Drain through a colander set over a saucepan and return the meat to the casserole. Press juices out of the residue into the cooking liquid, then degrease and boil down the liquid to 3 cups. Off heat, whisk in the beurre manié, then simmer for 2 minutes as the sauce thickens lightly. Correct seasoning and pour over the meat, folding in the onions and mushrooms. (May be completed a day in advance to this point.)
To serve, bring to the simmer, basting meat and vegetables with the sauce for several minutes until thoroughly hot throughout.
BLANCHED BACON AND LARDONS. When you can’t find a piece of pork fat to protect the surface of roasting meat, use sliced bacon or salt pork, but you need to remove its smoky or salty taste. To do so, drop 6 to 8 slices into 2 quarts of cold water, bring to the boil, and simmer 6 to 8 minutes. Drain, rinse in cold water, and dry on paper towels. Lardons, pieces of blanched bacon or salt pork cut into ¼-inch-thick pieces about 1 inch long, are used for flavoring dishes such as beef bourguignon and coq au vin.
VARIATIONS
POT ROAST AND DAUBE OF BEEF. For a 4-to-5-pound bottom round or top round of beef, serving 10 to 12. (Other possibilities: chuck shoulder, eye of round, middle cut of brisket.) Simmering time: 3 to 4 hours. Brown the beef on all sides, either on top of the stove or under the broiler, turning and basting with oil. Season with salt and pepper and set in a covered casserole with the same browned sliced vegetables, wine, stock, and other ingredients as for the preceding master recipe. When tender, proceed to make the sauce in the same manner.
COQ AU VIN—CHICKEN IN RED WINE. For 3 pounds of cut-up frying chicken, serving 5 or 6 people. Cooking time: 25 to 30 minutes. Brown the chicken all over in hot oil and the rendered fat from the optional lardons. Then proceed exactly as for the master beef recipe, using the same ingredients and the garniture of onions and mushrooms.
CHICKEN FRICASSEE. The fricassee is essentially the same as the coq au vin, but it is done in white wine rather than red, and the chicken is not browned. For 3 pounds of chicken, serving 5 to 6. Cooking time: 25 to 30 minutes. When 3 tablespoons of butter are foaming in the frying pan, stir in 1 cup of sliced onions; when they are tender, add the chicken pieces. Turn frequently until stiffened slightly but not browned. Season with salt and pepper, add a pinch of tarragon, cover, and cook very slowly for 5 minutes more, without coloring. Then simmer with 2 cups of dry white wine or 1½ cups of dry French vermouth and about 2 cups of chicken broth. Complete the sauce as described in the master recipe and garnish with white-braised little onions and simmered mushrooms. You may wish to enrich the sauce with a little cream.
Lamb Stew
(Note that this is always called a stew but it is actually a braise, because the meat is browned.) For 4 to 5 pounds bone-in lamb shoulder cut into 2-inch chunks, serving 6. Cooking time: about 1½ hours. Brown the lamb and 1½ cups sliced onions as in the master recipe. Season and turn into a casserole with 2 smashed cloves garlic, ½ teaspoon rosemary, 1½ cups dry white wine or dry white French vermouth, 1 cup chopped tomatoes, and enough chicken broth barely to cover ingredients. Simmer about 1½ hours and finish the sauce as suggested in the master recipe.
Lamb Shanks
1 or 2 hind lamb shanks per person, or 1 foreshank sawed into 2-inch lengths. Prepare them exactly as for the preceding lamb stew.
Ossobuco
Veal hind shanks sawed into 1½-to-2-inch lengths, 2 or 3 per person. Cooking time: about 1½ hours. Season and dredge the meat in flour just before browning—because of the flour, the sauce will need no further thickening. Simmer with chicken stock, sliced sautéed onions, and dry white wine or dry French vermouth. Finish with a sprinkling of gremolata—finely minced zest of an orange and a lemon, a minced clove of garlic, and a handful of chopped parsley.
FISH AND SHELLFISH—POACHING AND STEAMING
Fish Fillets Poached in White Wine
For sole, trout, and other thin skinless boneless fillets, 5 to 6 ounces per serving. Cooking time: about 10 minutes. For 6 fillets. Score the skin sides of the fish and season with salt and white pepper. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of minced shallots in the bottom of a buttered baking dish; lay in the fillets, skin side down and lightly overlapping. Scatter another tablespoon of shallots on top. Pour around them ⅔ cup of dry white wine or dry white French vermouth, and ⅓ cup of fish stock, chicken stock, or water. Cover with buttered wax paper and bring just to the simmer on top of the stove, then set in a preheated 350°F oven. The fish is done in 7 to 8 minutes, when just lightly springy to the touch and opaque (milky white). Drain cooking juices into a saucepan and boil down rapidly until almost syrupy. For a simple sauce, whisk in droplets of lemon juice and minced parsley and, if you wish, a tablespoon or two of butter. Spoon over the fish and serve at once.
Sea Scallops Poached in White Wine
For 1½ pounds whole scallops, serving 6. Simmer ½ tablespoon minced shallots for 3 minutes with ⅓ cup each of dry white French vermouth and water plus ½ teaspoon salt and a small imported bay leaf. Then add the scallops and simmer 1½ to 2 minutes, just until lightly springy to the touch. Remove from heat and let cool in the liquid at least 10 minutes, to pick up its flavor. Remove scallops, discard bay leaf, and rapidly boil down liquid until almost syrupy.
NOTE: Simmering times for quartered sea scallops and bay scallops, 15 to 30 seconds; for calicos, bring just to the simmer.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS
FINES HERBES. Stir fresh minced parsley and/or dill, tarragon or chives into the reduced liquid, and briefly reheat scallops, folding in, if you wish, a few tablespoons of heavy cream.
PROVENÇAL—WITH TOMATOES. Stir 1½ cups peeled, seeded, juiced, and chopped fresh tomatoes and 1 large clove of minced garlic into the reduced liquid. Cover and simmer 5 minutes, then uncover and boil down rapidly to thicken. Season. Fold in the scallops and reheat briefly. Fold in minced parsley or other green herbs and serve.
Poached Salmon Fillets
For 8 salmon fillets 6 to 8 ounces each. Bring 2 quarts of water to the boil in a large skillet, adding 1 tablespoon salt and ¼ cup white-wine vinegar. Slide in the salmon, bring back almost to the simmer, and poach just below the simmer for 8 minutes—the fish is done when just springy to the touch. Drain, remove skin, and serve with lemon wedges, melted butter, or hollandaise sauce.
Whole Steamed Salmon
A 5-to-6-pound salmon serves 10 to 12. Cooking time: about 45 minutes. Have the salmon eviscerated, gills removed, and fins trimmed. Brush outside with oil and season cavity with salt and pepper. Lay the fish on an oiled rack in a fish poacher or roaster and wrap rack and salmon in washed cheesecloth. Strew around the fish 2 cups of thinly sliced sautéed onions and 1 cup each of sautéed sliced carrots and celery, and a medium herb bouquet with parsley, bay, and tarragon. Pour in 4 cups of dry white wine or 3 cups of dry white French vermouth plus fish or light chicken stock to a depth of 1 inch. Bring to the simmer on top of the stove and seal top of poacher with heavy foil and a lid. Maintain at a slow simmer, basting rapidly several times with pan liquids. The fish is done at a thermometer reading of 150°F. Remove fish, slide onto serving platter, and keep warm. Drain cooking liquid out of poacher into saucepan, pressing juices out of vegetables. Boil down to a syrupy 1 cup. Enrich, if you wish, with heavy cream and a swirling of butter and chopped fresh parsley.
Steamed Lobsters
Approximate cooking times: 10 minutes for 1-pounders; 12 to 13 for 1¼-pounders; 14 to 15 for 1½-pounders; 18 minutes for 2-pounders. Fit a rack in a 5-gallon pot and fill with 2 inches of seawater, or tap water with 1½ teaspoons salt per quart. Cover and bring to the rapid boil, then quickly drop in 6 live lobsters headfirst. Cover the pot and weight down the lid to make a firm seal. As soon as steam appears, begin timing as indicated. A lobster is probably done when the long antennas pull out easily. But to be sure, turn the lobster over and slit open the chest to see the tomalley—if all black, cook several minutes more, until tomalley is pale green. Accompany with melted butter and lemon wedges.
Egg Coo
kery
“It behooves us to choose eggs carefully and to treat them right.”
Eggs appear throughout cookery not only as themselves—in their omelet, scrambled, poached, stuffed, and soft-boiled guises—but as puff producers in cakes and soufflés, as thickeners for sauces and custards, and, of course, as the stars and starters for those two noble and addictive creations, hollandaise and mayonnaise.
BUYING AND STORING EGGS. It behooves us to choose eggs carefully and to treat them right. Because at room temperature they make a warm and comfortable home for evil bacteria, always buy refrigerated eggs, never buy cracked or dirty eggs, always bring your eggs home in a refrigerated container, and keep eggs chilled until the moment you are to use them.
MASTER RECIPE
The French Omelet
The perfect omelet is a gently oval shape of coagulated egg enclosing a tender custard of eggs. It can be a plain breakfast omelet flavored only with salt, pepper, and butter, or it can be a quick main course luncheon omelet filled or garnished with chicken livers, mushrooms, spinach, truffles, smoked salmon, or whatever the cook wishes—an attractive use for nice leftovers, by the way. And you can make an omelet in a number of ways, such as the scrambled technique, the tilt-and-fold method, and so forth. I have always preferred the 2-to-3-egg omelet made by my old French chef teacher’s shake-and-jerk system, as follows.
If this is your first attempt, go through the movements of the jerk—and note it is not a toss, it is a straight jerk toward you—and practice the unmolding technique. Serve the whole family for breakfast, so you’ll be making 4 or 5 omelets or more and will get the feel. It’s a very fast lesson, since an omelet takes only about 20 seconds to make.
For a 2-to-3-egg omelet, serving 1 person
2 jumbo or extra-large eggs, or 3 large or medium eggs
Big pinch of salt
Several grinds of pepper
1 tsp cold water, optional, for a more perfect blending of yolks and whites
1 Tbs unsalted butter
Have a warm plate at your side, as well as butter, a sprig or two of parsley, and a rubber spatula. Break the eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk just enough to blend them with the salt, pepper, and optional water.
Set the omelet pan (see box below) over highest heat, add the butter, and tilt pan in all directions to film bottom and sides. When the butter foam has almost subsided but just before the butter browns, pour in the eggs. Shake the pan briefly by its handle to spread the eggs over the bottom of the pan. Hold still for several seconds while the eggs coagulate on the bottom. Then start jerking the pan toward you, throwing the egg mass against the far edge. Keep jerking roughly, gradually lifting up by the handle and tilting the far edge of the pan over the heat as the omelet begins to roll over on itself. Push any stray egg back into the mass with the rubber spatula, then bang on the handle close to the pan with your fist, and the omelet will start curling at its far edge.
To unmold, rapidly turn the pan handle to your right and grab its underside with your right hand, palm up under the handle and thumb on top. Holding the plate in your left hand, tilt pan and plate toward each other, turning the pan down over the plate, and the omelet falls into place. Push the sides neatly in place with the spatula if necessary.
Spear a lump of butter with a fork, rapidly brush a little of it over the top, decorate with a sprig of parsley, and serve.
THE OMELET PAN. To make omelets you must have a nonstick pan, and fortunately these are easily available. I highly recommend the professional nonstick aluminum shape with a long handle and sloping sides, 10 inches in top diameter and 7½ at the bottom. I use the Wearever aluminum, available in many hardware stores.
VARIATIONS
FINES HERBES. Mince chives and parsley, or tarragon, or chervil, whisk ½ tablespoon into the eggs as you make the omelet, and sprinkle a bit on top for serving.
FILLED OMELETS. You can either cut a split lengthwise in the finished omelet with a knife and spread on a heaping spoonful of filling, or you can spoon the filling onto the eggs in the pan, just as they coagulate enough to hold and before you start the final rolling—this takes a little special maneuvering but you will work out your own system.
Some Suggested Fillings and Garnishes
1- Creamed cooked chopped spinach, or cooked chopped broccoli, sautéed in butter
2- Quartered or sliced mushrooms, chicken livers, or scallops sautéed in butter with shallots and seasonings (cook as for the scallops)
3- Creamed lobster, shrimp, or crab
4- Pipérade—green and red peppers sautéed with onions, garlic, and herbs
5- Potatoes—sautéed diced potatoes, to which you could add bacon and onions
6- Tomato—fresh tomato fondue
CREAMED LOBSTER, CRAB, OR SHRIMP. For about 1 cup, enough to fill or garnish 4 to 6 omelets. Briefly sauté 1 tablespoon finely minced shallots in 2 tablespoons butter until softened, then fold in 1 cup cooked shellfish meat cut into ¼-inch pieces. When well warmed through, season lightly with salt and pepper, and boil for a minute or two with 2 tablespoons dry white French vermouth, then briefly with ½ cup heavy cream, until nicely thickened. Correct seasoning, and, if you wish, fold in a sprinkling of minced fresh parsley.
Scrambled Eggs
We so often think of scrambled eggs served only with bacon or sausage for an everyday breakfast, but they make a fine fancy breakfast or even luncheon dish with baked tomatoes, sautéed potatoes, asparagus tips, and all manner of garnishes. Scrambled eggs are also good cold, as you will see later on, but I don’t think these do well when mixed up with other things. I like them to stand alone and be garnished on the side.
For 8 eggs, serving 4 people. Scrambled eggs should be soft, broken curds, and the more gently and slowly you cook them, the more tender and delicious they will be. Choose the same 10-inch heavy nonstick pan used for the preceding omelets. Have warm but not hot plates at hand. Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl just to blend whites and yolks, adding ¼ teaspoon salt (or to taste) and several grinds of pepper. Set the pan over moderate heat with 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, and when it is melted, swirl the pan to cover bottom and sides.
Pour all but 2 tablespoons of the eggs into the pan, turn heat to moderately low, and start slowly scraping the eggs from the bottom of the pan as they very gradually coagulate into soft curds. This will take several minutes. When they are thickened as you wish, remove pan from heat and, to stop the cooking and cream the eggs, fold in the remainder of the beaten egg. Taste, and correct seasoning. If you wish, fold in a tablespoon or so of soft unsalted butter or of heavy cream. Serve at once.
ADDITIONS AND VARIATIONS
SUGGESTED ACCOMPANIMENTS (other than crisp bacon, ham, sausages, and so forth)
1- Buttered toast points—neat, small triangles of white toast
2- Tomatoes Provençal—tomato halves baked with seasoned bread crumbs
3- Cooked asparagus tips warmed in butter
4- Any of the garnishes suggested for the omelets
COLD SCRAMBLED EGGS IN A TOMATO SHELL. Fold pipérade into the just-scrambled eggs. Season well, mound into hollowed-out halves of fresh ripe tomatoes, and chill.
COLD SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH DILL. Season the just-scrambled eggs with chopped fresh dill, chill, and serve with smoked salmon.
Poached Eggs
The versatile poached egg! Serve it hot in an artichoke cup, or crowned with béarnaise atop a tenderloin steak, or glittering in aspic, or gracing a curly endive salad, or buried in a soufflé, or dressed as a Benedict, or simply sitting on a warm, crisp, buttery piece of toast for breakfast. It’s a graceful oval, whose white is softly set and whose yolk is thickly liquid. If we could have them fresh from the hen they would literally poach by themselves, since a really fresh egg holds its shape when dropped into simmering water. But most of us have to take certain steps to assure success, using either vinegared water or oval metal egg-poachers (which you can buy in some cookware shops).
To Help the Egg Keep
Its Shape. Using a pushpin, pierce a hole ¼ inch deep in the large end of the egg to release the air pocket (otherwise the egg will crack). To help the egg keep its shape, lower not more than 4 eggs at a time into a pan of rapidly boiling water. Boil for exactly 10 seconds, then remove with a slotted spoon.
Vinegared Water. To poach up to 6 eggs, bring 1½ quarts of water and ¼ cup white vinegar (which helps the white to coagulate) to the simmer in a saucepan 8 inches in diameter and 3 inches deep. Have a kitchen timer and slotted spoon at hand. One by one, starting near the pan handle and moving clockwise, hold the egg as close to the surface as possible, and break it into the water. Rapidly continue with the rest. Maintain the water at the simmer and poach exactly 4 minutes—the white should be softly set and the yolk liquid. Clockwise from the handle of the pan, remove the eggs one by one with the perforated spoon, and drop into a basin of cold water to wash off the vinegar.
Poaching in the Perforated Oval Metal Container. Set the poachers in a pan of simmering water to cover, drop in the pierced, 10-second-boiled eggs, and poach at the simmer for exactly 4 minutes, as described above. Remove the poachers and dislodge the eggs carefully with a soup spoon.
Eggs May Be Poached a Day or Two in Advance. Submerge in fresh cold water and refrigerate uncovered.