Sea scallops, Brittany style — dusted with flour, tenderly sauteed in butter and drizzled with a creamy sauce — make a fine winter’s dish. But what does this recipe have to do with the Way of Saint James, the historic pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain? Quite a lot, as it turns out, for the saint known as ‘Santiago’ in Spanish is ‘Saint Jacques’ in French, and along the route he gave his name to the humble scallop.
Saint-Jacques à la bretonne / Sea scallops, Brittany style
The reason — as I learned from the great chef Paul Bocuse, from whose recipe this one is adapted — is that scallops are so plentiful along the route to Santiago de Compostela, which follows the coast of Galicia in northern Spain, that they became the symbol of the pilgrims, hence coquilles Saint-Jacques in French.
And why Brittany style? That’s a question I failed to answer, although my best guess is that scallops and butter are popular in the region. Brittany, of course, is surrounded by sea, and shellfish may be found there in abundance. The potato also has an important history in Brittany, where it came into wide use during a famine in the mid-18th century. In this recipe, the scallops may be paired with sliced potatoes, as shown in the photo above, or with potatoes boiled in their jackets. Another nice touch is to serve them in their shells.
And while we’re on the subject of linguistics, since when has French onion soup become a political issue? France is having a collective hissy fit over spelling changes — proposed more than 25 years ago by the Académie Française, the exalted guardian of the French language — that will be enacted this autumn in school books. Among the changes, the word oignon (pronounced oh-NYON) will lose its ‘i’, becoming ognon (pronounced exactly the same way). The idea is to make the spelling conform to pronunciation, although in some parts of France, for example my corner of Burgundy, people may still be heard using the former pronunciation (wa-NYON). Other changes involve making the circumflex accent (^) disappear on words like disparaître (‘disappear’).
The debate has become so heated that, in a column in last night’s Le Monde, the French education minister effectively accused four of her predecessors in the job of treason, declaring that the country’s republican values were at stake and that the former education ministers had betrayed those values by failing to enact the spelling changes over the last quarter century. Her point was that making the language easier to spell, and thus comprehend, was essential to the future of France’s children.
Personally I find the changes regrettable, for historic reasons. Even though they will be confined to textbooks for the moment and no one will be inserting spelling changes in Proust, they are bound to seep into general usage over time. Accents like the circumflex actually take the place of letters that have vanished over the centuries. Disparaître, for example, used to be spelled disparaistre — closer to the same word in English, and to the Latin root (disparescere). But the ‘s’ stopped being pronounced in French and, at some point in the last 1,000 years or so, it … disappeared.
So will this site change its recipes to conform to the new rules? Heck no. Soupe à l’oignon will remain French onion soup for the foreseeable.
Happy cooking.
It is always a comfort, on a cold, damp Paris day, to walk into a bistro at lunchtime and encounter a plate of céléri rémoulade, the classic French starter of grated celeriac bathed in a tangy mustard mayonnaise. This earthy salad is one of the dishes I longed for when far from France for long periods on journalistic assignments. You won’t find it in Moscow or Manila, nor for that matter in many of the trendy new cafés sprouting up in Paris. But what it may lack in chic it makes up for in flavor. A good reason to make it at home.
Celeriac remoulade can be served on its own as a starter, set on a bed of tender leaves or garnished with fresh herbs. But here in France it is most commonly seen as part of the mixed veggie starter known as 
And speaking of eggs, while preparing this week’s post I took time to revisit another of my favorite classic French starters — 
The French colonial empire once stretched across the globe, with the happy result — once independence was restored to the colonized — that the cuisine of many cultures is now available in France. Poulet yassa, or chicken marinated in a sauce of onions, lemon juice and mustard, is one such happy dish. Originally from the Casamance region of southern Senegal, it is now highly popular throughout former French West Africa, and also in Paris.
Back to Paris… Cold weather has finally set in, prompting me to revisit some of the winter dishes already posted here, with new photos. The first, 
The second is a 
When winter comes to France, it’s time for raclette. This immensely popular dish of potatoes smothered in melted cheese, accompanied by cured meat and pickles, has come down from the Alps to become a favorite nationwide. It evokes memories of ski slopes, where of a snowy evening you could gather with friends to enjoy a restaurant meal of raclette, with a half-wheel of cheese brought to your table and melted under an electric grill.
On the eve of the end-of-year holidays, here is a recipe that is renowned in France for its excess-fighting qualities. Ah oui, mes amis — once the festivities are over, it’s time to take action to counteract the effects of all the wonderful holiday dishes, sweets and drinks we may have indulged in. Rustic cabbage soup is the antidote. In fact, it is an open secret among French women and men who want to start the new year in their best form.
Walnuts and roquefort marry well, as they say. The combination turns up often in salads and as an after-dinner treat, perhaps with some pear slices alongside. In this savory cake, traditionally served in France at cocktail hour, the sharpness of the roquefort is offset every so slightly by the sweetness of the walnuts and the mild flavor of olive oil. It makes a festive offering for guests as we enter both the holiday season and the darkest days of the year.
