Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (23 page)

the sauce:

The flour-and-butter
roux
and cooking liquid from preceding step

More stock or cream if needed

The lobster green-matter, cream, and yolk mixture

Salt, white pepper, Cayenne pepper, and lemon juice

Reheat
roux
if necessary, remove from heat, and whisking it with a wire whip, gradually ladle into it by driblets 2 cups of hot cooking stock. When perfectly smooth, set over moderately high heat and rapidly beat in 4 to 5 more cups of stock. Simmer, stirring, for 2 minutes: sauce should be a little thicker than a fairly heavy cream soup. Boil down rapidly, stirring, if too thin; beat in a little more stock if too thick. Then, and again by driblets, beat 2 cups of hot sauce into the lobster green-matter mixture, heating it gradually to prevent it from curdling. Gradually beat it back into the hot sauce, and set sauce over moderate heat. Stir slowly with a wooden spoon, reaching all over bottom of pan until sauce thickens and comes almost to the simmer. If sauce seems too thick, stir in a little more cream or stock. Taste very carefully for seasoning, adding salt, pepper, drops of lemon juice, and so forth if you feel them necessary. Proceed immediately to the next step.

serving:

The optional fish decorations, such as whole shrimp, lobster shells, mussels, etc.

2 to 3 Tb minced fresh parsley and or chervil

12 to 18 canapés (triangles of crustless homemade-type white bread sautéed in clarified butter)

Warm soup plates

Gently fold the hot sauce into the warm fish in the tureen. Float optional fish decorations on top and sprinkle the herbs over all. Serve as soon as possible, ladling the stew into hot plates and adding a canapé or two to each portion. This is eaten with large soup spoon, knife, and fork.

(*)
AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE
: May be completed a day before, serving in the
marmite
instead of a tureen. When cold, cover and refrigerate; heat slowly to below the simmer before serving. Like a good New England chowder or lobster stew, it gains in flavor when made in advance.

BOURRIDE

[Provençal Fish Stew with
Aïoli
—Garlic Mayonnaise]

This marvelous fish dinner from Provence is for garlic lovers only, as the big chunks
of fish are cooked in a broth that is then enriched with egg yolks and a mayonnaise into which at least 1 large clove of garlic per person has been puréed. Like
bouillabaisse
, the fish is served on a platter and the enriched broth in a tureen, but both are eaten together in soup plates. This is such a rich dish we suggest you serve it for lunch, and you will want nothing else but perhaps a bit of green salad and fresh fruit. You will need a strong, dry white wine, such as a Côtes-du-Rhône or Pinot Blanc.

For 6 to 8 people as a main course

1)
Preliminaries—may be done several hours before final cooking the fish:

3 to 4 lbs. assorted lean, firm-fleshed white fish, such as those suggested
here

Prepare the fish as described, cutting it into chunks or steaks about 3 inches in diameter and 1 to 1½ inches thick. Refrigerate until cooking time.

the cooking broth:

1 cup each of sliced onions, carrots, and white of leek (or additional onion)

3 to 4 Tb olive oil

A heavy-bottomed 7- to 8- quart flameproof casserole or kettle

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

2 to 3 quarts fish trimmings, bones, heads;
or
2 to 3 cups fish;
or
1 quart clam juice

3 quarts water (2 quarts if you use clam juice)

2 cups dry white wine or 1½ cups dry white French vermouth

2 imported bay leaves

¼ tsp each of thyme, fennel, and dried orange peel

2 large cloves of garlic, unpeeled, halved

2 large pinches saffron flowers

1½ Tb salt (none if you use clam juice)

Cook the vegetables in oil over low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until tender but not browned. Add the tomatoes and cook 2 minutes, then add all the rest of the ingredients. Bring to the simmer, skimming occasionally, and simmer partially covered for 40 minutes. Strain into a bowl, wash out casserole, and return the stock to it. Correct seasoning, adding salt if necessary.

(*)
AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE
: If prepared in advance, cover when cool and refrigerate.

the aïoli mayonnaise:

⅓ cup stale crumbs from homemade-type unsweetened white bread

Wine vinegar

A heavy 2½-quart mixing bowl or a mortar

A wooden pestle, masher, or heavy ladle (for pounding)

6 to 8 cloves garlic and garlic press

½ tsp salt

6 egg yolks (2 now, the rest later)

1½ to 2 cups olive oil

A large wire whip

White or Cayenne pepper

Moisten crumbs with a tablespoon or two of vinegar and pound to a paste in the bowl. Purée garlic through press into the paste and continue pounding several minutes until absolutely smooth. Add salt and 2 of the egg yolks and pound until mixture is very thick and sticky. Then begin pounding and stirring in oil by droplets until sauce is thick and heavy. Thin out with drops of vinegar and begin beating in teaspoons of oil with whip. Sauce should be heavy enough to hold its shape in a spoon. Season to taste. (Note that a more detailed recipe on
aïoli
and on mayonnaise in general is in Volume I, page 92.)

A 2-cup serving bowl

Plastic wrap

A covered jar if needed

Scrape half the sauce into serving bowl, cover airtight, and set aside for dining room. Beat the 4 remaining egg yolks into the rest of the sauce; cover airtight. (If doing in advance, transfer to a smaller container and cover.) This second half is to be combined with the stew just before serving.

2)
Cooking and serving cooking the fish:

The cooking broth

The prepared fish

A large perforated skimmer

A serving platter set over a pan of almost simmering water, and a cover

2 to 3 Tb coarsely chopped parsley

About 15 minutes before serving, bring cooking broth to a rolling boil and add the fish, pushing it down into
the broth, which should barely cover it. (Add a little boiling water if necessary.) Boil slowly, uncovered, for 6 to 10 minutes, depending on thickness of fish (2 to 3 minutes only for scallops); it is done when springy rather than squashy to the touch—do not overcook. As soon as fish is done, arrange on platter, moisten with a little of the cooking broth, decorate with parsley, and cover to keep it warm.