Is There a Nutmeg in the House? (33 page)

So the only extra supplies I shall bother about are a few more eggs than usual, some cream in the refrigerator, the usual things like onions and carrots for soup stock, rice, a small supply of Parmesan or Gruyère cheese for grating, plenty of olive oil, lemons, and coffee, and a piece of pork to help out with a goose dish when the time comes. I suppose I might think about getting a tin of tunny fish or prawns to use in a salad, and perhaps a
couple of refreshing honeydew melons from which either salads or dessert dishes can be made.

And if any of those marauding bands of persons who apparently roam the countryside calling themselves unexpected guests appear at my door – well, they’ll have to make do with soup and an omelette and a glass of wine to help them on their way to their next victims. I think I’d feel less nervous anyway offering them this sort of food than I would if I’d made a lot of little surprises with names like Pantry Shelf Fishbits and Fantastic Belgian Meat Balls and Festa Turkey-Nut Logs. I didn’t make them up, I swear I didn’t, I read about them in a desperately sad American cookery book all about leftovers.

Now first here is a really worthwhile dish to make with some of the turkey meat; it’s a dish I often make from a chicken cooked especially for the purpose, because the creamy, cheese-flavoured sauce with the chicken makes such a soothing, gentle combination of flavours and textures. That is to say, it does if the sauce really
is
creamy and if there is rather a lot of it in proportion to the chicken or turkey meat.

GRATIN OF TURKEY IN CREAM SAUCE

Ingredients for a dish for 3 or 4 people are about 375 g (¾ lb) of cooked turkey or chicken weighed when it has been taken from the bone and, for the sauce, 45 g (1½ oz) of butter, 2 tablespoons of flour, 300 ml (½ pint) of milk, 4 tablespoons each of stock from the bird and cream or, if there is no stock, 8 tablespoons of cream. Seasonings include nutmeg as well as salt and freshly milled pepper and 3 tablespoons of grated Parmesan or Gruyère, plus a little extra, with breadcrumbs, for the final cooking of the dish.

Melt the butter in a thick saucepan, put in the flour, stir it round, off the fire, until it forms a smooth paste; add a little of the warmed milk. Return to the fire and stir while you add the rest of the milk. When the sauce is smooth and thick add the stock, cream and seasonings; there should be a good measure of pepper and nutmeg but only a very little salt until after the cheese has been added. It may then be necessary to add more. At this stage put the saucepan into another large one containing water and let it cook in this bain-marie, stirring frequently, for a good 20 minutes. Now add the cheese and stir again until it has
amalgamated with the sauce. Remove all skin and sinew from the turkey or chicken, cut it into thin strips, as much of a size as possible.

Cover the bottom of a shallow gratin dish with a thin layer of the sauce. Put in the turkey or chicken in one layer. Cover it completely with the rest of the sauce. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and grated cheese and cook for about 15 minutes in a moderate oven (180°C/350°F/gas mark 4), and then transfer it to the grill for a minute or two and serve it when the top is just beginning to blister into golden bubbles. If you do this gratin in larger quantities, use a dish in proportion. It will not be good if it is squashed into too small a space.

TURKEY OR CHICKEN SALAD

The important point to remember about cold roast turkey is that a tendency to dryness has to be counteracted. A mayonnaise would seem to be the obvious answer, but in fact it is not in the least what one wants to eat so soon after all the heavy Christmas food. On the other hand, a salad made from a turkey and a vinaigrette dressing, augmented with hard-boiled eggs, appears to be altogether a more acceptable proposition. The ingredients may be precisely the same as those for a mayonnaise, but the effect is quite different.

For about 350 g (¾ lb) of cold turkey or chicken, freed of skin and bone and sliced into thin, even pieces, make the following sauce: chop 2 shallots with the well-rinsed leaves of a bunch (about 30 g/1 oz) of parsley and any other herbs you may happen to have, such as tarragon and a little lemon thyme; stir in a seasoning of salt and freshly milled pepper, 2 scant teaspoons of French mustard, 6 tablespoons of olive oil and the juice of a small lemon.

Beat all the ingredients well together and then mix the sauce with the pieces of turkey. Leave the whole mixture in a covered bowl until serving time. Then arrange the salad in a shallow dish with sliced hard-boiled egg all round and, should they be available, a few peeled prawns, seasoned with oil and lemon, on the top. They make an excellent combination with turkey and chicken. Such things as capers, pickled cucumber, strips of crisp raw celery or cubes of melon can also be added to the salad.

RILLETTES D’OIE

Although it is not orthodox to make this dish with cooked meats, a piece of roast goose mixed with uncooked fat pork makes excellent rillettes, and is a useful way of using up the Christmas goose, for the rillettes can be stored for a few days until this sort of food can once again be faced.

Suppose you have a leg of goose and perhaps a few good pieces of the carcass meat left, then buy 750 g–1 kg (1½–2 lb) of fresh belly of pork, and have the rind cut off. Remove the bones as well, and cut the meat and the goose roughly into 2.5-cm (1-in) square pieces. Put them into an oven pot, adding about 4 tablespoons of the fat saved when the goose was cooked. Pour in about 150 ml (¼ pint) of water, bury a bouquet of herbs and a crushed clove of garlic in the centre of the meat, season with a teaspoon of salt and a little pepper. Cover the pot and cook in a very slow oven (140°C/275°F/gas mark 1) for about 4 hours, until the meats are swimming in their own clear fat. Empty the whole contents of the pan into a sieve standing over a big bowl, and let the fat drip through. Slightly mash the meat, taste it for seasoning and add salt and pepper if necessary, then, with a fork in each hand, pull it into shreds. Pack these very lightly into glazed earthenware or china jars, leaving plenty of room for the fat. When this has cooled, pour it, leaving behind any sediment and juices, over the rillettes, completely filling the jars and covering the top. Put lids on the jars, or tie greaseproof paper over them. If they have to be stored in a refrigerator rather than a larder, take them out some hours before serving, for rillettes should be soft, rather like potted meat. Serve them as an hors d’oeuvre, with bread or toast, but butter will not be needed.

House & Garden
, January 1959

CHICKEN VERONICA

Many years ago, when I was living in a tropical climate, I evolved this recipe to replace chicken mayonnaise for picnics and cold suppers. Prepared ahead of time, which they should be, dishes of chicken or fish and mayonnaise tend to acquire an oily and unappetising appearance in warm weather and especially after a long car journey. No matter what the circumstances or the
temperature, the cream sauce in this Chicken Veronica retains all its pristine qualities for many hours.

A day or two in advance cook a nice fat boiling fowl of about 2 kg (4 lb) weight, with its giblets (but not the liver, keep that for an omelette, or as a
bonne bouche
for the cat) with 4 or 5 carrots, a couple of onions, a piece of celery, a clove of garlic, a faggot of parsley stalks, tarragon and a strip of lemon peel, 2 tablespoons of salt and water to cover.

The chicken will need about 2½–3 hours very gentle simmering and keep the pot covered but tilt the lid to allow the steam to escape. Should it be more convenient, the cooking can be done in a very slow oven. When the chicken is tender and the flesh beginning to come away from the drumsticks, take it out of the pot and leave it to cool. Strain the stock, measure off 150 ml (¼ pint) for the sauce, and keep the rest aside for a soup or for further cooking with fresh beef and shin of veal for a double consommé. Other ingredients for the sauce are: 300 ml (½ pint) of double cream, 4 tablespoons of rich sherry or Madeira and the yolks of 4 eggs.

Put the cream, the 150 ml (¼ pint) of chicken stock and the sherry into a wide and shallow saucepan such as a sauté pan. When this mixture is hot, pour a little of it on to the very well whisked egg yolks. Stir thoroughly. Return all to the first pan. Stir over very gentle heat until the sauce begins to thicken. In a wide pan this happens quite quickly, in a tall deep one it takes an eternity. But don’t let the mixture overheat, and keep stirring all the time or the eggs will scramble. The finished sauce should be of the consistency of a home-made custard. Rectify the seasoning. You may need more salt, possibly lemon juice. You may even add a drop or two of Armagnac, Cognac or Calvados, perhaps a little more sherry. When you take the sauce from the heat, go on stirring it until it has cooled a little.

Carve the chicken into nice, even-sized pieces, not too big and not too small. Keep all skin and bone for strengthening the original stock when you cook it up again.

Arrange the chicken pieces in a shallow dish. Pour the sauce through a strainer over the chicken. If it looks rather liquid at this stage remember that it thickens as it cools. Before serving, sprinkle chopped parsley, tarragon or chives over the dish.

At Christmas time this recipe can be usefully applied to cold turkey.

Cooking with Le Creuset
, 1969

RICE AND CUCUMBER SALAD

This makes just the right accompaniment to the chicken dish.

For 6 to 8 people put 500 g (1lb) of good quality rice in an 8-litre (gallon-and-a-half) capacity saucepan nearly full of boiling salted water. Add half a lemon and when the water comes back to the boil float a couple of tablespoons of oil on the top. This will help prevent the water boiling over. The rice will be cooked in 12–18 minutes depending on the type of rice you are using. In any case, keep it on the firm side.

As soon as you have drained the rice in a colander, turn it into a big bowl. Immediately, add any necessary salt, approximately 6 tablespoons of oil, 2 teaspoons of tarragon vinegar, 2 shallots sliced into paper-thin rounds, and a good quantity of grated nutmeg. This latter seasoning makes the whole difference.

Have ready a cucumber, peeled, sliced in four lengthways, the seeds removed, the flesh cut into small cubes, and seasoned with salt. Mix these with the rice. Add also, if you like, a dozen or so black olives, a few cubes of raw celery, and a few shreds of raw green pepper (tinned red peppers are not to be recommended for this dish, they are too soft, too sweet, and too obtrusive). Mix all together very lightly and the salad is ready, except for a sprinkling of chives or parsley.

As a change from cucumber, try instead little cubes of green or yellow honeydew melon which goes well with both chicken and turkey.

Cooking with Le Creuset
, 1969

CHICKEN BAKED WITH ITALIAN SPICE AND OLIVE OIL

For this extremely simple dish, you need a really good roasting chicken, free range if you can find one, of approximately 1.8 kg (3¼ lb) when dressed and drawn, 3–4 tablespoons of good olive oil, a half-teaspoon of the Italian spice described on
page 95
, and salt, plus foil or greaseproof paper for wrapping the chicken and a pastry brush for coating it with the olive oil while cooking.

Rub the cleaned chicken with salt and paint it with about half the olive oil, then rub in the spice.

Wrap the chicken in paper or foil, put it on its side in a shallow fireproof dish. Cook it on the centre shelf of a medium hot oven
(180°C/350°F/gas mark 4), for 30 minutes before unwrapping it, painting it again with olive oil, turning it over on to the other side, re-covering it with the paper, and this time leaving it for 20 minutes.

Now turn the chicken breast upwards, use the rest of the olive oil for brushing it over once more, and leave it, again covered, for the final 20 minutes.

Remove the paper or foil carefully so that the juices fall back into the baking dish. Heat them quickly, pour them into a small bowl or sauce boat and use them as the only sauce necessary with the chicken.

The taste of the spice and the olive oil make a delicate seasoning for the chicken which, given a properly reared bird, will be perfectly cooked, very moist, tender, and the legs still a little pink inside. It will be excellent as a cold dish. Leave it to cool naturally, and serve it with a very simple salad.

The small quantity of olive oil is all that is needed for keeping the chicken moist. All the basting considered necessary with poor quality birds is quite redundant when you are dealing with a good one. And as for that maddening thing called a bulb baster, I never have understood what anyone could possibly need it for.

Unpublished, 1970s

LEMON AND GARLIC SAUCE OR MARINADE FOR GRILLED CHICKEN

For this excellent Lebanese sauce, used for marinating chicken to be grilled over charcoal, the requirements are really good firm garlic, a juicy lemon, coarse salt, fruity olive oil.

For 1 small chicken or 500 g (1 lb) of pork fillet (tenderloin) you will need approximately 12 garlic cloves (15 g/½ oz when peeled), 1 lemon, 1 tablespoon of coarse salt, 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Skin the cloves of garlic (fewer are needed if the cloves are large), pound them in a mortar with the salt, add the strained juice – say 3–4 tablespoons – of a lemon, then stir in the olive oil.

Turn the sauce into a clean bowl, keep it covered until you are ready to use it. All garlic sauces are at their best when the garlic is fresh, so do not make it too long in advance – and, above all, a