15 Best Normandy Recipes from Northern France
Normandy flavors range from warm country cooking to fresh coastal seafood. The exquisite dishes from the Normandy region of France include succulent apples from the Pays d’Auge, seafood straight from the English Channel, and rich, thick cream from cows grazing in beautiful green pastures. Normandy offers a myriad of fantastic dishes enjoyed by people from all over the world.
The best Normandy recipes are:
- Chicken Normandy
- Fish Stew / Marmite Dieppoise
- Meadow-salted lamb
- Tripes à la mode de Caen
- Trou Normand
- Mère Poulard omelette
- Omelette vallée d’Auge
- Crêpes Mylene
- Teurgoule
- Joue de bœuf
- Sole à la Normande
- Moules à la crème Normande
- Coquilles Saint-Jacques
- Tarte Normande
- Brasillé
If you are interested in these delicious Normandy recipes, keep reading! This article will discuss several of the best Normandy recipes of all time!
1. Normandy Chicken Dish
This delightful dish, which the French call Poulet à la Normande, is the perfect meal for a fall weeknight. Normandy, a region in northern France, is renowned for its apples, butter, and cheese, and these ingredients are often incorporated into its dishes.
This dish celebrates Normandy’s apple harvest and is a melt-in-your-mouth braised chicken (any cut of chicken you prefer) with onion, cream, apples, and apple brandy.
2. Normandy Fish Stew / Marmite Dieppoise
Marmite Dieppoise is a beautiful dish of fish, crème fraiche, cider, butter, mollusks, and crustaceans. It is a creamy, fishy broth served in various coastal village restaurants in Normandy. Even though this is a very popular Normandy dish, it originated in a seaside town called Dieppe in France.
3. Meadow-Salted Lamb
Meadow-salted lamb, or Salt Meadow™ Lamb, is an exceptionally tender, well-marbled, and very red meat which has a much finer taste than the lamb we know and love. This meat is so different because the lambs are raised in La Mancha. This lamb, which is only available at D’Artagnan, is delicate like a regular lamb, but the seagrass and iodine give it a different, more mature taste and tender texture.
4. Tripes à la Mode de Caen
Not many people can stomach a cow’s stomach. However, this French version of Scot’s Haggis contains not only the stomach but the bones, hooves, and until 1995 a section of the large intestine, which the French now ban. Tripe is simmered together with garlic, peppercorns, root vegetables, a glass of Calvados, and one bottle of cider, in a tripière for fifteen minutes.
5. Trou Normand
This is a Normandy custom served either as a dessert or between meals as a palate cleanser. The recipe involves pouring Calvados liqueur, a digestif that awakens your appetite, over tangy apple sorbet in a small glass. You can also drink Trou Normande as a shot after eating seafood to help prevent indigestion.
6. Mère Poulard Omelette
Famous for its irresistibly fluffy texture, the Mère Poulard omelet remains a guarded secret. Experts believe that the yolk and egg whites are separated and individually whipped before being combined. Then, butter and cream are added to the whipped egg mixture, and finally, the batter is shuffled in a copper skillet over high heat.
7. Omelette Vallée d’Auge
This traditional French recipe from Normandy is a different version of regular omelets. The recipe includes cream, butter, apples, sugar, eggs, and Calvados and is much sweeter than a regular omelet. Omelette Vallee D’Auge is made with apples that are peeled, cubed, and caramelized in sugar and butter.
Then, the cream is added to the apples and mixed through. Next, you whip the eggs, mix them with powdered sugar, and finally cook them in butter. For an elegant finish, apple slices are used to garnish the omelet, the edges get folded over, and for a final touch, icing sugar is sprinkled generously on top.
8. Crêpes Mylene
This traditional French dish from Normandy is made with butter, salt, sugar, lemon juice, eggs, milk, and flour. Peach slices are placed into each crepe and finally get rolled and coated with a delicious warm sauce made of almonds, orange juice, poached pears, sugar, butter, lemon juice, and plum brandy.
Finally, the remaining plum brandy is poured over the crepes, flambeed, and topped with toasted slivered almonds as a garnish.
9. Teurgoule
Teurgoule is “the mother of all rice puddings!” It is made with cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, full-fat Normandy milk, sugar, and rice. It is cooked very slowly in an earthenware dish, in a wood-fired bread oven, over a low temperature until a crust layer is formed on the surface of the pudding. It is traditionally served with local cider and fallue brioche.
10. Joue de Bœuf
This classic Normandy recipe is the ultimate comfort food! Joue de Bœuf is made with beef cheek cooked with onions, carrots, cider, apples, seasoning, and spices. Even though this dish can take more than two days to prepare, the result is deliciously tender and worth it.
11. Sole à la Normande
This traditional French dish from Normandy combines shallots, onions, cider, pepper, salt, parsley, and sole filets. The sole filets are seasoned, rolled, and finally put into buttered dishes with the shallot and onion mixture, where they will be poached for +/- 20 minutes.
Then, a rich sauce is prepared with egg yolks, lemon juice, flour, butter, and cream and poured over the fish once plated. Lastly, the Sole à la Normande dish is garnished with button mushrooms, shrimp, oysters, mussels, fried bread cubes, and truffle slices (optional).
12. Moules à la Crème Normande
Originating from Normandy, this traditional French dish consists of mussels in a very creamy sauce. The sauce is made with shallots, onions, cream, parsley, pepper, cider, salt, and butter.
The mussels are cooked in cider with pepper until they open. Once cooked, the mussels are removed from the pot and set aside. The cider and pepper liquid are reduced and finally mixed into the cream. Finally, the mussels get tossed in the sauce and served with bread or fries.
13. Coquilles Saint-Jacques
Normandy hosts scallop festivals in the fall, and this is the time of year this dish is usually prepared and enjoyed. Traditionally, Coquilles Saint-Jacques is served as an appetizer or the first course; Coquilles Saint-Jacques is baked scallops (large flat scallops native to Normandy) with creamy sauce and topped with breadcrumbs.
14. Tarte Normande
This recipe celebrates Normandy’s finest ingredients, including its apple brandy, apples, and dairy. It is a Normandy-favorite tart with apples (thinly sliced with a dash of Calvados), buttery shortcrust pastry filled with creamy custard.
15. Brasillé
France is renowned for its incredible pastries, and a brasillé is definitely part of this category. This Normandy recipe is a buttery pastry from the French word “brasier,” which means embers or hot coals. It’s often eaten for breakfast in Normandy.
The reason behind the name is in the method the pastry is prepared, cooked in an oven over hot coals. Brasillé is sometimes filled with chocolate or fruit, then you brush it with beaten eggs, sprinkle sugar over it, and bake it in the oven. Délicieux!
La fin!
Normandy cuisine is a delicious celebration of the region’s rich history and abundant resources. With its emphasis on fresh ingredients and traditional cooking techniques, Normandy’s dishes are both hearty and flavorful. From its famous cider and cheeses to its hearty stews and casseroles, the cuisine of Normandy offers something for everyone.
So why not take a culinary journey to Normandy today and experience the best of this rich and delicious cuisine? Bon appétit!
