by Tom Stobart
[Cotton-seed oil – French: huile de graine de cotton German: Baumwollöl Italian: olio di cotone Spanish: aceite de algodón]
COURGETTE. See marrow.
COURT-BOUILLON. Any previously prepared liquid in which something is to be boiled or poached, is called a court-bouillon. lts purpose is to improve the flavour, aromatize or perfume, even improve the colour of the ingredient. Fish and shellfish are the items most often cooked in a court-bouillon, which is salted and acidified with lemon juice, white wine or vinegar, and aromatized with onion, garlic, carrot, herbs (such as parsley, thyme and bay) and spices (such as peppercorns and coriander). Cooks soon arrive at their own formulae, and there is a lot of national prejudice. (For instance, Danes insist on sugar in the water when they cook lobsters.)
Meats and vegetables are less often cooked in court-bouillon for an obvious reason. A court-bouillon is prepared in advance by boiling the flavouring ingredients before the food is put in to cook. This is necessary with fish, and shell fish, as they spend only a short time in the cooking liquid. But with meats and vegetables, which take longer to cook, the flavouring materials can usually be boiled while the food is cooking. Court-bouillon is very easily over flavoured in a fit of enthusiasm; it can swamp, instead of enhance, natural flavours, and be quite unsuitable for use in a sauce. When the food is to be cooked in the liquid and marinated (as in pickled fish), one is dealing with a different dimension.
COUS-COUS is a dish of Berber origin and a staple of North African Mediterranean countries – Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. Now adopted in France it is traditional also in Sicily, as an Arab introduction long ago. The dish consists of a stew, spiced with red pepper and usually made of mutton with vegetables and chick peas, over which, in a perforated bowl, is cooked a special type of semolina preparation which in Europe is referred to as cous-cous. Cous-cous may also be turned into a sweet dish – a versatile product. In the Sicilian version, the basis for the stew is fish.
Cous-cous can be bought in packets, ready to be cooked and with instructions and recipes on the packet. It is on sale everywhere in France and there are ‘instant’ forms of cous-cous for non-cooks to play with. There are many ways of making the basic material, which the Italians regard as a form of pasta, as minute gnocchi – gnocchettini di semola, in fact. You need a 50:50 mixture of coarse and fine semolina, preferably from hard wheat, but it can be made from one grade of hard semolina.
The simplest way is to have ready a basin of water, a shallow dish of the semolina and a clean cloth spread on the table. Touch the palm of the right hand into the water to wet it slightly, then lay it on the semolina mixture so that some of it sticks to the palm and rub one palm against the other, finishing with a circular movement to roughly round the grains. Then let the grains fall on the cloth. Naturally the touch must be light or the grains will become dough. The fine particles of semolina are of course necessary to make the coarser ones stick together. The final operation is to sieve out any surplus flour or fine bits, and then to let the cous-cous dry. In Sicily, where it is called cùscusu, it is made using water with saffron – as is appropriate with a fish dish – and the mixture of fine and coarse semolina is rubbed on a special dish known as a mafaradda. A spoonful of the saffron water is put into the dish to wet it, and a handful of the semolina mixture put on top and then rubbed gently into a granular form with the fingers. It is essentially the same process, but for beginners the hand system is probably easier. There are other forms of cous-cous made by using a little mutton fat as a binder instead of water. To cook, cous-cous is first moistened by sprinkling with a little water and mixing gently to allow the grains to swell. Then when the ‘stew’, over which the cous-cous pan fits, is about an hour from being ready, the cous-cous is put into the steaming pan sprinkled with a little more water, and put to steam. There is no lid to a cous-cousière, and the cous-cous is not covered. A tip, which was given to me, is to pack the junction of the steamer and the pan below with a damp rag so that no steam can escape.
COUVE TRONCHUDA. See cabbage.
COWBERRY. See cranberry.
COWPEA, cow-gram, yard-long bean and asparagus bean. We are dealing here with three beans of the genus Vigna which may be regarded as different species or as varieties of the same species. From our point of view, it is easier to consider them as different species. The genus Vigna is mostly tropical and forty or fifty species are known of which only three or four are cultivated.
The name cowpea originated in the US; the earlier English name of cavalance was first used in the West Indies. The cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is much used in India, where it has been cultivated since ancient times, although its original home may have been Africa, where wild varieties of the plant can still be found. The pods are about the thickness of a pencil and up to 30 cm (12 in) long, but often less. They hang downwards on the plant. The young pods are used in curries or are boiled as a vegetable, some varieties being better than others for this purpose. The seed of the ripe bean, which may be coloured anything from maroon to red, blue, brown, black, pink or white, plain or speckled according to variety, is used whole, split as dal or even ground to a flour. Although, in India, the cowpea is generally considered inferior to green *mung or *black gram, it can grow in dry areas and so is an important food, not only in India (as lobya), but also in Africa and parts of tropical America.
Cowpeas, particularly varieties with a black area around the hilum (the attachment to the pod), are known in northern states of the US as black-eyed peas and in Britain as black-eyed beans. In the southern states of the US, they may be known as southern peas or simply as peas. In that case, garden peas are called English peas to distinguish them. Black-eyed peas figure in Creole dishes, but are also a generally useful and, because of the health food vogue, a widely available pulse.
Catjang bean (Vigna catjang) is less often grown. It is included in case someone should be puzzled to see what looks like a cowpea but with pods about half the length and standing upright on the plant instead of drooping. Catjang beans have otherwise the same uses.
Yard-long bean, asparagus bean, or Chinese bean (Vigna sesquipedalis) has pods which grow very long and thin – up to 1 m (39 in) – hence its name. As you might guess, such long beans droop on the plant. The taste of the young pods is delicate, hence the alternative name asparagus bean, and the young beans are soft and flabby. This characteristic has been made use of in a dish called lambchi and boonchi (boonchi being the local name for these beans in the Dutch West Indies), which is described fully by Elisabeth Lambert-Ortiz in her excellent Caribbean Cooking (André Deutsch). In this dish, the long flabby beans are wound spirally round skewers of lamb (which have been previously marinated in spices) and the whole brochette is grilled over charcoal. Vigna beans do not grow further north than latitude 40°N (i.e. the southern half of the Mediterranean), even in a warm summer.
COWSLIP. A common primula (Primula veris) of the fields, its yellow flowers once covered the pastures in Britain, but now no more, as there is so little permanent pasture. The flowers were once candied or made into wine. Like primroses, which are a close relation, their flowers can make a pretty yet edible addition to salads and puddings. They ought not to be picked indiscriminately as they are now so scarce.
[Cowslip – French: primevère commune, fleur de coucou German: Primel, Schlüsselblume Italian: primaverina Spanish: vellorita]
CRAB. A decapod crustacean related to lobsters, crayfish and shrimps, but distinguished from them by the large flattened body and small tail, which is kept tucked underneath, serving as a flap to hold the eggs but not much else. Even in swimming, the crab’s propulsion is by the back legs, which are modified into paddles, and not by the tail. The internal anatomy of crabs is basically similar to that of lobsters, but crabs are more highly evolved creatures. Their nerve cord (which as in all crustaceans is situated underneath) is concentrated in two centres and not (as in lobsters) diffuse. Thus, it is claimed that crabs can be killed humanely by piercing through the she
ll from underneath with a pin or bodkin to destroy the cerebral ganglion (which lies just under the shell between the base of the eyes and the mouth) and the thoracic ganglion (which lies just under the shell in the mid-line and opposite the base of the front legs). For the operation, the crab must be laid on its back. It is doubtful whether the job can be done efficiently without some practice.
The RSPCA method, (described more fully in the section on lobsters) is to put the animal into cold salted water and gradually raise the temperature to boiling. The creature gradually loses consciousness. The time taken to cook a crab depends on its size, of course, but there is great difference between the recommendations of various authors. This suggests that, within reason, it is not very critical. French experts, for instance, may advocate a short cooking time and allow the crabs to cool in the cooking liquid. Crabs are plunged into boiling court-bouillon and cooked (after being brought back to a gentle boil) for the following times: 10 minutes for 300-500 g (up to about 1 lb); 12 minutes for up to 600 g (a bit under 1½ lb); 18 minutes for 700-800 g (1½%-1¾ lb); 25-30 minutes for 900g to 1 kg (about 2 lb); 30-35 minutes for 1.5-2 kg (3½-4½ lb).These times apply to all large crustaceans, including lobsters and langoustes, cooled in the court-bouillon.
At the opposite end of the scale, American methods may call for the immediate cooling of cooked crabs in cold water, and in that case they must be cooked for somewhat longer. If crabs are killed by the RSPCA method, and raised to boiling point from cold brine, then 15 minutes for the first 450 g (1 lb) and 10 minutes for each additional 450 g (1 lb) is recommended; the crabs are taken out and allowed to cool in the larder.
The legs and claws of a cooked crab can be twisted off and cracked, and the meat pulled or poked out. One must make sure that no bits of shell or internal septum are left in the meat. The job is fussy, and small legs are best sucked at table. The body is opened along the suture at the back, and usually the two halves can be simply forced apart by thumb pressure with the crab laid on its back. Some types of crab may need a strong knife point and some leverage. Pressure on the mouth parts will snap them inwards, and the whole of the stomach and intestine – parts to be discarded – can then be lifted out still attached and in one piece. The only other parts to be discarded are the gills – called devil’s fingers or dead man’s fingers. In spite of their name, these are harmless, but would be impossibly chewy and indigestible if you tried to eat them. The meat in the bases of the legs can be got at most simply by breaking the lower part of the crab in two down the middle line, and then digging the meat out with a marrow scoop or other implement.
Crabs may, or course, be bought ready-boiled, and indeed that is the way they usually come nowadays, but where possible it is still better to buy a live crab and cook it yourself.
In choosing a live crab, pick one that is active and not already half dead. Look for one that is heavy for its size, and then shake it. Do not buy it if there is any suspicion of water swishing about, as this means the crab has recently moulted; it will be watery and out of condition. In buying cooked crabs, you naturally buy only those that smell fresh and avoid ones in which the joints have become flaccid or floppy. A crab of decent size should yield just under half its weight of meat (about 40% in a good one). lf crabs are to be served in the shell, then the shells should be well cleaned, scrubbed (some even boil them in water with washing soda) and then rubbed with a little fat or oil to make them shine. The edges may need to be trimmed. When small crabs are served whole, as they often are in France for an hors d’oeuvre, finger bowls are essential.
An enormous number of different species of crab are eaten around the world. They range from the tiny pea crabs which live inside oyster shells to gigantic Alaskan king crabs weighing 10 kg (22 lb) and with legs spanning up to 3½ m (11 ft). Crabs are found in both icy and tropical seas. In North Queensland, I once subsisted for several days on Horlicks Malted Milk tablets and the Giant Mud crabs, a diet which is not recommended. However, they are very nutritious, and I do not know of any crabs that are poisonous to eat when they are fresh and in good health. Many species are now eaten which were formerly despised in days when there were fewer people, less over-fishing and more seafood at reasonable prices. When I was on a trawler north of the Shetlands in 1935, octopus, cuttlefish and spider crabs that came up in the trawl were simply thrown back, and the Aberdeen fisher-men laughed when I said they were good eating.
In Britain, the crab most often eaten is the Common Edible crab (Cancer pagurus), a large, smooth-shelled, clean-looking creature, with pinkish brown colouring and exceedingly powerful pincers. It lives on rocky coasts, and a big one can be dangerous. The first reaction of a crab when disturbed is to close up, but very soon its response changes to attack. (Fishermen in the part of Wales where I lived as a child used to quieten crabs by spitting in their faces.) Never hold a crab where it can reach you with its claws, which it is best to tie up. Crabs are cannibals and will eat each other, so do not put two together. The spider crab (Mala squinado), a popular delicacy around Venice and elsewhere in the Mediterranean, is fished off the south coast of England and exported live to Spain, although it is also beginning to be accepted in Britain as well.
In France (but not in Britain), the Swimming crab (Macropipus puber), the étrille, is commonly eaten. This is found both in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, where there are five other related smaller species. These crabs (of which there are many other species) are 5-10 cm (2-4 in) across the shell and never grow very big.
The little Shore crabs (Carcinus maenas) are also found in the Mediterranean. In spring and autumn, when they moult, they have a particular gastronomic importance in Venice (where they abound in the lagoons on the Adriatic coast) and are known as moleche ‘soft-shells’ in America. In one method, moleche ripiene (stuffed), small soft-shell crabs are put alive into beaten egg and left there for a couple of hours, by which time they will be dead and have absorbed some of the egg (which is why they are called stuffed), after which they are floured and fried. In Italy, soft-shelled crabs are traditionally eaten with polenta or a salad of finely-sliced leeks. Another method is to drown them in milk, and some even claim that they taste best when raw. Traditionally, small crabs are hung up, tied in strings far enough apart to keep them out of claw range of each other. Shore crabs, being closely related to land crabs, will stay alive out of water for long periods (several weeks) in a cool damp place.
In Mediterranean countries particularly, many other small crabs are eaten. They give an excellent taste to fish soup. The hairy ériphie (Eriphia verrucosa) is perhaps the most treasured crab on the Côte d’Azur because of its exquisite flavour. A Mediterranean curiosity which visitors may wonder at sometimes in Spanish markets is the Box-crab (Calappa granulata), a handsome pink crab about the size and shape of a clenched fist, with red spots, which is striking because the claws are designed to fit snugly over the face, and it can box itself in (becoming like a ball) for protection.When the claws are apart, it looks out with a peculiarly bulldog expression and once seen, is never forgotten. Box or no box, it is eaten.
North American crabs are far from being the same as those in Europe. The most important of all and comprising nearly three-quarters of the total crab catch in America, is the Blue crab (Callinectes sapidus), which is confined to the East Coast, going as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. The Blue crab is characterized by its colour and by the shape, which might be described as pointed sideways. Even the claws are rather pointed. Blue crabs weigh 150-450 g (5 oz to 1 lb), much smaller than the Common crab of Britain. In normal times, they may be known as Eastern hard-shells, but at the moult they become soft-shells or ‘softies’, although at various stages they may be ‘busters’ or ‘shedders’, – when the old shell is loose but not yet shed, later ‘peelers’ and ‘paper shell’, the latter being the state when the new shell has just begun to harden. Epicures consider that ‘busters’ are the finest. Soft-shell crabs packed in ice and seaweed can live long enough in good condition to be air-
freighted to any part of the US, but they are famous as an Atlantic Coast delicacy. Unlike the Italian moleche, the soft-shelled Blue crab must be cleaned before cooking. The front of the crab, enough to include eyes, mouthparts and the stomach (sandbag) which lie behind them, is snipped off with scissors. Then the tail (apron) is removed and the points on either side are lifted up and the spongy material underneath is discarded. Some also remove the gut before cooking. There are recipes for soft-shelled crabs in every American cookery book. The Red crab, which belongs to another genus (Geryon quinquedens) is exploited off the East Coast of the US. In UK waters, there are apparently stocks of it at 500-600 m (1666-2000 ft) depth off Rockall.
On the Pacific coast of the US, the Dungeness crab (Cancer magister) looks rather like the Common crab of Britain, but its colour is greenish and its claws are not so massive. It ranges from Alaska to Mexico, and is an excellent crab. State laws prohibit its use as a soft-shell. The meat of the Dungeness crab is slightly pink, in contrast to that of the Rock crabs from both the Atlantic (Cancer irroratus) and the Pacific (C. autennarius and magister) which is brownish. Rock crabs are eaten locally as soft-shells. There are also many local North American crabs which are highly valued where they occur. the Jonah crabs (Cancer borealis) of New England, the Stone crabs (Menippe mercenaria) of Florida, and the minute Oyster or Pea crabs (of the Pinnotheridae family) of New England. The last live in oyster shells for protection, but nevertheless get stewed in cream and flavoured with Madeira to be eaten whole as a local delicacy. The Alaskan King crab or taraba gani (Paralithodes camtschatica), which ranges across the Pacific to Japanese and Russian waters, is a monster deep-water Spider crab with a huge claw-span. Its meat is of excellent quality, and it is much used as canned or frozen crab meat, often being processed on factory ships within a very short time of catching.