by Unknown
Courgettes can be cooked in the same way.
BEIGNETS D’AUBERGINES (2)
Boil 3 or 4 large aubergines in a little water. When they are soft peel them and put them through a sieve. Add seasoning and cayenne, a little flour to stiffen the mixture and a beaten egg. Shape into rounds, dredge with flour and drop into smoking oil.
AUBERGINES À L’ARMÉNIENNE
Cut the ends of some small aubergines, but leave the skin on. Sauté them in oil, drain them, cut them in half lengthways and take out all the flesh without breaking the skins. Chop the flesh finely and add (for 10 aubergines) about ½ lb of lean minced lamb, 2 tablespoons of finely chopped onion which has been melted a minute or two in oil, 2 tablespoons of chopped pimentos, salt, pepper, 2 or 3 chopped cloves of garlic, a handful of chopped parsley, a handful of little pine nuts, and 2 oz of fresh breadcrumbs.
Fill the aubergines with this mixture, arrange them one against the other in a fireproof dish, sprinkle a little more oil over them, cover the pan and cook them in a gentle oven for 10 minutes.
AUBERGINE DOLMAS (a Turkish and Middle Eastern dish)
8 small round aubergines (or 4 large ones), a cupful of cooked rice, ¼ lb of minced mutton (either raw or cooked), 2 tomatoes, salt, pepper, onions, lemon juice, herbs, a few pine nuts or walnuts, olive oil.
Mix the cooked rice with the well-seasoned meat, a chopped fried onion or two, the chopped tomatoes, and some marjoram, mint, or basil.
Cut about an inch off the thin end of the aubergines, and with a small spoon scoop out most of the flesh. Cut this into dice and mix it with the prepared stuffing. Fill the aubergines with the stuffing (not too full), put the tops in, inverted, so that they fit like corks, lay them in a pan with a little olive oil; let this get hot and then pour hot water over them to come half-way up. Simmer for 30 minutes, add the juice of a lemon, and cook very slowly another 30 minutes. There should be just a very little sauce left by the time they are ready. If there is any stuffing over, use it to fill tomatoes, which can be baked and served with the aubergines.
AÏGROISSADE TOULONNAISE
Make an aïoli (see p. 188). Cook a mixture of vegetables – green beans, artichokes, dried haricots, chick peas, etc. Strain them, put in a warmed dish and mix the aïoli into them. Do not reheat.
RATATOUILLE
Ratatouille is a Provençale ragoût of vegetables, usually pimentos, onions, tomatoes, and aubergines, stewed very slowly in oil. This dish has the authentic aromatic flavour of Provençal food.
2 large onions, 2 aubergines, 3 or 4 tomatoes, 2 red or green pimentos,* oil, salt and pepper.
Peel the tomatoes and cut the unpeeled aubergines into squares. Slice the onions and pimentos. Put the onions into a frying pan or sauté pan with plenty of oil, not too hot. When they are getting soft add first the pimentos and aubergines, and, ten minutes later, the tomatoes. The vegetables should not be fried, but stewed in the oil, so simmer in a covered pan for the first 30 minutes, uncovered for the last 10. By this time they should have absorbed most of the oil.
POIREAUX À LA PROVENÇALE
3 lb leeks, ½ lb tomatoes, 1 dozen black olives, 2 tablespoons olive oil, juice of 1 lemon, 1 dessertspoon finely chopped lemon peel.
Chop the cleaned leeks into half-inch lengths. Into a shallow heatproof dish put the oil and when it is warm, but not smoking, put in the leeks, add a little salt and pepper, cover the pan and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes cut in halves, the stoned olives, the lemon juice and the chopped lemon peel and cook slowly for another 10 minutes. Serve in the dish in which it has been cooked.
This is excellent cold as a salad.
POIS CHICHES (Chick Peas)
These are the garbanzos of Spain, where they figure in a great many stews and soups. In Italy they are called ceci, and are sometimes served mixed with pasta. They are also eaten a good deal in the Levant (see the recipe for bummus bi tabina, p. 152).
Soak ½ lb of chick peas for 24 hours. Put them in a thick pan and well cover with water. Season with a sliced onion, salt and pepper, sage, and garlic. Put them on the lowest possible flame and while they are cooking do not stir them or let them stop gently boiling or they will never get soft. They will take about 6 hours to cook; an earthenware or enamelled cast-iron pot of chick peas can be left simmering overnight in the slow oven of a solid-fuel cooker.
FENNEL
This is the Florentine, or sweet fennel, much cultivated in southern Europe for its thick and fleshy leaf stalks, as distinct from the common fennel, which will spread like a weed in any English garden, and of which only the delicate little leaves are used in the kitchen.
An absolutely delicious vegetable.
Cut the fennel root-stems, outer leaves discarded, in half and throw them into boiling water. When they are tender (about 20 minutes) arrange them in a buttered fireproof dish, spread grated Parmesan and breadcrumbs on the top and put them in the oven until the cheese has melted.
In the south of France the very young fennel is cut in half and eaten raw, like celery, with salt and lemon juice.
FÈVES AU LARD
Throw young broad beans into boiling water. When cooked, fry some chopped bacon, add a little flour and some of the water in which the beans have cooked. When the sauce has thickened put in the beans, add half a cup of cream. The beans must not cook too long in the sauce or they will lose their fresh flavour.
BROAD BEANS AND ARTICHOKES (a Greek dish)
Cook separately 2 lb of broad beans and 8 artichoke bottoms. Strain the vegetables, keeping a little of the water in which the beans have cooked.
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan, stir in a very little cornflour, half a cup of the water in which the beans were cooked, the juice of a lemon, some chopped parsley, and add the artichokes and broad beans.
CÉLERI-RAVE FARCI
Celeriac is usually eaten raw. It is peeled, cut into fine strips, and mixed in a bowl with a rather mustardy mayonnaise. But it can be cooked as follows:
Peel 2 or 3 celeriac roots, cut them in half and blanch them.
Prepare the following stuffing: chopped mushrooms and shallots cooked a few moments in butter, to which add a sprinkling of flour, a cup of milk and 2 oz of any minced cold meat or chicken.
Fill the celeriacs with the stuffing (having first scooped out the centres), arrange them in a buttered casserole with more butter on the top, cover the pan and cook them in a slow oven for 45 minutes.
The milk in the stuffing mixture can be replaced by tomato purée.
CAVOLFIORE AL STRACINATI
Cavolfiore is the Italian for cauliflower and stracinati means, literally, ‘pulled’. Half cook a cauliflower in salted water; drain it, and discard the thick part of the stalk and the leaves, and divide the flowerets. Have ready a pan with warm olive oil in which you have put a clove of garlic chopped, and put in the cauliflower; mash it with a fork and turn it over and over until it is browned on all sides.
ONIONS AGRODOLCE
Put about 25 peeled small onions in a heavy sauteuse with 3 tablespoons of olive oil. As soon as the onions start to brown, add a sherry glass of port, one of vinegar, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, a handful of raisins, salt, and cayenne pepper.
Simmer slowly until the onions are quite soft, and the sauce has turned to a thick syrup.
STUFFED TOMATOES À LA GRECQUE
Displayed in enormous round shallow pans, these tomatoes, together with pimentos and small marrows cooked in the same way, are a feature of every Athenian taverna, where one goes into the kitchen and chooses one’s meal from the pans arrayed on the stove. It is impossible to describe the effect of the marvellous smells which assail one’s nose, and the sight of all those bright-coloured concoctions is overwhelming. Peering into every stewpan, trying a spoonful of this, a morsel of that, it is easy to lose one’s head and order a dish of everything on the menu.
Cut off the tops of a dozen large tomatoes, scoop out the flesh and mix it with 2 cups of cooked rice. To this mixtu
re add 2 tablespoons of chopped onion, 2 tablespoons of currants, some chopped garlic, pepper, salt, and, if you have it, some left-over lamb or beef. Stuff the tomatoes with this mixture and bake them in a covered dish in the oven, with olive oil.
TOMATES PROVENÇALES
Cut large ripe tomatoes in half. With a small sharp knife make several incisions crosswise in the pulp of the tomatoes, and in these rub salt, pepper, and crushed garlic. Chop finely a good handful of parsley and spread each half tomato with it, pressing it well in.
Pour a few drops of olive oil on each and cook under the grill for preference, or in a hot oven.
To be quite perfect, tomates provençales should be slightly blackened on the cut surface.
TOMATES FROMAGÉES
Choose medium-sized tomatoes, cut off the tops, scoop out the flesh, sprinkle them with salt and leave them to drain.
In a double saucepan melt some Gruyère cheese with black pepper, cayenne, a little French mustard, and a drop of white wine and a pounded clove of garlic.
Fill the tomatoes with the mixture, which should be about the consistency of a welsh rabbit. Bake for 10 minutes in the oven and finish under the grill.
CHAMPIGNONS À LA PROVENÇALE
½ lb fresh field mushrooms, a small glass olive oil, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper.
Wash the mushrooms in cold water; slice them, leaving the stalks on. Heat the oil in a shallow pan, and when it is only fairly hot put in the mushrooms, and sauté them for 5 minutes. Add a handful of chopped parsley, a very little garlic, salt and pepper, and cook 2 or 3 more minutes.
MUSHROOMS À L’ARMÉNIENNE
½ lb mushrooms, 2 rashers bacon, garlic, parsley, olive oil, a glass of wine (red or white).
Slice the mushrooms, sauté them in 2 tablespoons of olive oil; add a few very fine slivers of garlic, and the bacon cut in squares.
Let this cook a few minutes before pouring in a glass of wine, then cook fiercely for just 1 minute (to reduce the wine), turn the flame low and simmer for 5 more minutes.
Mushrooms cooked in this way can be served as a separate course, as a garnish for scrambled eggs or omelettes, added to a poulet en casserole, or eaten cold as an hors d’oeuvre.
CÈPES À LA BORDELAISE
Wash the cèpes and take the stalks off. If the cèpes are large ones cut them in 2 or 3 pieces. Put a glass of good olive oil in a sauté pan and when it is hot put in the cèpes. Let them brown a little, then turn the fire down very low. In the meantime chop the stalks finely with a handful of parsley and as much garlic as you like. Sauté this mixture in a separate pan, also in oil, then add it to the cèpes. They need about 25 to 30 minutes’ cooking.
This method of cooking can be applied to all kinds of mushrooms.
CÉPES À L’ITALIENNE
1 lb cèpes or morels or other mushrooms, vine leaves, oil, garlic, salt and pepper.
Clean the cèpes, take off the stalks, put them on a dish and sprinkle with salt and leave them a little so that the water comes out of them, then put them in a warm oven a minute or two to dry them.
At the bottom of a fireproof dish lay the washed and dried vine leaves; cover them with a coating of olive oil and put them over the flame until the oil is hot but not boiling; when you put in the cèpes, stalk side up, cover the pan and put in a moderate oven for 30 minutes.
Now cut the stalks into thin pieces, with a clove of garlic, add them to the cèpes, season with black pepper and cook another 10 minutes.
Serve very hot in the dish in which they have cooked.
STUFFED PIMENTOS
No book of Mediterranean cooking would be complete without this dish, so although it is well known, here is a typical way of doing it.
Cut the stalks off the pimentos and make a small slit down the side of each one, through which you extract the core and the seeds. Take care over this operation and wash the pimentos under the tap, or there will be seeds left in, which are very fiery.
Stuff the pimentos with the same mixture as for tomatoes (p. 134) and put them in a deep baking dish with a moistening of tomato purée and a little oil on the top.
Cover the dish and cook in a medium oven for about 30 minutes.
PIMENTS SAUTÉS
Mixed red, green, and yellow pimentos, cooked a few minutes in boiling water, then peeled and sautéd in butter. The seeds should be taken out before cooking. Especially good as an accompaniment to a veal escalope or cutlet.
TA’AMIA
This Arab way of doing beans makes a delicious mézé* to serve with drinks.
1 cup dried and crushed haricot beans, parsley, green coriander, onion, garlic, salt, teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, handful bread soaked in water.
Wash the beans and soak them overnight. Put all the ingredients through the mincing machine and mix them well. To soften the dough pound it a little in the mortar. Mix in the bicarbonate of soda. Leave the mixture to rest for an hour or two, then cut it into small pieces and fry each one in very hot fat.
FASOŪLIA
The Greek name for haricot beans. People who appreciate the taste of genuine olive oil in their food will like this dish. Soak ½ lb of beans for 12 hours. Heat half a tumbler of olive oil in a deep pan; put in the strained beans; lower the heat; stir the beans and let them simmer gently for 10 minutes, adding 2 cloves of garlic, a bay leaf, a branch of thyme, and a dessertspoonful of tomato paste. Add boiling water to cover the beans by about one inch. Cook them over a moderate fire for 3 hours. The liquid should have reduced sufficiently to form a thickish sauce. Squeeze in the juice of a lemon, add some raw onion cut into rings, some salt and black pepper, and leave them to cool.
Cold Food and Salads
Luncheon at Montegufoni
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‘While we wandered through the high, cool rooms of the great house or, if it were not too hot, along the three sun-baked decks of the garden, Henry would be unpacking an ample luncheon of cold chicken, and Angelo Masti, the peasant in charge, would hurry in with a large, flat, cylindrical cheese, the pecorino of the neighbourhood, with a basket of figs and late peaches, tinged with green, and grapes, all still warm from the sun – some of these being of the kind called fragole, the small, plump, blue grapes, so different from others in their internal texture, and in their taste, which recalls that of the wood strawberry, that they might be fruit from the planet Mars or Venus – or a huge flask, covered in dry, dusty rushes, of the excellent red wine of the Castle itself. Presently, too, a very strong pungent scent approaching us indicated that Angelo had just bought a large clothful of white truffles from a boy outside, who had been collecting them in the woods. (The white variety is only found, I believe, in Italy, and most commonly in Piedmont and Tuscany, and round Parma: it is coarser than the black, and, in its capacity to impregnate a dish, more resembles garlic, a fine grating of it on the top of any substance being sufficient.) His wife would cook for us, and send in a dish of rice or macaroni sprinkled with them. And these things to eat and drink would be placed on a table covered with the coarse white linen used by the contadini, under a ceiling painted with clouds and flying cupids, holding up in roseate air a coat of arms, a crown and a Cardinal’s hat.’
Great Morning
by Sir Osbert Sitwell
ASPIC JELLY
For many cold dishes aspic jelly is required as a garnish; the following is a good basic recipe.
Into a large saucepan put a knuckle of veal and a calf’s foot, cut in convenient pieces, 2 carrots, 2 leeks (white part only), 1 onion stuck with cloves, the rind of about 6 rashers of bacon, 2 cloves of garlic, a small piece of lemon peel, thyme, bay leaves, and marjoram, salt, a few peppercorns. Should you have the carcass of a chicken, or even the feet and neck, add these as well. Pour a glass of white wine into the pan, then cover the contents with water (about 4 pints for 2½ pints of jelly). Bring the pan to the boil, take off the scum, and then leave to simmer for 4 to 5 hours.
Strain the liquid into a basin and l
eave it to cool. The next day, when the jelly has set, remove very carefully all the fat, so that no speck remains. To clarify the jelly, put into a saucepan the slightly beaten white of an egg, with the crushed eggshell, a sherry glass of port, a few leaves of tarragon, and a little lemon juice. Add the jelly, bring to the boil, then leave it barely simmering for 15 minutes. Now strain the jelly through a fine cloth, taking care not to stir up the sediment. To obtain an absolutely clear and limpid jelly it may be necessary to put it twice through the cloth.
POULET AUX NOIX
Prepare a concentrated stock by boiling for 2 hours in 1½ pints of water the insides of the chicken with carrots, leeks, turnips, and seasoning. Cut the chicken in pieces, brown in butter; add a few small onions. Cover with the stock, and a spoonful of wine vinegar. Cook for 30 minutes. Meanwhile shell and mince 1 lb of walnuts. From time to time add a little water to thin the oil which comes from the nuts. Add the minced nuts to the chicken and cook another 15 minutes. The sauce should be fairly thick.
Turn into a shallow dish and serve very cold.
COLD CHICKEN VÉRONIQUE
Divide a carefully boiled chicken into several large pieces. Beat up 2 yolks of eggs with ½ pint of cream and a small glass of sherry, and stir over a low flame until it has only slightly thickened. Pour over the chicken. Sprinkle with finely chopped lemon peel and serve very cold. The sauce will thicken when the dish gets cold. This is far superior to the usual chicken salad with mayonnaise. Serve with the following rice salad:
Rice Salad
Boil some rice and while it is still warm mix in some oil, tarragon vinegar, salt, black pepper, and a very little grated nutmeg. Add chopped celery, fresh basil leaves, a few stoned black olives, slices of peeled raw tomato, and red and green pimentos.
LEMON CHICKEN
Poach a chicken with turnips, carrots, onions, and a large piece of lemon peel. Leave the chicken to cool in the stock and when cold take all the meat off the bones and cut into fairly large pieces. Strain the stock, keeping aside the vegetables. Take about 3 large ladles of the stock and heat in a pan. Add 2 tablespoons of chopped lemon rind, the juice of half a lemon and a small glass of sherry or white wine. Simmer 5 minutes, then thicken the sauce with a tablespoon or so of cornflour mixed in a teacup of milk, and when it begins to thicken put in your sliced chicken, the vegetables that were cooked with it cut into long strips and a handful of chopped watercress. Cook all together for a few minutes and turn into a glass dish.