French

If you like chicken liver mousse, you'll definitely want to try this recipe, which uses a completely different method than most. Puréeing the chicken livers and then baking them in a hot water bath results in an extremely tender spread.

In this easy dish, a little bit of almondy custard dresses up fresh fruit, making it special for company while preserving its pure goodness.

Crêpes au cidre
These are not the thin, delicate crêpes you may be used to. Made with baking powder, they are rustic-style: heartier and a little thicker — and perfectly suited to soaking up plenty of sweet syrup. Hard cider (fermented apple cider) can be found in the beer section of most supermarkets.

This savory tart hails from France and features cottage cheese, sour cream, bacon slices, onion, and freshly grated Parmesan. You've never know by looking at it, but it's actually very easy to make and ready in under an hour. 

Magret duck breasts come from Moulard ducks; you can also use smaller Muscovy duck breasts. Both are available at some supermarkets or at dartagnan.com.

Light and fluffy, these impressive desserts look, smell, and taste extraordinary — meringue gives them a cloudlike texture, while quince adds a delicious fragrance and beautiful pink hue. And they're very manageable for a small dinner party if you make your crêpes and prepare the quince ahead (see cooks' note, below). Bring them both to room temperature when you sit down to dinner; when it's time for dessert, you'll only need to beat your egg whites and assemble the soufflés for baking.

Crème anglaise is both a classic custard sauce and the base for many ice creams. Make a double batch and process half in an ice cream maker for a frozen treat.

Originally introduced in our pages as "an ancient Provençal way of dressing up little green peas," this soup may not qualify as a true bouillabaisse (there is no seafood in sight), but it is comfort in a bowl. And since it uses frozen rather than fresh peas, it can be made at any time of year.

As its name implies, this dish was once thought to be worthy of a blue ribbon. Over the years, however, in its overly meaty interpretation at numerous hotel restaurants and wedding receptions, it lost some of its original delicacy. Here, we make the veal and the layers of cheese and ham much thinner, which results in a truly refined version that's not too heavy — and that's equally suitable for dinner parties and simple family suppers.

This bistro classic is enriched by rounds of smoky, spicy sausage. All you need is a leafy salad and a glass of red wine. The French green lentils that we prefer are prized for their finesse; they also hold their shape better than some other varieties and are less starchy.

A boneless center-cut pork loin is incredibly versatile. Infused with the deep sweetness of prunes, it takes on the rich, robust flavors of southwestern France.

Galette des Rois
You can bake this cake to celebrate Epiphany, as they've done in parts of France since the Middle Ages, and bury a trinket (called a fève, after the fava bean that was originally used) in its filling. Whoever finds it will be king or queen for the day. Serving a dessert this buttery, flaky, and downright delicious, however, doesn't require a holiday (or a hidden surprise).

We've run at least a dozen different recipes for steak au poivre since our first one, in 1953 — and there's a reason why, even after we started adorning meat with chiles, salts, and dry rubs, we continue to return to this dish. Why? Because it's so darn good. And despite its somewhat macho image, this particular preparation tastes practically tony. (We found it a good excuse to use fine-quality peppercorns, such as Tellicherry or the smoky, meaty Talamanca del Caribe.)

The garlicky sauce in this dish is almost as delicious as the escargots themselves; it's hard to think of a better use for crusty bread than sopping up this luxurious "snail butter." But the main event is the escargots' tender texture and clean, woodsy flavor. When we ran this recipe in 1949, it took a full day's work, most of it cleaning and prepping the fresh snails. We found that canned snails work just as well and turn this appetizer into one that can be whipped up anytime.

These are the most elegant fried potatoes in the world. Don't expect the crunchy snap of a french fry but, instead, a soft, light crispness concealing an ethereally fluffy interior. There are various stories as to who or what "Lorette" is — but the number of French potato recipes named in honor of people and places illustrates how beloved and nuanced each dish is.

This traditional recipe calls for pork confit, which you'll need to prepare at least two weeks before making the cassoulet. The confit adds undeniable richness and authenticity, but a simpler recipe (using country-style spareribs instead) appears in "Top Trends: The Hot Ten" in the January 2006 issue of Bon Appétit.