French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [95]
Having obtained a 2-2 lb. square-cut piece of breast of salt pork, and soaked it in cold water for two or three hours, cover it with fresh water and bring gently to the boil. After 5 minutes’ boiling, throw away this first lot of water, put back the bacon in the saucepan with 10-12 carrots, the same number of potatoes, 2 onions and 2 leeks tied together with a sprig of parsley, a bayleaf, thyme, a piece of celery and a piece of garlic. Season with pepper, and cover with about 4 pints of water. Bring very gradually to an almost imperceptible boil. Skim. Continue cooking very gently for 1 hours; 30 minutes before serving add the heart of a small white cabbage, cut in half and previously blanched for 5 minutes in boiling water; 10 minutes later add a cupful of shelled broad beans and the same of green peas.
Remove the pork and strain off the vegetables. The liquid, with bread soaked in it, plus a small quantity of the vegetables, chopped, and if you like fried a minute or two in lard, is served as a soup. The pork and the rest of the vegetables are kept warm for the second course.
A boiling sausage and a piece of knuckle or belly of fresh pork can also be added to the potée to supplement the salt pork, and in the winter when there are no fresh green vegetables, lb. of dried white haricot beans, previously soaked and partly boiled, are added at the same time as the potatoes and carrots.
The meats and sausage will also be good cold, with the vegetables made into a salad. If you decide to serve it in this way, keep your cabbage rather undercooked and cut it into fine strips as for a raw cabbage salad; mix it with the potatoes and carrots and to an oil and vinegar dressing add 4 or 5 crushed juniper berries, a teaspoon of sugar, and 4 or 5 tablespoons of cream.
TOURIN BORDELAIS
The onion soup generally regarded as ‘French,’ with sodden bread, strings of cheese and half-cooked onion floating about in it seems to me a good deal overrated, and rather indigestible. But certainly onions make warming and comforting soups for cold nights, and are admirable when one is suffering from fatigue or a bad cold. This country recipe makes a soup which is very acceptable under such circumstances. It requires no stock, but is enriched with egg yolks.
Slice 3 large mild onions into the thinnest possible rounds. In a heavy saucepan heat 2 large tablespoons of pure pork dripping, and cook the onions in this, stirring until they begin to soften. Then season with salt, cover the pan and leave to cook very gently for about 30 minutes. The onions should be reduced almost to pulp, but should still be of a creamy yellow colour. Pour over 2 pints of cold water, bring slowly to the boil, simmer 10 minutes. Beat 2 egg yolks in a bowl with a few drops of vinegar and some of the hot soup, return this mixture to the pan and stir until very hot, but on no account boiling. Slices of French bread baked in the oven should be put into each soup plate and the soup poured over.
LA SOUPE AUX POIS CHICHES
CHICK PEA SOUP
Chick peas, the pale corn-coloured round peas which look rather like nasturtium seeds, are the garbanzos and the ceci of Spanish and Italian cooking respectively. They are also (although less so now than a few years ago) grown a good deal in Provence. They are very hard and need lengthy soaking and cooking, but the following method, indicated by Austin de Croze in Les Plats Régionaux de France, although it sounds rather a performance, does shorten the cooking time from about 4 or 5 hours to rather less than 2, and results in them being very well cooked and tender. One thing about chick peas which is encouraging to the forgetful cook is that it is virtually impossible to overcook them.
Suppose you are going to cook 1 lb. of chick peas (half of which can be made into soup, the other half into a salad or vegetable dish). Put them to soak overnight in tepid water into which you have put a handful of coarse salt and