French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [83]
TOMATES AUX ŒUFS DURS ET À LA MAYONNAISE
TOMATOES WITH HARD-BOILED EGGS AND MAYONNAISE
A decorative little hors-d’œuvre, very easy to prepare, which I first came across in Lyon.
Rather large ripe tomatoes are essential, and for each tomato you need 1 hard-boiled egg. Slice the tomatoes from the rounded top down towards the stalk end, cutting slightly on the bias, but not right through, so that the tomato can be opened out like a miniature concertina. Between each tomato slice slip a slice of hard-boiled egg, cut crossways. On top put a spoonful or two of very thick mayonnaise, and sprinkle with a little parsley.
ŒUFS EN GELÉE À L’ESTRAGON
EGGS IN TARRAGON-FLAVOURED JELLY
This is not at all so easy a dish to get right as might be supposed. It is not common to find it well done even in a good restaurant. But when perfect, the egg yolk just soft enough to run when you break into it, the jelly firm and clear and delicately flavoured, it is an exquisite dish. Making the jelly for the sole purpose of preparing these eggs would be considered rather a performance in most households, but although during the time of rationing, when there were no meat or calves’ feet to make aspic, it was understandable that the jelly had to be made with gelatine, it is not really a satisfactory solution, gelatine aspic being too sticky and gluey, and lacking of course the delicate flavour of jelly made from beef and veal. So I suggest that when there happens to be home-made aspic jelly in the larder, prepared for jellied consommé, jellied chicken or beef or from boiled pigs’ trotters as described on page 224, a little can be saved to make jellied eggs. It should be clarified, as described on page 72, and when this is done, allowing a coffee-cupful, after-dinner size, of the liquefied jelly for each egg, heat it up gently and add a teaspoon of Madeira per pint; add also 4 or 5 fresh tarragon leaves and let them infuse in the warmed jelly for a time.
The eggs can be either poached or mollet, which is to say cooked 5 or 6 minutes in boiling water, according to size. For each egg have a thin slice of mild, tender, cooked ham. Trim off all the fat; cut each slice to the size and shape of your little oval or round china egg ramekins. Place the ham at the bottom. Put your shelled egg on the top. (To shell mollet eggs easily see page 183). When your jelly is quite cold but before it begins to set, pour it gently over the egg, which should be quite covered. Decorate with a couple of tarragon leaves dipped in the liquid jelly. Serve very cold, preferably in their own little dishes, and with a spoon.
Sometimes jellied eggs are turned out, but this is a tricky business, because either the jelly or the egg or both tend to break, and then the dish is spoilt. Special hinged oval moulds are in fact made especially for jellied eggs, but they are really just as nice in their little china pots.
The jelly from bœuf à /a mode, clarified, makes delicious jellied eggs.
ARTICHAUTS VINAIGRETTE
GLOBE OR LEAF ARTICHOKES WITH VINAIGRETTE SAUCE
Allow 1 large leaf artichoke per person. Rinse them in cold water and, holding them upside down, shake them so that any grit may fall out. Cut off the stalks level with the heads, so that they will stand up nicely on the plate when they are served. Put them into a very large saucepan of boiling salted water with half a lemon. Cook for 25 to 40 minutes, until one of the outer leaves will come away easily when you pull it.
Serve cold with the vinaigrette sauce separately. But make it with only a minimum of vinegar, or better still, lemon