French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [144]
PURÉE DE CÉLERI-RAVE ET POMMES DE TERRE
CELERIAC AND POTATO PURÉE
Scrub the celeriac and cook it unpeeled in plenty of water until it is quite tender. When it is cool enough to handle, peel and sieve it, then mix it with a purée of potatoes made separately. Season rather highly. Heat up in a double saucepan, with a good lump of butter and 2 or 3 tablespoons of cream.
Proportions are lb. of potatoes to a celeriac weighting to lb.
This purée is particularly nice with fried or grilled cutlets and with game dishes. As an alternative to the celeriac, Jerusalem artichokes can be used.
CÈPES À LA BORDELAISE
CÈPES (BOLETUS EDULIS) STEWED IN OIL WITH PARSLEY AND GARLIC
Of this famous dish, Alcide Bontou, author of the Traité de Cuisine Bourgeoise Bordelaise (1929), says: ‘The cèpe was little known in Paris forty years ago, and was not listed on restaurant menus; I was the first to have them brought specially to the Café Anglais. Parisians could not accustom themselves to the oil and to the seasoning of garlic; we tried to cook them in butter, but the only way to prepare them is in the Bordelais way.’
Here is his recipe:
‘Choose 12 firm cèpes, small rather than large, and with dark heads; remove the stalks and peel them, but only wipe the heads; make incisions on the underside of the heads with the point of a knife. Put a glass of olive oil in a frying-pan; when it is hot, put in the heads of the cèpes; turn them over when they have browned on one side. Season with salt and pepper.
‘Chop the stalks with 4 cloves of garlic and some parsley. Throw this mixture over the cèpes. Let them all sauter in the pan for 3 or 4 minutes.
‘You may add a tablespoon of soft white breadcrumbs. Serve.’
LES CHAMPIGNONS DE COUCHE
CULTIVATED MUSHROOMS
About ten kilometres from the little town of Apt, in the Vaucluse department of Provence, the curious village of Roussillon stands on the side of a steep hill. Its orange and saffron and terracotta-coloured houses look as if they are about to come crashing down the cliffs. Its steep narrow streets are barely negotiable by car; and about Easter-time the lilac trees and the wistaria come into flower, so that a backdrop of mauves and pinks and greens against the ochre rocks makes the whole place look highly theatrical. Apart from ochre-mining, these rocks provide the district with a flourishing little subsidiary industry, for they are honeycombed with caves which are used for the cultivation of mushrooms.
While we were staying in a neighbouring village some years ago, the local mushrooms proved to be our most valuable resource in the way of vegetables during the very early spring, for most of the root vegetables were finished and the primeurs had not yet started. No deep freeze, of course, and the vegetables imported from North Africa seldom penetrated as far as these hill villages. Our kitchen was not conspicuous for planned comfort or modern amenities; most of our cooking had to be of the quick and simple variety, and the mushrooms were a blessing in this respect. But these local mushrooms, as with most French cultivated ones, required very meticulous cleaning and washing, for they are grown in very sandy, gritty soil.
English ones are rather easier to deal with. They can simply be wiped with a soft damp cloth, or given a brief rinse in cold water, if they look at all gritty. They can be rubbed with a cut lemon to preserve their whiteness, but neither peel nor stalks should be removed.
The three following dishes are among those we used to cook with the little cultivated mushrooms, and there are more recipes in the hors d’œuvre chapter, and an excellent soup on page 171.
CHAMPIGNONS À LA CRÈME
MUSHROOMS WITH CREAM
For lb. of