French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [184]
CREVETTES SAUTÉES À LA CRÈME
PRAWNS WITH CREAM AND BRANDY SAUCE
A very simple little dish which, requiring the minimum of preparation, does nicely for a first course at dinner or lunch when time rather than money is lacking.
About 5 to 6 oz. of cooked and shelled prawns for two people, 1 oz. of butter, rather under pint of thick cream and a small glass of brandy, plus seasonings of pepper, lemon juice, nutmeg and parsley. A teacup of Patna rice.
Heat the butter in a frying-pan and sauté the well-seasoned prawns gently for a couple of minutes. Warm the brandy in a soup ladle, pour it flaming over the prawns and shake the pan so that the flames spread. When they have gone out, turn the heat low and leave a minute or two; then turn up the heat and add the cream. Let it bubble until it starts to thicken, again shaking the pan and spooning the cream up and round. Stir in a little finely chopped parsley and serve the prawns on top of the plain boiled rice, which has been keeping warm in the oven.
HOMARD À L’AMÉRICAINE (1)
This is the version Escoffier gives in Ma Cuisine:
‘The essential condition is to have the lobster alive. Split it down the centre; remove the bag near the head, for this is generally gritty. On a plate set aside the greenish-creamy parts which are found next to the bag: thoroughly mix with them, mashing with a fork, a tablespoon of butter. Sever the claws from the body; crack them to facilitate the removal of the flesh after cooking. Slice each half lobster into 3 or 4 pieces; season them with salt and pepper.
'For a lobster weighing approximately a kilo (2 lb. 2 oz.), thoroughly heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 of butter in a sauté pan; throw in the pieces of lobster and sauté them until they have turned bright red. Moisten with 4 to 5 tablespoons of cognac and 1 decilitres (approximately 5 oz.) of dry white wine; add 2 chopped shallots, 6 fine tomatoes, peeled, seeded and finely chopped, a little scrap of garlic, a pinch of cut parsley, a dash of Cayenne pepper, 4 or 5 tablespoons of melted meat glaze and an equal quantity of half-glaze. Cover the pan and give the lobster 18 to 20 minutes’ cooking over a good heat.
‘Arrange the pieces of lobster in a deep dish; using a small egg whisk, incorporate into the cooking liquor the reserved creamy parts of the lobster; cook a few seconds and finish the sauce, off the fire, with 100 grammes (3 oz.) of butter divided into little morsels, and the juice of half a lemon; pour over the pieces of lobster and sprinkle with a pinch of chopped parsley.
‘Nota: The lobster should be put shell side down on the dish so that the flesh is covered with the sauce.
‘Serve at the same time some pilaff rice.’
HOMARD À L’AMÉRICAINE (2)
Another theory, another version. Pierre Huguenin, author of ‘Les Meilleures Recettes de ma Pauvre Mère (1936) gives the following recipe, noting that it was given to his mother by its inventor, the chef Pascal at the café Brébant in 1877.
‘For twelve people. In a sauté pan put 1 Ib. of very good butter to melt. When the butter is hot, put into it a medium-sized bowl of mirepoix (grated shallots and carrots) and litre (nearly a pint) of white Meursault or Chablis, a bouquet of parsley, onion, a head of garlic; thyme and bay leaf; 6 tablespoons of tomato and 6 of olive oil, 3 of cream, 3 of concentrated meat juice, abundant pepper, a scrap of saffron and curry powder; leave all to boil for three-quarters of an hour.
‘Cut your lobsters, either in pieces or in halves according to their size, put them to cook in the sauce the necessary time (half an hour) and then serve them in a timbale, adding a few little pieces of fresh butter worked with a little chopped parsley. Pour in litre (9 oz.) of good cognac, set light to it and serve when the flames have gone out.’
Well, let the cooks and the historians go on arguing about