French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [174]
To make the aïoli sauce:
Allow roughly 2 large cloves of garlic per person and, for eight people, the yolks of 3 eggs and nearly a pint of very good quality olive oil—failing Provençal olive oil, the best Italian or Spanish will do. Crush the peeled garlic in a mortar until it is reduced absolutely to pulp. Add the yolks and a pinch of salt. Stir with a wooden spoon. When the eggs and garlic are well amalgamated, start adding the oil, very slowly at first, drop by drop, until the aïoli begins to thicken. This takes longer than with a straightforward mayonnaise because the garlic has thinned the yolks to a certain extent. When about half the oil has been used, the aïoli should be a very thick mass, and the oil can now be added in a slow but steady stream. The sauce gets thicker and thicker, and this is as it should be; a good aïoli is practically solid. Add a very little lemon juice at the end, and serve the sauce either in the kitchen mortar in which you have made it or piled up in a small salad bowl. Should the aïoli separate through the oil having been added too fast, put a fresh yolk into another bowl and gradually add the curdled mixture to it. The aïoli then comes back to life.
Now as to the amount of garlic: you can, of course, use less but you are likely to find that the mass of eggs and oil is then too heavy and rich. A true aïoli is a remarkable mixture of the smooth mayonnaise combined with the powerful garlic flavour which tingles in your throat as you swallow it. One Provençal writer suggests that those who find the aïoli indigestible should take a trou or coup du milieu in the form of a little glass of marc in the middle of the meal.
LA BOURRIDE DE CHARLES BÉROT
Bourride is one of the great dishes of Provence. There are various different ways of presenting it but the essential characteristic is that aïoli or garlic flavoured mayonnaise is added to the stock in which the fish has cooked to make a beautiful smooth pale yellow sauce—and of this there must be plenty for it is the main point of the dish.
M. Bérot, once chef des cuisines on the Île de France—a liner celebrated for its good cooking—served us his own version of this dish at the Escale, a hospitable and charming restaurant at Carry-le-Rouet, a little seaside place west of Marseille.
The ingredients you need for four people are 4 fine thick fillets of a rather fleshy white fish. M. Bérot uses baudroie or angler fish, but at home I have made the dish with fillets of John Dory, of turbot, of brill (barbue).
In any case, whatever fish you choose, be sure to get the head and the carcase with your fillets. Apart from these you need a couple of leeks, a lemon, a tablespoon of wine vinegar, at least 4 cloves of garlic, 2 or 3 egg yolks, about one-third of a pint of olive oil, a couple of tablespoons of cream, and seasonings. To accompany the bourride you need plain boiled new potatoes and slices of French bread fried in oil.
First make your stock by putting the head and carcase of the fish into a saucepan with a sliced leek, a few parsley stalks, a teaspoon of salt, a slice of lemon, the wine vinegar and about 1 pints of water. Let all this simmer gently for 25 to 30 minutes. Then strain it.
While it is cooking make your aïoli with the egg yolks, 5 cloves of garlic and olive oil as explained on page 302.
Now put a tablespoon of olive oil and the white of the second leek, finely sliced, into the largest shallow metal or other fireproof pan you have; let it heat, add the spare clove of garlic, crushed; put in the lightly seasoned fillets; cover with the stock; let them gently poach for 15 to 25 minutes, according to how thick they are.
Have ready warming a big serving dish; take the fillets from the pan with a fish slice and lay them in the dish; cover them and put them in a low oven to keep warm.
Reduce the stock in your pan by