French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [230]
‘Into a tureen put some good cream and a proportionate quantity of powdered sugar, a pinch of gum arabic, a little orange flower water; whip all with a whisk made of peeled osier twigs; when the mixture is well swollen, leave it a moment and then take it up, bit by bit, with a skimmer, arranging it in a pyramid on a dish. Garnish round the base with little fillets of candied lemon or green orange peel and serve.’
The proportion of sugar to whipped cream should always be very small, just enough to slightly sweeten it, for the sugar melts in the cream, turns it grainy and watery and spoils its appearance. Personally, I do not bother about the gum arabic. One seldom needs to make whipped cream so long in advance that it needs stiffening.
CRÈME AUX FRAISES
STRAWBERRY CREAM
Hull lb. of strawberries and sieve them to a pulp, reserving half a dozen. Whisk pint of double cream, fold in one stiffly whisked egg white, then the strawberry pulp. Add a little caster sugar, about 2 or 3 tablespoons. Arrange the cream piled up in a shallow bowl; stir in the reserved whole strawberries before serving. Enough for four people.
This is a most exquisite cream which can also be made with raspberries or, most beautiful of all, fraises des bois. The recipe comes from a dictionary of French cooking of the period of the Second Empire.
LES CRÉMETS
In its extreme simplicity this sweet, native to Anjou and Saumur, is one of the most delicious in all French cookery; although in fact that is the wrong term to use, since there is no cooking involved—just a lot of fresh cream and some egg whites. 32
For three or four people, whip pint of fresh double cream until it is stiff. Fold in 2 egg whites beaten as for a soufflé. Have ready a square of fresh new muslin placed in a little mould pierced with holes. (There are special glazed earthenware or metal moulds sold in France for this purpose. One or two London shops sell them, but a small tin mould in which you make some holes with a tin opener will do, or even a large tumbler-shaped carton.) Turn your cream into this and fold over the corners. Stand the mould on some sort of trivet or stand over a plate, so that the cream can drain. Leave in a cold larder until the next day. Turn out the cream on to a plate; cover it completely with fresh plain unwhipped cream. Serve with plenty of soft white sugar and in the season with strawberries, raspberries or wild strawberries.
In the winter you can serve, instead of fresh fruit, quince or raspberry jelly. But also the crémets can quite well be served on their own, perhaps with a glass of one of the lovely soft fruity white wines of Vouvray, Saumur or Sancerre.
FROMAGE À LA CRÈME
Another version of the many sweet cream cheese dishes current in French home cookery.
Buy lb. of unsalted cream cheese, tasting it to make sure it is unsalted. If you cannot get it, use home-made milk cheese. The French cream cheeses called Isigny and Chambourcy can be used, but they are, of course, more expensive than the English ones. Turn the cream cheese into a bowl and mash it with a fork or, if it is the very grainy kind, press it through a sieve so that it is quite smooth. Add a tablespoon of caster sugar. Incorporate 3 stiffly beaten whites, as you would for a soufflé. Turn into a fresh muslin cloth or napkin; it should now go into a little rush basket or mould33 pierced with holes, or a shallow tin 2 inches deep and approximately 4 inches in diameter, pierced with holes. Leave in the refrigerator for 2 hours or so. To serve, turn out on to a plate, pour thick fresh cream over, about pint for this amount, and serve caster sugar separately. Plenty for four.
On no account must this lovely sweet, or indeed any of these cream cheese dishes, be despoiled of their cool cream and white beauty by the addition of any trimming or irrelevant decoration. In the season, however, a mound of fresh strawberries or raspberries, or an uncooked purée of either,