French Provincial Cooking (21 page)

 

Panais
PARSNIP Used in very small quantities as a flavouring vegetable for the
pot-au-feu
and for soups.

 

Panne de porc
Fat from round the kidneys of the pig. See also
Axonge
and
Saindoux.

 

Paprika
A mild red pepper made from dried and pounded sweet peppers. A speciality of Hungarian cookery adapted by French cooks.

 

Pavot, Graines de
POPPY SEEDS These figure in the bread and cakes of Alsatian Jewish cookery.

 

Perce-Pierre
SAMPHIRE Also called
Christe-marine
and
fenouil marin.

 

Persil commun
Single-leaved parsley.

 

Persil frisé
CURLED PARSLEY Both varieties are used in cookery and for garnishing dishes; a sprig or two of parsley is always part of the
bouquet garni
and chopped parsley is the main component of a
fines herbes
mixture. Parsley should always be given a good rinse and then squeezed dry before it is chopped or put into any dish, for it is nearly always gritty. A third variety of parsley,
persil à grosse racine,
is cultivated for its root rather than its leaves; the flavour bears some resemblance to that of celeriac, the root being used in small quantities, like the parsnip, as a flavouring vegetable for soups and the
pot-au-feu
.

 

Persillade
A mixture of finely chopped parsley with shallot or garlic, added as a flavouring usually during the final stages of cooking to many varieties of dishes, vegetables, fried meat dishes, stews and so on.

 

 

Pignons
PINE KERNELS Used occasionally in the cooking of Provence and of the Landes district. See the omelette recipe on page 195.

 

 

Piments doux, Poivrons
Red or green sweet peppers, also called capsicum. The pimientos of Spain, paprika peppers of Hungary and
peperoni
of Italy.

 

Pimprenelle
BURNET The fleshy leaves of this plant are used for salads, and formerly figured in recipes for Montpellier butter and other herb sauces.

 

Poireaux
LEEKS One of the most important flavouring vegetables in French soup cookery. The white part only is used. To prepare leeks for cooking, cut off the root end and trim down the top leaves right to the white part. Remove the coarse outer leaves. Make a cross cut in the top of the leek and hold under a running cold tap to loosen the grit and mud. When all have been cleaned, leave them heads down in cold water for a little while and, before cooking, scrutinise each one very carefully to see that there is no sign of mud or grit. The loss of weight in leeks after trimming is very considerable, 3 lb. of untrimmed leeks being reduced to only 1 lb. when ready for cooking.

 

Poivre
PEPPER The world’s most valuable spice. While whole peppercorns (
poivre en grains
), which are the berries of the pepper tree,
piper nigrum,
retain their aroma and savour almost indefinitely, once ground, pepper rapidly deteriorates. For this reason all pepper, both for cooking and for the table, should be freshly ground in a pepper mill at the moment of use. There are very many different qualities of pepper, the most valuable and the hottest of the ordinary peppers being the white ones. White peppercorns are the inner part only of the berry gathered when fully ripe, while black ones are picked immature and retain their outer covering. While milder than white peppercorns, black ones have a more aromatic scent and flavour and are preferable for general kitchen use. One of the best qualities of black peppercorns is Malabar Black.

The peppery taste which is so overwhelming in many of the foods of commerce—English sausages in particular—is due to the fact that inferior and mixed peppers are used, and produce a hot and prickly sensation in the mouth without the proper characteristic aromatic smells and taste of good pepper. When buying peppercorns, look to see that the grains are of an even size and colour. If some are large and black and others very small and brownish looking, this means that poor quality peppercorns have been mixed with the good ones.

 

Poivre d’âne
The Provençal name for
sarriette,
a variety of wild savory. A bitter and peppery herb which is sometimes used for flavouring the local ewe’s and goat’s milk cheeses in Provence.

 

Poivre de cayenne
Very hot red pepper obtained from the dried and pounded fruit of different members of the capsicum family;
capsicum annuum, capsicum minimum.
Cayenne pepper is also known in England as Nepal pepper.

 

Poivre de la Jamaïque
The berry of the
pimenta officinalis,
or common pimento, which has a mild warm spicy flavour and which is now more generally known in England as allspice, although formerly it was often called Jamaica pepper. Although the tree is widely cultivated in hot countries, the best variety still comes from Jamaica. It is also known in France as
toute-épice
or
quatre-épices
because its flavour has something of the clove, the nutmeg, cinnamon and pepper. The dried berries are smooth and about the size of a pea; they can also be bought in ground form and may be labelled ground pimento or ground allspice. A typical spice of Middle Eastern, Arab, Turkish and French colonial cookery, but not widely used in France.

 

Poivrons
See
Piments doux.

 

Pourpier
PURSLANE Purslane leaves are used raw in salads, or cooked like spinach, or made into a sort of pickle with vinegar, in the same way in which samphire used to be used in English cookery.

 

 

Raifort
HORSERADISH Delicious horseradish sauces are served in the eastern provinces of France, with beef and with sausages. Instead of the hot pungent flavour of this root being further aggravated by the addition of vinegar, as is the English custom, the horseradish sauces of Alsace and Lorraine are made with cream. When fresh horseradish is unobtainable, I recommend an excellent Swedish import—little packs of plain, very white and finely grated horseradish which makes first-class sauces. To be found in delicatessen shops. (See page 228.)

 

Riz
RICE The long-grained rice which we call Patna is usually known in France as
riz caroline.

 

Riz, Crème
de RICE FLOUR or VERY FINE GROUND RICE.

 

Riz du Piémont
Italian round-grained rice with a hard central core. Anti-Italian prejudice has caused a number of French cookery writers to state that this is an inferior type of rice. It is, of course, a rice of the very highest quality and the most delicious flavour.

 

Rocambole
A member of the onion family, resembling the shallot, but also known as Spanish garlic.

 

Romarin
ROSEMARY A beautiful plant with a powerful aromatic scent, which must be used in cooking only with the utmost care. When rosemary leaves come into contact with heat, they give out a very strong and rather acrid tasting oil, so they should never be added to any stock which is destined to become a consommé or a jelly. Sprigs of rosemary are often used to flavour roast veal and grilled fish but should always be removed before the dish is served, for they spell ruination to every other flavour if you get the spiky little leaves in your mouth.

 

Roquette
ROCKET A plant resembling spinach, the leaves of which have a strong and peppery flavour. They are used in small quantities for salads and as a soup herb.

 

Safran
SAFFRON The origin of the use of saffron in the
bouillabaisse
of Marseille and other Provençal dishes has been attributed to the Phoenicians, who are said to have been inordinately fond of this pungent, spicy condiment which spreads its beautiful yellow stain to the foods with which it is mixed. Saffron comes from the pistils of the autumn-flowering
crocus sativus,
and it is reckoned that 500,000 pistils, or about 170,000 flowers, go to make up one kilo of dried saffron, which goes to show why saffron is so expensive and why it has often been falsified. On the whole, it is advisable to buy it in pistil form rather than powdered, for then one can be certain that no extraneous substance has been mixed with it. However, it is not a spice which one needs very often, and an infinitesimal quantity goes quite a long way. To use saffron in pistil form, you simply pound up about half a dozen of the little threads, mix them with a couple of tablespoons of the stock from whatever dish the saffron is to flavour, or with water, and leave it to steep until the mixture is an intense bright orange. Then drain this into your rice, soup or whatever it may be and it will dye the whole dish a beautiful pale yellow. It is not a flavouring to be overdone.

 

Saindoux
LARD Technically,
saindoux
is rendered back pork fat. The raw fat is cut into small cubes and melted extremely slowly in a deep covered saucepan with a small proportion of water, about one-eighth of a pint to a pound, in order to prevent the fat catching. When all the little pieces are swimming in their own fat, start pouring it off through a very fine strainer or thick cloth. Then put the residue back to cook again until nothing is left but the little frizzled pieces of fat, which are called
grattons
and which are used by the country people to give a savoury flavour to certain kinds of coarse bread and pastry doughs, and which are also sometimes still made into a rough sort of pâté and into
rillettes.
The fat from round the kidneys of the pig is considered to make a specially fine fat for cooking, and in its rendered state is known as
axonge.
Goose fat and beef kidney fat are rendered down in the same way. All fats should be stored in covered jars in a cool and dry place.

 

Salpicon
May be one of a score of mixtures comprising flavouring vegetables, herbs, ham, veal, fish or meat but always cut into very small dice and bound into a thick white or brown sauce. Used as a stuffing, or as a garnish for little tartlets or
vols-au-vent.

 

Sarrasin, Farine
de Buckwheat flour, used especially for Breton pancakes.

 

Sarriette
SAVORY A herb sometimes used in France in the
bouquet garni,
in sauces and in stuffings. It has a slightly bitter taste, which seems to me to detract from, rather than to enhance, the flavour of broad beans, a vegetable with which it is traditionally associated in French cookery.

 

Sauge
SAGE Occasionally used in French cookery but never in the large quantities in which it goes into stuffings for pork and duck in English cookery. Like rosemary, it can be a most treacherous herb, overpowering and spoiling the flavour of the food with which it is cooked.

 

Saumure
The brine in which foods are salted or pickled. It may vary in composition from a simple salt and water solution to a mixture flavoured with aromatic herbs and spices, vinegar or wine, saltpetre, peppercorns and so on.

 

Seigle, Farine
de RYE FLOUR Used for coarse country bread and for
pain-d’épice.

 

Sel-épicé
Spiced salt is a composition of various ingredients, mixed and pounded together in the following proportions: