French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [201]
ROGNONS DE BŒUF À LA CHARENTAISE
OX KIDNEY STEWED IN WINE WITH MUSHROOMS
Cooked in this way the toughest ox kidney will become tender and have a most excellent flavour. Ingredients are lb. ox kidney, 2 oz. mushrooms, 2 oz. cream, brandy, white wine, butter, meat stock.
Soak the skinned kidney in warm, salted water for a couple of hours. Slice into pieces about inch thick. Heat a little butter in a frying-pan and turn the kidneys over and over in this for a minute or so. Add salt and pepper, and the chopped mushrooms. Pour over 2 tablespoons of brandy warmed in a soup ladle, set light to it and shake the pan until the flames go out. Pour a small glass of white wine into the pan, let it bubble, then add about a coffee-cupful (after-dinner size) of very good meat stock. Turn the kidneys and their juice into a small earthenware casserole, cover and put into a low oven for 30 to 40 minutes. Boil the cream in a small, wide pan; pour in the sauce from the kidneys. Stir, and cook quickly until the sauce is thick. Pour back over the kidneys; serve with croûtons of fried bread. Enough for two or three.
One way of making the sauce for this dish less expensive is to cook it when you have some rich gravy left over from any of the meat stews already described. The wine can then be omitted, for the gravy is already flavoured with it.
L’AGNEAU ET LE MOUTON
LAMB AND MUTTON
French methods of cutting up lamb and mutton are substantially the same as our own, except that the shoulder is very often boned, and sometimes tied into a round shape, when it is described as a ballotine d’agneau. The saddle is cut shorter than in England, and the leg often has the central bone removed while retaining the shank bone. The carré or row of best end of neck cutlets is trimmed right down to the bones, which are cut short, making it into a very elegant and manageable little joint, which can equally well be cooked on top of the stove or in the oven. If it is from very small tender lamb it can be grilled.
For breast of lamb, which is really, apart from the scrag end of neck, the only cut which could fairly be described as cheap, the French method of two separate and distinct processes of cooking is probably one of the very best. According to this system, usually known as à la Ste. Ménéhould and applied to pigs’ and sheep’s trotters, as well as to breast of veal and lamb, the meat is first slowly braised, left to cool, boned (if this has not already been done prior to cooking), divided into strips, coated with breadcrumbs and grilled, so that you get a dry crisp outer covering for your fat and gelatinous meat inside.
Small quantities of already cooked breast of lamb can also very successfully be used to make a pilaff or risotto, and to stuff tomatoes and aubergines.
GIGOT À LA BRETONNE
LEG OF MUTTON OR LAMB WITH HARICOT BEANS
Not many of the legs of lamb and mutton served daily in Paris restaurants under this name come from animals pastured in the salt meadows of Brittany; and, indeed, unless they figure on the menu as gigot de pré-salé there is no reason to assume that they are anything of the kind. It is the invariable garnish of haricot beans which is characteristically Breton.
The joint, a clove or two of garlic pushed in near the bone, is roasted in the routine way, being basted from time to time with a little stock. The beans, soaked overnight, are prepared as explained in the following recipe, but, of course, for a whole leg of lamb you need more beans than for a small joint like the best end of neck. Allow 1 lb. or even more, for if any are left over they can always be heated up a second time.
It is as well to bear in mind, when ordering roast lamb in a French restaurant, that the French like this meat rather underdone—sometimes uneatably so to English tastes—so that it is advisable to inquire as to this point before giving your order.
CARRÉ D’AGNEAU AUX