French Provincial Cooking (61 page)

Half a pound of medium-sized dried white beans, previously soaked, are cooked in water to cover by about 2 inches, with the addition of an onion stuck with a clove, a carrot, a small piece of celery, a bouquet of thyme, parsley and bayleaf. Add salt only at the end. When they are tender, drain them, reserving the liquid. Chop the onion which has cooked with them and fry it in butter; add 2 peeled and chopped tomatoes, fry 2 minutes, dilute with a little of the reserved liquid. Add to the beans; reheat them gently, adding, if available, a little juice from a roast, or meat glaze.

Soak
lb. of white haricot beans, preferably the long kidney-shaped ones called
Soissons
, in cold water for 12 hours. Put them on to cook in about 1
pints of fresh cold water with a piece of salt pork or streaky bacon weighing about 6 oz., or if you like 3 oz each of pork and bacon. Add a bouquet of bayleaf, thyme and a crushed clove of garlic. Cook at a moderate pace for 1
to 1
hours. Take out the pork; drain the beans, reserving the liquid. In a mixture of butter and olive oil, fry a finely-sliced onion, then add the pork cut into little cubes. After a minute or so pour in half a tumbler of red wine. Let it bubble fast for half a minute. Put in the beans, stir them round and add a little of the cooking liquid. Cook gently about 10 minutes. Before serving stir in a little lump of butter.

An excellent way of serving haricot beans, preferably as a dish on their own.

When you can get young and tender little French or string beans, of the variety which need only topping and tailing, they make one of the most beautiful vegetable dishes imaginable, and should always be served as a separate course, when their exquisite flavour can be appreciated.

Simply cook them in a small amount of boiling water, lightly salted, for about 15 minutes. Drain them. In the saucepan melt a large lump of butter, at least 1 oz. per pound of beans, put back the drained beans, shake the pan over the flame until the butter has melted, and serve instantly. One pound of string beans should serve four people.

For this dish coarse French beans or scarlet runners can be used.

Top and tail the beans, slice off the strings, break the beans into chunks, blanch them 10 minutes in boiling salted water and drain them. In a frying-pan heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil; put in the drained beans and 2 or 3 skinned and roughly chopped tomatoes and a clove of garlic. Cook gently for 10 minutes until the tomatoes have turned almost to a purée. Shake the pan from time to time so that the beans do not stick. Remove the garlic, add a little parsley and turn into a hot serving dish.

In French cookery there are two kinds of lentils;
lentilles blondes
, which are the kind we know as brown or German lentils, and
lentilles du Puy,
which are smaller and a mixture of beautiful dark green and slate colours which, however, turn brown when they are cooked. The red and yellow lentils which are the ones most commonly found in English shops I have never seen in France. They are good for soups and purées but useless for either of the following vegetable recipes, as they turn to a fibrous mush after half an hour’s cooking and must be sieved.

Brown lentils can be found at Harrods and other large stores as well as in Soho shops, and are excellent, although their flavour is less fine than that of the green lentils of Le Puy, which can be bought at Roche’s in Old Compton Street—at a price.

It is not strictly necessary to soak either of these varieties of lentils, but it shortens the cooking time to do so. And although nowadays lentils are very carefully picked over before they are packed, it is still advisable to spread them out on a dish to make sure there are no little stones or pieces of grit. Allow 2 to 3 oz. of lentils per person.

For
lb. of either brown or green lentils, the other ingredients are a teacup of chicken or veal or beef stock, 1
oz. of
maître d’hôtel
butter (see page 116), water and salt.

Put the lentils on a plate and pick out any pieces of grit. Cover them with cold water and leave them to soak for an hour or so. Drain them. Put them in a saucepan with 2
pints of fresh cold water. Bring to the boil and then simmer them at a moderate pace for 1
hours, by which time all the water will be evaporated and the lentils tender without being mushy. If they are not yet sufficiently cooked, add more water, which should be boiling. If there is any excess of water by the time the lentils are ready, drain it off.

To the cooked lentils add the cup of stock and simmer again for a few minutes until it is absorbed. Put in the parsley butter, turn off the heat, and shake the saucepan until the butter is just barely melted and has formed a little sauce which binds the lentils. Serve at once in a hot dish.

As a separate vegetable dish this is hard to beat, especially in winter when there are no fresh green vegetables. It is also delicious with pheasant, venison, pork and sausages.

Put
lb. of brown or green lentils to soak in cold water for an hour. Cover a 6 to 8 oz. piece of breast of salt pork with cold water and bring it to the boil. Let it cook 5 minutes and drain it.