by Tom Stobart
[Cherry – French: cerise German: Kirsche Italian: ciliegia Spanish: cereza]
CHERRYSTONE. American hard-shell *clam.
CHERVIL (Anthriscus cerefolium) is a feathery umbelliferous herb with a delicate taste that is somewhere between parsley and anise. It came originally from the Balkans and the Middle East. In Britain, where it was probably introduced by the Romans, it is widely naturalized. It has also been introduced into North America and New Zealand. Although it is not often available in markets outside France, it can easily be grown in any garden or window box where conditions are not too hot and dry. It is a standard component of fines herbes, for example in omelettes, as well as being a classic ingredient of Ravigote sauce. The Belgians use it as a major ingredient in soups. However it is used, though, it should not be boiled as this will destroy its flavour, it is normally added to hot dishes just before serving.
[Chervil – French: cerfeuil German: Kerbel Italian: cerfoglio Spanish: perifollo]
CHESTNUT, sweet chestnut or Spanish chestnut. There are some ten species of chestnut. The sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) has been cultivated in southern Europe for several thousand years. Today, there are hundreds of varieties propagated by grafting. They are particularly grown in France (around the Massif Central), Italy, Spain and Portugal, and are very important in the regional cooking of such places as Corsica (where, alas, property developments are ousting the chestnut plantations). In more northerly countries, like Britain (where chestnuts were probably introduced by – inevitably – the Romans), the crop is uncertain and quality nuts are not produced. In North America, there are good local varieties of sweet chestnut, although the nuts are not so generally familiar as in Europe. They were introduced by the early colonists, who also used the indigenous American chestnut (C. dentata), which has an excellent nut but has now almost been wiped out by a blight. It is often replaced by the Japanese chestnut, C. crenata, which has a large but inferior nut. There are other sweet chestnuts, all edible, and some are of excellent quality.
Sweet chestnuts are borne on a fine tree and formed inside very prickly capsules which split open when ripe to release the nuts. In this, they are similar to the unrelated horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), an ornamental tree with inedible nuts (though in extremis, these may be made edible by grinding and washing in many changes of water to leach out the astringent substances, leaving a flour which can be dried and roasted). According to the locality, chestnuts start to ripen from September onwards, but there are early, late and mid-season varieties. Chestnuts are sugary and starchy, but contain little oil. Many varieties are distinctly astringent, especially when freshly gathered, and they are rarely eaten raw. In the great chestnut forests, such as those of the Apennines, the semi-wild trees produce the small rounded castagne used for feeding animals or for drying and grinding into flour. These normally have three nuts to a capsule. The more expensive eating varieties, the marroni, are produced from grafted trees which bear nuts that are much larger, usually only one to a capsule, and often square. Although there is some variation in flavour and sweetness, the consideration of greatest practical importance to the cook is whether or not the chestnuts are easy to peel, which here means removing the brown inner skin of the nut, not the outside husk. In some small or wild nuts, the inner skin may be folded into the meat, which makes skinning almost impossible. Even with a good variety, you may have difficulty unless the correct methods are employed.
Peeling Chestnuts
Cut each chestnut through the outer husk along the convex face. Then a) bake them for 7-8 minutes on the tray at the bottom of the oven, moistening them with a few spoons of water, or b) put them in a pan of cold water, bring to the boil and boil for 1 minute, or c) throw the chestnuts into boiling water and boil them for 5 minutes. With any of these methods it is easy to peel off the outer husk of the chestnut.
Now, to remove the brown inner skin. Put the husked chestnuts into cold water with a little cooking oil and bring them to the boil. Then turn down the heat to the lowest possible. When the skins start to come off, take out a few at a time (they must be peeled hot) and rub them with a cloth, while holding the chestnut with another cloth to avoid burning your fingers. Since there are some very stubborn varieties, an alternative method is to put the husked chestnuts into a frying pan and fry them in a little sweet oil or butter until the skins become crisp. They can then easily be rubbed off.
When buying whole nuts, examine them carefully for spoilage from insects or fungus. As it is not easy to tell from the outside, try to cut a few open. Carry a penknife when buying them in quantity. Really fresh nuts are firm and feel solid. Nuts which give when pressed have been dried out somewhat, but may be excellent and even sweeter from the storage.
In Britain, chestnuts are mostly eaten roasted in the husk or used for stuffing the Christmas turkey. Roasting may be done in a hot oven, but the flavour is much better if they are roasted very quickly and ‘shown the fire’. In France and Italy, one can buy special pans (like a frying pan with large holes in the bottom) for roasting chestnuts over the flames. (These pans have been used in Britain since Tudor times, and imported ones are available from specialist shops.) Every child knows that the husk must be pierced before roasting or the nut will explode. Some people advocate boiling the nuts before roasting, which makes them soft but does not give the best flavour. Roasted chestnuts are probably nicest eaten by the fireside – with a little salt handy but if sent to table they must be hot, and it is correct to serve them in a napkin.
Although British recipes for chestnuts are normally limited to chestnut stuffing, chestnuts with Brussels sprouts, and perhaps a chestnut pudding, recipes abound in other countries, where in the past these nuts were a winter staple, taking the place of potatoes. Even forms of bread and polenta were made from them (although chestnuts, like maize, are unsuitable for making proper bread, as they contain insufficient glutinous substances for binding).The everyday peasant recipes would often have been no more than rustic porridges.
Among the more sophisticated chestnut-based dishes, France offers soups like potage de marrons dauphinois, soufflé aux marrons et potiron (chestnut and pumpkin soufflé), and purées of chestnuts to be eaten with mutton and pork or game like boar, hare and venison. There are also various chestnut gateaux, and the world-famous marrons glacés, as well as the Lucullan marrons au kirsch (poached in a thick syrup and flavoured with kirsch).The chestnuts which are canned either in syrup or as purée come from the Ardèche region, which is the main source of chestnuts in France. In Italy, we have the delectable monte blanco (cooked chestnuts riced into a mountain and given an alpine look with fine sugar and avalanches of beaten cream) and the various forms of castagnaccio (a blend of chestnut, sultanas and pine nuts, which may be flavoured with fennel, rosemary or vanilla according to locality). More modern dishes include the dolce di castagne, the semifreddo di castagne and the budino di castagne al savoiardi. The Austrians have their Nesselrode pudding, a chestnut ice. Any of these rich chestnut dishes would put a delicious but firm stop to any meal. In Spain, you might eat castañas con mantequilla (with butter), con jaraba (in syrup) and helado de castañas (ice cream). Similarly, there are many chestnut dishes from the Balkans, Greece and further east. They are often flavoured with anise.
Dried chestnuts are commonly on sale in all Mediterranean countries. As secchielli, they may be bought from Italian grocers. Chestnut flour is also available, and the best quality contains little of the red skin. Commercially-made chestnut jams and spreads are all hideously suitable for children. Canned chestnut purée is useful and available in many countries.
Castañas con mantequilla
Peel 1 kg (2 lb) chestnuts. Put them with a stick of celery, 25 g (1 oz) butter and a pinch each of salt and sugar in a saucepan with hot water barely to cover. Put the lid on and simmer without stirring for about 40 minutes. Remove the stick of celery, drain and add another 25 g (1 oz) butter. Reheat and serve very hot.
Castagne all’ubriaco
A simple Italian peasant dish (literally ‘drunk chestnuts’) for the fireside. Roast chestnuts, preferably in a chestnut roaster (see above) and peel them. Put them in a dish by the fire, cover them with a clean cloth soaked in red wine, and leave them for half an hour to absorb the wine flavour, keeping them hot. You can eat these drunken wine-flavoured chestnuts as they are or cover them with honey and again serve hot.
Minestra di castagne secche
Wash and then soak 300 g (11 oz) dried chestnuts for 24 hours, and then boil them in water for 2-3 hours. Add 300 g (11 oz) rice, and, when it is half cooked, 1 lt (1¾ pt) milk and 50 g (2 oz) butter, salt to taste. The soup should be creamy.
Castagnaccio
Pour boiling water over 100 g (4 oz) sultanas and leave them until they are cool enough to take out with the fingers. Put them to dry. Sieve 450 g (1 lb) chestnut flour with a good pinch of salt, and add water, mixing to a soft paste. Pour into a well-oiled baking tray. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon fennel seed, 50 g (2 oz) pine nuts and the sultanas. Dribble a little olive oil on top and bake in the oven until a crust is formed. Eat hot or cold.
[Chestnut – French: marron, châtaigne German: Edelkastanie Italian: castagna, marrone Spanish: castaña, marrona]
CHICKEN. The original domestication of the chicken probably took place in South East Asia. Among its many breeds was the great Cochin China fowl, of enormous size and ungainly form, which took England by storm in the middle of the last century.
It was in such demand that, according to a contemporary, people paid huge sums of money for a bird, and talked almost about nothing else. Indeed, the prices paid would have bought three or four good cows or a reasonable flock of sheep.
If you go into the jungles of the Sundarbans, at the mouth of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers, you will hear the hens clucking and the cocks crowing from the treetops at dawn every morning. The jungle fowl there are small birds, almost bantam size, but there is little doubt that these are pretty much what the first chickens must have looked like. From some such ancestors are descended our modern hens, the White Leghorn, Light Sussex, New Hampshire and Rhode Island Red – poor, egg-laying machines of the modern world – and the heavy, quick-maturing table birds, like White Cornish and White Rock, which have been computer-selected to gain the most weight on the least food in the shortest time. lt is these that have done for us what Henry IV of France (1553–1610) failed to do – to put a chicken in every Frenchman’s Sunday pot.
Anything outside mass production will be more difficult to get and more expensive. It will also probably taste better. Top restaurants in France still insist on a Bresse or Le Mans, and a bird with black or white feet, but never yellow. If choosing a bird in a market, where you are probably not allowed to handle it, look at the legs. If they are coarse, scaly and battered, the bird is old. Then look for bruises. Those inflicted during life showing as dark red marks. In European markets, be careful that the butcher does not chop up your chicken into pieces before you can tell him not to. The British, who expect chickens with white fat, are often surprised to find that the chickens sold elsewhere, for instance in France and the US, often have yellow fat, and are none the worse for it. The size of bird depends more on breed and feeding than on age.
Poussin, baby chicken or broiler (US). 4-6 weeks old. 350-600 g (¾-1¼ lb). Usually grilled. Very tender but with little taste.
Coquelet (French).Very young cock. Around 1 kg (2 lb).
Poulet or spring chicken. 1-2 kg (2-4½ lb).
Poularde or fat fowl. 1.5-2 kg (3¼-4½ lb) plus.
Poule or boiling fowl. 2 kg (4½ lb) plus. Often with much fat. Can be roasted if less than 8 months old. Fowl over a year old cannot be roasted, but have to be boiled. Real barnyard fowl may be expensive, but full of flavour.
Coq, cock or cockerel. 1.5-2 kg (3¼-4½ lb). Not as good eating as hens and usually killed at 6 months.
Chapon or capon. A castrated cock, or one in which the administration of female hormones has had a similar effect. Capons are very large, 2.5-3.5 kg (6-7¾ lb), and can approach the size of a small turkey.
Some idea of a chicken’s anatomy is a help when cutting it up or boning it. Points to notice are that the foot is cut off below (and not through) the joint to prevent the drumstick contracting during cooking. The tips of the wings are usually removed, and they join the bones for stock.
There are many ways of cutting up a chicken for cooking. The usual way is to cut off both legs, not through the joint as in carving, but by breaking and cutting off the strip of back which contains the oyster and leaving it attached to the leg. The oyster muscle, after all, is a part of the leg’s musculature. Then cut off each wing with a diagonal cut made from the centre of the wish-bone, so that a good piece of breast goes with each wing. Finally, cut away what is left of the breast on either side from the carcase. This gives five portions of more or less equal size and leaves the back and trimmings to go into the stockpot, or to be used in any other way to add flavour, although there is little meat on the bones.
A quicker and easier method, which is often used in French restaurants, is to cut off both legs, being careful to scoop out the oyster still attached as part of the leg, before severing the joint as in carving. Then find the shoulder joint, hold the wing against the body to present the joint and cut through the tip of the joint. If you find the right spot, you do not have to cut through anything harder than cartilage. Sever the tendons around it with the knife point, put your fingers inside (there is a pocket in which to put it) and rip backwards. This pulls off the wing and outer breast in one piece. After doing this on both sides, cut the back of the breastbone free from the ribs and grasp the breastbone. Pull it forwards to break it free and pull away together with the wishbone, which should then be removed, as it is somewhat unsightly. This gives five pieces, two legs as before, two side breasts with wing attached and a double fillet of inner breast attached to the breastbone.
Boning a chicken requires a modicum of patience and practice, but is a skill worth learning. The easiest way is to cut through the skin right down the back and to dissect the meat away on each side, cutting through the joints as you come to them. When all of the body bones are free, the bones of legs and wings can be removed with little difficulty, first freeing the joint and then scraping down the bone while holding the joint and gradually drawing out the bone. When you reach the knee joint, that must in turn be freed and the next bone drawn out; the leg meat will all turn inside out in the process. Finally when you reach the end point, it is easiest to snip off the rest with a pair of scissors. You take only the first bone out of the wing, as boning the whole lot would demand more skill and patience than the results would justify. When the boned chicken is laid flat, meat side up, the stuffing can be put on top and the chicken rolled up around it and sewn with needle and thread into something which usually looks like a cross between a chicken and a sausage but when cooked can be cut into elegant slices.
The alternative method is to start from the rear with the back and gradually free and roll back the skin and meat, treating the legs and wings as already described. To do this you need a thin, sharp knife, and a bit more patience. The finished product looks a little more like a chicken.
[Chicken – French: poulet German: Huhn Italian: polio Spanish: gallina, polio]
CHICKLING VETCH. See lath.
CHICK PEA, channa, Egyptian bean, garbanzo, or ram’s-head pea. Chick peas (Cicer arietinum) are one of the most important legumes. They are sometimes eaten green but mostly dried as a pulse. The plant is indigenous to the Levant and the Near East, where it has been cultivated since antiquity. Later, chick peas, which are exceedingly nutritious, were the food of the Arab armies in their conquest of North Africa and Spain. As they will not stand frost, growing them is confined to the belt stretching eastwards from the Mediterranean countries, through Rumania, southern Russia and the Middle East, extending to India and onwards. Nowadays, they are also grown extensively in the Americas, South Africa and Austral
ia. The plants are a striking grey-green colour and stand about 40 cm (18 in) high. The pods are short, fat and hairy, containing two or three large seeds. They are sticky and secrete so much oxalic acid that walking through the crop can spoil your shoes. In the countries where they grow and the seeds are frequently eaten green, the pulling must be done with gloves to protect the hands from the acid.
Legend has it that the plant was cursed by the Virgin Mary because it refused to hide the Holy Family when they were pursued by Herod’s soldiers. The name ‘ram’s-head pea’ or ‘ram’s-head chiche’ comes from the fact that seeds of the larger varieties, when seen from the side, suggest a ram’s head with large curly horns. Other, smaller varieties have round seeds not much bigger than a pea. Though usually creamy or biscuit-coloured, they can also be pale green, brown or even black. Chick peas are especially important in Arab cooking and hence in Spanish cooking and in the countries of Spanish America. They are an essential part of many poorman’s ‘stews’ with meat and vegetables – in couscous, for instance. Then there is that famous Arab purée of chick peas called homous, which usually contains *tahina (and sometimes yoghurt), and is used as a ‘dip’ for bread. Further East, in India, a smaller chick pea is grown called *channa.