French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [137]
Jambonneaux are to be bought ready prepared in most French charcuteries but are not to be confused with jambonnettes, the Ardéchois speciality described in the introduction to this chapter and which is a boned and stuffed knuckle, formed into a little fat cushion shape.
SOUFFLÉ GLACÉ AU JAMBON
ICED HAM MOUSSE
This is a useful dish for using up a piece of cooked ham. Ingredients are lb. of cooked lean mild ham, lb. of cooked salt tongue, 3 leaves of gelatine, 2 whites of egg, pint of double cream. First of all prepare the gelatine. Cut the leaves into small pieces, put them into the top half of a double saucepan, pour over them pint of hot, not boiling, water and steam gently over hot water until the gelatine is quite dissolved, and you have a perfectly clear liquid. Leave to cool.
Now chop the ham finely and then pound it to a paste in a mortar or in the electric blender. Cut the tongue into little dice, and mix the two together. Pour in the cooled gelatine, through a strainer. Mix very thoroughly. Now fold in the cream, whipped until it is light and frothy. Season with a little freshly-milled pepper but no salt. Turn into a bowl and leave in the refrigerator or a cold larder for about an hour. It should be firm but not quite set. Whip the whites stiffly; fold them into the mixture with great care and thoroughness. Put into a soufflé dish or other mould which can be brought to table, of 1 pint capacity. Pile it up so that the mixture comes about 1 inches above the top and when it is served it will look like a risen soufflé. Put in the refrigerator to set. If the weather is very warm, it may be necessary to pin a band of oiled paper round the outside of the dish to enclose the mousse, but in normal weather this can be dispensed with. Alternatively, an extra leaf of gelatine can be used, but the charm of this mousse is its delicate creamy taste and texture, which is spoilt if it is too rock-like.
Serve it as a first course instead of a pâté. This quantity is enough for four to six people according to what else is to be served. The same dish made on a large scale makes a handsome appearance on a buffet lunch or supper table.
Les Légumes
Vegetables
WHAT, I am sometimes asked, is the difference between fresh and frozen vegetables; surely they are exactly the same? Astonishing though such a question may seem to anyone who knows what is really meant by fresh vegetables, I think the explanation is that to a great many English people vegetables mean simply an accompaniment to meat. Gravy and horseradish, mustard and mint, to say nothing of the meat itself, distract attention from second-rate or inadequately cooked vegetables. Eaten for themselves alone, as a separate dish, vegetables take on a very different significance. Both their charms and their defects become more apparent.
Apart from cauliflower cheese, we haven’t much tradition in the way of vegetable dishes which stand on their own. But we have plenty of vegetables, and often it is the commonplace ones like onions and beetroot, carrots and spinach and leeks which make the most delicious dishes. True, we cannot often obtain those little round flat onions which, golden and glazed, appear so frequently in French cookery, although mostly as a garnish to meat dishes. And potatoes. When, oh when will some enterprising grower supply us with the right firm-fleshed varieties such as Kipfler or Belle de Juillet,