Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1
Page 60
COMPOSED SALADS
Salades Composées
Here are three recipes and several suggestions for salad mixtures. Green vegetables will lose their fresh color if they sit in a vinaigrette for more than half an hour; therefore prepare each component of the salad in a separate dish. Just before serving, season each with dressing, and put together the salad in its serving bowl.
SALADE NIÇOISE
[Mediterranean Combination Salad]
Tuna, anchovies, tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, hard-boiled eggs, and lettuce are the usual elements for this appetizing combination, and you may arrange the salad in any manner you wish. Serve as an hors d’oeuvre or as a main-course summer salad.
For 6 to 8 people
3 cups cold, blanched, green beans (see also directions for frozen beans)
3 or 4 quartered tomatoes
1 cup vinaigrette (French dressing) with herbs
1 head Boston lettuce, separated, washed, drained, and dried
A salad bowl
3 cups cold French potato salad (preceding recipe)
1 cup canned tuna chunks, drained
½ cup pitted black olives, preferably the dry Mediterranean type
2 or 3 hard-boiled eggs, cold, peeled, and quartered
6 to 12 canned anchovy filets, drained
2 to 3 Tb minced, fresh green herbs
Just before serving, season the beans and tomatoes with several spoonfuls of vinaigrette. Toss the lettuce leaves in the salad bowl with ¼ cup of vinaigrette, and place the leaves around the edge of the bowl. Arrange the potatoes in the bottom of the bowl. Decorate with the beans and tomatoes, interspersing them with a design of tuna chunks, olives, eggs, and anchovies. Pour the remaining dressing over the salad, sprinkle with herbs, and serve.
SALADE DE BOEUF À LA PARISIENNE
[Cold Beef and Potato Salad]
This is an attractive way to use cold boiled or braised beef as a main-course summer dish or on a cold buffet table. We shall not give proportions because they depend on how much meat you have.
Thinly sliced, cold, boiled or braised beef
Vinaigrette (French dressing) with herbs
Thinly sliced rings of mild onion
A serving platter
French potato salad
Boston lettuce or water cress
Quartered hard-boiled eggs
Quartered tomatoes
Optional: cold cooked green beans, broccoli or cauliflower; canned beets
Minced fresh green herbs
In separate bowls, marinate the beef and the onion rings in vinaigrette for half an hour or longer. When ready to serve the salad, arrange the beef on the platter alternating the slices with onion rings. Decorate the platter with the rest of the ingredients, spoon a bit of vinaigrette over them, and sprinkle with herbs.
SALADE À LA D’ARGENSON
[Rice or Potato and Beet Salad]
When rice or potatoes are marinated with beets in a vinaigrette for a sufficient amount of time, the whole mass becomes beet-colored. Then it can be tossed in an herbal mayonnaise, and all sorts of cooked vegetables, meat, or fish leftovers can be mixed into it to make a nourishing hors d’oeuvre, a main-course dish, or an attractive addition to a picnic.
For 1 quart or more
2 cups boiled rice riz au blanc, OR, 2 cups of warm boiled potatoes, peeled and diced
2 cups diced cooked or canned beets
4 Tb minced shallots or green onions
A 2-quart bowl
¾ cup vinaigrette (French dressing)
Toss the rice or potatoes, beets, and shallots or onions in a bowl with the vinaigrette. Season to taste. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 12, preferably 24, hours.
1½ to 2 cups mayonnaise with green herbs, or the recipe following it, for green mayonnaise
Salt and pepper
1 cup, one or a mixture of the following: Cooked green peas, or cooked and diced green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, turnips, or asparagus; diced cooked beef, pork, poultry, or fish; flaked canned tuna or salmon; diced raw apples; grated raw carrots; walnuts
A salad bowl
Decorate with any or all of the following: Green or black olives, anchovies, sliced hard-boiled eggs, water cress or parsley sprigs
Shortly before serving, fold in the mayonnaise and other ingredients. Season carefully. Arrange the salad in the bowl and decorate with the suggestions listed.
ASPICS
Préparations Froides en Aspic
Cold chicken decorated with tarragon leaves and shimmering with jelly, a molded aspic of chicken livers, or a boeuf mode en gelée—these are lovely summer dishes, and fun to do if you enjoy decorating. You may be frightfully elegant with your designs, or amusing, and, after a little experience, very professional.
DEFINITIONS: GELÉE, JELLY, ASPIC
Gelée is the French culinary term for beef, veal, chicken, or fish stock which stiffens when cold because it contains natural gelatin, or because gelatin has been added to it. Liquid or jelled, it is always spoken of as gelée. We shall refer to gelée, whether hot or cold, liquid or set, as jelly or jellied stock. Aspic, in French, usually refers not to the jelly, but to the whole decorated dish of various elements coated with or molded in jelly.
RECIPES FOR JELLY
Directions for homemade jellied stock are in the Stocks and Aspic section. These stocks are almost always clarified, meaning that they are rendered clear and sparkling through a simmering with egg whites; directions for clarification are on this page. Canned bouillons and consommés are turned into jelly by the addition of powdered gelatin, as described; following this are directions for wine flavorings.
HOW TO WORK WITH JELLY
Never fail to test out the jelly before you begin to work with it: Pour ½ inch of jelly into a small, chilled saucer, and refrigerate for about 10 minutes or until set. Then break it up with a fork and let it stand at room temperature; the pieces should hold their shape but not be rubbery. Further information and gelatin proportions are on this page.
Allow yourself plenty of time and cracked ice, for the jelly must be given full opportunity to set; it cannot be hurried. A complicated decoration need not be completed in one continuous operation. Successive coats of jelly may be spooned over the dish whenever you have time, and the process may go on in spurts all one day and on into the next.
Coating Foods with Aspic Jellied stocks set very quickly once they are cold. To avoid continual warmings of the whole amount when you are to coat foods with successive layers of jelly, heat just what you will need at one time in a small saucepan. Stir over cracked ice until the liquid turns syrupy, indicating it is about to congeal. Then remove the pan immediately from its bed of ice, and spoon a layer of jelly over the chilled food. Refrigerate the platter for about 10 minutes to set the layer of jelly, and repeat the process two or three times until you have built up a coating of jelly almost ⅛ of an inch thick.
DECORATIVE ELEMENTS
CHOPPED JELLY When you spoon jelly over foods arranged on a platter, you will usually need to fill up empty spaces or cover dribbles of jelly that have run off the edges of the food. Chopped jelly is an easy solution, and is made as follows: Pour a ½-inch layer of jelly into a plate or pan and chill until set. Then make narrow crosshatches through the jelly with a knife to cut it into small pieces ⅛ inch or less in size. Either force the jelly through a pastry bag to outline the food or to fill up the platter, or heap it into place with a spoon.
JELLY CUTOUTS These make nice decorations around the edge of a platter. Chill a ¼-inch layer of jelly in a plate or pan, then cut it into squares, triangles, or diamonds, and it is ready to use.
DESIGNS AND COLORS You can make fanciful decorations of curlicues, sprays, branches and flowers, or geometric patterns out of the ingredients listed below. Use them as follows: First spoon two or three layers of jelly over the chilled food; chill your decorative materials and cut them into various shapes. Then, holding them with two trussing needles or
skewers, dip them into almost-set jelly and arrange them over the food. Refrigerate the platter of food to set the designs, then give a final coating or two of jelly to cover the decorations with a transparent film.
FOR BLACK: Use thin slices of truffle or black olives.
FOR RED: Use thin strips, dice, or dots of canned red pimiento. The pulp of peeled, seeded, and juiced tomatoes may be diced or sliced, or twisted in the corner of a towel to make little balls.
FOR YELLOW: Use hard-boiled egg yolks, mashed with softened butter, and pushed through a pastry tube to make dots or fluted designs.
FOR ORANGE: Use cooked carrots sliced, diced, or cut into strips.
FOR GREEN: Use fresh or pickled tarragon leaves, dropped in boiling water for 30 seconds, refreshed in cold water, and dried on a towel. Cooked green peppers cut into strips or dice. The green tops of leeks or green onions simmered in water for several minutes until softened, refreshed in cold water, and dried; cut into thin strips, these can then be formed into curlicues, or made to look like branches of mimosa (use dots of “yellow” for the flowers).
FOR WHITE: Use hard-boiled egg white, thinly sliced and cut into strips, dice, or shapes.
OEUFS EN GELÉE
[Poached Eggs in Aspic]
Serve eggs in aspic as a first course or luncheon dish, or arrange them around a platter of cold meats, fish, or vegetables.
For 6 eggs
3 cups jelly (jellied stock, or canned consommé with gelatin)
6 round or oval molds of ½ cup capacity, preferably of metal as they are easier to unmold
Pour ⅛ inch of jelly in the bottom of each mold and refrigerate for about 10 minutes or until set.
12 tarragon leaves, fresh or preserved in vinegar
Drop the tarragon leaves into boiling water for 30 seconds. Refresh in cold water, drain, dry, and chill. Dip them in a bit of almost-set jelly, and arrange them in a cross over the jelly in the bottom of each mold. Chill for a few minutes to set the tarragon.
6 chilled poached eggs
Place an egg in each mold, its least attractive side up. Pour in almost-set jelly to cover the eggs. Chill for an hour or so, until the jelly is well set.
Chilled plates Lettuce leaves
At serving time, dip each mold for 3 to 4 seconds in hot water. Run a knife around the edge of the jelly, turn the mold upside down and, giving it a sharp knock on the bottom, unmold on a chilled serving plate over a bed of lettuce leaves.
OTHER DECORATIONS
Lay a thin slice of ham over the cross of tarragon leaves. Or make designs of truffle in the bottom of the mold, top with a slice of foie gras, then add the poached egg and the rest of the jelly.
FOIES DE VOLAILLE EN ASPIC
[Chicken Livers in Aspic]
Chicken livers sautéed in butter, simmered in wine, then molded in aspic make a delicious hors d’oeuvre, and are most simple to do.
For six ½-cup molds
2½ cups jelly (jellied stock, or canned consommé with gelatin)
6 round or oval molds of ½ cup capacity, preferably of metal
Pour a ⅛-inch layer of jelly into the bottom of each mold and chill until set.
6 large, whole chicken livers
Look over the chicken livers, and cut out any blackish or greenish spots. Dry the livers thoroughly on paper towels.
An 8-inch enameled skillet
2 Tb butter
1 Tb oil
2 Tb finely minced shallots or green onions
Set the skillet over moderately high heat with the butter and oil. When you see that the butter foam has almost subsided, add the chicken livers. Stir and toss for 2 minutes to brown the livers very lightly. Add the shallots or onions and toss for 5 seconds more. Hold a cover askew over the skillet and drain out all the sautéing fat.
Big pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
Pinch of allspice
½ cup Madeira or port, or ⅓ cup cognac
Sprinkle the seasonings over the livers; pour in the wine or cognac. Cover the skillet and simmer very slowly for 8 minutes, then remove the livers to a side dish. Rapidly boil down the cooking juices until reduced to a syrupy consistency. Remove from heat, roll the livers in the skillet to cover with the juices, and chill.
Optional: 6 slices of truffle
Chilled plates or platter
Lettuce leaves
Place a slice of optional truffle over the jelly layer in each mold, and arrange a chicken liver over it. Fill the molds with the remaining jelly, which should be syrupy and almost set. Chill for an hour or so. Unmold on chilled serving plates or a platter, over lettuce leaves.
VARIATION
Homard, Crabe, ou Crevettes en Aspic
[Lobster, Crab, or Shrimp in Aspic]
The preceding system may also be adapted for lobster, crab, or shrimp meat in aspic.
POULET EN GELÉE À L’ESTRAGON
[Chicken Tarragon in Aspic]
Also for: turkey, game hens, squab pigeons, guinea hen, and pheasant.
Chicken in tarragon jelly is one of the simplest and best of the cold poultry dishes. The chicken may be poached by complete immersion in tarragon-flavored stock which is then clarified and turned into jelly, or you may follow the simpler version here.
For 6 people
Cooking the chicken
A 3-lb. ready-to-cook roasting chicken
⅛ tsp salt, ½ Tb butter, and 3 sprigs fresh tarragon or ½ tsp dried tarragon for inside the chicken
2 Tb butter and 1 Tb oil for browning the chicken
A heavy, covered, fireproof casserole
¼ tsp salt
3 sprigs fresh tarragon or ½ tsp dried tarragon for the casserole
Following the procedure for casserole-roasted chicken with tarragon, season the cavity with salt, butter, and tarragon. Truss and butter the chicken, then brown it on all sides in hot butter and oil in a casserole. Salt the chicken, add the tarragon, cover the casserole, and roast in a preheated 325-degree oven for 1 hour and 10 to 20 minutes. Remove the chicken, and let it cool to room temperature. Then chill it.
The tarragon jelly
2 or 3 sprigs fresh tarragon or 1 tsp dried tarragon
4 cups jelly (jellied stock made from brown chicken stock, or canned consommé with gelatin
An enameled saucepan
Stir the tarragon into the jelly; bring to the simmer, cover, and let steep over very low heat for 10 minutes.
4 to 5 Tb Madeira or port A chilled saucer
Remove from heat, and stir in the wine by spoonfuls, tasting, until you have achieved the flavor you wish. Strain through a very fine sieve or several thicknesses of washed cheesecloth. Test a bit of it in a chilled saucer in the refrigerator, to be sure it will jell to the right consistency.
Decorating the chicken
An oval serving platter about 16 inches long
Pour a ⅛-inch layer of jelly into the platter, and chill in the refrigerator until set.
Carve the chicken and arrange it over the layer of jelly. Return the platter to the refrigerator.
A small saucepan
A bowl of cracked ice
Pour a cupful of jelly into the saucepan and stir over ice until it has become syrupy. Immediately remove from the ice, and spoon the almost-set jelly over the chicken; this first layer will not adhere very well. Chill the chicken for 10 minutes, and spoon another layer of almost-set jelly over it. Repeat.
20 to 30 fresh tarragon leaves or tarragon leaves preserved in vinegar
2 trussing needles or skewers, or a small, pointed knife (for picking up tarragon leaves)
A saucer of almost-set jelly
Drop the tarragon leaves in boiling water for 10 seconds. Refresh in ice water, and dry. Dip each leaf in the almost-set jelly, and arrange in a decorative pattern over the chicken. Chill. Then spoon on a final layer of almost-set jelly.
A pan or platter
Pour the remaining jelly into the pan or platter and chill until set. Chop the jelly
into ⅛-inch pieces and distribute it around the chicken.
Refrigerate. Unless the weather is very warm, remove the chicken from the refrigerator half an hour before serving; it will have more flavor if it is not too cold.
SUPRÊMES DE VOLAILLE EN CHAUD-FROID, BLANCHE NEIGE
[Breast of Chicken in Chaud-froid]
Here is a decorative, delicious, and easy-to-execute aspic which lends itself to numerous variations as suggested at the end of the recipe. The cold cream sauce for this, which congeals into an aspic covering over the chicken breasts, looks like the classic sauce chaud-froid—flour-based, jellied velouté with cream. The sauce chaud-froid blanche neige used here is purely a reduction of tarragon-flavored stock and cream in which gelatin has been dissolved; it is much lighter and nicer in texture than the classic sauce, we think. Serve chicken breasts in chaud-froid as a luncheon dish, or as part of a cold buffet.
For 6 people
6 suprêmes (the skinless and boneless breast-halves from 3 frying chickens)
A serving platter
Waxed paper
Poach the chicken breasts in butter as described at the beginning of the recipe, suprêmes de volaille à blanc. Drain them, and let them cool to room temperature. Arrange them in a serving platter, cover with waxed paper, and chill.