French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [181]
For 4 large scallops the other ingredients are 2 oz. of streaky salt pork or unsmoked bacon, a shallot or two, butter, flour, a small glass of dry white wine, parsley.
Melt 1 oz. of butter in a frying-pan, put in the finely-chopped shallots and the pork or bacon cut into tiny cubes. Cut the cleaned scallops into larger cubes, season them with pepper but no salt, sprinkle them with flour and put them in the pan when the shallots have turned pale yellow and the pork is beginning to frizzle. Let them cook very gently for 5 to 7 minutes. Take them out of the pan and put them in the serving dish. Pour the white wine into the pan and let it bubble fiercely, stirring so that it amalgamates with the juices and all the little bits left behind in the pan. When it has thickened to a syrupy consistency, add a very little finely-chopped parsley and pour the sauce over the scallops.
The mixture of pork or bacon with the fish sounds odd, but it is an old-fashioned and delicious one, although the amount must not be overdone.
COQUILLES ST. JACQUES À LA PROVENÇALE
FRIED SCALLOPS WITH GARLIC AND PARSLEY
The scallops which come from the Mediterranean are very much smaller than those from the Atlantic, but this method of cooking them can be applied just as well to the large variety. Slice the cleaned white part of the scallops into two rounds, season them with salt, pepper and lemon juice; immediately before cooking them, sprinkle them very lightly with flour, fry them pale golden on each side in a mixture of butter and olive oil. Put in the red parts, add a generous sprinkling of finely-chopped garlic and parsley and shake the pan so that the mixture spreads evenly amongst the scallops. Five minutes’ cooking altogether will be enough.
HUÎTRES MORNAY
OYSTERS MORNAY
This is one of the best of cooked oyster dishes, but it is tricky to get the sauce to exactly the right consistency and attention to detail is important.
First prepare a very thick sauce mornay. This is started off in the same way as béchamel. Melt 1 oz. of butter, stir in 2 tablespoons of flour and, when it has amalgamated with the butter, stir in gradually pint of hot milk. Cook slowly and stir constantly until the sauce is thick. Season with a very little salt, some freshly-ground white pepper, a little cayenne. Stir in 1 tablespoon of thick cream and 2 heaped tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese (Gruyère is the usual cheese for mornay sauce, but for oysters I prefer Parmesan). Reduce your sauce by slow cooking until it is about twice. as thick as the usual béchamel, and really sticks to the spoon.
Now take 2 dozen small oysters, or 18 large ones, from their shells; with their juice put them in the smallest pan you have and simmer them gently for about half a minute. This operation is necessary to extract moisture which would otherwise come out of them when they are cooked with the sauce, making the sauce too runny. Now strain the juice through a muslin into the sauce; there won’t be very much, but enough to give a flavour. If necessary, simmer the sauce again for a minute or two.
The dish can be completed in two ways. One way is to put each oyster into its deep half-shell and cover with the sauce. But unless large oysters are being used, I find it better to put them into very small egg ramekins or fireproof china shells or even scallop shells, either six or a dozen in each. Cover them completely with the hot sauce. Pour a little melted butter on top. Put the little dishes or the shells on a baking tray and put them at the very top of a very hot, and preheated, oven for about 5 minutes, until the tops are golden and just bubbling.
All this sounds a formidable operation, but it is described in such detail in order that those who may be attempting a hot oyster dish for the first time may be spared disillusion.
Enough for two or three.
LES HUÎTRES OU LES PALOURDES FARCIES
STUFFED OYSTERS OR CLAMS
In Brittany and Touraine this dish is usually made with palourdes, the delicate little clams of the Atlantic coast. In England, Cornish