Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (13 page)

3)
The eggplant and tomato garnish

A firm, shiny, 1-lb. eggplant (about 8 inches long and 3½ inches at widest diameter)

A 2-quart glazed or stainless mixing bowl

1½ tsp salt

1 lb. fresh, firm, ripe, red tomatoes (3 medium), peeled, seeded, and juiced

2–3 Tb olive oil

The 8-inch frying pan again

4 large cloves garlic, minced or mashed

A cover for the frying pan

Peel the eggplant and cut into ½-inch dice. Toss in the bowl with the salt and let stand at least 20 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the tomatoes and cut pulp into ½-inch squares; strain and reserve juice. When eggplant has stood its 20 minutes, drain and dry on paper towels. Heat the oil in the pan and sauté the eggplant, tossing it, to brown very lightly. Then toss with the tomato pulp and garlic, add the juice from the tomatoes, and cover the pan. Simmer slowly for 10 to 15 minutes until eggplant is tender but still holds its shape. Set aside.

(*) May be prepared ahead; let cool uncovered.

4)
Finishing the soup

2 to 3 cups chicken stock or canned broth

3 Tb minced fresh green herbs: basil, parsley, and chives (or parsley only and dried basil or oregano to taste)

About 15 minutes before serving, bring the soup base to the simmer and thin out to desired consistency with chicken stock or broth. Cut the pork or sausage into slices ⅜ inch thick and add to the soup along with the eggplant and tomato. Simmer 3 to 4 minutes to blend flavors. Carefully correct seasoning, stir in the herbs, and serve.

VARIATION

Fennel and Tomato Garnish

Sliced fresh fennel cooked until just tender and then simmered for a moment with diced tomatoes and herbs makes an attractive alternate to the
eggplant. Soak the beans and simmer the soup base as described in the preceding recipe; prepare the garnish as follows.

2 cups thinly sliced fresh fennel bulbs

2 Tb olive oil or butter

¼ cup minced shallots or scallions

2 large cloves garlic, minced or mashed

1 lb. tomatoes, peeled, seeded, juiced, and diced

Salt and pepper

Cook the fennel slowly in the oil or butter in a covered skillet for 8 to 10 minutes, or until just tender but not browned. Add the shallots or scallions, garlic, and tomatoes; toss with fennel, cover skillet and cook for a few minutes until tomatoes have rendered the rest of their juice. Uncover, raise heat slightly and cook for a few minutes more to evaporate the juice. Season to taste. Set aside until you are ready to serve, then add to the soup as directed in the Master Recipe, Step 4.

LE POTIRON TOUT ROND

[Pumpkin Soup Baked in a Pumpkin]

This amusing presentation may be prepared either as a soup or a vegetable;
the recipe
is among the squashes in the Vegetables Chapter.

SHELLFISH SOUPS

Bisques

A bisque is a rich, thick, highly seasoned soup of puréed shellfish. Undoubtedly the bisque came into being because it is an easy as well as elegant way to eat small crustaceans with complicated constructions like crayfish and crabs, and it is a wonderful solution for the chests and legs of lobsters.

This is the kind of recipe to pick for a group of friends who enjoy cooking together, since a bisque is not tricky to make—it just takes a long time. To get the true flavor, the raw shellfish are cut up and sautéed in their shells before being simmered with wine and aromatic ingredients. The meat is then removed from the shells; some of it is saved for a garnish while the rest is puréed. Finally, to extract every remaining bit of flavor and color from the shells, they are puréed with butter, and everything is combined into a splendid soup.

We shall begin with illustrated directions on how to cut up lobsters and crabs, and follow with lobster bisque and its other shellfish variations.

BUYING LOBSTERS

A live lobster should be lively: it spreads its claws, arches its back, and flaps its tail noisily against the underside of its chest when you pick it up. To do so you must grab it with your thumb and index finger at its shoulder just behind the claw joints. You can keep live lobsters in the refrigerator at around 37 degrees for a day or two in a heavy paper bag pierced with air holes, but you should cook them as soon as possible.

When you are picking store-bought boiled lobsters, look closely at their tails, which should curl up against the underside of the chests and spring back into place when straightened. A limp tail indicates that the lobster was moribund before cooking. Be sure also, in buying boiled lobster, that it smells absolutely sweet and fresh. Freshly boiled, cooled, and wrapped lobsters will keep for 2 to 3 days in the refrigerator at around 37 degrees. You may even wrap airtight and freeze a boiled lobster in its shell for several weeks.