The Hemingway Cookbook (14 page)

Roast Chicken

Roasting chickens found in the United States tend to be much larger and fattier than those in France. For this recipe, a 3- to 4-pound fryer works perfectly
.

2
SERVINGS, WITH LEFTOVERS

1 3- to 4-pound frying chicken

Salt

Freshly ground white pepper

4 tablespoons butter

1–2 tablespoons flour

¼–½ cup chicken stock

Preheat the oven to 400° F
.

Season the cavity of the chicken with salt and white pepper to taste, and place 2 tablespoons butter inside. Truss the legs and wings of the chicken. Rub the breast of the chicken with 1 tablespoon butter, then salt and pepper to taste. Pour ½ cup water into a roasting pan. Place the bird on a rack, breastside down, place the rack in the pan, and roast for 1–¼ hours. Frequently baste the chicken with the pan juices, turning the bird breastside up after 30 minutes. To test for doneness, pierce the skin at the thigh; if the juices run clear, it is done.

Remove the bird to a warm serving platter and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

To make the gravy, pour off the pan juices and separate the fat, reserving both. Pour the fat back into
the roasting pan and place on the stove over medium heat. Add the flour and stir to form a thick roux, scraping up any bits stuck to the pan. Pour the remaining pan juices into the roasting pan, adding enough chicken stock to make 1 cup, and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until thickened and smooth. Season with salt and white pepper to taste. Blend in the remaining tablespoon butter and serve with the chicken.

New Green Beans

Haricots verts,
which are much slimmer than common string beans, may be difficult to find in the United States. If you are unable to find them, substitute the smallest string beans you can find
.

4
SERVINGS

1 pound
haricots verts
or fresh green beans

4 tablespoons butter

½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Trim and wash the beans. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add the beans and cook for 5–10 minutes. Beans should be crisp yet tender (or, of course, to your own personal taste). Drain the beans and rinse under cold water to halt cooking. In a saucepan, melt the butter; add the beans and lemon juice. Stir to coat the beans with butter. Serve immediately.

Mashed Potatoes

For Parisian-style mashed potatoes, use the recipe on page
42
.

Apple Pie and Cheese

Unless Madame Lecomtes kitchen as well as her dining room had been corrupted by “too many compatriots,” it is not likely that Jake and Bill had all-American apple pie and cheese, an unheard-of combination in France. Most likely they enjoyed a cheese course followed by a classic French apple tart.
⁴⁰
For the tart recipe, follow the one on page
43
.

Fine

Une fine
(pronounced
feen),
short for Grand Fine Champagne, is the common way to order Cognac in France. A
fine
is a blend of Cognac brandies from the Grand Champagne and Petite Champagne districts
.

The Garden
of Eden

Later in life, Hemingway returned to France in his fiction, this time to the Riviera. In 1946, he began work on what he felt was a major novel. He worked on
The Garden of Eden
over the next 15 years, amassing a manuscript of 48 chapters and 200,000 words. The book was not published until 25 years after his death, severely diminished in size yet retaining its essential elements of love, obsession, loss, and hunger. This book alone, once called “the eggiest novel ever written,”
⁴¹
may very well wrest from Paris the title of gastronomic capital of Hemingway’s France and relocate it on the Mediterranean coast.

Hemingway uses food in general, and eggs specifically, as symbols of the volatile relationship between the honeymooning David and Catherine Bourne and the dark and beautiful Marita, with whom they have both fallen in love. They eat eggs soft-boiled, egg whites cold and cut up, fried eggs, and omelets. There is even a Humpty Dumpty reference in David’s African story-within-the-story. Between all of the eggs, and the other foods and drinks, we cannot ignore the central emphasis on appetites and hunger that rule
The Garden of Eden
. While it may often result in “wacky” humor
⁴²
The Garden of Eden
sets an abundant culinary table that is irresistible:

They were always hungry but they ate very well. They were hungry for breakfast which they ate at the cafe, ordering brioche and cafe au lait and eggs, and the type of preserve that they chose and the manner in which the eggs were to be cooked was an excitement…. On this morning there was brioche and red raspberry preserves and the eggs were boiled and there was a pat of butter that melted as they stirred them and salted them lightly and ground pepper over them in the cups [Hemingway believed that pepper cleansed the morning stomach].
⁴³

They were big eggs and fresh and the girl’s were not cooked quite as long as the young man’s. He remembered that easily and he was happy with his which he diced up with the spoon and ate with only the flow of the butter to moisten them and the fresh early morning texture and the bite of the coarsely ground pepper grains and the hot coffee and the chickory-fragrant bowl of cafe au lait.
⁴⁴

THE MENU

Breakfast in the Garden

Soft-Boiled Eggs
Brioche and Red Raspberry
Preserves
Café au Lait

Brioche

2 4-
INCH BY
8-
INCH LOAVES

To create brioche loaves, or Nanterres, simply follow the brioche recipe on page
23
. After the dough has been refrigerated overnight, let it stand at room temperature for 1 hour. Divide the dough into four pieces. Quickly form four balls slightly less than 4 inches across. Place two of the balls in each of two buttered loaf pans (4 inches by 8 inches), one ball on each end of the pans. Cover the loaf pans and let stand until the dough has risen to the edge of the pans, about 2 hours. At that time, lightly brush the top of each loaf with the beaten egg. Bake in a 350° F oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until loaves are golden brown. Turn onto cooling racks, brush with melted butter, and let stand for 1 hour. Slice brioche and serve with red raspberry preserves.

Café au Lait

To create the perfect cafe au lait to accompany the brioche, use a dark-roasted coffee blended with French chicory (the roasted and ground root of endive). Blends available in the United States include Cafe du Monde and Community New Orleans.

In addition to the innumerable eggs in
The Garden of Eden
, Hemingway also introduces several dishes of mackerel as “crucial signs and thematic symbols.”
⁴⁵
In the original manuscript for the book, after David valiantly fights and catches a sea bass too large to cook at the hotel, he and Catherine lunch on mackerel fresh from the fleet’s morning catch. Afterwards they make love, reenforcing the role of the
maquerel
, the pimp or panderer who administers to their sexual exploits. In the novel that survives, though, they have fresh sea bass for lunch, forestalling the more lurid symbolism in favor of a celebration of David’s skills as a fisherman:

“I’m excited about the fish,” she said. “Don’t we have wonderful simple fun?”

They were hungry for lunch and the bottle of white wine was cold and they drank it as
they ate the celery
remoulade
and the small radishes and the home pickled mushrooms from the big glass jar. The bass was grilled and the grill marks showed on the silver skin and the butter melted on the hot plate. There was sliced lemon to press on the bass and fresh bread from the bakery and wine cooled their tongues of the heat of the fried potatoes. It was a good light, dry cheerful unknown white wine and the restaurant was proud of it.
⁴⁶

THE MENU

Lunch in the Garden

Sea Bass Grilled with Butter
and Herbs
French-fried Potatoes
Celery Rémoulade
Small Radishes
Home-Pickled Mushrooms

Sea Bass Grilled with Butter and Herbs

We’ll get a small one for us to eat. They’re really wonderful. A small one ought to be grilled with butter and with herbs. They’re like striped bass at home.
⁴⁷

2
TO
3
SERVINGS

1 onion, chopped

1 rib celery, chopped

1 bay leaf

½ teaspoon fennel seeds

1 sprig thyme

2 cups dry white wine

1 2- to 3-pound sea bass or striped bass, cleaned

2 sprigs fennel

4 tablespoons melted butter

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

1 lemon, sliced, for garnish

In a flat baking dish large enough to hold the fish, combine the onion, celery, bay leaf, fennel seeds, thyme, and wine. Make 2 diagonal incisions on both sides of the bass. Add the fish to the marinade, baste with the liquid and marinate, covered with plastic wrap, for 2 hours.

Heat a charcoal grill until hot, and add the sprigs of fennel to the coals. Remove the fish from the
marinade, pat dry with a paper towel, and brush liberally with melted butter. Grill the fish for 8 to 10 minutes on each side, brushing occasionally with more butter. Check the fish to see that the flesh is white to the bone beneath the cuts you have made. Remove the fish to a warm serving plate, pour the remaining butter over the fish, and garnish with parsley and lemon slices.

Celery Rémoulade

4
SERVINGS

2 cups peeled and coarsely grated celery root

1 hard-boiled egg

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard

2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar

½ teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

½ cup olive oil

1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley

1 teaspoon finely chopped chives for garnish

Blanch the grated celery root in boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Allow to dry thoroughly.

In a small mixing bowl, mash the egg and egg yolk together with a fork. Stir in the mustard, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Vigorously whisk in the olive oil, a little at a time, until the sauce reaches the consistency of mayonnaise. Combine the celery root and the dressing, chill, and serve garnished with chopped fresh parsley and chives.

Small Radishes
(see page
41
)

Home-Pickled Mushrooms

4
SERVINGS

1 pound fresh button mushrooms

½ cup wine vinegar

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons chopped chives

1 teaspoon dried tarragon

1 clove garlic, finely minced

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Wipe the mushrooms clean with a towel and cut off the ends of the stems. Whisk all the other ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Put the mushrooms into a jar and cover with the marinade. Allow the mushrooms to marinate in the refrigerator at least overnight.

4
SPAIN
The Fiesta Concept of Life

“It was spring in Paris and everything looked just a little too beautiful. Mike and I decided to go to Spain. Strater drew us a fine map of Spain on the back of a menu of the Strix restaurant. On the same menu he wrote the name of a restaurant in Madrid where the specialty is young suckling pig roasted, the name of a pension on the Via San Jeronimo where the bull fighters live, and sketched a plan showing where the Grecos are hung in the Prado.”

—
By-Line Ernest Hemingway

The amateurs in the Pamplona Bullring. Hemingway is the taunter in the white pants.