121 French Market Menu Ideas for your Apples

Apples from our tree at the house in the country and my current favorite apple pie, recipe below.

In addition to the yield from our apple tree this year, neighbors came bearing baskets full of apples. Time to take out my country notes and get the creative juices flowing. Forthwith one hundred and twenty one ideas from French market menus, followed by my current favorite apple pie recipe. We've got guests coming this weekend. Lets roll up our sleeves and get to peeling apples!

Field rabbit sausage served with apples
Shortbread in the style of Brittany with sautéed apples and caramel cream
Poultry liver and apple terrine
An apple pastilla seasoned with Armagnac
Duck foie gras with tart cider vinegar apple chutney
A ginger-seasoned apple turnover served with shaved manzana verde ice and honey jelly
Pont-l’évêque cheese presented with yellow apples and pepper seasoned cider caramel
The apple croustillant with Calvados
Apple tart served with pain d’épice (a spice bread specialty from the north) flavored ice cream
Deep dish apple tourte served warm
Apple bettelman (a traditional Alsacian bread pudding)
French grandmother-style apple caramel cake
Pan seared foie gras with an apple and sweet potato chutney
The apple croustade, a Gascon tart made with many layers of thin pastry
Honey roasted duckling with apples in the style of Brittany
A scallop salad seasoned with apples and Guillevic cider
Flat oysters and roasted green apples served in a fish broth
A composed dessert of frozen green apple parfait, lemon jelly, Manzana apple liqueur over shaved ice, featuring a slice of caramelized apple
Apple pastis (see croustade above!)
Caramelized apples paired with creamed chestnuts and served in a chocolate shell
A simple thin caramelized apple tart
The caramelized apple douillon (a specialty of the Normandy region- stuffed fruit enveloped in pastry), served with a Calvados sauce
A vanilla seasoned apple mille-feuille
The duck foie gras terrine with a spoon of lightly spiced apple chutney
Tatin style roasted apples (or a crustless tarte Tatin, if you will)
A deep dish apple, prune, and Armagnac pie
Thin apple tart with cinnamon ice cream and caramel sauce
Duck breast served with roasted apples
Pigeon in a dried porchini crust with garlic and green apple seasoned pan drippings
The hazelnut and caramelized apple financier with green apple sorbet
A hot apple and ginger tart
An apple prune crumble with Armagnac and pain d'épice ice cream
Caramelized apple charlotte
Foie gras in puff pastry with apples
A flambéed apple tart
An apple and pear tarte Tatin
Shortbread cookies in the style of Brittany presented with a layer of butter simmered apples
An apple and pear crisp
Blood sausage with apples
A roasted slice of avocado served with green apple & whisper of wasabi ice cream
Apple marguerite (pudding baked in a decorative mould) topped with cinnamon seasoned puff pastry
Baked apples presented in a pyramid with calvados sauce
Apple nougat glacé
Pain d’épice tartined with a foie gras and green apple chutney topping
Apple fondant with Cavados caramel sauce
Apple and berry crumble
Lobster seasoned with sherry and cocoa, served with an apple raisin "afterthought"
Simple warm brioche with caramelized apples
Rice pudding with an apple and pear marmalade
A apple cake served flambéed
A salad garnished with slices of warm veal sausage, golden apples and a Gascony mustard sauce
A foie gras terrine with apples and cinnamon
Scallops with celery juice and green apples
Almond croquant with Tatin-style baked apples
Slow cooked apple with pralines and farm milk ice cream
The thin hot apple tart with caramel curd
Pommeau seasoned foie gras, served with an apple compote
Blood sausage and apple Tatin, served with crique, an Ardeche style grated potato cake
Pan seared foie gras, seasoned with Granny Smith apples and hibiscus
Apple stuffed brioche perdu with maple syrup
The apple and blood sausage in puff pastry with a chive speckled beurre blanc sauce
Gâteau lyonnais with apples and pralines
Calvados flambeed apple chaud-froid
The green apple spring rolls
Apple meringue pie
An apple verrine presented with berries
An apple strudel served with cinnamon ice cream
Duck breast with apples and pine honey
A sweet tarte flambée (Alsacian specialty) with thick cream, apples, and Calvados
Apple and pear mille-feuille with salted butter caramel
An apricot and caramelized apple tart with light almond cream
Thin bacon wrapped langoustines on a bed of grated green apples
An apple duo served with with honeyed drizzled foie gras
Buckwheat blinis served with warm apples
Tarte fine aux pommes
Apple and Mascarpone kouign-amann bathed in Calvados
Thick wedges of toasted pain d’épice served with pots of apple and orange marmalade
Foie gras in puff pastry with Granny Smith apples
Golden apple tart topped with caramel cream, sprinkled with fleur de sel de Guerlande
A mille-feuille layered with pan tossed apples, drizzled with salted butter caramel sauce
A carpaccio of fresh chevre sprinkled with walnuts and grated apples
Cider simmered pollock presented with pan softened apples
Roasted apple rum-raisin brioche
Apple streussel
Warm apple and raisin spring rolls served with caramel ice cream
Wild sea bass fricasee with cider and acidulated apples
Apple tiramisu with Calvados and pain d’épice
Kouign-amann wedge on a bed of caramelized apples
Coconut and apple mille-feuille with saffronned sauce
An apple and orange tarte
Apple caramel mousse
Duck breast with apples and honey
Foie gras terrine with apple jelly
Millassou, a cake specialty of the Landes region cooked old style with rum and roasted apples
A pear and apple clafoutis
Reinette apple shortbread
Lambic caramelized apples served with a cider sabayon
Crispy duck breast served with thyme seasoned caramelized apples
Haddock pastilla with apples, figs, and saffron jus
Warm oysters with lettuce sauce, and foie gras in apple jelly and peppered oil
Hot apple soufflé with Calvados
Calvados flambeed apple crepes
An apple and Camembert charlotte topped with a glaze of glistening cider jelly
John Dory with thin sliced chorizo, swiss chard, and apple jus
Strips of duck breast drizzled with reduced sour apple sauce and served with puréed sweet potatoes
Apple marinated salmon
Seared duck foie gras "exalted" by saffron seasoned sautéed apples
Sweet take on a baeckeoffe (alsacian specialty) using apples, pears, and raisins
Suckling pig with adiculated apple compote
Pan simmered quince and apples with salted butter caramel
Sesame and coriander seasoned caramelized apple served with a mini crème brûlée
Catfish fillet cooked in cider
Baked apples with raisins
A tarte Tatin served with coriander seasoned caramel sauce
An apple and almond tart
Caramelized waffles dressed with a ladle of slow cooked apples then topped with a Mascarpone ice cream
Apple pastilla with crème pâtissière
Saint-Romain blood sausage presented with its butter rich apple compote

Now. Did that give you some ideas?

Lucy's Favorite Apple Pie (pictured above)

About a pound of fresh tart cooking apples
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) brown sugar
1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the crust:
8 tablespoons (100 g) butter
1 3/4 cup (200 g)organic whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (50 g) brown sugar
1/2 - 1 teaspoon fleur de sel or sea salt (to your taste)
1 petit suisse or 2 tablespoons cream cheese
2 tablespoons virgin walnut oil

-Peel, core and cut your tart cooking apples into chunks.
-Take a generous handful of the chunks of apple and toss them in a saucepan with about a 1/4 cup of water.  Set them over medium heat to soften.
-Combine the rest of the apple chunks with 50 grams white, 50 grams brown sugar and the cinnamon in a bowl and set aside.
-Once the apples cooking in water have softened (about 5 minutes), give them a blitz with a blender to turn them into a puree.
- In a separate mixing bowl, Combine the butter and flour with your fingers in a large bowl until it resembles breadcrumbs.
-Add the sugars, and work them in.
-Finally work in the cheese and the walnut oil and press it together into a dough.
-Remove approximately 1/4 of the dough, form it into a ball, flatten it, and place it in the refrigerator.
-Press the rest of the dough with your fingers rather thickly in an even layer into the bottom of an ungreased pie tin.  Don't press it too high along the sides, just a flat layer at the bottom,a little thicker around the edges.  Pre-bake the shell at 400F/200C for 10-15 minutes, or until the dough begins to turn a golden brown. 
-Slather the bottom of the pre-baked shell with the apple puree.
-Top with the apple sugar cinnamon mix, mounding it up in a nice thick layer.
-Remove the chilling dough from the refrigerator, and roll out a circle shape about 2 inches smaller than the pie shell.  No need to get too fastidious about the shape.  Turn the thin layer of raw dough onto the center of the mound of apples.  When you bake it, it will kind of melt into the apples before hardening into a cookie crust on top.
- Cover the pie with foil, and bake in the hot oven for about 40 minutes, until the apples get nice and soft.
- Remove the foil and return it to the oven to brown and crispen on top.

The Hunt

It has gotten to be somewhat of a passion. Creeping slowly through the forest, calling softly to one another, "Look!"   "That one!"  Then I rush up and take a picture.  Some people like bird watching, some identify wild herbs, species of ferns, animal tracks and trailings, rock formations, moss species, fishes in the streams or flowers. While it all fascinates me, we've both been curiously drawn to the wild mushrooms of Autumn.

In our way and at our pace, we've been learning about them little by little. I think the best part of hunting for mushrooms is tuning your vision to find them. It takes a lot of concentration. Look right under your feet and at the same time, learn to get a feel for the conditions that different mushrooms thrive in.  You might walk along saying to yourself, "oh how pretty, the first fallen oak leaves of autumn" but when you're out looking for mushrooms, you'll see those leaves on the ground and look up to locate the tree, then go find what might be growing in fairy rings at the bottom.



Water rushes around moss covered rocks.  Birds and chattering little creatures make up a kind of murmuring melody against the water sounds. But this is still punctuated by the pop and sharp echo of rifles firing in the distance, it being hunting season.  The sound pulls us back, pushes back the temptation to believe that we are in a wonderland all to ourselves. We stick to the loggers trails and don't venture too far into communal forests, especially if we haven't checked at the Mairie to see if a group has registered to hunt that day. It is not a free for all, you know. Hunting is highly regulated here. All the same, this is the time of year when early in the morning groups of men with serious looks on their faces can be seen along the roads near the small villages holding rifles, their silhouettes stirring up images from long past, echoes of another time. I expect game hunting must be great fun. But I've never seen a smiling hunter along the road. Perhaps this comes from what they've learned about handling rifles.



We could not help ourselves and we picked a bunch of mushrooms based on a hunch that they might be good to eat.  Alas, the guide book we have warns of one mortally poisonous mushroom that mimics another perfectly delectable one that's good to eat, so what's regular amateur to do?  In the end we didn't eat them.  There were plenty of other foraged things to eat, like the chestnuts and walnuts that right now are falling from the sky. Who knows, maybe the mushrooms were edible, but you know, since we now have certain responsibilities, we don't dare. I would not say that is a complete change from the past, just an extra little nod, of thanks even, a chance to expand our souls for an instant and remind ourselves just how lucky we are.

Recipe:  Chanterelles on Toast

1 handful of Chanterelles
2 tsp to 2 tablespoons butter, depending on the size of your handful
3 sprigs of flat leafed Parsley
1 small shallot
fleur de sel or salt to taste

Chanterelles, a wild mushroom that is found in October, are plentiful in some forests. If you can't find any, definitely do not pass these up at the market when they are fresh and clean.  Inspect them carefully. Pass over any with dark patches indicating they are saturated with water, mushrooms that are smeared with mud, or have excessive dirt and grime. Seek out the mushrooms that are in tact over fragments and pieces, which are more difficult to clean.

They are best cleaned with a paring knife and a brush, (a stiff watercolor brush works well for me) carefully removing stray dirt from the gills along the bottom with the brush and paring off the base and any hopelessly muddy spots at the top. You can dampen a paper towel and wipe the tops as well if needed. Soaking or rinsing these mushrooms in water is not a good idea since the chanterelle is spongy, unlike the black trumpet, which can be cleaned by a series of rinses.  Trying to clean chanterelles with water furthermore turns whatever soil might be on them to mud that gets trapped in the gills.  Try your best to avoid using water when washing your chanterelles.

Once your mushrooms are clean, pull them apart into uniform sized strips, and sautee them until golden in hot butter that has been graced with a sprinkling of fresh minced shallots. Add the parsley during the last few seconds in the pan, and transfer them directly to toast. Enjoy while hot! You might try these with a little glass of muscatel, good music, and some friends to get your evening started.

The Quiet Man on Saint Antoine

 

When you stroll the market in the city, look for bunches of crisp tender greens attached to the Autumn roots for sale.  They are the mark of the freshest produce.  There's one man along the riverside who places things thoughtfully down on his table, as if he wants to stay in harmony with that which nature has given him. Amongst the burgeoning splendor of crops on the move at this market, this zen kind of presentation can hit you quite squarely. He does not impose strict order on his table, nor does he make his activity seem like a daily grind of repetitive stacking and selling. He does not shout, pile things up or line up splendorous rows of the same thing over and over. He does not shine his goods with colored lights or erect red umbrellas to cast a rosy glow on everything. He lets the natural beauty of what comes from his garden speak like quiet poetry on an Autumn morning. A bunch of this, a group of that, a flourish, a swirl. Some wild things, some which he's planted in rows. Fifty-fifty him and nature. No matter what the pace we choose to profit from this labor, or how we present the fruit, it will continue to grow. I find that heartening.