by Julia Child
Omit the final butter enrichment, and oversalt slightly. Clean off sides of pan with a rubber spatula and float a spoonful of cream on the surface. When cool, cover and refrigerate. Blend in more cream, if you wish, just before serving.
VARIATION
Velouté de Crustacés
[Cream of Shellfish Soup—for canned crab, and cooked or frozen crab or lobster meat]
Although the best shellfish soups are made, like the bisques, from fresh, raw shellfish in the shell, because every bit of the flavor goes into the soup, you can produce an excellent result with the cooked meat alone, plus either a fish stock or clam juice. This is a useful type of recipe for those times when you want something special on the spur of the moment. The technique here is almost the same as for the preceding scallop soup, but there is no court bouillon. (NOTE: this recipe works especially well with freshly cooked crab or lobster meat, as well as with the frozen meat or with canned crab. We have not found canned lobster to be at all successful.)
For about 6 cups, serving 4 people
1) Preparing and flavoring the shellfish meat
7 to 8 ounces (1 packed cup) canned crab meat, or cooked or frozen crab or lobster meat
A large sieve and bowl
2 Tb butter
An 8-inch enameled or stainless frying pan
1 Tb minced shallots or scallions
⅛ tsp tarragon
Salt and pepper
Either ¾ cup dry white wine;
Or ½ cup dry white French vermouth
Commercially canned or frozen shellfish meat is usually packed with a preservative, which should be washed off. Therefore soak the meat in cold water for several minutes (or until completely thawed). Pick it over carefully to remove all bits of tendon, particularly if you are using crab meat. Drain thoroughly. Melt butter in pan, stir in shallots or scallions, then the shellfish meat. Season with the tarragon, salt, and pepper and sauté over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes so that butter and flavorings will penetrate meat. Add wine or vermouth, boil rapidly to reduce liquid by half, and set aside.
2) The velouté soup base
½ cup very finely minced onion
4 Tb butter
A 2½- to 3-quart heavy bottomed stainless or enameled saucepan with cover
3 Tb flour
3 cups fish stock or clam juice brought to the simmer in a small saucepan
2 to 3 cups milk
Salt and pepper to taste
The shellfish meat
½ to ¾ cup heavy cream
2 egg yolks
Cook the onions slowly in the butter until tender but not browned. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, and beat in the hot liquid. Simmer partially covered for 20 minutes, thinning out as necessary with milk. Add the shellfish meat, simmer 2 to 3 minutes to blend flavors, thinning out again with milk if necessary. Correct seasoning. Pour ½ cup cream into shellfish pan, blend in the egg yolks, then about 2 cups of hot soup added by driblets. Pour back into the soup.
(*) May be prepared ahead to this point, as directed in preceding recipe.
3) Finishing the soup and serving
Follow directions in preceding recipe.
FRENCH FISH STEWS AND CHOWDERS
Bouillabaisse is not the only French fish chowder. From that same Mediterranean coast comes the bourride—thick, rich, and reeking of garlic, while from the opposite corner of France comes the marmite dieppoise, with its mussels, sole, cream, and eggs. Inland France has its own special chowders too, called matelotes, meurettes, and pauchouses, made from fresh-water fish. These are all hearty dishes with big chunks of fish, and easily suffice as the main course of an informal lunch or supper.
FISH TO USE
For this type of recipe the fish should be fairly firm-fleshed so that it will keep its shape while it cooks. Whether fresh or frozen, it must smell as fresh as a breeze from the open sea or the primeval forest. You cannot, of course, duplicate a fresh-water chowder from Burgundy with ocean fish from the New Jersey or Oregon coast, but we do not think the fish itself is all that important: it is the rest of the ingredients and the general method that give each dish its special character. Here are some suggestions for both ocean fish and fresh-water fish with their French translations or equivalents.
Ocean fish
Cod (cabillaud, morue fraîche)
Conger eel (congre, fiélas)
Cusk (brosme, rare in France)
Goosefish, monkfish (lotte de mer, baudroie)
Haddock (églefin)
Halibut (flétan, rare in France)
Ocean whitefish, wolf fish, catfish (loup anarrhique, rare in France)
Pollack, green cod, coalfish (lieu jaune is a near equivalent)
Sea bass (bar, loup)
Whiting, silver hake (merlu or colin is the European cousin; merlan is no relation but a good choice)
Various rockfish, if you are a fisherman (the American sculpin is a cousin of the Mediterranean rascasse)
Fresh-water fish
Bass and perch (perche)
Carp (carpe)
Catfish (lotte de rivière)
Eel (anguille)
Pike (brochet)
Trout (truite)
Small carplike fishes (tanche, barbeau, barbillon are typical, and frequently mentioned in French recipes)
Scallops
Though rarely used for soups and chowders in France, scallops are delicious used in any of the following recipes, alone or in combination with other fish.
PREPARING FISH FOR COOKING
Small fish (6 to 8 inches) for stews and chowders are cleaned and scaled, and left whole. Larger fish, after cleaning and scaling, are cut into slices ¾ to 1 inch thick. Very large fish are cut into thick fillets or steaks, and then into serving pieces about 3 by 4 inches in diameter. Bones and skin are usually not removed, but you may do so if you wish. As soon as you have prepared the fish, wrap and refrigerate it until you are ready to cook. Make fish stock out of scraps, heads, skin, and so forth (Volume I, page 114).
MATELOTES, MEURETTES, PAUCHOUSES
[Burgundy Fish Stew with Wine, Onions, Lardons, and Mushrooms]
You might call this dish the fisherman’s coq au vin, fish simmered in wine with onions, pork bits, and mushrooms, and the wine becomes the sauce. Even those who are not enthusiastic fish eaters usually love this recipe, and although it is supposed to be made with fresh-water fish or eels alone, we have used ocean fish like halibut, haddock, or scallops with complete success. As usual with French regional recipes, you can have endless arguments as to whether a matelote is cooked with red wine or white, or if it is only the pauchouse (spelled pôchouse by some) that simmers in white wine, and only the meurette that has lardons of pork, or vice versa, including a garnish of poached eggs and truffles for some versions. We shall not enter into the argument at all except to say that either a fish-stock or clam-juice base to the sauce is essential, or your matelote/meurette/pauchouse will lack the savor and character it must have.
If this is a main course, you may wish to add a side dish of boiled potatoes to eat with the stew, as well as plenty of French bread. Serve either a strong dry white wine or a red, preferably Burgundy, to match whichever wine cooked with the fish. A green salad or cold vegetables vinaigrette could follow the stew, and then cheese and fruit or a dessert.
For 4 to 6 people
1) The sauce base
¼ lb. (½ cup) fresh fat-and-lean pork belly or butt, or a chunk of salt pork, or bacon
A 4- to 5-quart flameproof casserole or saucepan
1 Tb pork fat or cooking oil
Either 2 cups sliced onions;
Or ½ cup sliced onions and 24 to 30 braised onions to be added at end of cooking
2 Tb flour
Cut pork into lardons 1 inch long and ¼ inch thick. If you are using salt pork or bacon, drop into 2 quarts of water, simmer 10 minutes, drain, rinse, and dry in paper towels. Cook with the pork fat or oil over moderately low heat for 4 to 5 minutes,
stirring frequently, until pork is very lightly browned. Then stir in the sliced onions, cover pan, and cook slowly for about 5 minutes until onions are tender. Raise heat and brown very lightly. Sprinkle on the flour and stir over moderately high heat to cook and brown the flour for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
2 cups either red wine such as Côtes-du-Rhône or Mountain Red; or dry white wine such as Côtes-du-Rhöne or Pinot Blanc; or 1½ cups dry white French vermouth
2 cups fish stock or clam juice
Big pinch pepper
1 imported bay leaf
2 allspice berries
½ tsp thyme
1 clove garlic, mashed
Salt (none if using clam juice)
Gradually stir in the liquids to blend smoothly with the flour. Add the herbs and garlic and bring to the simmer. Salt lightly to taste. Simmer half an hour. Liquid should be lightly thickened; thin out with a little more wine or stock if necessary. Carefully correct seasoning.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: May be cooked in advance; when cool, cover and refrigerate.
2) Optional additions—to be prepared in advance of final cooking
1 lb. fresh mushrooms, quartered and sautéed in butter
8 to 12 canapés (triangles of crustless homemade-type white bread sautéed in clarified butter)
The mushrooms may be sautéed and set aside in a covered dish; they will simmer in the sauce just before serving. Reheat the canapés in the oven for several minutes before serving.
3) Finishing the stew and serving
Either 2 to 2½ lbs. fish from the list, one or several varieties prepared as described;
Or scallops only
More stock or clam juice if needed
Twenty minutes before you wish to serve, bring the sauce base to the boil and add the fish. Pour on more liquid if necessary, so fish is just covered. Rapidly bring back to the boil and boil slowly 8 to 10 minutes (3 to 4 minutes only for scallops) until fish is done; flesh comes easily from bone, or will just flake—do not overcook.
A hot serving dish
The optional braised onions and sautéed mushrooms
Parsley sprigs or minced fresh parsley
The optional canapés
Arrange fish on hot dish, cover, and keep warm. Skim off any surface fat and rapidly boil down sauce, if necessary, to concentrate its flavor or to thicken it. Add optional braised onions and/or mushrooms and simmer for a moment to blend flavors. Carefully correct seasoning. Spoon sauce and vegetables over fish, decorate with parsley and optional canapés, and serve immediately.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: If you find you cannot serve immediately, return fish to pan after sauce has been finished and optional vegetables added. Remove from heat, and just before serving reheat to the simmer, basting fish with sauce until hot through.
MARMITE AUX FRUITS DE MER—MARMITE DIEPPOISE—CHAUDRÉE NORMANDE
[Normandy-style Fish Stew with Sole, Shellfish, and White-wine Sauce]
When you order marmite dieppoise in Dieppe on the Normandy coast or at Prunier’s in Paris, you are served an elegant combination of channel sole, turbot, red mullet, mussels, shrimps, scallops, and langoustines, those small, European, lobsterlike prawns, all steaming together in an abundant, deliciously winey-smelling, ivory-colored sauce. It will cost you quite a number of francs, since marmite dieppoise is definitely in the luxury category. This is another dish we cannot fully duplicate in America because channel soles, turbots, mullets, and langoustines do not live here, but other soles, halibuts, and lobsters do, as do shrimp, scallops, and mussels. The following recipe, therefore, is an overseas version of the original. You may serve the marmite as a first course, although we suggest it as the main attraction of the meal. You could start with a pâté or a saucisson en brioche, follow with asparagus or artichokes vinaigrette, and it would be fully in the Normandy tradition to end with an apple dessert such as the individual soufflés, or the tarte aux pommes. With the marmite itself, serve a fine white Burgundy, Graves, or Gewürtztraminer.
FISH TALK
Although you may use any of the fish listed, you will have a combination more like the original with the equivalent of a fillet of sole, two 2-inch pieces of halibut, 4 to 6 shrimp, scallops, and/or mussels, and ⅓ of a lobster per person, for the first serving, and half the amount for seconds. Whatever you have chosen, be sure each piece of fish smells absolutely fresh; pay particular attention to the shrimp if frozen, because they can overpower everything else unless of unquestionable quality. A well-flavored fish stock is essential here; if you cannot get bones and trimmings from fresh sole, buy an extra pound or so of fish.
For 6 people as a main course, 10 to 12 as a soup course
1) Preliminaries—may be done several hours in advance preparing the fish—see also preceding paragraph:
1½ lbs. skinless and boneless sole or flounder fillets
1 to 1½ lbs. scallops
1 to 1½ lbs. raw shrimp, medium size, and in the shell if possible
1 to 1½ lbs. halibut steaks 1 inch thick
Waxed paper
A bowl large enough to hold all the fish
Wash and drain all the fish. Trim sole or flounder fillets if necessary; cut in half crosswise. If scallops are large, cut into ½-inch pieces. Peel and de-vein the shrimp, reserving peel and also heads if you have whole fresh shrimp. Remove skin and bones from halibut, cut meat into pieces roughly 2 inches in diameter, and reserve bones and trimmings. Place each type of fish on waxed paper and pack into bowl in the order listed; cover and refrigerate. Refrigerate trimmings and reserve for the fish stock.
DECORATION NOTE: You may wish to save out some whole cooked shrimp, lobster claws, or mussels to decorate each serving; we leave this up to you.
optional fresh mussels:
2 quarts fresh mussels
½ cup dry white wine or dry white French vermouth
Scrub and soak the mussels, and steam them open in the wine as described in Volume I, pages 226–7. Reserve 12 pairs of shells for garnish. Place meat in a small bowl and moisten with a little of the cooking liquid; decant rest of liquid into another bowl, being sure to include no sand.
the lobsters:
You may use 8 to 12 ounces of cooked lobster meat rather than fresh lobsters; thaw if frozen, then warm in butter, wine, and seasonings, here, before adding to the marmite in the next step.
2 live lobsters, 1¼ to 1½ lbs. each
A sieve set over a 1-quart bowl or small saucepan
2 to 3 Tb olive oil or cooking oil
The marmite (a heavy-bottomed, 6- to 8-quart enameled or stainless casserole or kettle, with cover)
2 cups combined sliced white of leek and onions; or onions only
½ cup each of sliced carrots and celery
2 imported bay leaves
½ tsp thyme
8 to 10 parsley stems and/or roots (not the leaves)
Salt (none if using mussel or clam juice)
2 cups dry white wine or 1½ cups dry white French vermouth
4 Tb soft butter
3 egg yolks
⅔ cup heavy cream
Split the lobsters in half lengthwise, discard stomach sacks in head and intestinal veins, scoop green matter and roe into sieve, and chop lobster into pieces (see illustration). Film marmite with ⅛ inch of oil, heat to very hot but not smoking, and sauté lobster for 3 to 4 minutes, turning frequently until lobster shells are bright red. Remove to a side dish. Lower heat, stir vegetables and herbs into pan, and sauté 8 to 10 minutes until tender but not browned. Season lobster lightly with salt, return to marmite, add wine, cover, and simmer slowly for 20 minutes. Then lift out lobster pieces, remove the meat and reserve it in a bowl; chop shells and return to marmite. At some convenient time, add soft butter to lobster green matter and rub butter with green matter through sieve into bowl; beat in the egg yolks and cream, and set aside or refrigerate. (Rinse sieve in lobster-cooking liquid to get all the flavor possible.)
the fish stock—for 6 to 8 cups:
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Either 2 to 3 lbs. (2 or more quarts) bones, heads, trimmings, and shells from the fresh fish you are using;
Or an extra pound of fish;
Or 3 cups clam juice
Either 2 more cups dry white wine;
Or 1½ cups dry white French vermouth (half the amount of either if you are using mussel-cooking liquid)
The optional mussel-cooking liquid and/or necessary cold water
2 tsp salt (none if using mussel liquid or clam juice)
Add all ingredients to the lobster-cooking marmite, bring to simmer, skim, and simmer partially covered for 40 minutes. Strain liquid into a bowl and discard residue. Wash out marmite and return liquid to it; you should have 6 to 8 cups of deliciously flavored brew. Boil down to concentrate flavor and volume if necessary; carefully correct seasoning.
2) Final cooking and serving—about 30 minutes cooking the fish:
The fish stock in its marmite
4 Tb butter
A heavy-bottomed 3-quart enameled or stainless saucepan
⅓ cup flour (scoop cup into flour and level off with a knife)
A wooden spoon, a wire whip, a perforated skimmer, and a ladle
The bowl of prepared and refrigerated fish
The cooked lobster meat and optional mussels
More fish stock, white wine, or boiling water if needed
A large soup tureen or bowl-shaped platter set over a pan of almost simmering water