A Book of Mediterranean Food

by Unknown

  2 oz bacon or ham, 1½ oz flour, 1½ oz butter, 1 oz carrots, ½ gill white wine, ½ oz onion, 1¼ pints good brown stock, thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper, ½ lb tomatoes.

  Melt the bacon or ham cut in dice in a little of the butter; add the carrots, also cut in dice, the onions and the herbs and seasonings; when they turn golden add the white wine and reduce by half.

  In another pan put the rest of the butter and when it is melted put in the flour; let it brown very gently, stirring to prevent burning. When it is smooth and brown add half the brown stock, bring to the boil, transfer the mixture from the other pan, and let the whole cook very slowly for 1½ hours. Put the sauce through a fine sieve; return to the saucepan and add the chopped tomatoes and the rest of the stock; let it cook slowly another 30 minutes and strain it again; the sauce should now be of the right consistency, but if it is too thin cook it again until it is sufficiently reduced.

  SAUCE BÉCHAMEL

  Put 1½ oz of butter into a thick pan; when it has melted stir in 2 tablespoons of flour; let this cook a minute or two, but it must not brown. Add gradually ½ to ¾ pint of hot milk, and stir the sauce until it thickens; season with salt, pepper, and a very small pinch of nutmeg. The sauce should cook very slowly for 15 or 20 minutes, to allow the flour to cook; this precaution is frequently omitted by English cooks, hence the appalling taste of imperfectly dissolved flour. Should the sauce turn lumpy, bring it very quickly to the boil and let it bubble a minute or two; sometimes this eliminates the lumps, but if they still persist pass the sauce through a fine sieve into a clean pan.

  SAUCE BÉARNAISE

  Even experienced cooks get into a panic when béarnaise sauce is mentioned. It is not really so fearsome to make, but it does require the cook’s full attention.

  Any sauce with eggs in it is best made in a double saucepan, but if there is not one available put a Pyrex or china bowl into a small saucepan half filled with water, and cook the sauce in this; the sauce can be served in the bowl in which it was cooked.

  The sauce is made as follows:

  In a small saucepan put 2 chopped shallots, a little piece of parsley, tarragon, thyme, a bay leaf, and ground black pepper. Add half a tumbler of white wine, or half white wine and half tarragon vinegar. Let this boil rapidly until it has reduced to 1 tablespoon of liquid. It is this preliminary reduction which gives a Béarnaise sauce its inimitable flavour. Strain what is left of the vinegar into a Pyrex bowl, add a dessertspoon of cold water, and over the saucepan containing hot water, and on an exceedingly gentle fire, proceed to add little by little 4 oz of butter and 4 beaten egg yolks, stirring with great patience until the sauce thickens, and becomes shiny like a mayonnaise. If the fire becomes too hot, if the water in the double saucepan boils, or if you stop stirring for one instant the sauce will curdle; when it has thickened take it off the fire and keep on stirring; the sauce is served tepid, and is at its best with grilled tournedos, but can be used with many other dishes. A very little finely chopped tarragon is stirred in before serving.

  If all precautions fail and the sauce curdles, it can sometimes be brought back again by the addition of a few drops of cold water, and vigorous stirring; if this fails put the sauce through a fine sieve, add another yolk of egg and stir again.

  The addition of a quarter of its volume of concentrated tomato purée to the béarnaise makes sauce Cboron; 2 tablespoons of meat glaze added to the initial béarnaise makes sauce foyot. Whatever variations are to be made are made at the end when the sauce has already thickened.

  Red wine, although unorthodox, makes just as good a sauce as white wine. Few people realize this.

  SAUCE HOLLANDAISE

  The same remarks apply here as for sauce béarnaise (see preceding page).

  Reduce by two-thirds 2 tablespoons of white wine or white wine vinegar, and 4 tablespoons of water, seasoned with a pinch of pepper and salt. Put this reduction into a double saucepan, and add gradually the yolks of 5 eggs and ½ lb of butter; stir until the sauce thickens, adding a spoonful or two of water, which keeps the sauce light. Season with a little more salt, and a few drops of lemon juice; it may be put through a fine sieve but this is not strictly necessary. Sauce hollandaise is usually served with asparagus, or with poached sole, salmon, and so on.

  For sauce mousseline add 4 tablespoons of cream to a sauce hollandaise.

  SAUCE TOMATE

  Chop 2 lb of good ripe tomatoes; put them into a thick pan with salt, pepper, 3 or 4 lumps of sugar, 1 clove of garlic, 1 onion chopped, 2 oz of raw minced beef, and half a teaspoon of sweet basil. Put the lid on the pan and leave the tomatoes to stew very slowly. When they are reduced to pulp and most of the water from the tomatoes is evaporated (this will take 20 to 30 minutes), put the mixture through a sieve. If it is still too liquid put the sauce back into the pan and reduce until it is the right consistency.

  SAUCE BOLOGNESE FOR SPAGHETTI

  ½ small tin Italian tomato paste, 2 oz mushrooms or mushroom stalks, 2 oz minced raw beef, 2 oz chicken livers, 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, basil, salt and pepper, 2 lumps of sugar, a little oil, butter, or dripping, stock or water, ½ glass wine.

  Into a small thick pan put a tablespoon of oil, butter, or dripping. In this fry the chopped onion until it is golden. Add the minced beef, the chopped mushrooms, and the chicken livers. Cook until the beef is slightly fried – only about 3 minutes.

  Now add a small glass of wine, red or white, and let it bubble until reduced by half. Put in the tomato paste, add the basil, seasoning and the sugar and enough stock or water to make the sauce of a creamy consistency, but thinner than you finally require, for it will reduce in the cooking.

  With the point of a knife crush the clove of garlic and add to the sauce. Put the lid on the pan and simmer very slowly for 30 minutes at least. The longer the better, so that the essence of the meat penetrates the sauce. You can leave it at the bottom of a slow oven for as long as you like. Be sure to have it very hot before serving with your spaghetti.

  TOMATO PASTE

  The slightly salty, smoky flavour of this sauce in Greek stipbádo (p. 81) and macaroni dishes is entirely characteristic; it may not be to everybody’s taste but it blends remarkably well with retsina, the vin ordinaire of Greece, which seems so outlandish when one first arrives there that it is hard to believe that one could ever become accustomed to it. Sooner or later, though, most people do, and sitting in a village taverna, the wine barrels stacked around, retsina seems the right and proper drink.

  Several pounds of tomatoes are chopped up and put in a pan, with a good deal of salt, and cooked until they are reduced to a pulp. They are then put through a sieve, and reduced again over a slow fire. The sauce is then put in bowls and left out in the sun until it has become very dry.

  It is stored in jars with a layer of oil on the top to keep out the air.

  SAUCE OF DRIED CÉPES* TO SERVE WITH SPAGHETTI

  2 to 3 oz of dried cèpes. Cover them with water, add salt and pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes. Strain them, keeping the water they have cooked in, which you strain again through a muslin.

  Put this back in the pan, and melt 2 or 3 oz of butter in it.

  Serve the sauce and the cèpes over the cooked noodles or spaghetti.

  SAUCE CATALANE

  This sauce is intended to give the taste of partridge to grilled mutton cutlets.

  In a tablespoon of pork fat sauté 1 chopped onion and a little ham cut in dice. Sprinkle with flour, stir with a wooden spoon. Add a glass of water and a glass of white wine, a dozen cloves of garlic and a whole lemon cut in slices. Simmer for 30 minutes. In a mortar pound 6 oz of almonds and stir them into the sauce 5 minutes before serving.

  AVGOLÉMONO SAUCE

  This is simply the Greek way of making a sauce for practically anything.

  The juice of a lemon and 2 or 3 egg yolks are beaten together and added to some of the stock in which fish or meat or chicken has cooked, and stirred carefully until it is thick.

  Youvarlakia, or l
ittle meat rissoles, served in this sauce are not to be despised, and, as the standby of every Greek cook, how different from the bottled horror and the stickfast of English cooking.

  SAUCE CHEVREUIL

  2 glasses of red wine (Burgundy if possible), 1½ glasses of stock or meat essence, 2 tablespoons vinegar, 2 level tablespoons sugar, 4 or 5 tablespoons red-currant jelly, 2 tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons butter or lard, half a lemon, a good pinch of pepper.

  Put into a saucepan 1½ glasses of the red wine, the vinegar, the sugar and the lemon, peeled and cut into dice. Mix the jelly into this preparation and boil until it is reduced by half. Meanwhile prepare a brown roux with the butter and flour, add the stock and the rest of the wine and cook slowly for 20 minutes. Mix the two preparations, put through a fine sieve and reheat.

  SAUCE PIQUANTE

  In oil, butter, or dripping fry a sliced onion until it is golden, then add a wineglass of vinegar and 2 cups of the stock of whatever meat the sauce is to be served with. Add herbs, a clove of garlic, salt and pepper, and simmer until the sauce is a good consistency.

  A few minutes before serving, add a spoonful each of capers and chopped gherkins.

  MAYONNAISE

  For mayonnaise for 4 people 2 egg yolks are sufficient, and about 1/3 pint of olive oil. I find the best utensils to use are a small but heavy marble mortar which does not slide about the table, a wooden spoon, and for the olive oil a small jug with a spout which allows the oil to come out very slowly.

  Break the yolks very carefully into the mortar; add a little salt, pepper, and a teaspoon of mustard in powder. Stir well before adding any oil at all; at first the oil must be stirred in drop by drop, then a little more each time as the mayonnaise gets thicker. Stir steadily but not like a maniac. From time to time add a very little tarragon vinegar, and at the end a squeeze of lemon juice. Should the mayonnaise curdle, break another yolk into a clean basin, and add the curdled mayonnaise gradually; it will come back to life miraculously.

  SAUCE TARTARE

  Sauce tartare is a mayonnaise to which you add finely chopped tarragon, capers, parsley, chives, and a very little pickled gherkin and minced shallot.

  SAUCE VINAIGRETTE

  The basis of sauce vinaigrette is olive oil and good wine vinegar; 2/3 oil to 1/3 vinegar, with the addition of a little finely minced onion, parsley, tarragon, capers, chives, chervil, and lemon peel, all stirred together with a seasoning of salt and pepper.

  TURKISH SALAD DRESSING

  3 oz of shelled walnuts, a breakfastcupful of clear chicken or meat broth, or milk, 4 tablespoonsful of dried breadcrumbs, salt, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, parsley or mint, a clove of garlic.

  Pound the walnuts and garlic to a paste; stir in the breadcrumbs, then the broth or milk, season with salt, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper. The sauce should be about the consistency of cream. Very good with salads of haricot beans and chick peas. Enough to season ½ lb of either of these vegetables. Sprinkle the salad with fresh herbs before serving.

  AÏLLADE

  A mixture of garlic, basil, and grilled tomatoes, pounded in the mortar. Olive oil is added drop by drop, until thick.

  MOHAMMED’S SAUCE FOR FISH

  Mayonnaise, 2 hard-boiled eggs, 3 anchovies (boned and chopped or 4 anchovy fillets), 2 teaspoons of capers, 2 level tablespoons of finely chopped celery, 2 tablespoons of peeled, chopped fresh cucumber, a little grated onion or shallot.

  Stir all the chopped ingredients into a cupful of stiff mayonnaise, then add the grated raw onion or shallot to taste.

  AÏOLI

  Aïoli is really a mayonnaise made with garlic, and sometimes breadcrumbs are added.

  It is served usually with salt cod, or with boiled beef, accompanied by boiled carrots, potatoes boiled in their skins, artichokes, French beans, hard-boiled eggs, and sometimes with snails which have been cooked in water with onions and fennel, or with baby octopus plainly boiled, with pimentos; in fact, with any variety of vegetables, but always cooked à l’eau. It is one of the most famous and best of all Provençal dishes. The aïoli sauce is itself often called beurre de Provence.

  Start by pounding 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, then put in the yolks of eggs, seasonings, and add olive oil drop by drop, proceeding exactly as for mayonnaise. Add lemon juice instead of vinegar.

  SKORDALIÁ (the Greek version of aïoli)

  2 egg yolks, 2 oz ground almonds, 2 oz fresh white breadcrumbs, ½ dozen cloves of garlic, ¼ pint olive oil, lemon juice, parsley.

  Pound the garlic in a mortar, then add the yolks, the olive oil drop by drop as for mayonnaise, and when of the right consistency stir in the ground almonds and the breadcrumbs. Add plenty of lemon juice and chopped parsley. This sauce curdles very easily; if it does, start again with another egg yolk as for mayonnaise (p. 187).

  Some versions of this sauce are made without egg yolks. A more primitive and an easier system.

  SAUCE À LA CRÈME D’OURSINS

  In Provence, oursins (sea urchins), as well as being eaten as an hors d’oeuvre, are made into a most delicate sauce. The coral is scooped out of 2 or 3 dozen oursins and pressed through a fine muslin. There should be about 2 oz of purée, which is then incorporated either into a sauce mousseline or a mayonnaise, and eaten with plainly cooked fish, or with cold lobster.

  TAPÉNADE

  Tapénade is a Provençal sauce. The name comes from the word tapéna, Provençal for capers. It is a simple sauce and excellent for hard-boiled eggs, cold fish, or a salad of cold boiled beef.

  Pound 2 tablespoons of capers in a mortar with half a dozen fillets of anchovies; add olive oil little by little as for mayonnaise, until you have about a cup of sauce. Add the juice of a lemon and a little black pepper, but no salt, as the anchovies will probably be salty.

  SAUCE ROUILLE (a Provençal sauce for fish)

  1 clove of garlic, 1 red pimento, breadcrumbs, olive oil.

  Grill the pimento whole until the skin turns black. Take out the seeds, rub off the burnt skin, rinse the pimento in cold water, and pound it with the garlic. Soak a handful of breadcrumbs in water and squeeze them dry. Add them to the pimento and then stir in very slowly 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Thin the sauce with a few teaspoons of the stock from the fish with which it is to be served.

  SYRIAN SAUCE FOR FISH

  A teacupful of fresh white breadcrumbs, 2 oz of pine nuts or walnuts, the juice of a lemon, salt.

  Soak the breadcrumbs in water, then squeeze dry. Pound the pine nuts or walnuts to a paste. Mix them with the breadcrumbs, add salt and the lemon juice. Press through a coarse sieve. Serve poured over a cold baked fish. If too thick add a few drops of cold water or broth from the fish.

  CAPPON MAGRO SAUCE

  A large bunch of parsley, a clove of garlic, a tablespoon of capers, 2 anchovy fillets, the yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs, 6 green olives, fennel (either a bunch of the leaves or a slice of the fleshy root-stem), a handful of breadcrumbs, a large cupful of olive oil, a little vinegar.

  Remove the thick stalks from the parsley, wash the leaves, put them into a mortar with a little salt and the clove of garlic. Pound until it is beginning to turn to a paste (this is not so arduous a task as might be supposed). Then add the capers, the anchovies, the stoned olives, and the fennel. Continue pounding, and add the breadcrumbs, which should have been softened in a little milk or water and pressed dry. By this time there should be a thick sauce. Pound in the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs. Now start to add the olive oil, slowly, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon as if making mayonnaise, and when the sauce is the consistency of a thick cream add about 2 tablespoonsful of vinegar.

  This is the sauce which is poured over cappon magro, the celebrated Genoese fish salad made of about twenty different ingredients and built up into a splendid baroque edifice. The sauce is an excellent one for any coarse white fish, for cold meat, or for hard-boiled eggs.

  TOMATO SAUCE WITH PEPPERS or PEBRONATA

  A Corsican sauce used in conjunction with braised
or stewed beef or gigot of kid. I have also had it, in Corsica, with thick slices of fried country-cured ham.

  Ingredients are:

  1 small and 1 large onion, 1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of chopped parsley, a branch of dried thyme or a half teaspoon of dried or fresh thyme leaves, 1 lb of very ripe tomatoes, 4 tablespoons of olive oil, 6 very small green peppers or 2 or 3 larger ones, a glass (4 to 6 oz) of rough red wine, a heaped teaspoon of flour, salt, a half-dozen juniper berries.

  Chop the small onion together with the parsley and garlic. Heat two tablespoons of the olive oil in a shallow pan. Put in the onion and garlic mixture. Add the thyme. After five minutes’ gentle cooking put in the tomatoes, unskinned but roughly chopped. Season with salt. Add the crushed juniper berries. Simmer steadily for about 15 to 20 minutes.

  Meanwhile peel and slice the large onion. Put it in another pan with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil, warmed.

  Let it melt very gently. When the onion is yellow and soft add the green peppers, washed, all seeds and core discarded, and sliced into, roughly, one-inch lengths. When the peppers are slightly softened, stir in the flour. Then add the red wine, heated in a separate saucepan. Stir well, let the wine reduce by two-thirds.

  Now press the tomato sauce through a fine wire sieve into a bowl. Pour the resulting purée into the pepper and wine mixture. Cook gently for another 5 minutes or so. The peppers should not be too soft.

  Pebronata sauce is strongly flavoured, dark, aromatic, and interesting, with a character rather different from that of any other Mediterranean sauce.

  For a beef stew to which this sauce is added see the recipe for pebronata de boeuf, p. 83. White wine is specified for the initial cooking of the beef. If it is more convenient, more of the same red wine used for the sauce can go into the beef stew.

  Index

  ********************

  Aigroissade toulonnaise, 131

  aïoli, 188