French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [94]
There are any amount of regional variations of the pot-au-feu, the chief differences being in the kind of meat used. One of the best is the old Provençal recipe, in which a piece of lamb or mutton replaces a proportion of the beef and in which the seasonings include garlic, juniper berries and a small proportion of white wine. The meat, I need hardly add, is served with olives and capers, and traditionally, a salad of chick peas, the making of which is described on page 137.
Cold, next day, an aïoli may go with it, while the lamb makes good stuffing for aubergines and tomatoes. This Provençal pot-au-feu is excellent, but not everybody cares for the taste of mutton in the broth, which also restricts its uses from the point of view of stocks and sauces.
BOUILLON POUR POTAGES
STOCK FOR SOUP
It is not often, in a small household, that stock is made especially for soups. It is rather for occasions when stock, perhaps from boiled beef, veal bones, a duck, chicken or turkey carcase, happens to be available that one wants to know how to use it to the best advantage. Three or four of the soups in this chapter do need stock, but for the majority of vegetable soups it is not necessary. When it is essential, and none is available, it is safe enough to use a chicken bouillon cube, always remembering that these are already salted. They add, of course, nothing to the consistency of the soup, only to the flavour, and if the use of them becomes a habit then your soups will inevitably begin to taste monotonous. Most of us remember how every stock or soup, stew and sauce during the days of rationing tended to have the same background taste because bacon bones and bacon rinds were the mainstay of stock-making.
When making stock from chicken or turkey carcases upon which little meat is left, there are two points to be made. First, use them quickly, without waiting for them to get dried up and stale. Second, it is a mistake to cook them too long, or a strong and unpleasant flavour of bone will result (this is what makes pressure-cooked stocks so horrible) and they will be cloudy. Whenever possible it is a great improvement to add a small proportion of raw veal or beef to such stocks.
For occasions when stock has to be made specially for a soup, here is a recipe for a small quantity.
Put lb. of chopped stewing veal, a small carrot, a small unpeeled onion, a clove of garlic, a chopped tomato, a bouquet of herbs and a little salt into a saucepan, with 1 pints of water. Bring to simmering point, skim, then transfer the pot to a low oven for about an hour. Strain through a fine sieve. There should be 1 pints of clear stock, which will add body and richness to soups but will not overwhelm other flavours.
CONSOMMÉ DE GIBIER
GAME CONSOMMÉ
One stewing partridge, lb. stewing veal, carrots, onions, celery, a tomato, pork or bacon dripping, parsley.
Fry a sliced onion in a little melted pork or bacon fat. When browned, add the roughly chopped veal, and let it brown slightly. Add salt, pepper, 3 or 4 carrots, a whole small unpeeled onion, a chopped tomato, a small piece of celery, some parsley stalks. On top put the partridge, pour over 2 pints of cold water, simmer extremely gently for 3 to 4 hours. Strain off the liquid and leave it to get quite cold, when it will be easy to skim off the fat. There will be a strong clear consommé which should not need clarifying, and which has only to be reheated. A stewing pheasant or a couple of pigeons can also be used for this consommé.
Use the bird or birds which have been cooked in the soup to make a little cold dish. Cut them in half, put them in a small earthenware terrine; in a saucepan heat 2 tablespoons of the consommé, season it well, stir in 2 oz. of butter, and when it has melted pour it over the partridge and serve very cold, garnished with sliced hard-boiled eggs and watercress.
LA SOUPE AU LARD, OR POTÉE LORRAINE
This is a rough kind of pot-au-feu, in which either bacon or salt pork, depending upon which part of the province you are in, replaces the usual