French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [20]
‘ “We began with an omelette, in which was some delicious minced kidney. This omelette was so ‘tasty’ that I later asked Catherine, who was the cook this morning, to tell me exactly how it was made. She said two kidneys were first braised very slowly, then cut up, minced, and added to the omelette at the last moment, just before it was turned over in the pan. I told her I had heard it was a mistake to use more than two or three eggs when making an omelette. She laughed, and said that was true only if one hadn’t a big omelette pan; but as she had a huge pan which is used for nothing else, it is easy for her to make an omelette for as many as five or even six people.
‘ “After we had eaten our omelette, we had cold salmon trout with a large silver tureenful of mayonnaise sauce. The salmon was brought from Versailles yesterday, by the housemaid who had gone there to see her sweetheart who is doing his time in the Army. It was cooked at once, as the weather is very sultry, and was far nicer than if it had been served hot. French people do not care for salmon—only for salmon trout, a fish which is seldom seen in London.
‘ “We then had hot roast chicken, and with it simply an endive salad. To my astonishment I learned that the chicken had been basted with the best butter for something like an hour and a half at frequent intervals. The butter was served as a sauce, in a separate sauce-boat.
‘ “Where the French, in my opinion, do not compare with the English is in the matter of puddings and sweets. But always, when Monsieur Saint-Hilaire is expected, there is his favourite cœur à la crème. This is a kind of sweet cream cheese, shaped like a heart, and with it was served a large dish of tiny, very ripe fraises des bois which were truly delicious. There was sugar, but without the cream which always accompanies strawberries in England.
‘ “Coffee was served in the drawing-room, and as I was the only girl in the party (we were five), I poured out the coffee, handed round the cups, and offered Monsieur Saint-Hilaire a choice of either brandy or a liqueur. To my astonishment Bessie told me that she thinks one reason why Madame Swanton Belloc is so vigorous, and still does so much work—she spends every morning at her writing table—is because of the good food she has always eaten during her eighty years of life. Yet I noticed that she ate much less than her old admirer. She only had a small helping of the omelette, and a little chicken and salad. Nothing else. But he ate everything and evidently enjoyed it all. At about three o’clock he got up and declared it was his intention to walk down to Bougival, where he would find a tram to take him to St. Germain, where he was going to spend the afternoon and dine with Monsieur Thiers.”’
MRS. BELLOC LOWNDES
From an article in the Wine and Food Society Quarterly,
Summer 1945
Alsace and Lorraine
It was a late spring afternoon as, driving from the ancient city of Bar-le-Duc, we approached Nancy. It was already getting dark, and we preferred to see the capital of Lorraine for the first time in daylight. Turning back into the country, we spent the night in a seedy roadhouse on the banks of the Moselle, where the cooking was of about the same standard of artistry as the blue pottery gnomes with which the dining-room was unsparingly ornamented. It was just the sort of place in which the tourist is liable to land when too late and too tired to drive any farther, so we had only ourselves to thank for this bad beginning. In this case it was of little consequence (and it might have been worse, for we did manage to needle out some very acceptable