THERE IS HARDLY A MAN ALIVE who does not adore soup, particularly when it is homemade. Hot soup on a cold day, cold soup on a hot day, and the smell of soup simmering in the kitchen are fundamental, undoubtedly even atavistic, pleasures and solaces that give a special kind of satisfaction.
Although many of us think immediately of French onion soup when we put France and soups together in our minds, informal vegetable combinations are far more typical of that best of all cuisines—the cooking one finds in French homes and small family-style restaurants. Leek and Potato Soup, the potage Parmentier, and its numerous variations in Volume I, is the most typical of all, but there are many other vegetable combinations, including spinach, cucumbers, green peppers, celery, peas and pea pods, even eggplant, that are interesting, unusual, easy to make, and delicious to serve. In many of these soups the vegetables are simmered in water rather than meat or poultry stock because water does not disguise the natural taste of a subtle vegetable like asparagus, for example. We shall begin with a group of these, follow with an opulent series of bisques and other shellfish soups, and end with three hearty fish stews, each one a meal in itself.
Most soups need puréeing at some point in the cooking, and we think the best puréeing instrument is the imported vegetable mill that has interchangeable disks illustrated in the appendix. It is very efficient even with somewhat tough items like asparagus stems; it also performs the important function of holding back stringy fibers that you would otherwise have to sieve out. To use the vegetable mill, set it over a large bowl and pour the soup from saucepan through the mill, to strain liquid from solids; pour the liquid back into the saucepan. Purée the solid ingredients, adding some of the liquid now and then to ease their passage; scrape any adhering purée off the bottom of the machine and into the bowl, then pour contents of bowl into saucepan. (Some electric mixers come with puréeing attachments that work very well.)
If you prefer an electric blender or processor, pour liquid off solids and into a bowl; ladle a cup or so of the solids and a cup of the liquid into the container. Purée by turning the machine on and off every second or two to avoid that too-smooth effect of baby food, since you will usually want the soup to have some texture. Then, if you are doing a fibrous vegetable like asparagus butts or pea pods, strain all of the soup through a sieve just fine enough to hold back the fibers. A little experimentation and always an analytical sampling of the soup yourself will tell you what you need to do.
Puréed soups need a binder or liaison, which thickens the soup liquid enough so that the puréed ingredients remain in suspension rather than sinking to the bottom of the bowl. The simplest liaison is a starch of some sort, like grated potatoes, puréed rice, farina, or tapioca. Other soups, usually called veloutés, are thickened with a flour-and-butter roux. A more elegant liaison is raw egg yolks, which, when beaten into and heated with the soup, thicken it lightly. All of these liaisons are more or less interchangeable, and which one to use depends on what effect and taste you want to achieve.
Butter, cream, and, again, egg yolks, alone or in combination, are stirred into many soups just before serving. They give a final smoothness and delicacy of taste. You can omit them if you wish, or use just a small amount.
Sour cream, if you prefer less butter fat, may often be substituted for heavy cream. But crème fraîche is the perfect soup enrichment: mix 2 parts heavy cream with 1 part sour cream, let thicken at room temperature (5–6 hours), and refrigerate (keeps 10 days).
When you are the cook in the family, plan your vegetables ahead so that you will have leftovers for soup; it will save you a great deal of time, and make you feel remarkably clever besides. Extra rice, pasta, and creamed or mashed potatoes are always needed as thickeners, while onions and mushrooms can always be added for flavor. Leftover cauliflower, for instance, can be combined with watercress to make a delicious soup; spinach is the main ingredient for the velouté Florentine; white beans or eggplant go into the soupe à la Victorine. Save also any extra bits of sauce or meat juices; these often provide that extra depth of taste and personality you are searching for. For example, a few tablespoons of leftover sauce from a chicken fricassee would be delicious in the Cream of Celery Soup; you could certainly stir hollandaise instead of butter into the potage aux champignons; and some juices saved from the roast would enhance any onion soup. Finally, save any leftover soup; you can add it to a new one, or use it to give a homemade touch to canned soups.
GREEN SOUPS FROM GREEN VEGETABLES
[Cream of Fresh Green Asparagus Soup]
At the peak of the asparagus season, when you can bear not to eat it whole, here is a marvelous soup to catch all the essence of that beautiful vegetable.
For 7 to 8 cups, serving 4 to 6
1) The onion flavoring
⅔ to ¾ cup sliced onions
4 Tb butter
A 3-quart heavy-bottomed stainless saucepan with cover
While you are preparing the asparagus, cook the onions slowly in the butter for 8 to 10 minutes, until tender but not browned. Set aside.
2) Preparing the asparagus
About 2 lbs. fresh green asparagus (24 to 28 spears 8 by ¾ inches)
Slice ¼ inch off the butt of each asparagus. Peel the skin from the butt ends up to where the green begins, and remove scales. Wash thoroughly in warm water. Cut the tops 3 inches long and set aside. Cut the lower part of the asparagus stalks into ¾-inch crosswise pieces.
3) Blanching the asparagus
6 cups water
2 tsp salt
A 3-quart saucepan
A salad or vegetable basket or 2 slotted spoons
Bring the water and salt to a rapid boil, add the asparagus stalks and boil slowly, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Remove and drain, reserving the water, and stir the stalks into the cooked onions; cover and cook slowly for 5 minutes. Meanwhile bring the water back to the boil, add the reserved asparagus tops and boil slowly, uncovered, for 6 to 8 minutes or until just tender. Remove immediately and drain. Set aside, reserving water for the soup base.
4) The soup base
4 Tb flour
The asparagus blanching water
1 cup or so of milk if needed
After the stalks and onions have stewed together for 5 minutes, uncover the pan, stir in the flour to mix thoroughly, and cook slowly, stirring, for 1 minute. Remove from heat and blend in half a cup of the hot blanching water; gradually stir in the rest, being sure not to add any sand that may be at the bottom of the pan. Simmer slowly, partially covered, for about 25 minutes or until the stalks are very tender. If soup seems too thick, thin out with milk.
5) Finishing the soup
The blanched asparagus tops
A food mill with medium disk (or an electric blender and sieve)
A 3-quart bowl
½ to ⅔ cup heavy cream
2 to 3 egg yolks
A wire whip
Salt and white pepper to taste
Line up the blanched asparagus tops and cut the tip ends into ¼-inch crosswise slices; reserve as a garnish. Purée the rest of the tops and the soup base into a bowl. (Pass soup through sieve to remove any fibers, if you have used a blender.) Pour the cream into the saucepan, blend in the egg yolks with a wire whip; by driblets, beat in 2 cups of the hot soup. Pour in the rest of the soup, and the sliced tip ends.
(*) May be cooked ahead to this point; set aside uncovered until cool, then cover and refrigerate.
2 to 4 Tb soft butter
Shortly before serving, set over moderate heat and stir slowly with a wooden spoon, reaching all over the bottom of the pan until soup comes almost to the simmer. Remove from heat, carefully correct seasoning, and stir in the enrichment butter half a tablespoon at a time. Serve immediately.
Omit the final butter enrichment and oversalt slightly. Stir several times as the soup cools, then cover and chill. Blend in more cream, if you wish, just before serving.
Frozen asparagus can never achieve the magic of fresh asparagus, but you can still turn out an excellent soup. Follow the Master Recipe, making the changes in each step as indicated.
1) Increase the sliced onions to 2¼ cups in this step, or use a combination of onions and leeks.
2) A 10-ounce package frozen cut green asparagus
A 10-ounce package whole frozen green asparagus spears
Use the cut asparagus to replace the stalks and the whole spears to replace the tops.
3) 2 cups chicken stock
Optional: big pinch of monosodium glutamate
Substitute 2 cups of chicken stock for 2 cups of the water called for in this step, and a little MSG will probably be useful. Drop the cut asparagus into the boiling liquid for a minute or two, merely to defrost them, then add to the onions. Boil the whole spears until just tender.
4 and 5) Follow Master Recipe
European asparagus is either all white or tinged with mauve or green near the tip, depending on the variety. Since the peel is often slightly bitter as well as being much tougher than that of all-green asparagus, peeling is essential. Peel each spear 1⁄16 of an inch deep up to the tender part near the tip. After boiling the stalks, taste the cooking liquid; if it is bitter, discard it and use fresh boiling water for cooking the tops. Although the soup would normally be a pale cream color, you may turn it green by puréeing into it a cup of blanched chard or spinach leaves.
[Pea-pod Soup]
You can make an excellent green pea soup using both pods and peas. Next time you are shelling them, and have crackling fresh pods, keep out the greenest and best of the lot, wrap them in a plastic bag, and refrigerate for a soup the next day. A cup of shelled peas would be nice, too, but frozen ones will do for the garnish.
For 7 to 8 cups, serving 4 to 6
1) The onion flavoring
1 cup sliced leeks and onions or onions only
3 Tb butter
A heavy-bottomed, 3-quart stainless or enameled saucepan with cover
Cook the leeks or onions slowly in the butter for 8 to 10 minutes, until tender but not browned. Set aside.
2) The pea-pod soup base
1 lb. fresh green peas with very crisp pods
Pulling off and discarding stems and tips from the pea pods, shell the peas and set aside—you should have about 1 cup. Wash pods and chop roughly into 1-inch pieces, making about 4 cups. Stir the chopped pods into the leeks and onions, cover and cook slowly for 10 minutes.
3 Tb flour
4 cups hot water
1½ tsp salt
1 large potato, peeled and sliced (about 1 cup)
Blend the flour into the pea pods and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Remove from heat, gradually blend in 1 cup of the hot water, then stir in the rest along with the salt and sliced potatoes. Simmer, partially covered, for about 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
3) The peas
1 cup fresh peas (or a 10-ounce package of frozen peas)
A heavy-bottomed 6- to 8-cup saucepan with cover
1½ cups water for fresh peas; ½ cup for frozen peas
1 large sliced scallion or shallot
6 to 8 large outside leaves of Boston lettuce, chopped
1 Tb butter
¼ tsp salt
For fresh peas: Boil them in the covered saucepan with the water, scallion, lettuce, and other ingredients for 10 to 15 minutes or until peas are just tender, adding 2 to 3 tablespoons more water if liquid evaporates entirely before peas are done; uncover and set aside.
For frozen peas: Cook the same way but with only ½ cup water, and boil only long enough for the peas to be tender.
4) Finishing the soup
A food mill set over a bowl (or an electric blender and sieve)
A cup or so of milk if needed
Salt, white pepper, and sugar to taste
¼ cup or more of heavy cream or sour cream
Purée the peas, then the soup base. If you are using a blender, sieve the soup base after puréeing to remove pea-pod fibers. Return to saucepan, bring to simmer, and thin out with milk if soup seems too thick. Taste carefully for seasoning, and add pinches of sugar to taste, which will help bring out the flavor. Stir in the cream.
(*) Set aside uncovered until cool, then cover and refrigerate.
1 to 4 Tb soft butter
Reheat to simmer just before serving. Check seasoning again, remove from heat, and stir in the butter a half tablespoon at a time. Serve immediately.
Omit the final butter enrichment, and oversalt slightly. Stir several times as the soup cools, then cover and chill. Blend in more cream, if you wish, just before serving.
POTAGE À LA FLORENTINE[Cream of Spinach Soup]
Fresh and frozen spinach do almost equally well in this elegant soup of spinach simmered with rice and enriched with cream and egg yolks. Since it is good hot or cold, you may use the same system for a soup of green herbs, as you will see in the variations following.
For 7 to 8 cups, serving 4 to 6
1) The soup base
½ cup sliced onions
2 Tb butter
A heavy-bottomed stainless or enameled pan with cover
Cook the onions slowly in the butter for 8 to 10 minutes, until tender but not browned.
1½ to 2 lbs. fresh spinach (or a 10 ounce package frozen spinach)
For fresh spinach, trim, wash thoroughly, and chop roughly. For frozen spinach, thaw in a large bowl of cold water, drain and squeeze dry. Stir spinach into onions; cover and cook over low heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent spinach from scorching.
5 cups liquid (light chicken stock, or canned chicken broth and water)
⅓ cup plain raw white rice
Pinch nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
A food mill or electric blender
Chicken stock or milk if needed
Add the liquid to the spinach, bring to the boil, and stir in the rice. Season with the nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Simmer partially covered for 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Purée, bring again to the simmer and thin out, if too thick, with more liquid. Remove from heat.
2) Finishing the soup
A 2-quart bowl
A wire whip
½ cup heavy cream
2 egg yolks
Blend the cream and egg yolks in the bowl with the wire whip; by driblets, beat in 2 cups of the hot soup. Pour back into the saucepan.
(*) May be cooked ahead to this point. Set aside uncovered until cool, then cover and refrigerate.
Salt, pepper, and lemon juice
2 to 4 Tb soft butter
Shortly before serving, set over moderate heat and stir slowly with a wooden spoon, reaching all over the bottom of the pan until soup comes almost to the simmer. Remove from heat, carefully correct seasoning, adding lemon juice if you wish; stir in the enrichment butter a teaspoon at a time. Serve immediately.
Omit the final butter enrichment, and oversalt slightly. Stir several times as the soup cools, then cover and chill. Blend in more cream, if you wish, just before serving, or top each serving with a spoonful of sour cream.
VARIATION
[Green Herb Soup]
For those green-thumbed wonders who grow their own herbs, here is a way to show off your tarragon, chervil, flat-leaved, pungent Italian parsley, shallots, spring onions or scallions, and chives. For those of us who wish to simulate the possession of an herb garden, the supermarket combination is leeks or onions, watercress, parsley, and dried tarragon.
About 1½ cups onion flavoring (chopped shallots, scallions, onions and/or leeks)
3 Tb butter
for herb gardeners:
1 packed cup parsley including tender stems; a handful of chervil; a branch of tarragon leaves; chives
Following the system for the preceding Spinach Soup, cook the onion flavoring in butter until tender. Chop greens roughly, stir into onion flavoring and cook 1 to 2 minutes or until wilted. Then add the flour and cook 1 minute, stirring. Remove from heat, beat in the hot water, and bring to the boil. Sprinkle in the rice and the salt. Simmer 25 minutes, then purée.
for supermarket shoppers:
1½ packed cups of a combination of parsley and watercress, including tender stems, and ½ tsp dried tarragon
1 Tb flour
3 cups hot water
⅓ cup plain raw white rice
1 tsp salt
2) Finishing the soup
2 to 3 cups milk
More salt and tarragon if needed
White pepper to taste
A small saucepan
1 packed cup minced fresh greens (same combination as in Step 1)
1 Tb butter
½ cup heavy cream
2 egg yolks
2 to 4 Tb soft butter
Bring soup base to the simmer; thin out to desired consistency with milk. Season carefully. In a separate saucepan, stir the minced greens and butter over moderate heat for several minutes until herbs are wilted. Remove from heat and let cool a moment, then stir in the cream; blend in the egg yolks with a wire whip, and gradually dribble in 2 cups of the hot soup base. Pour back into the saucepan. Just before serving, stir over moderate heat until soup comes almost to the simmer, correct seasoning again, remove from heat and stir in the butter.
See directions for the preceding Spinach Soup.
POTAGE AUX CHAMPIGNONS, ÎLE DE FRANCE[Cream of Mushroom Soup II]
Cream of Mushroom Soup appeals to almost everyone, even to those who claim they hate mushrooms. This is a very simple version compared with the full-dress recipe in Volume I, page 40. Here puréed raw mushrooms simmer in an onion-flavored soup base, and if you have only a handful of stems rather than the 2 to 4 cups of fresh mushrooms specified, you will still have a delicious soup.
For 6 to 7 cups, serving 4 to 6
1) The velouté soup base
½ cup finely minced onions
4 Tb butter
A 2½- to 3-quart heavy-bottomed stainless or enameled saucepan with cover
A wooden spoon
3 Tb flour
2 cups hot water
A wire whip
4 cups milk
2 tsp salt
Pinch white pepper
Big pinch tarragon
Cook the onions slowly in the butter for 8 to 10 minutes, until tender but not browned. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Remove from heat, and blend in ½ cup of the hot water with a wire whip. Gradually beat in the rest of the hot water, then the milk, seasonings, and tarragon. Bring to the simmer, stirring with wire whip; simmer very slowly for several minutes while preparing the mushrooms.
2) The mushrooms
2 to 4 cups (5 to 12 ounces) fresh whole mushrooms or just the mushroom stems
A food mill with grating disk (large holes), an electric blender, or a large knife
Trim and wash the mushrooms. If you are using a food mill with grating disk, chop the mushrooms roughly and grate directly into the soup base. If using a blender, chop roughly, and blend ½ cup at a time with an equal amount of soup base, flicking switch on and off rapidly to avoid too fine a purée. Otherwise chop the mushrooms into ⅛-inch pieces with a knife, and add to soup.
3) Finishing the soup
More milk if needed, or light chicken stock
⅓ to ½ cup or more heavy cream
Salt, white pepper, and drops of lemon juice
Simmer the soup, partially covered, for 25 minutes. Add more liquid if soup seems too thick, then stir in the cream. Carefully correct seasoning, adding drops of lemon juice if you feel they are needed.
(*) May be completed to this point. Set aside uncovered until cool, then cover and refrigerate.
2 to 4 Tb soft butter
2 to 3 Tb minced fresh tarragon and/or parsley
Bring soup to simmer again just before serving. Remove from heat and stir in first the butter, a half tablespoon at a time, then the herbs. Serve immediately.
Omit all or most of the cream and butter enrichments if you wish. Ladle the hot soup into bowls, drop a spoonful of sour cream in each and top with minced herbs, or with sliced or fluted mushroom caps previously simmered in water, butter, and lemon juice (Volume I, page 510).
Omit the final butter enrichment, and oversalt slightly. Stir several times as the soup cools, then cover and chill. Blend in more cream, if you wish, just before serving.
VARIATIONS
The following recipes are all for 6 to 7 cups of soup, serving 4 to 6. All may be served either hot or cold, as for the mushroom soup.
[Cream of Cauliflower and Watercress Soup]
This is a delicious and unusual, as well as a pretty, soup.
1) The velouté base
1 cup sliced leeks and/or onions
4 Tb butter
3 Tb flour
6 cups liquid (hot water, or part hot water and part milk)
2 tsp salt
Pinch white pepper
Following the Master Recipe for mushroom soup, cook the onions in the butter until tender, stir in the flour and cook 1 minute, blend in the liquid, then simmer slowly while preparing the vegetables.
2) The vegetables—finishing the soup
A 6- to 7-inch head of cauliflower (1¼ to 1½ lbs.)
A large pan of boiling salted water
1 bunch watercress (about 2 packed cups)
⅓ to ½ cup or more heavy cream
2 to 4 Tb soft butter
Break cauliflower into flowerettes and peel central stem; retain any tender leaves. Drop flowerettes and stem (not leaves) into the boiling water, bring rapidly back to the boil; boil uncovered for 2 minutes. Drain, add to soup base, and simmer 15 minutes. Meanwhile, discard any wilted leaves and stems from watercress, wash cress and chop roughly. After cauliflower has simmered 15 minutes, add the cress and reserved cauliflower leaves. Simmer 10 minutes more; purée. Add the cream, and correct seasoning. Reheat only just before serving, to preserve the watercress green, then remove from heat and stir in the butter enrichment.
This is a soup for onion lovers, and a pleasant change from the usual brown onion soup. The little touch of curry and a bit of wine give it special flavor, while the addition of rice turns it into a soubise.
1) The onion-velouté soup base
3 to 4 cups sliced onions
4 Tb butter
1 tsp curry powder
2 Tb flour
2 cups hot water
2 cups chicken stock or canned chicken broth
½ cup dry white wine or ⅓ cup dry white French vermouth
⅓ cup plain white rice
1 bay leaf
Salt and white pepper to taste
Following the Master Recipe for mushroom soup, cook the onions in the butter until tender but not browned. Add curry and cook 1 minute more, then add flour and cook 2 minutes without browning. Remove from heat, beat in the hot water, then the chicken stock and the wine. Bring to simmer and sprinkle in the rice; add bay leaf, and season to taste. Simmer 30 minutes. Purée.
2) Finishing the soup
2 to 3 cups milk
⅓ to ½ cup or more heavy cream
2 to 4 Tb soft butter
2 to 3 Tb fresh minced chervil or parsley
Bring soup to the simmer. Thin out to desired consistency with milk, stir in the cream, and carefully correct seasoning. Reheat again to simmer just before serving; remove from heat and stir in the butter, then the herbs.
A POTATO-BASED SOUP
[Celery Soup with Potatoes, Leeks, and Rice]
This is leek and potato soup with a celery twist, and is equally good hot or cold.
For about 8 cups, serving 6 people
1) The leeks and celery
The white part of 2 medium leeks, sliced; or 1¼ cups sliced onions
3 cups sliced celery stalks
¼ tsp salt
3 Tb butter
A heavy-bottomed 3-quart stainless or enameled saucepan with cover
4 cups light chicken stock, or canned chicken broth and water
⅓ cup plain white rice
Cook the vegetables slowly with the salt and butter in the covered saucepan until tender but not browned—about 10 minutes. Add the liquid, bring to the boil, stir in the rice, and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes.
2) The potatoes
3 or 4 medium baking potatoes, peeled and chopped (about 3 cups)
2 cups water
½ tsp salt
Another heavy 3-quart saucepan
A food mill with medium disk, a potato ricer, or an electric blender
2 cups milk heated in a small pan
A wire whip and a wooden spoon
Meanwhile, boil the potatoes with the water and salt. When tender, drain their cooking water into the leeks and celery. If you are using a food mill or ricer, purée the potatoes, return to saucepan, and beat in the milk to make a smooth, white cream. If you are using a blender, purée the potatoes with a cup of the milk, pour into saucepan, and beat in the rest of the milk.
3) Finishing the soup—herb-butter and croûton garnish
⅛ teaspoon sugar (to bring out the flavor)
Salt and white pepper
Purée the leek and celery mixture with its liquid into the potato cream. Blend well with wire whip and bring to the simmer; beat in sugar and seasonings to taste.
(*) Set aside uncovered until shortly before serving.
A heated soup tureen, or a bowl and soup cups
4 to 6 Tb soft butter
3 Tb minced fresh chervil or tarragon; or minced fresh parsley and ¼ tsp crumbled dried tarragon
Bring the soup to the simmer. Mash the butter and herbs in the soup tureen (or in the bowl, and divide among your soup cups). Blend the hot soup into the herb butter, sprinkle the croûtons on top, and serve immediately.
Omit the butter enrichment and the croûtons; oversalt soup slightly. Mash the herbs with ¼ cup heavy cream or sour cream, stir into the soup, and chill. Stir in more chilled cream, if you wish, before serving, and decorate with fresh minced herbs or parsley.
[Small Cubes of Bread Sautéed in Butter]
Stale, homemade-type white bread
A baking sheet
Clarified butter (butter melted, skimmed, and poured off milky residue in bottom of pan)
A frying pan, preferably the no-stick kind
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Remove crusts and, if unsliced, cut bread into ¼-inch slices. Then cut into ¼-inch strips; cut strips crosswise to make ¼-inch cubes. Spread cubes on baking sheet and dry out in middle level of oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until outside is dry but not browning; this will prevent bread from absorbing too much butter when sautéed. Film pan with a ⅛-inch layer of clarified butter, set over moderate heat until it bubbles; add just enough bread cubes to make 1 layer. Sauté, shaking and tossing pan by handle, until cubes are a light golden brown, adding a little more butter if necessary to keep bread from burning. Let cool on paper towels.
(*) May be cooked in advance. May also be frozen, then thawed and crisped for a few minutes in a 375-degree oven.
SOUPS WITH A FARINA THICKENING
Rather than thickening soups with flour, rice, or potatoes, you may use semoule de blé, semolina, also known as farina or cream of wheat. This makes a pleasant change and also imparts its own subtle taste and texture.
POTAGE AUX CONCOMBRES[Cream of Cucumber Soup]
The only thing to say about this soup is that it is perfectly delicious; it is especially good cold, but then it is also especially good hot.
For 6 to 7 cups, serving 4 to 6
1) The cucumbers
1½ lbs. cucumbers (3, about 8 inches long)
Peel the cucumbers. Cut 18 to 24 paper-thin slices and reserve in a bowl for later. Cut the rest of the cucumbers into half-inch chunks: you will have about 4½ cups.
2) The soup
½ cup minced shallots, or a combination of shallots, scallions, and/or onions
3 Tb butter
A heavy-bottomed stainless or enameled saucepan with cover
6 cups liquid: light chicken stock, or canned broth and water
1½ tsp wine vinegar
¾ tsp dried dill weed or tarragon
4 Tb quick-cooking farina (cream of wheat) breakfast cereal
A food mill with medium disk, or an electric blender
More liquid if necessary
Cook the shallots, scallions, or onions slowly in the butter for several minutes until tender but not browned. Add the cucumber chunks, chicken broth, vinegar, and herbs. Bring to the boil, then stir in the farina. Simmer, partially covered, for 20 to 25 minutes. Purée, and return the soup to the pan. Thin out with more liquid if necessary; season carefully with salt and pepper.
(*) May be prepared in advance to this point.
Salt and white pepper
Soup bowls
1 cup sour cream
1 to 2 Tb minced fresh dill, tarragon, or parsley
Bring to simmer just before serving, and beat in ½ cup sour cream. Ladle into soup bowls, place a dollop of sour cream in each bowl, float slices of cucumber on top of cream, and decorate with a sprinkling of herbs.
After stirring in the ½ cup sour cream, oversalt slightly and let cool uncovered, stirring occasionally. Then cover and chill. Ladle into chilled soup cups, adding a big spoonful of sour cream to each cup; float cucumber slices on top of the cream and decorate with herbs.
VARIATION
You may substitute zucchini for cucumbers in the preceding soup, but do not peel them. Cut off stem and tip, scrub with a vegetable brush, and proceed exactly as for the cucumber soup. Decorate with herbs, however, rather than with zucchini slices.
[Green Turnip Soup]
This is one of those soups with a marvelous and unusual flavor that is difficult to decipher unless you are told the combination. Then the tastes of turnip and greens disclose themselves. You may not find any green leaves attached to your turnips unless they grow nearby and it is turnip season, which is winter or early spring. Spinach leaves do nicely, however.
1) The turnips
1½ lbs. fresh white turnips, peeled and quartered (about 5 cups)
3 Tb butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1½ cups water
A heavy-bottomed 3-quart stainless or enameled saucepan with cover
Boil the turnips slowly with the seasonings, butter, and water in a covered saucepan for 15 to 20 minutes, or until tender when pierced with a knife. Uncover, raise heat, and boil to evaporate liquid; toss turnips in the butter, which remains, for 2 minutes.
2) The greens
Either 4 packed cups tender fresh turnip greens and fresh spinach;
Or a 10-ounce package of fresh spinach;
Or ½ package frozen spinach thawed in cold water and squeezed dry
2 Tb butter
A 10-inch stainless or enameled skillet
2 wooden spoons
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp sugar
Meanwhile, discard any wilted leaves from fresh greens and spinach, wash thoroughly and drain well. Heat butter in a skillet to bubbling over moderately high heat. Add greens and spinach, turn and toss with the 2 wooden spoons; sprinkle with salt and sugar and continue tossing for 2 to 3 minutes until greens are limp and fairly tender.
3) The soup
A food mill with medium disk, or an electric blender
4 cups liquid: light chicken stock, or canned broth and water
3 Tb quick-cooking farina (cream of wheat) breakfast cereal
1 to 2 cups milk
Salt and pepper
1 to 2 Tb lemon juice
Purée the 2 vegetables together and bring to simmer in turnip-cooking pan with the broth. Sprinkle in the farina and simmer 5 to 6 minutes until farina is tender. Thin out to desired consistency with milk; season carefully with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
(*) May be prepared in advance to this point.
2 to 4 Tb soft butter
Bring again to simmer just before serving; remove from heat and stir in the butter a teaspoon at a time.
You may wish to enrich the soup with sour cream instead of butter, as for the preceding Cucumber Soup, or with cream and egg yolks as in the Spinach Soup. In any case, you may also serve it cold as suggested in both recipes.
THREE PEASANT SOUPS
[Mediterranean Tomato Soup with Rice]
Typically Mediterranean, with its onions, tomatoes, garlic, saffron, and native herbs, this fragrant soup is even named after the Provençal heroine of many an operetta. It is best when tomatoes are at the season’s peak, but the hothouse type can be pepped up with a bit of tomato paste.
For 7 to 8 cups, serving 4 to 6
1) The soup base
¾ cup combination of thinly sliced leeks and onions, or onions only
3 Tb olive oil
A heavy-bottomed 3-quart stainless or enameled saucepan with cover
1½ lbs. fresh, ripe, red tomatoes
4 large cloves garlic, minced or mashed
4 to 5 cups liquid: light chicken stock, or canned broth and water
¼ cup plain, raw, white rice
The following tied in washed cheesecloth: 6 parsley sprigs, 1 bay leaf, ¼ tsp thyme, 4 fennel seeds, and, if available, 6 large fresh basil leaves
A large pinch of saffron threads
Salt and pepper
Cook the leeks and onions slowly in the oil until tender but not browned. Meanwhile, peel and halve the tomatoes, squeeze out seeds and reserve juice. Chop tomato pulp roughly and stir into the cooked leeks and onions. Add the garlic and stir over moderate heat for 3 minutes. Then add the tomato juice and liquid, bring to the boil, and sprinkle in the rice. Add the herbs and saffron; season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes.
2) Finishing the soup
If necessary: pinches of sugar
1 tsp or more tomato paste
Salt and pepper
Carefully taste for seasoning, adding pinches of sugar to bring out flavor and counteract acidity, and small amounts of tomato paste if needed for color and taste. Remove herb bouquet.
(*) May be prepared ahead to this point.
2 or more Tb minced fresh basil, chervil, or parsley
[Catalonian Pepper and Leek Soup]
Another Mediterranean soup uses the same principles as the preceding potage Magali, and the same general ingredients. Here the character comes from sweet peppers rather than tomatoes, a touch of ham or salt pork, and a typically regional final liaison of egg yolks and olive oil.
For 7 to 8 cups, serving 4 to 6
1) The soup base
2½ to 3 ounces lightly smoked ham or lean salt pork, cut into ¼-inch dice (⅔ cup)
2 Tb olive oil
A heavy-bottomed 3-quart stainless or enameled saucepan with cover
2 cups diced onions
2 cups thinly sliced leeks (or more onions)
1½ cups diced bell peppers, red or green
4 large cloves garlic, minced or mashed
1 Tb flour
1 quart hot water
3 to 4 cups light beef stock, or canned chicken broth
¼ cup pasta (rice- or pepper-corn shaped, or broken vermicelli), or plain white rice
A large pinch of saffron threads
¼ tsp savory
Salt and pepper
Sauté the ham or salt pork in the oil over moderate heat until it barely begins to brown, then stir in the onions and leeks. Cook slowly several minutes until fairly tender but not browned; stir in the peppers and garlic, and cook again for 3 to 4 minutes without browning. Finally sprinkle in the flour, stirring for 1 minute, and remove from heat. Blend in the hot water gradually, stir in the stock or broth, and bring to the simmer; skim off any surface scum for a minute or two, then stir in the pasta or rice. Add the saffron and savory, season to taste, and simmer partially covered for 20 minutes. Carefully correct seasoning.
(*)May be prepared ahead to this point; let cool uncovered. Bring again to the simmer just before serving. You may also make the egg-yolk and oil enrichment in advance and store it in a covered jar.
2) Finishing the soup
2 egg yolks
A wire whip
A soup tureen or large mixing bowl
¼ cup olive oil
A ladle
Beat the egg yolks in the bottom of the tureen or bowl until thick and sticky; by droplets, beat in the olive oil exactly as though you were making a thick mayonnaise. Stirring it, dribble in the hot soup until you have added 2 cups; gradually stir in the rest. Serve immediately.
SOUPE À LA VICTORINE[Purée of White Bean Soup, Eggplant and Tomato Garnish]
This meal-in-itself will fill up the family on a cold day, especially if you include pork or sausage with the beans. The eggplant and tomato garnish makes a lively and unusual touch to an otherwise traditional bean purée.
For about 8 cups, serving 4 to 6
1) Soaking the beans—1 hour
1 quart of water
A 3-quart saucepan with cover
⅓ cup dry white beans, such as Great Northern or Small White
Bring the water to a rapid boil, drop in the beans, and bring water rapidly back to the boil again; boil uncovered for exactly 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover pan, and let soak for exactly 1 hour. Meanwhile, you may prepare all the rest of the ingredients for the soup.
2) The soup base—1½ hours of simmering
2 cups combination of sliced leeks and onions, or onions only
3 Tb olive oil or butter
An 8-inch enameled, stainless, or no-stick frying pan
2 bay leaves
½ teaspoon thyme
½ teaspoon sage
Optional: ½ lb. lean side pork (fresh unsmoked bacon), or fresh fat-and-lean pork butt (shoulder), or Italian or Polish sausage
1½ tsp salt
⅛ tsp peppercorns
A food mill or an electric blender
Cook the leeks and onions slowly in the oil or butter until tender and translucent; raise heat slightly and cook for a few minutes more until very lightly browned. As soon as the beans have had their 1-hour soak, scrape the vegetables into them, and add the rest of the ingredients for the soup base (if using sausage rather than pork, add only for last 30–40 minutes of cooking). Bring to the simmer, partially cover the pan, and cook slowly for about 1½ hours or until beans are tender. Set pork or sausage aside for final step, purée the soup, and return to the pan.
(*) May be prepared ahead; set aside uncovered until cool.
3) The eggplant and tomato garnish
A firm, shiny, 1-lb. eggplant (about 8 inches long and 3½ inches at widest diameter)
A 2-quart glazed or stainless mixing bowl
1½ tsp salt
1 lb. fresh, firm, ripe, red tomatoes (3 medium), peeled, seeded, and juiced
2–3 Tb olive oil
The 8-inch frying pan again
4 large cloves garlic, minced or mashed
A cover for the frying pan
Peel the eggplant and cut into ½-inch dice. Toss in the bowl with the salt and let stand at least 20 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the tomatoes and cut pulp into ½-inch squares; strain and reserve juice. When eggplant has stood its 20 minutes, drain and dry on paper towels. Heat the oil in the pan and sauté the eggplant, tossing it, to brown very lightly. Then toss with the tomato pulp and garlic, add the juice from the tomatoes, and cover the pan. Simmer slowly for 10 to 15 minutes until eggplant is tender but still holds its shape. Set aside.
(*) May be prepared ahead; let cool uncovered.
4) Finishing the soup
2 to 3 cups chicken stock or canned broth
3 Tb minced fresh green herbs: basil, parsley, and chives (or parsley only and dried basil or oregano to taste)
About 15 minutes before serving, bring the soup base to the simmer and thin out to desired consistency with chicken stock or broth. Cut the pork or sausage into slices ⅜ inch thick and add to the soup along with the eggplant and tomato. Simmer 3 to 4 minutes to blend flavors. Carefully correct seasoning, stir in the herbs, and serve.
VARIATION
Sliced fresh fennel cooked until just tender and then simmered for a moment with diced tomatoes and herbs makes an attractive alternate to the eggplant. Soak the beans and simmer the soup base as described in the preceding recipe; prepare the garnish as follows.
2 cups thinly sliced fresh fennel bulbs
2 Tb olive oil or butter
¼ cup minced shallots or scallions
2 large cloves garlic, minced or mashed
1 lb. tomatoes, peeled, seeded, juiced, and diced
Salt and pepper
Cook the fennel slowly in the oil or butter in a covered skillet for 8 to 10 minutes, or until just tender but not browned. Add the shallots or scallions, garlic, and tomatoes; toss with fennel, cover skillet and cook for a few minutes until tomatoes have rendered the rest of their juice. Uncover, raise heat slightly and cook for a few minutes more to evaporate the juice. Season to taste. Set aside until you are ready to serve, then add to the soup as directed in the Master Recipe, Step 4.
[Pumpkin Soup Baked in a Pumpkin]
This amusing presentation may be prepared either as a soup or a vegetable; the recipe is among the squashes in the Vegetables Chapter.
A bisque is a rich, thick, highly seasoned soup of puréed shellfish. Undoubtedly the bisque came into being because it is an easy as well as elegant way to eat small crustaceans with complicated constructions like crayfish and crabs, and it is a wonderful solution for the chests and legs of lobsters.
This is the kind of recipe to pick for a group of friends who enjoy cooking together, since a bisque is not tricky to make—it just takes a long time. To get the true flavor, the raw shellfish are cut up and sautéed in their shells before being simmered with wine and aromatic ingredients. The meat is then removed from the shells; some of it is saved for a garnish while the rest is puréed. Finally, to extract every remaining bit of flavor and color from the shells, they are puréed with butter, and everything is combined into a splendid soup.
We shall begin with illustrated directions on how to cut up lobsters and crabs, and follow with lobster bisque and its other shellfish variations.
A live lobster should be lively: it spreads its claws, arches its back, and flaps its tail noisily against the underside of its chest when you pick it up. To do so you must grab it with your thumb and index finger at its shoulder just behind the claw joints. You can keep live lobsters in the refrigerator at around 37 degrees for a day or two in a heavy paper bag pierced with air holes, but you should cook them as soon as possible.
When you are picking store-bought boiled lobsters, look closely at their tails, which should curl up against the underside of the chests and spring back into place when straightened. A limp tail indicates that the lobster was moribund before cooking. Be sure also, in buying boiled lobster, that it smells absolutely sweet and fresh. Freshly boiled, cooled, and wrapped lobsters will keep for 2 to 3 days in the refrigerator at around 37 degrees. You may even wrap airtight and freeze a boiled lobster in its shell for several weeks.
A number of the best French lobster recipes, including homard à l’américaine and bisque de homard, call for the sautéing of cut-up raw lobster. This means you must buy live lobster and either have it cut up for you and cook it immediately, or do the cutting yourself. The serious cook really must face up to the task personally. While professionals simply cut up the lobsters with never a qualm nor a preliminary, you may find this difficult. If so, we suggest that you plunge them two at a time, head first and upside down, into boiling water; leave for about a minute, until lobsters are limp, and immediately remove them. Because the nervous and circulatory systems of the lobster center in the head area, a head-first plunge into boiling liquid not only kills the lobster almost instantly, but also eliminates muscle spasms. There is a misguided notion that lobsters suffer less if set to boil in cold water; far from being a humane procedure, this is slow death by drowning!
Furnish yourself with sharp-pointed lobster scissors or kitchen scissors, a large knife, a cutting board with groove to catch juices or a board set on a tray, a bowl to pour juices into, and another bowl for the lobster tomalley. You now want to split the lobster in two, lengthwise, as follows. Turn the lobster top side up. With scissors, cut through center of shell from end of tail up to but not through eyes in center of head. Turn lobster over and again with scissors cut through shell from end of tail to within ½ inch of tip of head. Then with your knife cut completely through the under side of the lobster lengthwise, following scissor cuts, from ½ inch below tip of head down through tail, thus splitting lobster neatly in two except at the head. Finally grasp lobster in both hands where claw joints meet chest, and break the shell apart at the head to open it up.
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Nestled in the head on one side of the lobster or the other is a pouch an inch long and ¾ inch in diameter which is the stomach sack. Locate the sack with your fingers, twist it out, and discard it. (If you have cut sack in two while splitting the lobster, no harm is done; remove the 2 halves.) Pull out and discard the intestinal vein, a thin, flexible translucent or blackish tube that runs from the area of the stomach sack down through the tail meat. The greenish, and sometimes almost blackish, soft matter lying in the chest cavity is the tomalley; scoop it out into a small bowl. If your lobster is female, there will usually be some orange-red roe as well; add this to the tomalley. |
With a knife or scissors, separate the two tail sections from the chests. Cut the legs and the claw joints from the chests, and cut claws from end of joints. Crack claws in one or two places with a sharp whack of the knife. Drain juices into a bowl and reserve them, along with the tomalley. The lobster is now ready for sautéing.
Split and open boiled lobster exactly as described in the preceding directions for raw lobster. Discard stomach sack and intestinal vein. Scoop tomalley from inside the chest sections into a bowl. After lifting meat out of tail sections, you want to remove meat from claws, claw joints, chest sections, and legs. With scissors, cut the claw joints from the chests, and separate each claw from its joint. Cut through shell on each side of joints, lift off shell, and remove meat.
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The first step in removing the meat from the claws is to bend the small, hinged half rather slowly but firmly back on itself, toward the bottom of the claw; this will withdraw its cartilage from inside the meat of the main half of the claw. Dig the point of meat out of this small shell with a nut pick or the point of your scissors. |
Again with scissors, cut a window out of the main claw shell and remove the whole piece of claw meat with your fingers. |
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Pull chest section from its outside shell. Note that there are spongy, hairy strips attached to outside side of chest at leg joints; these are gills. Pull off and discard them. Scrape out and add to the tomalley any coagulated white matter clinging to the inside of the shell. |
Cut or twist off legs where they join the chest. Dig out meat from inside side of chest, going in between cartilaginous interstices with the point of a knife. This is never a fast operation, but the small amount of meat you extract is the sweetest and tenderest of all.
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To remove the meat from the legs, sever them at each of their joints. Place on a board and squeeze the meat out of each piece by rolling a pin (pestle or broom handle) over it. You will not get much, but again the meat is sweet, tender, and worth the time spent on extraction. |
Stone crabs, rock crabs, sand crabs, blue crabs, and their ilk and size are especially good for bisques because they are otherwise somewhat complicated to eat. If you are at the seashore you can gather them yourself, or ask lobstermen please not to throw them out, as they often do, but to save all crabs for you. However you obtain them, they must be alive. Just before you are ready to clean and cut them, place them upside down in a large bowl or stoppered sink and cover with very hot water. As soon as air bubbles cease to rise, in a minute or two, the crabs will be limp and ready to work on. Your object in cleaning and cutting is to remove the main body, or chest-leg-claw portions of each crab, from the hard shell, called the carapace, and to collect the tomalley, which is the creamy substance in the chest cavity and carapace.
Turn crabs upside down. Note that female crabs have a wider tail flap than male crabs and the female’s is usually edged with hair.
Lift point of flap away from chest, then grasp flap close to the body of the crab and with a rather slow twisting movement, pull it horizontally free from the end of the crab. The intestinal vein should draw out of the body at the same time. |
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Break off claw-joint sections where they join the body. To remove the leg-chest section, hold carapace firmly in your left hand and grasp all the legs close to the body in your right hand. Rock leg-chest portion back and forth and it will come loose from the carapace; pull it free. Both chest and interior of carapace should smell fresh and appetizing; your nose is the best judge. |
With a vegetable brush, scrub shell on underside of chest and around the legs under a stream of cold water; scrub the claw-joint pieces also. Finally cut the chest in half lengthwise as shown. (Trim off any mossy bits of shell with a knife or scissors.)
The greenish, brownish, and sometimes orange creamy matter left in the carapace is also called tomalley. It, along with the juices in the shell, constitutes some of the best parts of the crab.* Pour the juices through the sieve containing the chest tomalley; scoop soft matter out of the shell with your fingers, and into the sieve. When all the crabs are done, pour accumulated liquid into a separate container and reserve. Rub the tomalley through the sieve with a wooden spoon, scrape it off bottom of sieve into a bowl; reserve for Step 7, where it will simmer with the crab-meat garnish. (After puréeing, the raw tomalley will become a rather dark green, which then becomes dark red when cooked.)
* When a whole crab is boiled, the tomalley turns greenish and orange while the liquid usually becomes white.
Provide yourself with a board and wooden mallet or wooden object of some sort for cracking the shells, and a grapefruit knife for extracting the meat. For a bisque made from small crabs, do not bother to delve too thoroughly because it will take all day; remove only what meat you easily can, and the shell debris will be simmered again anyway to extract all remaining flavor. Begin by twisting the legs from the chest sections, then break each leg off at the knee by bending it back upon itself at the joint, thus drawing the cartilage out of the upper leg meat. For a bisque, chop lower legs into quarter-inch pieces, and reserve for shellfish butter; otherwise discard them. To remove meat from upper legs, as well as from claws and joints, crack shell sharply but lightly with mallet, being careful not to shatter the shell into the meat. Then dig out what meat you easily can with the point of your grapefruit knife. To remove meat from chests, dig out what you can from the holes left by the legs, then from the other side, being careful not to include bits of shell or cartilage. You will get about 1 solid cup of meat from 6 to 8 crabs measuring 3 to 4 inches across the back of the shell.
BISQUE DE HOMARD À L’AMÉRICAINE[Lobster Bisque]
Considering the price of lobsters and the puréed nature of a bisque, we think it is a waste to use whole lobster here. We therefore suggest only the chests and the legs for the bisque, and the tails, claws, and tomalley for a splendid main dish, such as the homard à l’Américaine described in Volume I on page 223. In fact, you could well combine the two, starting them out together, since both follow much the same pattern. Serve the main dish one night, and the bisque a day or two later. That is up to you, however, and we shall content ourselves with the chests and legs from 3 or 4 lobsters for the following recipe. As in most dishes of this type, you can expand or contract the ingredients to a certain extent without upsetting the balance of tastes, and you need not be disturbed if you have a little more or a little less of anything that is called for.
In the old days you would have needed an 8-quart marble mortar, a large wooden pestle, a 12-inch tamis sieve, a tortoise-shell scraper, and either a flock of kitchen minions or the strength of a Japanese wrestler to produce a proper bisque. Today’s electric blender eliminates these colorful requirements, but there are still multiple simmerings, strainings, and puréeings, as well as numerous bowls, sieves, and spoons that you will need. Do not wash anything off until the soup is done because you will be using the same utensils repeatedly and you don’t want any marvelous tidbits of flavor losing themselves down the drain.
For about 2 quarts, serving 6 to 8
1) Preliminaries
1 cup mirepoix (equal parts finely diced onions, carrots, and celery)
1½ Tb butter
A heavy, 3-quart stainless or enameled saucepan with cover
1½ cups chopped, fresh tomato pulp (3 to 4 medium tomatoes peeled, seeded, and juiced)
The chest parts with the shells and the legs from 3 or 4 fresh, raw, 1¼- to 1½-lb. lobsters
Cook the mirepoix slowly in the butter, in the saucepan, for 6 to 8 minutes, or until vegetables are tender but not browned. Meanwhile, prepare the tomatoes. Cut lobster chests in half lengthwise. (See illustrated directions for cutting lobster.)
2) Sautéing the lobster
2 or more Tb olive oil or cooking oil
A heavy, 10- to 12-inch no-stick or enameled casserole (or chicken fryer or deep frying pan)
Cooking tongs
Film the bottom of the casserole with 1⁄16 inch of oil; set over moderately high heat until oil is very hot but not smoking. Add the lobster chests cut side down and the legs. Do not crowd pan: sauté in 2 batches if all will not fit easily in one layer. Toss and turn frequently until shells are a deep red (4 to 5 minutes in all). Color is important here, as it is the shells that tint the soup.
3) Simmering the lobster and removing the meat
Salt and pepper
⅓ cup Cognac
Either 1½ cups dry white wine;
Or 1 cup dry white vermouth
2 Tb fresh tarragon or 1 Tb dried tarragon
1 bay leaf
The mirepoix and tomatoes from Step 1
1 clove mashed garlic
Large pinch of cayenne pepper
A cover for the casserole
When the lobster is sautéed, lower heat slightly, salt and pepper the lobster, and pour on the Cognac. Ignite by shaking pan vigorously or tilting it into heat source, or use a lighted match. When flames have died down, pour on the wine, mix in the tarragon, and add the bay leaf and other ingredients. Cover casserole, and simmer slowly for 20 minutes.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: May be simmered a day in advance; let cool uncovered, then cover and refrigerate (or freeze).
2 medium-sized bowls
A food mill with medium disk, or a sieve and a wooden spoon
An electric blender
(Before proceeding, you may wish to start the rice in the next step, so that it will be done by the time you are through here.) Remove the pieces of lobster from their cooking sauce and extract the meat from the shells following illustrated directions. You will have about 1 cup; place in one of the bowls. Purée the cooking sauce through food mill or sieve into the other bowl, and scrape into jar of blender; reserve for Step 5. Chop shells into ½-inch pieces and reserve in a bowl for Step 6.
4) Simmering the rice
3 cups fish stock or canned clam juice
2 cups beef stock or canned beef bouillon
The saucepan from Step 1, in which the mirepoix cooked
¼ cup plain, raw, white rice
Bring the fish stock or clam juice and the beef stock or bouillon to a boil in the saucepan; sprinkle in the rice. Stir up once, and simmer for 20 minutes. Set aside for Step 5.
5) Puréeing rice and lobster meat
The saucepan of boiled rice
A large, fine-meshed sieve set over a 2½- to 3-quart bowl
A rubber spatula
The blender jar containing the puréed lobster-cooking sauce
Half the lobster meat
Drain rice through sieve, reserving its cooking liquid in the bowl. Scrape rice and the half portion of lobster meat into the blender. Purée, adding a little of the rice-cooking liquid if mixture is too thick for easy blending in the machine. Scrape the purée out of the blender and into the rice-cooking saucepan.
6) Shellfish butter for final enrichment—lobster butter
6 Tb butter
The casserole in which the lobster cooked
The bowl of chopped lobster shells
The electric blender
The sieve from Step 5
A wooden spoon
A rubber spatula
A small bowl to hold the butter
Heat butter to bubbling in casserole, stir in the chest and leg shells, and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes, tossing and turning, to heat thoroughly. Immediately scrape into blender and purée, flicking switch on and off and scraping shells down into blades as necessary. Scrape purée into sieve, and mash vigorously with spoon to extract as much butter as possible. Scrape all butter off bottom of sieve with rubber spatula and pack into bowl. Set aside for Steps 7 and 8.
The bowl of rice-cooking liquid from Step 5
The saucepan containing the puréed rice and lobster from Step 5
To extract all remaining flavor from blender jar, shells, and sieve, pour rice-cooking liquid into the casserole in which you just sautéed the shells. Heat to the simmer and pour liquid into blender to rinse it, then pour liquid back into casserole. Scrape shell debris from sieve into casserole, and swish sieve about in the hot rice-cooking liquid to dislodge all debris. Simmer 3 to 4 minutes; strain liquid through the sieve and into the saucepan of puréed rice and lobster.
7) The lobster garnish
2 Tb of the lobster butter from Step 6
A small frying pan
The remaining lobster meat from Step 3
Salt and pepper
2 Tb Cognac or dry white vermouth
Heat the butter to bubbling in the frying pan; stir in the lobster meat, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté over moderate heat for 2 minutes, tossing and turning. Pour on the Cognac or vermouth, and cook for a moment until liquid has evaporated. Scrape the lobster into the saucepan containing the rest of the soup mixture from Step 6, and you are finally almost ready to serve.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: Recipe may be completed to this point; let cool uncovered, then cover and refrigerate or freeze.
8) Final flavoring and serving
If needed: more fish stock, clam juice, or bouillon
Salt, pepper, cayenne, and tarragon
½ to 1 cup heavy cream
The lobster butter from Step 6
2 to 3 Tb minced fresh chervil, tarragon, or parsley
Croûtons (diced bread sautéed in butter); or Melba toast; or your own French bread
Shortly before serving, bring the bisque to the simmer. It should be quite thick, but if it needs thinning, stir in a little stock or bouillon. Carefully correct seasoning. Just before serving, stir in the cream, then remove from heat and stir in the lobster butter by tablespoonsful. Pour the bisque into a hot tureen or soup cups, and decorate with the fresh herbs. Pass the croûtons, Melba toast, or bread separately.
Because all of the other shellfish bisques follow almost the same pattern as lobster bisque, you can really substitute shrimp, crab, or crayfish for lobster in the Master Recipe every time you see the word “lobster.” To account for the very slight differences in method, here is a paragraph of special instructions for each.
[Shrimp Bisque]
You must have shrimp in the shell for this recipe because the shells give the bisque its characteristic color and flavor. It is of prime importance, therefore, that you use only the freshest smelling and finest quality of shrimp, whether they are live and whole or frozen, raw, and headless. If the shrimp are whole, meaning with head and shell, simply wash and drain before sautéing them; if frozen, thaw in cold water until you can separate them, then sauté. Since they need only 5 minutes of simmering, cook the tomatoes and other ingredients called for in Step 3 for 10 minutes before adding the shrimp; after their simmer, let them cool 10 minutes in the cooking sauce before draining and peeling them. Use the shells and several whole, cooked shrimp for the shellfish butter in Step 6, and if the shrimp are very large, slice in half lengthwise those you are reserving for the garnish in Step 7. You will need 1¼ to 1½ pounds of raw shrimp for 2 quarts of bisque.
[Crab Bisque]
Crab bisque is even more one of love’s labors than lobster bisque, but it is so marvelously rich and deeply flavored that if you pick the right guests your reward will be in watching their pleasure, as well as relishing your own. Clean and cut the crabs as illustrated, then substitute crab for lobster in the Master Recipe, with the following slight modifications. Because crab pieces will bulk larger than lobster chests, you will need 2 big casseroles for the sautéing in Step 2, but may combine all together for the simmering in Step 3. You will not have enough liquid to cover all of the crab pieces in this step, and should toss the pieces several times during the 20 minutes of cooking; do not forget to add the liquid from the carapaces and the tomalley to simmer here, along with everything else. Note that it is only the chopped-up lower legs that go into the shellfish butter in Step 6, but add as well all the debris from the chests, claws, and upper legs to simmer at the end of the step, allowing a good 10 minutes of cooking to extract every bit of flavor. For 2 quarts of wonderful soup, you will need 6 to 8 live crabs measuring 3 to 4 inches across the top of the shell.
[Crayfish Bisque]
Fresh-water crayfish, crawfish, or écrevisses, as they are variously called, are miniature lobsterlike crustaceans 4 to 5 inches long. They are considered a supreme delicacy in Europe as well as in the southern Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Midwestern states where they are gathered. With the few minor differences noted here, substitute the word “crayfish” for the word “lobster” in the Master Recipe. To clean live crayfish, drop them headfirst in a basin of very hot water and leave for 2 to 3 minutes or until bubbles cease to rise. After draining them, pull out the central flap at the base of the tail to draw out along with it the intestinal tube. (This action of removing the intestine is called châtter in French recipes.) Sauté and simmer the crayfish whole, as directed in the Master Recipe, but they need only 10 minutes of cooking in Step 3. To shell them, remove the tail meat only, and use all of it for the garnish in Step 7; the chests and shell debris go into the butter, Step 6. If you wish to be very haute cuisine, have a dozen extra crayfish and make a small amount of a simple fish mousse, using the raw tail meat. Then remove chest-leg sections (but not claws and feelers) from covering shell, and fill the shells with the mousse. Poach 5 minutes in stock or bouillon before floating them in the bisque at serving time. You should have 24 to 30 live crayfish for 2 quarts of soup, plus 12 or so extra if you are doing the mousse.
TWO SCALLOP SOUPS WITH A CRAB OR LOBSTER VARIATION
Scallops are so easy to come by, fresh or frozen, that we feel they should have their place in the soup repertoire. Although scallops are rarely so used in France, they are delicious as the unique fish in a bouillabaisse or bourride, and they make a marvelous velouté or cream soup.
This heady Mediterranean brew of leeks, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and herbs plus scallops can be a complete meal when served with plenty of fresh French bread and followed by fruit and cheese.
Serving 4 as a main course, 6 as a soup course
1) The soup base
1½ cups combination finely sliced leeks and onions, or onions only
¼ cup olive oil
A heavy-bottomed stainless or enameled 3-quart saucepan with cover
2 large cloves minced or mashed garlic
1¼ to 1½ cups chopped fresh tomato pulp (4 medium tomatoes peeled, seeded, and juiced)
4 cups liquid: white-wine fish stock, or equal parts clam juice, water, and white wine or vermouth
The juice from the tomatoes
2 large pinches saffron threads
The following tied in washed cheesecloth: 6 parsley sprigs, 1 bay leaf, ¼ tsp thyme, ½ tsp basil, 4 fennel seeds, and a 2-inch piece of dried orange peel or ¼ tsp bottled dried peel Salt and pepper
Cook the leeks and onions slowly with the oil in the covered saucepan for 5 to 6 minutes until tender but not browned. Add garlic and tomatoes, raise heat slightly, and cook 3 to 4 minutes more. Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to the boil, and simmer partially covered for 30 minutes. Carefully taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as needed.
2) Preparing the scallops
1 lb. (2 cups) bay or sea scallops, fresh or frozen
A large bowl and sieve
Soak the scallops in cold water for 2 or 3 minutes if fresh, until completely defrosted if frozen. Lift out and drain, looking over each for sand; wash again if necessary. Leave bay scallops whole. Cut sea scallops into ⅜-inch chunks.
3) Finishing the soup
The soup base
The scallops
2 to 3 Tb coarsely chopped fresh parsley
French bread
Optional: a bowl of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Bring the soup base to a rapid boil, add the scallops, bring to the boil again and boil slowly uncovered for 3 minutes. Check seasoning again. Serve either from a warm tureen or in soup cups or plates, and decorate with parsley. Pass the bread and optional cheese separately.
(*) Soup may be cooked several hours before serving. Let cool uncovered, then cover and refrigerate. Bring to a full boil for 2 or 3 seconds before serving. Note that a full boil is necessary to redistribute the olive oil into the liquid.
For a more nourishing soup, you can add 2 cups of diced “boiling” potatoes or a handful of pasta to the soup base 10 minutes before the end of its simmering. You could enrich the soup with an egg yolk and oil liaison, as for the soupe aux poivrons, or with a rouille, as for the bouillabaisse in Volume I, page 52. See also the recipe for bourride with its aïoli enrichment.
VELOUTÉ DE SAINT-JACQUES[Cream of Scallop Soup—hot or cold]
This deliciously creamy soup is a cousin of the Breton mouclades, mussel soup, and you may serve it either hot or cold.
For 6 to 7 cups, serving 4 to 6
1) The court bouillon
4 cups liquid: 2 cups dry white wine or 1½ cups dry white vermouth plus water
1 cup thinly sliced onions
¼ cup thinly sliced carrots
¼ tsp each: fennel seeds, thyme, and curry powder
4 peppercorns
1 clove mashed garlic
1½ bay leaf
6 parsley sprigs
½ tsp salt
A heavy-bottomed stainless or enameled saucepan with cover
A sieve set over a bowl
Simmer the ingredients for the court bouillon in the partially covered saucepan for 20 minutes. Strain, pressing liquid out of ingredients, and return the court bouillon liquid to the pan.
2) Cooking the scallops
1 lb. (2 cups) scallops, fresh or frozen
Soak the scallops in cold water for 2 or 3 minutes if fresh, until completely defrosted if frozen. Lift out and drain, looking over each for sand; wash again if necessary. Cut into ¼-inch dice. Bring the court bouillon to a boil, add scallops, bring again to just under the boiling point, and simmer uncovered for 3 minutes. Drain the liquid into the bowl, leaving scallops in sieve. Rinse and dry the saucepan.
3) The velouté soup base
3 Tb butter
4 Tb flour
A wooden spatula or spoon
The court bouillon
A wire whip
1½ to 2 cups milk
½ to ¾ cup heavy cream
2 egg yolks
The scallops
Salt and white pepper
Melt the butter in the saucepan, stir in the flour, and cook slowly for 2 minutes without browning. Remove from heat and let cool a moment, then pour in all the warm court bouillon at once, beating vigorously with a wire whip to blend thoroughly. Bring to the boil for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring to reach all over bottom of pan. Thin with milk as necessary; soup should not be too thick, since the egg yolks to come will also thicken it. Remove from heat. Pour ½ cup of the cream into the bowl, blend in the egg yolks with a wire whip, and gradually dribble in about 2 cups of the hot soup, beating. Return mixture to the pan and stir in the scallops. Carefully correct seasoning.
(*) Soup may be prepared to this point several hours in advance. Clean off sides of pan with a rubber spatula and float a spoonful of cream on the surface to prevent a skin from forming. When cool, cover and refrigerate.
4) Finishing the soup, and serving
3 to 4 Tb soft butter
2 to 3 Tb minced fresh parsley, chervil, or chives
Shortly before serving, set soup over moderate heat and stir continually with a wooden spoon until soup comes to just below the simmer. Remove from heat and stir in the butter, a tablespoon at a time. Serve in a warm tureen or soup cups, and decorate with the minced herbs.
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
[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.
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.
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).
[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.
[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.
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:
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
Bring the fish stock to the boil. During this time melt the butter in the saucepan, blend in the flour, and cook slowly, stirring, until butter and flour foam together for 2 minutes without browning at all. Set this roux aside: it is for the sauce, next step. When stock is boiling, add the halibut (or other firm-fleshed fish); bring liquid rapidly to the simmer and simmer 5 minutes. Then add the sole, scallops, and shrimp, pressing them down into the liquid. If really necessary, add a little more liquid: ingredients should be almost covered. Bring again rapidly to the simmer for 2 minutes, then add the cooked lobster meat and optional cooked mussels. Bring again to simmer for 1 minute and remove from heat. Lift fish out and arrange in tureen; cover loosely. (Some of the fish, like sole, may have flaked apart; lift only what you easily can into the tureen.)
the sauce:
The flour-and-butter roux and cooking liquid from preceding step
More stock or cream if needed
The lobster green-matter, cream, and yolk mixture
Salt, white pepper, Cayenne pepper, and lemon juice
Reheat roux if necessary, remove from heat, and whisking it with a wire whip, gradually ladle into it by driblets 2 cups of hot cooking stock. When perfectly smooth, set over moderately high heat and rapidly beat in 4 to 5 more cups of stock. Simmer, stirring, for 2 minutes: sauce should be a little thicker than a fairly heavy cream soup. Boil down rapidly, stirring, if too thin; beat in a little more stock if too thick. Then, and again by driblets, beat 2 cups of hot sauce into the lobster green-matter mixture, heating it gradually to prevent it from curdling. Gradually beat it back into the hot sauce, and set sauce over moderate heat. Stir slowly with a wooden spoon, reaching all over bottom of pan until sauce thickens and comes almost to the simmer. If sauce seems too thick, stir in a little more cream or stock. Taste very carefully for seasoning, adding salt, pepper, drops of lemon juice, and so forth if you feel them necessary. Proceed immediately to the next step.
serving:
The optional fish decorations, such as whole shrimp, lobster shells, mussels, etc.
2 to 3 Tb minced fresh parsley and or chervil
12 to 18 canapés (triangles of crustless homemade-type white bread sautéed in clarified butter)
Warm soup plates
Gently fold the hot sauce into the warm fish in the tureen. Float optional fish decorations on top and sprinkle the herbs over all. Serve as soon as possible, ladling the stew into hot plates and adding a canapé or two to each portion. This is eaten with large soup spoon, knife, and fork.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: May be completed a day before, serving in the marmite instead of a tureen. When cold, cover and refrigerate; heat slowly to below the simmer before serving. Like a good New England chowder or lobster stew, it gains in flavor when made in advance.
[Provençal Fish Stew with Aïoli—Garlic Mayonnaise]
This marvelous fish dinner from Provence is for garlic lovers only, as the big chunks of fish are cooked in a broth that is then enriched with egg yolks and a mayonnaise into which at least 1 large clove of garlic per person has been puréed. Like bouillabaisse, the fish is served on a platter and the enriched broth in a tureen, but both are eaten together in soup plates. This is such a rich dish we suggest you serve it for lunch, and you will want nothing else but perhaps a bit of green salad and fresh fruit. You will need a strong, dry white wine, such as a Côtes-du-Rhône or Pinot Blanc.
For 6 to 8 people as a main course
1) Preliminaries—may be done several hours before final cooking the fish:
3 to 4 lbs. assorted lean, firm-fleshed white fish, such as those suggested here
Prepare the fish as described, cutting it into chunks or steaks about 3 inches in diameter and 1 to 1½ inches thick. Refrigerate until cooking time.
the cooking broth:
1 cup each of sliced onions, carrots, and white of leek (or additional onion)
3 to 4 Tb olive oil
A heavy-bottomed 7- to 8- quart flameproof casserole or kettle
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 to 3 quarts fish trimmings, bones, heads; or 2 to 3 cups fish; or 1 quart clam juice
3 quarts water (2 quarts if you use clam juice)
2 cups dry white wine or 1½ cups dry white French vermouth
2 imported bay leaves
¼ tsp each of thyme, fennel, and dried orange peel
2 large cloves of garlic, unpeeled, halved
2 large pinches saffron flowers
1½ Tb salt (none if you use clam juice)
Cook the vegetables in oil over low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until tender but not browned. Add the tomatoes and cook 2 minutes, then add all the rest of the ingredients. Bring to the simmer, skimming occasionally, and simmer partially covered for 40 minutes. Strain into a bowl, wash out casserole, and return the stock to it. Correct seasoning, adding salt if necessary.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE: If prepared in advance, cover when cool and refrigerate.
the aïoli mayonnaise:
⅓ cup stale crumbs from homemade-type unsweetened white bread
Wine vinegar
A heavy 2½-quart mixing bowl or a mortar
A wooden pestle, masher, or heavy ladle (for pounding)
6 to 8 cloves garlic and garlic press
½ tsp salt
6 egg yolks (2 now, the rest later)
1½ to 2 cups olive oil
A large wire whip
White or Cayenne pepper
Moisten crumbs with a tablespoon or two of vinegar and pound to a paste in the bowl. Purée garlic through press into the paste and continue pounding several minutes until absolutely smooth. Add salt and 2 of the egg yolks and pound until mixture is very thick and sticky. Then begin pounding and stirring in oil by droplets until sauce is thick and heavy. Thin out with drops of vinegar and begin beating in teaspoons of oil with whip. Sauce should be heavy enough to hold its shape in a spoon. Season to taste. (Note that a more detailed recipe on aïoli and on mayonnaise in general is in Volume I, page 92.)
A 2-cup serving bowl
Plastic wrap
A covered jar if needed
Scrape half the sauce into serving bowl, cover airtight, and set aside for dining room. Beat the 4 remaining egg yolks into the rest of the sauce; cover airtight. (If doing in advance, transfer to a smaller container and cover.) This second half is to be combined with the stew just before serving.
2) Cooking and serving cooking the fish:
The cooking broth
The prepared fish
A large perforated skimmer
A serving platter set over a pan of almost simmering water, and a cover
2 to 3 Tb coarsely chopped parsley
About 15 minutes before serving, bring cooking broth to a rolling boil and add the fish, pushing it down into the broth, which should barely cover it. (Add a little boiling water if necessary.) Boil slowly, uncovered, for 6 to 10 minutes, depending on thickness of fish (2 to 3 minutes only for scallops); it is done when springy rather than squashy to the touch—do not overcook. As soon as fish is done, arrange on platter, moisten with a little of the cooking broth, decorate with parsley, and cover to keep it warm.
combining cooking broth and aïoli:
The egg-yolk enriched aïoli in a 3-quart bowl
A large wire whip, a ladle, and a wooden spoon
A 3-cup serving bowl
Salt and white pepper
A warm soup tureen
Whisking aïoli with wire whip, gradually dribble in several ladlesful of hot cooking broth until 2 to 3 cups have gone in. (Ladle a cup or so of broth also into serving bowl and keep warm.) Pour aïoli mixture back into casserole with rest of cooking stock and set over moderate heat. Stir continually and rather slowly with wooden spoon until broth slowly thickens enough to coat the spoon—4 to 5 minutes—being careful that liquid does not come to simmer and scramble the egg yolks. Carefully correct seasoning; broth will be a beautiful, smooth, richly aromatic yellow-ivory color. Pour it into the tureen and serve immediately.
serving:
12 or more slices of hot French bread, ¾ inch thick
Wide soup plates
The reserved plain broth
The hot fish on its platter, and the tureen
The reserved aïoli mayonnaise
For each serving, place 2 slices of bread in a soup plate and moisten with a spoonful of plain broth. Arrange chunks of fish over the bread and ladle over it the aïoli broth from the tureen. Each guest adds a spoonful of aïoli mayonnaise, and eats the bourride with soup spoon and fork.
