and drizzle with remaining olive oil. Gently add the water to the pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the potatoes are golden.
By the way, I’m keen to learn some more mushroom vocabulary, in both English and French, so leave your favorites in a comment below!
Topics: A year in a French market: Autumn |
8 Responses to “A year in a French market: Cèpe-tacular”
Comments
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October 9th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
One of life’s real joys is going mushroom hunting on a damp afternoon in the French countryside. A few years ago I went with my friend Didier and his relatives in the rolling hills of Aveyron. In a persistent drizzle we trolled through copse and clearing filling our straw baskets with what I think were girolles — tons of them. When we got back to Didier’s place, he whipped up the best omelette I’ve ever tasted — just eggs and girolles. That potato dish you describe above looks soooo delicious!
October 12th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
It’s funny, for fish, I kinda basically know what the fish are in French, but have no idea of the equivalents for most in English! Bizarre.
That dish *does* look divine on a chilly night!
October 13th, 2009 at 1:29 am
Whatever you call them, they’re delicious - sauteed with a bit of garlic or just drizzled raw with olive oil or minced into a duxelles for stuffing or whatever … and that gorgeous potato dish of yours … or omelets … how nice to be living where there is a real mushroom season. Enjoy!
October 13th, 2009 at 8:37 am
All the most delicious French foods involve fungus. Think about it.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Chris — Wow, that mushroom hunt and subsequent omelette sound fantastic! We’ll have to get Didier to take us mushroom hunting again one day.
Kim B. — Well, at least you know fish in one language… And the one you live in.
Dad — Now that you mention it, I suppose I’ve never really lived in a mushroom region before. What kind of climate is that — cold and damp? Btw, I bet this dish could be made with dried porcini, too. And you’d also avoid little white worms like the ones I found crawling in my second batch of cèpes last week. They were, ahem, quite off-putting.
Devorah — Why, yes. C’est vrai. Right down to the last preserved scrap of head cheese. Miam!
October 19th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Yum- that looks sooo good!
October 20th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Hey, sorry I’ve been absent for a while. The only mushroom vocab I can think of to add to your list would be “pleurote,” which translates, I believe, to “oyster mushroom.”
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Claire — It WAS really good! I made it twice!
Camille — Great addition! I’ve always wondered what pleurote were…