The French-English dictionary doesn't always have the answer

It took me a long time to find the equivalent of my favorite products from home in France.

Today I'm going to talk about Crème Fraîche.

 

Yum.  But it's not the same kind of cream that you have in the supermarkets in the United States.
And it's definitely not like whipping cream (liquid cream that you can literally whip into cream, right?).

So, what is crème frâiche?
Well, ever hear people talk about the great sauces in French cooking?  A lot of that comes from yummy ingredients combined with crème frâiche.  Crèms fraîche is a mix between heavy cream and sour cream.  It has a slightly tart taste to it, but not as tart as sour cream.  It's not as sweet as heavy cream.  Come to think of it, it's kind of close to half and half.

It comes whole or light (about 20%).  You can get the liquid kind, or the solid-ish kind.  Both are good for sauces.  Here's an example of a recipe with crème fraîche.

Chicken with a mustard-cream sauce for two.
You'll need,
- 2 chicken breasts - cut into tiny squares (or as close as you can get to that).
- 2 tablespoons mustard - without seeds in it
- one small container of crème fraîche (or entière; it's the same thing, as least for me it is)
- 1/4 cup of white wine
- an onion chopped into small pieces
- a dash of herbes de provence

Ok, so cook the chicken in a little butter (salted is better), and add while cooking a dash of herbe de provence.  Add onions.  Once cooked, take the chicken out.  Try to keep as much onions in as possible.  Add white wine to the pan.  Stir in cream.  Add mustard.  Taste.  Add more mustard or cream depending on how you like your sauce.  Once all mixed together, add the chicken, heat it all up, and serve (with rice or pasta).

This is Lindsay, kind of hungry, signing out.