French Cooking Tricks That Will Simplify Dinner

Sarah McColl
·Editor in Chief
Updated

"French women don’t fuss," says Wini Moranville, author of The Bonne Femme Cookbook: Simple, Splendid Food that French Women Cook Every Day—happy news indeed for anyone who has ever admired the French flair for cooking as much as their easy way with scarves and stripes. “Bonne femme” means “good wife,” but it’s also an expression used to describe the fresh, simple, economical food cooked every day in French homes by men and women alike. After more than 20 years of extended stays in France in every part of the country from Paris to coastal towns in the South, Moranville has gleaned cooking lessons of economy, simplicity and ease that are every bit as applicable stateside as in a French kitchen. (As for scarves and stripes, we’ll let you know when we decode that sexy-gamine Amelie thing.)


Embrace the Best Shortcuts 
"You don’t have to cook everything from scratch," says Moranville. French women rely on convenience foods just like many of us. The difference? They seek out the best of the bunch. Wherever you call home, Moranville suggests seeking out the foods of local artisans to round out what you’re cooking. “Here in Iowa there’s this great bread baker who’ll sell his pizza crust. Unless you really want to knead dough, why would you make it yourself?” At the store, upgrade to the best quality options you can afford. A high-quality chicken broth will result in a more delicious dinner. 

Memorize this Weeknight Mantra: Sauté, Deglaze, Serve 
"Sure, French chefs can take days to make a great classic sauce, but the everyday French cookdoes not.” After you sauté the night’s meat or fish, deglaze the pan by adding a little wine and broth and scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan (they’ll infuse the sauce with flavor). From there, the variations are endless. Some ideas:

  • Pork: capers, mustard, and herbes de provence

  • Chicken: red grapes and balsamic vinegar; lemon and garlic

  • Beef: brandy and mustard

  • Lamb: olives and garlic

  • Fish: herbs and vinegar

Buy Good Ingredients and Get Out of the Way 
"It’s a rule of thumb for good cooks the world over, but the French, too, adhere to the idea that if you have great ingredients, you don’t have to mess with them a lot to make them shine." Plus, there’s money to be saved. "[The French will] buy what’s local and in-season so that they’re paying for the product, not the petrol." 

Be Flexible When You Shop 
Instead of heading to the market with a rigid shopping list, go with an open mind. “Look for the best deal of the day. Whatever is looking great—at a great price—makes its way to the table. You buy it, then figure out what to do with it—and usually, you cook it quite simply.” Should your ingredients need a little supplementing, the next trick will come in handy… 

Keep Your Pantry Stocked 
The French love to stock up on low-priced larder basics like grains at their hyper-markets as much as we do. Be sure to also keep these easy flavor-boosters on hand to elevate the simplest preparations.

  • Wine: “I can’t believe how often the French cook with wine. It doesn’t have to be a great wine, but it should be a good-enough wine. Get an $8 bottle of drinkable Pinot Grigio or Chardonnay and keep it on hand.” Bonus: kitchen happy hour for the cook.

  • Dijon Mustard: Add to vinaigrettes and sauces, of course, but dijon mustard can also serve as a sauce for a pork chop or grilled steak in a pinch.

  • Shallots:”I’ve never seen a French kitchen that doesn’t have a small basket of shallots in it.” Shallots add a mellow onion-garlic flavor to sauces and salads.

  • Butter:”The French use butter often, but they don’t plunk whole bricks of it in everything they make.” A little of butter’s rich flavor goes a long way, whether you’re sautéing or finishing a sauce.

  • Parsley: This herb is used often in French cooking to add a fresh green note to any dish.

Keep a Trick Up Your Sleeve 
"Whenever I don’t know what I’m going to cook that night, I just start chopping up some persillade." Don’t be thrown by the name. Persillade is simply a mixture of minced garlic and parsley. Throw it onto to grilled fish and meats, potatoes, green beans, rice and noodles. Add persillade in the final moments of cooking—30 seconds will allow its flavors to bloom. 

Use Everything 
One underrated aspect of kitchen frugality is using up every bit of what we buy and prepare. “Nothing ever goes to waste in France. Little bits of this and that will be thrown into a soup or salad. That last sip of wine in a bottle will be added to a sauce.” On this summer’s trip to France, Moranville was a served a green salad studded with cooked eggplant, sweet peppers, and onions. It was leftover ratatouille thrown in at the last second. “They added so much to the salad—except extra work or cost.”