French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [154]
Excellent with veal and with white fish.
PETITS POIS AU BEURRE
GREEN PEAS STEWED IN BUTTER
The great difference between the way peas are served in French and English cookery respectively is that while we cook ours so that each pea is, so to speak, separate (and very often a separate bullet), the French cook them so that they are bound together with a sauce, although that sauce usually consists only of butter.
But to cook English peas à la française, that is to say, entirely in butter with lettuce heart and tiny onions, is only possible when the youngest, smallest, tenderest, garden peas are available. When they are full grown, although still young, a compromise between the English and French methods produces excellent results.
For 3 lb. of peas, freshly shelled, shred 1 small cabbage lettuce heart; put this with the peas, a little salt and a lump of sugar, in sufficient boiling water just to cover the peas. Cook uncovered until they are barely tender. Drain them. Return them to the rinsed saucepan with a large lump of butter— lb. is by no means too much—and let the peas and lettuce stew gently in this butter for a few minutes. The result will be a dish of peas with the most delicate flavour and a sauce of an almost creamy consistency. It is, of course, a dish to be served on its own, so you need about 3 lb. of peas for four people.
PETITS POIS DE CONSERVE
TINNED PETITS POIS
French and Belgian tinned petits pois are excellent when fresh ones cannot be obtained. They were, I believe, one of the first vegetables ever to be preserved by the tinning method and those made by a firm at Nantes in Britanny very quickly became famous. No green colouring matter is ever put with French or Belgian tinned peas, for if it were nobody would buy them. In England, I am told by grocers and the canning firms, people would not buy them without the green colouring. But judging by the number of people willing to pay high prices for the French and Belgian varieties, there should surely be a market, even if a limited one, for home-grown peas preserved without colouring matter.
Probably the best way to serve tinned petits pois is to drain off all but a small amount of the existing liquid, heat the peas in what is left and, when it has evaporated, add a large lump of butter, shaking the pan until it has melted. Some brands of tinned peas need extra seasoning in the way of sugar and salt; others are already sufficiently seasoned.
LES POIREAUX
LEEKS
Leeks are tiresome to clean, but once ready they seldom need more than 10 minutes’ cooking. Trim off all the coarse green part of the leaves, the outside covering of the white part and the root. Cut all the leeks to approximately the same length. Make a cross-cut on the top of each. Hold them under a running cold tap for a few seconds, then turn them upside down and shake them. Leave them, heads downward, in a jug or saucepan of fresh cold water for half an hour before cooking them. Any grit left in the leeks will by then have seeped out or become apparent in little dark patches under the outer leaves. If it is difficult to get at, make a little slit along the leek and rinse it again.
On page 209 is a recipe for a leek pie, and three soups in which leeks are the characteristic and indispensable flavouring are in the soup chapter. For vegetable dishes allow a minimum of lb. leeks per person.
POIREAUX À LA NIÇOISE
LEEKS STEWED IN OIL WITH TOMATOES
2 lb. leeks, 2 tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, parsley, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, cayenne pepper.
In a frying-pan warm about 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Put in the cleaned leeks, laying them side by side. As soon as the oil starts bubbling turn the leeks over. Sprinkle with salt and cayenne pepper. Cook half a minute, then turn down the flame, cover the pan and cook slowly for about 7 minutes for small leeks, 9 or 10 for large ones. Test by putting a skewer into the root end