French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [152]
In a heavy saucepan heart oz. butter; in this melt a small onion thinly sliced; add the drained lentils. Give them a stir, pour in 2 pints of hot water, add the piece of salt pork and a bouquet of bayleaf, parsley, and a crushed clove of garlic, tied with a thread. Simmer for 1 to 1 hours uncovered. By this time the liquid should all be absorbed and the lentils quite tender. Remove the pork, taste the lentils for seasoning and add salt if necessary; turn into a shallow serving dish; squeeze in a little lemon juice; cut the pork into squares or strips and put them on top of the lentils. Strew with a little parsley and serve hot.
LES MARRONS
CHESTNUTS
A tremendous fuss is made about the difficulty of shelling and skinning chestnuts. It is really very easy but people who are not accustomed to cooking and, consequently, to handling food when it is hot, are better advised to leave the job to more experienced cooks and housewives. It is all a question of how much heat your hands can stand, and it is well known that women are better at this than men. The procedure is as follows:
Score the chestnuts across on the rounded side and put them in a baking tin in a gentle oven, Gas No. 3, 330 deg. F., for 15 to 20 minutes, or else drop them in boiling water and boil them for about 8 minutes. Extract a few at a time so that the rest do not get cool, for then they become difficult to peel. Squeeze each chestnut so that the shell cracks and then, with the aid of a small knife, it is quite easy to remove both skins and shell. The chestnuts are now ready to be simmered gently in water to cover, until they are quite soft.
MARRONS EN PURÉE
CHESTNUT PURÉE
For four people, 1 lb. of chestnuts makes an ample amount.
Prepare the chestnuts as explained above. When they are shelled and skinned, put them in a saucepan and cover them completely with half milk and half water or stock. Simmer very gently indeed for about an hour until they are very soft and only a little of the liquid is left. Sieve them, or purée them in the electric blender, with the liquid. The resulting purée should be rather liquid. To heat it up, put it into the top half of a double saucepan with a small piece of butter and light seasoning of salt. Cook over gently boiling water, stirring frequently. Chestnut purée very easily dries up and becomes stodgy but, done in this way, it should remain creamy and rather liquid. Before serving, stir in a tablespoon or two of the sauce or juice of the bird, meat or game which it is to accompany. A good chestnut purée should be café au lait colour rather than dark brown.
MARRONS À LA DIABLE
DEVILLED CHESTNUTS
Cook shelled and skinned chestnuts in stock or water to cover, very gently, until tender. Extract them with a perforated spoon rather than by tipping them into a colander, and put them in a sieve to drain. Sprinkle them with salt and a little cayenne pepper. Fry them very gently in a little olive oil, for a minute or two only.
Nice with bacon or grilled gammon rashers, or with a roast saddle of hare.
NAVETS AU JAMBON
TURNIPS WITH HAM
Pare 2 lb. of very small turnips. Throw them into boiling salted water and cook for 10 minutes. Drain, cut them in halves or quarters, put them in a sauté pan in which 1 oz. of butter has been heated, cover the pan and cook gently till the turnips are tender (about 15 minutes), shaking the pan from time to time to make sure they do not stick. Now add lb. ham cut into thick strips; just let it heat through and serve the turnips with a sprinkling of chives on the top. Enough for four.
NAVETS À LA BORDELAISE
TURNIPS WITH PARSLEY AND BREADCRUMBS
Give the turnips a preliminary cooking as above, and the second cooking in olive oil instead of butter. When they are all but done, add 3 tablespoons of breadcrumbs mixed with chopped parsley, and a chopped shallot. By the time the olive oil has been absorbed by the breadcrumbs the vegetables should be ready. The contrast of the crisp breadcrumbs, with the soft turnips is particularly pleasing.
NAVETS GLACÉS