French bistro-style cooking makes an easy transition from restaurant to home kitchen—with a few shortcuts. For example, while traditional French cuisine often relies heavily on long-cooking stocks, you can save time by replacing them with low-salt canned broth. And while traditional French sauces are usually strained, I skip that step here to keep the cooking time to a minimum. For great flavor, these recipes all use simple ingredients like fresh butter, shallots, fresh herbs, garlic, and wine, which are staples of French cuisine and readily available in local markets.