French Provincial Cooking (75 page)

Boil the rice for 7 minutes in plenty of water, without salt. Drain it, and hold the colander under the running cold tap until all starch is washed away.

Put it in an earthenware or other oven dish with the stock, the olive oil, the sausage cut into little cubes, the pepper, freed of all seeds and core, sliced into thin rounds, and a teaspoon of paprika pepper, which is the nearest we can get to the
piment basquais
—it is not so very different. Bring to simmering point on top of the stove. Cover with a folded cloth, a lid, and put in a moderate oven, Gas No. 4, 350 deg. F. In 20 to 25 minutes the rice will have absorbed all the liquid and be beautifully cooked and well spiced. Turn on to a hot shallow dish, add the mussels which have been opened over a hot flame with just a little water, and left in their shells, and the prawns gently fried in a little oil. Garnish with quarters of lemon. There should be enough for four.

In small quantities this dish is also excellent cold, as an hors d’œuvre, and in larger quantities makes a nice party dish. The quantity of liquid is always twice that of the volume of rice—i.e. 4 cups of stock, including the olive oil, to 2 cups of rice.

A very simple little dish which, requiring the minimum of preparation, does nicely for a first course at dinner or lunch when time rather than money is lacking.

About 5 to 6 oz. of cooked and shelled prawns for two people, 1
oz. of butter, rather under
pint of thick cream and a small glass of brandy, plus seasonings of pepper, lemon juice, nutmeg and parsley. A teacup of Patna rice.

Heat the butter in a frying-pan and sauté the well-seasoned prawns gently for a couple of minutes. Warm the brandy in a soup ladle, pour it flaming over the prawns and shake the pan so that the flames spread. When they have gone out, turn the heat low and leave a minute or two; then turn up the heat and add the cream. Let it bubble until it starts to thicken, again shaking the pan and spooning the cream up and round. Stir in a little finely chopped parsley and serve the prawns on top of the plain boiled rice, which has been keeping warm in the oven.

This is the version Escoffier gives in
Ma Cuisine
:

 

‘The essential condition is to have the lobster alive. Split it down the centre; remove the bag near the head, for this is generally gritty. On a plate set aside the greenish-creamy parts which are found next to the bag: thoroughly mix with them, mashing with a fork, a tablespoon of butter. Sever the claws from the body; crack them to facilitate the removal of the flesh after cooking. Slice each half lobster into 3 or 4 pieces; season them with salt and pepper.

‛For a lobster weighing approximately a kilo (2 lb. 2 oz.), thoroughly heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 of butter in a sauté pan; throw in the pieces of lobster and
sauté
them until they have turned bright red. Moisten with 4 to 5 tablespoons of cognac and 1
decilitres (approximately 5 oz.) of dry white wine; add 2 chopped shallots, 6 fine tomatoes, peeled, seeded and finely chopped, a little scrap of garlic, a pinch of cut parsley, a dash of Cayenne pepper, 4 or 5 tablespoons of melted meat glaze and an equal quantity of half-glaze. Cover the pan and give the lobster 18 to 20 minutes’ cooking over a good heat.

‘Arrange the pieces of lobster in a deep dish; using a small egg whisk, incorporate into the cooking liquor the reserved creamy parts of the lobster; cook a few seconds and finish the sauce, off the fire, with 100 grammes (3
oz.) of butter divided into little morsels, and the juice of half a lemon; pour over the pieces of lobster and sprinkle with a pinch of chopped parsley.

‘Nota:
The lobster should be put shell side down on the dish so that the flesh is covered with the sauce.

‘Serve at the same time some pilaff rice.’

Another theory, another version. Pierre Huguenin, author of
‘Les Meilleures Recettes de ma Pauvre Mère
(1936) gives the following recipe, noting that it was given to his mother
by its inventor
, the chef Pascal at the café Brébant in 1877.

 

‘For twelve people. In a sauté pan put 1 Ib. of very good butter to melt. When the butter is hot, put into it a medium-sized bowl of
mirepoix
(grated shallots and carrots) and
litre (nearly a pint) of white Meursault or Chablis, a bouquet of parsley, onion, a
head
of garlic; thyme and bay leaf; 6 tablespoons of tomato and 6 of olive oil, 3 of cream, 3 of concentrated meat juice, abundant pepper, a scrap of saffron and curry powder; leave all to boil for three-quarters of an hour.

‘Cut your lobsters, either in pieces or in halves according to their size, put them to cook in the sauce the necessary time (half an hour) and then serve them in a
timbale,
adding a few little pieces of fresh butter worked with a little chopped parsley. Pour in
litre (9 oz.) of good cognac, set light to it and serve when the flames have gone out.’

 

Well, let the cooks and the historians go on arguing about the origin and the proper composition of the
homard à l’américaine.
These matters are interesting but not, to most of us, very vital. Let Édouard de Pomiane have the last word for now. Dr. de Pomiane is a learned, high-spirited, infinitely stimulating mixture of
grand seigneur
and
enfant
terrible
of the gastronomic world. Many must be the grave pontiffs of that world whom he has successfully deflated, for his irreverence is backed by a profound knowledge and understanding of every aspect of his subject. The
langouste à l’américaine,
then, says Dr. de Pomiane, is a ‘gastronomic cacophony’ . . . the tomato sauce, the cayenne pepper, the shallots—they confer upon the mixture a dominant note which is not that of the
langouste
. . . . And the book in which he drops this little firecracker has a title with which none but he could get away. It is called
Vingt Plats qui Donnent la Goutte.
Twenty dishes which give you the gout. . . . You are to prevent the onset of this painful complaint, I should add, not by the avoidance of these twenty delectable dishes, but by means of a glass of a patent medicine taken the evening after eating any of these dishes and again next morning. It bears the name of
Pipérazine Midy.

This is similar to the recipe for
langouste à la crème
on page 326 and, although lobster instead of crawfish is used, the two are interchangeable as far as these dishes are concerned.

For four people, get 2 freshly-boiled lobsters, not too large. Other ingredients are 1 oz. of butter, a shallot, 2 teaspoons of flour,
pint of cream, a teaspoon of Louit’s Pimento mustard or, failing that, of Grey Poupon yellow Dijon mustard, a tablespoon of grated Parmesan or Gruyère, 4 tablespoons of Pineau des Charentes or of dry white vermouth, salt, freshly-milled pepper, nutmeg and breadcrumbs.