French Classics Made Easy (64 page)

9.
When the coating has cooled and the truffles are firm enough to handle, transfer them to a bowl and refrigerate or freeze until ready to serve. (They will keep well in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks and can be stored in the freezer for several months.)

10.
To serve: Mound the truffles in a serving dish. They are delicious when served at room temperature or cold from the refrigerator.

IN ADDITION

When using melted chocolate as a coating for candy or chocolate-dipped fruits, it’s important to stir it as it cools. Generally, when you melt chocolate the cocoa butter floats to the surface, as butter would in a sauce. When it cools and sets, it leaves a dull white film on the surface. By stirring the chocolate well as it cools, you keep the cocoa butter mixed in, and the chocolate remains smooth and even-colored.

CHOCOLATE-DIPPED FRUIT

[FRUITS GLACÉS AU CHOCOLAT]

Some fo the most delicious candies are very simple to make. For example, chocolate-coated dried and fresh fruits, as well as assorted nuts, add an elegant touch to the end of a meal when served with coffee or Cognac. All you need to do is melt chocolate, stir it well as it cools (see In Addition, above), dip the fruit to coat, and let it cool on waxed paper. You can use either semisweet or milk chocolate for these candies.

When dipping, the chocolate should feel cool to the touch. The chocolate will be thick and close to setting. Chill a plate or baking sheet and cover it with waxed paper. The chilled surface helps the chocolate set once dipped. The chocolate-covered fruits should be kept covered in a cool room or in the refrigerator, but should be served at room temperature.

To make chocolate-dipped fruits, melt the chocolate in a low oven (see “Melting Chocolate,”
page 294
) and use any of the following suggestions.

APRICOTS:
Choose deep orange, dried California apricots. Stretch them gently, if necessary, to flatten them. Dip them only halfway into the chocolate and allow the excess to drip off before placing the coated apricots on the waxed paper.

PRUNES:
Take large, soft, pitted prunes and cut them into two to four pieces. Drop the pieces into the chocolate and use two forks to turn and coat each piece. Lift a piece out of the chocolate with one fork and tap with the other fork to knock off any excess chocolate. Drop the coated prune onto the waxed paper.

CANDIED GINGER OR CANDIED CITRUS PEEL:
Coat the same way you coat the prune pieces (above).

NUTS AND RAISINS:
Toasted unsalted nuts and raisins are delicious when coated with chocolate. I enjoy eating clusters made with a combination of both. Stir enough nuts and raisins into your melted chocolate so they become lightly coated. Drop them by teaspoonfuls onto the waxed paper.

STRAWBERRIES:
Leave the stems on the strawberries, wash, and make sure they are completely dried before dipping. If water gets into your chocolate, it will stiffen and become unusable for this purpose. Use paper towels to pat dry and then air-dry the strawberries for several hours before dipping. For best results, dip the berries the day you serve them.

ARMAGNAC-SOAKED PRUNES

[PRUNEAUX À L’ARMAGNAC]

Prunes soaked in Armagnac (or Cognac) are a delicacy to be shared with guests after dinner, with coffee. The longer the prunes sit in the alcohol, the better they get. If you find you enjoy these “stewed” prunes as much as I do, store them in an attractive jar that can be brought to the table.

MAKES 1 POUND

1 pound pitted prunes

Armagnac or Cognac

1.
Place the prunes in an attractive jar and cover them with Armagnac or Cognac.

2.
Set aside the jar to allow the prunes to absorb the Armagnac, adding more as necessary to keep
them covered. When the level of Armagnac remains constant, the prunes are ready to serve. This takes about 1 week.

3.
Serve 2 or 3 prunes per person in a wine glass with a little of the Armagnac from the jar.

VARIATION

M
ADEIRA
-S
OAKED
P
RUNES

[PRUNEAUX AU MADÈRE]

For a slightly milder version with a different but equally interesting taste, marinate the prunes in Madeira.

CHAPTER FIVE
BASICS

STOCKS

SAUCES

BREADS

DESSERT SAUCES

Classic sauces provide much of the glory of French food. Although many beginning cooks are often intimidated by even the idea of sauce making, once they realize the relative ease with which a few basic sauces can be prepared—and the wonderful elegance they add to the simplest dishes—they’ll soon find themselves making them often.

In this section are the stocks and sauces that are basic to French cooking, including the sweet sauces used in a number of different dessert recipes. Pastry Cream, Crème Anglaise, and icings are also here because they are important components of many French desserts. The following recipes form a cornerstone of most of French cooking.

STOCKS

Most books on the subject of French cooking stress the importance of making your own stocks to use in soups and sauces. Stocks themselves are not difficult to make, and I encourage you to make them to learn their delicate flavors. Then try reducing them to a richer, more intense glaze (
glace
) to better understand their full potential. Knowing the characteristics of homemade stocks and glazes will enable you to use store-bought products successfully when homemade ones are not available (see “Using Canned Stocks,”
page 305
).

Over the years I have found that only about 25 percent of serious home cooks regularly make their own stock. They tell me that they have difficulty finding the bones and the time necessary for making it. The time problem can be alleviated by shortening the cooking process, as I have done here, but because of the way meat and fish are currently being processed, unless you live in one of the major cities on either coast, chicken bones may be the only bones you can easily find. Don’t let this discourage you, for chicken stock and glaze can take the place of beef stock and glaze in many recipes with excellent results.

Meat glaze (
glace de viande
)—like chicken glaze (
glace de volaille
), fish glaze (
glace de poisson
), and game glaze (
glace de gibier
)—is an essential part of fine sauce making. It is the essence of stock and the result of a long reduction. Its full flavor and body add character and color to sauces. By reducing stock until it has practically no water, glaze can be stored in your refrigerator or freezer until you are ready to use it. A hot glaze has the consistency of a thick syrup; when cold, it will be firm and gelatinous.

Unlike stocks, glazes are not readily available in the supermarket, and for this reason I have made their use in my recipes optional. Most of the recipes call for only 1 to 2 teaspoons of meat glaze. Without it, the sauce will be very good; with its addition, it will be even better.

ECONOMICAL BEEF STOCK

[FONDS BRUN ECONOMIQUE]

A classic brown beef stock is made with meat and bones and is simmered for eight hours. Without the meat it becomes less expensive and hence more economical. The bones and vegetables are usually cooked whole or in large pieces, which helps to keep the stock clear, but they require a long cooking time to extract their flavor. In this recipe I cut the bones and vegetables into smaller pieces, thus reducing the cooking time by more than half.

Once the stock has come to its initial boil, it is important to adjust the heat to prevent rapid boiling during the lengthy cooking time. If the stock boils vigorously, it will become cloudy, and it may even appear as though milk has been added. The cloudy stock can be used, but when a clear one is needed, it will have to be clarified (see “Clarifying,” below).

To make this recipe, you will need a 16to 20-quart stockpot. If one is not available, the ingredients can easily be halved to fit the size pot you have. It is important to leave the stock uncovered while it is cooling. Trapped warm air can make a stock sour, rendering it unusable.

MAKES 5 TO 6 QUARTS

C
LARIFYING

When a stock needs to be absolutely clear, as when making aspic or Chicken Consommé (
page 17
), it should be clarified. To clarify a stock, add 1 egg white per quart of stock and stir constantly while the stock reheats. When it begins to boil, stop stirring, reduce the heat, and simmer gently for 5 to 10 minutes. As the egg white cooks, it will float to the top of the stock, carrying with it the particles that would otherwise cloud the stock; you can then remove it easily with a spoon or a skimmer.

8 to 10 pounds beef or veal bones, cut into 2-inch pieces (see Note)

4 tablespoons vegetable oil or butter

4 carrots, thickly sliced on the diagonal

4 onions, halved and sliced ¼ inch thick

8 quarts cold water

4 ribs celery, with leaves if possible

2 leeks, washed and diced (optional)

1 turnip, cut into 4 pieces, each piece stuck with 1 clove

4 cloves garlic

Double Bouquet Garni (
page 306
)

15 peppercorns

1.
Preheat the oven to 500°F.

2.
Place the bones in a large roasting pan and brown in the oven, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

3.
Meanwhile, in a stockpot, heat the oil over high heat. Add the carrots and onions and cook, occasionally scraping the browned bits from the bottom of the pan, until well browned, 20 to 25 minutes.

4.
Add the browned bones to the stockpot and cover with the water. Add all the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil (this will take 30 to 45 minutes).

5.
Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 3½ hours. Skim the surface several times during the simmering to remove any foam that appears.

6.
Strain and allow the stock to cool uncovered before refrigerating. Remove any fat from the surface when cold, or before using. Freeze the portion not used, or reduce to form Meat Glaze (
page 309
). Four quarts of stock will reduce to yield about 1½ cups of meat glaze.

NOTE

Beef bones have become increasingly hard to find in supermarkets, since meat is now cut and packaged at a central warehouse and shipped to local stores without bones. When bones are not available, use 2 pounds beef shank, oxtail, or short ribs, and 6 pounds of chicken backs or necks.

VARIATIONS

Q
UICK
B
EEF
S
TOCK

[FONDS BRUN RAPIDE]

This version of beef stock cuts the preparation time by about 1 hour. Place all the ingredients, without browning, into a pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. While the stock comes to a boil, blacken an onion as follows: Cut the onion in half and place both halves, cut side down, in a hot, dry (without butter or oil) skillet. The onion will blacken within 3 to 4 minutes. Adding the blackened onion to the stockpot will give the stock the brown color it would otherwise be missing.

Although the flavor of this quick stock is slightly different, it works perfectly well as a brown beef stock. One word of caution: The time saved by not browning the bones and vegetables may be equaled by the effort needed to clean your skillet after blackening the onion.

G
AME
S
TOCK

[FONDS DEGIBIER]

Follow the steps in the beef stock recipe to make a game stock, using 6 pounds of game meat and 7 pounds of bones. Brown the meat when you brown the bones (use two roasting pans if necessary). Add 10 juniper berries and 2 sage leaves. Use 16 quarts of water.

U
SING
C
ANNED
S
TOCKS

A properly made stock has a delicate flavor that does not overwhelm the dishes it is in. Most people using a store-bought broth follow the directions on the label and unfortunately end up using too strong a stock.

If, for example, you use a can of Campbell’s beef broth diluted with 1 can of water, as the manufacturer instructs, you will taste this product in all your finished recipes. If, however, you use additional water (see chart below), you will have a liquid to use that will be equivalent in strength (although not in taste) to a homemade beef stock. Other brands of commercial beef stock, and some chicken stock, may be less concentrated and require less extra water. The chart below lists just some of the broths that were tested for this book, and shows how to dilute them for both a “normal-strength” stock, which you can use any time stock is called for, as well as a “double-strength” stock, which is used to make consommé (see
pages 17
–18). For the beef stock, there is also an extra-fortified dilution used to make Quick Brown Sauce (
page 320
).