Knowing your asperges from your bavarois

by Nicola Shepherd

�

RESTAURANT menus littered with French culinary terms can be baffling, so here's The AnswerBank's A-Z of enjoying food French-style, helping you through from hors d'oeuvres to dessert.

�

A is for asperges - asparagus

�

B is for bavarois - a cross between a souffle and a mousse

�

C is for coulis - a thin puree of vegetables or fruit, usually sweet and thicker than a jus (see below)

�

D is for dacquoise - a meringue cake sandwiched together with cream and fruit. What we would call a Pavlova

�

E is for en papillote - cooked in a paper parcel to seal in flavour and juices

�

F is for Florentine - any dish containing spinach

�

G is for au gratin -� anything browned under the grill often with grated chesse on top

�

H is for haricots - beans to you and me, can be white( blancs) or green (verts)

�

I is for incroyable - incredible that there are no French culinary terms beginning with I

�

J is for jus�- a light sweet or savoury� thin sauce

�

K is for kibbeh - a middle eastern import of deep fried cracked wheat shells with a minced beef and onion filling

�

L is for langoustine - crayfish

�

M is for millefeuille - literally a thousand leaves is it iced flaky pastry with a cream or fruit filling

�

N is for noisettes - best end neck of lamb rolled into rounds and wrapped in bacon

�

O if for oeufs - eggs pronounced urf (singular) and euh (plural)

�

P is for parfait - anything from a savoury pate to ice cream made in different coloured layers

�

Q is for quenelles - fish or chiciken mixed with beaten egg white and shaped into little torpedoes and cooked in boiling water

�

R is for remoulade - a mayonnaise made with mustard and not to be confused with roulade that means anything rolled

�

S is for salade tiede - a warm salad

�

T is for tapenade - a rough spread made from black olives ,capers, garlic and oil and used for spreading on toasted bread or as a filling for meat parcels

�

U is for understanding - if you don't understand something on a�menu get a waiter to explain it to you

�

V is for sauce veloute - a butter (beurre), flour, stock and cream sauce with a characteristic syrupy opaque look

�

W�-�Z is for�anything not French - any terms beginning with these letters are likely to be non-French terms