French Provincial Cooking (91 page)

HERE is a dish which is something of a collector’s piece. I did not have to search for the recipe because I did not know of its existence. It fell, in a most felicitous way, into my outstretched hands through the kindness of Miss Patricia Green, a highly enterprising young woman who has made a study of wine and wine production on the spot in the Médoc.

From Madame Bernard, the wife of a wine-grower of Cissac-Médoc, Miss Green obtained this recipe and passed it on to me exactly as it was given to her; and she told me that Madame Bernard knew as much as there was to know of the peasant cooking of the region. I should also perhaps add that the name of the dish is not a printer’s error, nor does it mean you throw away the meat and only eat the sauce; for, although the meat is cooked so slowly for so long that it practically
is
sauce, it is not uncommon in country districts of France to hear a stew of this kind referred to as
la sauce
.

Here is the recipe, unaltered in any particular. You may think it needs an act of faith to try it but when you read the recipe carefully you see that it is not really so strange and wild as it seems at a first glance.

1 rabbit, 1
lb. stewing beef, 1 hare or 1
lb. lean pork, 6 shallots, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 bayleaf, small sprig of thyme, large bundle of parsley, 1 dessertspoon of flour, salt, sugar, 1 square of plain chocolate, 1 bottle red wine, equal quantity of water, 3 large carrots, pork dripping or oil.

This is essentially a peasant dish,
‘La grosse cuisine de la campagne,’
and it should therefore be as rich and vulgarly hearty a savoury stew as possible when finished. It will be spoilt if the meat is cut into too delicate pieces or the carrots carefully sliced.

Heat the oil or, better still, pork dripping, in a large, thick saucepan which has a closely-fitting lid. Cut the shallots very finely, and slowly and gently brown them in the hot fat, adding the carrots carefully peeled but cut only in 2 or 3 pieces. Sprinkle generously with salt, and when well browned add the meat. For pork and beef, trim off gristle and excess fat and cut into rather large chunks. For hare and rabbit, dry the joints well before adding to the frying vegetables. Brown the meat well all over, then add the garlic finely sliced, and the herbs, sprinkle with flour and mix all well together. Now pour on a bottle of red wine and bring quickly to the boil and bubble vigorously for about 5 minutes, reduce the heat, add an equal quantity of water, stir well, add a teaspoon of sugar and 1 small square of plain chocolate. Put on the lid and simmer, just a murmur, for about 3 hours. Allow to get quite cold. On the second day simmer again for about 2 hours before serving. Taste before doing so and adjust seasoning; it may be a little sharp, in which case a sprinkle more sugar will usually put matters right.

The choice of meats, as you see, is left pretty well to individual taste (shin of beef cut from the bone and sparerib or hand of pork on the bone with its skin is what I use, plus a hare or rabbit if either happen to be available). A whole bottle of wine and an equal quantity of water seems a lot of liquid, and this question is one which frequently arises in French recipes of this type, because the French peasants and workmen reckon on filling out their meal with a great deal of bread soaked in the sauce; in fact, two-thirds of the quantities can be used, but less I think would deprive the dish of its character. If there is a lot of sauce left over, serve it with poached eggs as described for
œufs à l’huguenote
on page 190, or poured round a mousseline of potatoes (page 272).

As for the chocolate, of which rather less than an ounce is needed, it is not an uncommon ingredient in Italian and Spanish cookery, particularly in hare dishes, and is there as a sweetening and thickening for the sauce. Its use perhaps filtered down to the Bordelais through the channel of Basque and Béarnais cookery. And Bayonne, for generations one of the great chocolate manufacturing centres of France, is not far off.

On page 54 I have referred to Auguste Colombié and his cookery school in Paris for young ladies. Here is his recipe for the famous cassoulet of the Languedoc. Being a native of that province, he should know what he is talking about. His method, however, differs in several respects from that of other Languedoc cooks, but he shows how it can be made in quite a small quantity. It is, as he says, essentially a family dish, to be eaten at midday, and preferably on a Sunday or holiday, and if you insist on having a course to start with, it must be something very light; M. Colombié’s suggestions are oysters when in season, or a few crisply fried small fish such as smelts. Here is his recipe:

‘Three-quarters to a pound of white haricot beans, of the variety known as Soissons, or
flageolets
of Arpajon,
²⁹
a garlic sausage, or a chitterling sausage weighing
lb., about
lb. of preserved goose (I will discuss this later), 1 lb. of shoulder of mutton, 4 oz. of fat bacon or salt pork, 2 cloves of garlic, an onion stuck with 2 cloves, a little bouquet of parsley, a fresh tomato, a small quantity of breadcrumbs.

‘Spread the beans
on the table
, so that you can see if there are any stones or grit to be discarded. Put them into a little cold water, and rub them between your hands to get rid of the dust. Change the water at least twice; not until it comes out quite clear are the beans properly clean.

‘Put the beans into a small
marmite
or stock pot with 3
pints of cold water. Bring to the boil, cover, remove from the fire, and leave them for about 40 minutes. The beans swell, go white, and throw off the oxide of potassium which they contain. The purpose of this operation is to make them more digestible and less flatulent.

‘Throw away the water out of doors,
not down the sink;
its smell infects the kitchen for twenty-four hours. In the Languedoc the housewives keep this liquid in well-corked bottles and use it for removing obstinate stains on white and coloured linen.

‘Return the beans to the pot with 2
to 5 pints of tepid water and a little salt, and bring to the boil.

‘In the meantime partly roast the mutton and soak the sausage in tepid water to rid it of dust. Add the meat and the sausage to the beans, plus the bouquet of parsley tied with a thread, the preserved goose, the tomato cut in half and the seeds removed, and the onion stuck with cloves. Cook extremely gently for 2 hours.

‘Cut the salt pork or bacon into dice; crush the peeled garlic cloves. Dip a sturdy knife into very hot water and chop the salt pork or the bacon and garlic together. Add them to the beans. Cook for at least 1 more hour, preferably 2.

‘Now carefully remove to a plate all the cooked meat. Transfer the beans to a deep earthenware or fireproof china dish, with just enough of their juice to moisten them; they should be milky white, and soft to the touch. Season them with pepper and sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs. Put the dish in a hot oven for 15 minutes.