For 4 to 6 servings
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2 Tb minced shallots or green onions
3 Tb butter
¼ lb. (1 cup) cooked fresh or canned crab, or diced cooked fresh or canned shrimp or lobster
¼ tsp salt
Pinch of pepper
2 Tb Madeira or dry white vermouth
Cook the shallots or onions in the butter for 1 to 2 minutes over moderate heat until tender, but not browned. Add shellfish meat and stir gently for 2 minutes. Sprinkle on salt and pepper. Add wine, raise heat, and boil for a moment. Allow to cool slightly.
3 eggs
1 cup whipping cream
1 Tb tomato paste
¼ tsp salt
Pinch of pepper
Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl with the cream, tomato paste, and seasonings. Gradually blend in the shellfish and taste for seasoning.
An 8-inch partially cooked pastry shell on a baking sheet
¼ cup grated Swiss cheese
Pour mixture into pastry shell and sprinkle the cheese over it. Bake in upper third of preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until quiche has puffed and browned.
QUICHE AUX OIGNONS
[Onion Quiche]
For 4 to 6 servings
2 lbs. minced onions (about 7 cups)
3 Tb butter
1 Tb oil
Cook the onions in a heavy skillet with the oil and butter over very low heat, stirring occasionally until they are extremely tender and a golden yellow. This will take about an hour.
1½ Tb flour
Sprinkle with the flour, mix well, and cook slowly for 2 or 3 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2 eggs or 3 yolks
⅔ cup whipping cream
1 tsp salt
⅛ tsp pepper
Pinch of nutmeg
2 ounces (½ cup) grated Swiss cheese
An 8-inch partially cooked pastry shell on a baking sheet
1 Tb butter cut into pea-sized dots
Beat the eggs or egg yolks in a mixing bowl with the cream and seasonings until blended. Gradually mix in the onions and half of the cheese. Check seasoning. Pour into tart shell. Spread on the rest of the cheese and distribute the butter over it. Bake in upper third of preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until quiche has puffed and browned.
PISSALADIÈRE NIÇOISE
[Onion Tart with Anchovies and Black Olives]
This is not a quiche, properly speaking, because it contains no eggs. In Nice it is made either in a pastry shell or on a flat round of bread dough like the Italian pizza.
For 4 to 6 servings
2 lbs. minced onions
4 Tb olive oil
1 medium herb bouquet: 4 parsley sprigs, ¼ tsp thyme, and ½ bay leaf tied in washed cheesecloth
2 cloves unpeeled garlic
½ tsp salt
1 pinch of powdered cloves
⅛ tsp pepper
Cook the onions very slowly in the olive oil with the herb bouquet, garlic, and salt for about 1 hour, or until very tender. Discard herb bouquet and garlic. Stir in cloves and pepper, and taste carefully for seasoning.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
An 8-inch partially cooked pastry shell on a baking sheet
8 canned anchovy filets
16 pitted black olives (the dry Mediterranean type)
1 Tb olive oil
Spread the onions in the pastry shell. Arrange anchovy filets over it in a fan-shaped design. Place the olives at decorative intervals. Drizzle on the oil. Bake in upper third of the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until bubbling hot.
FLAMICHE — QUICHE AUX POIREAUX
[Leek Quiche]
For 4 to 6 servings
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
1 lb. sliced white of leek (about 3½ cups)
½ cup water
1 tsp salt
3 Tb butter
Boil the leeks over moderately high heat in a heavy-bottomed, covered saucepan with the water, salt, and butter until liquid has almost evaporated. Lower heat and stew gently for 20 to 30 minutes until leeks are very tender.
3 eggs
1½ cups whipping cream
Pinch of nutmeg
⅛ tsp pepper
An 8-inch partially cooked pastry shell on a baking sheet
¼ cup grated Swiss cheese
1 Tb butter cut into pea-sized dots
Beat the eggs, cream, and seasonings in a mixing bowl to blend. Gradually stir in the leeks. Check seasoning. Pour into pastry shell. Spread on the cheese and distribute the butter over it. Bake in upper third of preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until puffed and browned.
Quiche aux Endives
[Endive Quiche]
Follow the preceding recipe, using sliced endive rather than leeks; add a teaspoon of lemon juice to their cooking water.
Quiche aux Champignons
[Mushroom Quiche]
Use the same proportions of cream, eggs, grated cheese, and dots of butter as for the preceding leek quiche and an 8-inch partially cooked pastry shell. Prepare the mushrooms as follows:
2 Tb minced shallots or green onions
3 Tb butter
1 lb. sliced fresh mushrooms
1 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon juice
Optional: 2 Tb Madeira or port
Cook the shallots or onions in a heavy-bottomed saucepan with the butter for a moment. Stir in the mushrooms, salt, lemon juice and optional wine. Cover pan and cook over moderately low heat for 8 minutes. Uncover. Raise heat and boil for several minutes until liquid is completely evaporated and mushrooms are beginning to sauté in their butter.
Gradually stir the mushrooms into the eggs and cream. Pour into pastry shell, sprinkle with cheese, dot with butter, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes in a preheated 375-degree oven.
Quiche aux Épinards
[Spinach Quiche]
Use the same proportions of cream, eggs, cheese, and butter as for the leek quiche and an 8-inch partially cooked pastry shell. Prepare the spinach as follows:
An enameled saucepan
2 Tb finely minced shallots or green onion
2 Tb butter
1¼ cups chopped blanched spinach, or frozen spinach
½ tsp salt
⅛ tsp pepper
Pinch of nutmeg
Cook the shallots or onions for a moment in the butter. Add the spinach and stir over moderate heat for several minutes to evaporate all its water. Stir in salt, pepper, and nutmeg and taste carefully for seasoning. Gradually stir the spinach into the eggs and cream. Pour into pastry shell, sprinkle with cheese, dot with butter, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes in a preheated 375-degree oven.
GRATINÉED DISHES
Gratins
Any of the quiche mixtures in the preceding section may be baked in a shallow fireproof dish or pyrex pie plate rather than a pastry shell. They then officially become gratins. Most of the following, although they look more grand in a shell, are so substantial that they are perhaps better in a dish.
RPÉE MORVANDELLE
[Gratin of Shredded Potatoes with Ham and Eggs and Onions]
For 4 people
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
½ cup finely minced onions
2 Tb olive oil
2 Tb butter
Cook the onions slowly in the oil and butter for 5 minutes or so, until tender but not browned.
½ cup (3 ounces) finely diced cooked ham
Raise heat slightly, stir in ham, and cook a moment more.
4 eggs
½ clove crushed garlic
2 Tb minced parsley and/or chives and chervil
⅔ cup (3 ounces) grated Swiss cheese
4 Tb whipping cream, light cream, or milk
Pinch of pepper
¼ tsp salt
Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl with the garlic, herbs, cheese, cream or milk, and seasonings. Then blend in the ham and oni
ons.
3 medium-sized potatoes (about 10 ounces)
Peel the potatoes and grate them, using large holes of grater. A handful at a time, squeeze out their water. Stir potatoes into egg mixture. Check seasoning.
(*) May be prepared ahead to this point.
2 Tb butter
An 11- to 12-inch baking dish or skillet about 2 inches deep or individual baking dishes about 6 inches in diameter
½ Tb butter cut into pea-sized dots
Heat the butter in the dish. When foaming, pour in the potato and egg mixture. Dot with butter. Set in upper third of preheated oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until top is nicely browned. Serve directly from the dish or skillet.
GRATIN DE POMMES DE TERRE AUX ANCHOIS
[Gratin of Potatoes, Onions, and Anchovies]
For 4 people
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
⅔ cup minced onions
2 Tb butter
Cook the onions slowly in butter for 5 minutes or so, until tender but not browned.
½ Ib. diced raw potatoes (about 2 cups)
Drop potatoes in boiling salted water and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, or until barely done. Drain thoroughly.
A 3- to 4-cup baking dish, 1½ to 2 inches deep, such as an 8-inch pyrex pie plate
8 to 10 anchovy filets packed in olive oil
Butter the baking dish. Spread half the potatoes in the bottom, then half the cooked onions. Over them lay the anchovy filets, then the rest of the onions, and finally the remaining potatoes.
3 eggs beaten with 1½ cups whipping cream, ½ tsp salt, and ⅛ tsp pepper; OR 2 cups well-seasoned béchamel sauce
Pour the eggs and cream, or the béchamel sauce, over the potatoes and shake dish to send liquid to bottom.
¼ cup grated Swiss cheese
1 Tb oil from anchovy can or butter
Spread on the cheese. Dribble on the oil, or dot with the butter.
(*) May be prepared ahead to this point.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in upper third of oven until top is nicely browned.
VARIATIONS
Gratin de Pommes de Terre et Saucisson
[Gratin of Potatoes, Onions, and Sausages]
Follow the preceding master recipe, but cut the potatoes in slices rather than dice, and substitute sliced uncooked Polish sausage for the anchovies, interspersing the sausage between the potato slices.
Gratin de Poireaux
[Gratin of Leeks with Ham]
Use the same amount of eggs and cream or of béchamel sauce, as in the preceding potato and anchovy gratin, or substitute a sauce mornay (béchamel with cheese), and prepare the leeks as follows:
12 leeks, ¾ inch thick
Use the white of the leeks only. Cut each into crosswise sections about 2 inches long.
A heavy-bottomed saucepan
½ tsp salt
2 Tb butter
1 cup water
Boil the leeks in a covered saucepan over moderately high heat with salt, butter, and water until liquid has almost completely evaporated. Lower heat and stew gently for 20 to 30 minutes until the leeks are very tender.
6 to 8 thin slices of cooked ham
Wrap each piece of leek in a piece of ham, arrange in buttered dish, cover with eggs and cream, or sauce, and bake as in the preceding master recipe.
Gratin d’Endives
[Gratin of Endive with Ham]
Use whole endives braised in butter wrap in ham, cover with eggs and cream, or béchamel sauce, and bake as in the preceding master recipe.
GRATIN AUX FRUITS DE MER
[Gratin of Creamed Salmon or Other Fish]
A quick and delicious main-course dish can be made by combining a good cream sauce with canned salmon, tuna, or clams, or leftover cooked fish or shellfish. If you are using a baking dish, all may be prepared ahead, then set in the oven shortly before serving, but a pastry shell should not be filled until just before it goes into the oven. The following recipe is for salmon, but other fish may be substituted:
For 4 to 6 people
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
¼ cup finely minced onions
3 Tb butter
A heavy-bottomed, 2-quart saucepan
Cook the onions in butter in the saucepan over low heat for 5 minutes or so, until onions are tender but not browned.
3 Tb flour
Stir in the flour, and cook slowly for 2 minutes without coloring.
1 cup boiling milk
¼ cup dry white wine or dry white vermouth
Juice from salmon can, if any
¼ tsp salt
Pinch of pepper
¼ tsp oregano
4 to 6 Tb whipping cream
Off heat, beat in the boiling milk, then the wine, salmon juice, and the seasonings. Now bring this sauce to boil over moderately high heat, stirring. Boil several minutes to evaporate the alcohol in the wine, and allow the sauce to thicken considerably. Then thin it out to a medium consistency with tablespoons of cream. Taste carefully for seasoning.
1½ cups cooked or canned salmon
Optional: sautéed mushrooms; sliced hard-boiled eggs
An 8-inch, shallow, baking dish 1½ to 2 inches deep, or a cooked pastry shell
¼ cup grated Swiss cheese
1 Tb butter
Fold the salmon and optional ingredients into the sauce, and check seasoning again. Spread in baking dish or pastry shell. Sprinkle on the cheese, and distribute the butter in pea-sized dots. Bake in upper third of preheated oven for about 15 minutes, or until top is nicely browned.
VARIATIONS
Gratin de Volaille
Gratin de Cervelles
Gratin de Ris de Veau
[Gratin of Chicken, Turkey, Brains, or Sweetbreads with Mushrooms]
Exactly the same system as that for the preceding master recipe for fish gratin may be followed, using diced cooked chicken, turkey, brains, or sweetbreads. Combine with sautéed mushrooms, and warm the mixture briefly in butter with shallots or green onions. If you are short on meat, or wish to make the dish more filling, include cooked rice or noodles. Concentrated chicken stock or mushroom juice, or leftover chicken sauce may substitute for part of the milk in the béchamel sauce. If your sauce is carefully flavored, this is an attractive way to use leftovers.
SOUFFLÉS
A soufflé, quickly described, is a sauce containing a flavoring or purée into which stiffly beaten egg whites are incorporated. It is turned into a mold and baked in the oven until it puffs up and the top browns.
EGG WHITES
The glory and lightness of French soufflés are largely a matter of how voluminously stiff the egg whites have been beaten and how nicely they have been incorporated into the soufflé base. Both beating and folding are perfectly simple operations when you know the reasons behind the directions.
A fluffy mass of beaten egg whites is actually hundreds of minute air bubbles all connected and enclosed by a film of egg white; the bubbles of air expand as the soufflé cooks in the oven, and that is what pushes it into its magnificent puff. Whether you beat them by hand in a copper bowl in the time-honored way of the old chefs of France, or whether you use electricity, your egg whites should mount 7 or 8 times their original volume. They should be perfectly smooth and have a velvety sheen, and they should be firm enough to stand in peaks as in the illustration on the opposite page.
Warnings
Egg whites will not mount properly if they contain particles of egg yolk, or if either bowl or beater is oily or greasy. Any of these elements interfere with the action of the egg whites in forming and sustaining those all-important air bubbles. Before you begin, therefore, wash your equipment with an efficient detergent, and dry it well. Room-temperature egg whites mount more voluminously than chilled egg whites, and chilled egg whites will often form coagulated specks when beaten. Thus either set chilled whole eggs in a bowl of tepid water for 10 minutes before separating them, or let the whites sit 15 to 20 minutes at room temperature befo
re beating.
Whips and bowls
One of the unexplained mysteries of la cuisine is that the unlined copper bowl used by old French chefs produces splendidly smooth, velvety, and high-rising egg whites that remain stable for a surprisingly long time. Stable means that they do not lose their sheen or get watery a few minutes after you beat them. Fortunately a stainless steel bowl or a plastic bowl used only for egg whites (oil might get into the pores of plastic if you use it for mayonnaise, for instance), plus a pinch of cream of tartar, works very well also. The cream of tartar acts as a stabilizer. Glass and porcelain bowls are not recommended because their slippery sides don’t hold up the whites. You may use a large balloon-shaped wire whip 5 to 6 inches across at its widest diameter, or an electric beater. Here are directions for each.
How to beat egg whites by hand — for 2 to 8 egg whites