French Provincial Cooking (102 page)

Woodcock should be well hung but, at the same time, they should not be kept so long that the skin breaks when you pluck them, for they are then likely to have a repellently high flavour.

They are roasted without being drawn or decapitated but with the gizzard removed and a piece of back pork fat tied over the breast, for about 18 to 20 minutes in a hot oven.

For each woodcock have ready a little slice of fresh, crisp hot toast. When the birds are cooked extract the entrails; mash these up with salt, pepper, lemon juice and a few drops of cognac; reheat this mixture in a little saucepan for a few seconds and then spread them on the toast. Serve each bird on top of its slice of toast, with quarters of lemon round the dish.

Snipe (
bécassines
) are cooked in the same way, but as they are so small they can be roasted under the grill, not too close to the flame.

Little golden plovers are excellent cooked in the same manner as the partridges
à l’auvergnate,
described on page 417, but there is no necessity to add stock, and they are best cooked in a hot oven, Gas No. 7, 420 deg. F., for 12 to 15 minutes.

From the giblets of a wild duck (mallard) plus carrot, onion, herbs, a glass of white wine, a spoonful of Madeira, a little water and, if possible, a piece of dried sweet red pepper—not the burning chilli pepper—make about
pint of stock, strain it and reduce by fast boiling to
pint.

Prepare the following mixture: 2 shallots finely chopped, a carrot cut into small dice,
lb. of gammon diced, half a fresh sweet pepper, all seeds and core removed, cut into little pieces. Melt this mixture in goose or pork fat or olive oil. When the shallots have taken colour put in the duck and let it gently brown. Warm a ladle of brandy, set light to it; pour it flaming over the duck. When the flames have died down add the hot stock. Cover the pan, transfer to a medium oven, Gas No. 4, 355 deg. F., and cook for 35 to 40 minutes. Serve with its own sauce, triangles of fried bread and a green salad.

This recipe can be adapted for pigeons or stewing partridges, which will, however, need much longer and much slower cooking.

When fresh sweet peppers are not to be come by, use tinned Spanish ones, which are very good.

Put a lump of butter inside the teal, which should be wrapped in a thin slice of back pork fat. Roast it on a grid in a baking tin right at the top of the oven, turned to its highest temperature. Turn the teal over after 10 minutes and baste with a little warmed port mixed with a little orange juice. In 15 to 20 minutes, according to whether you like it well done or underdone, it will be ready.

The cooking of thrushes can only be of academic interest to English readers but, in many parts of France, particularly in Provence and the Basses Alpes, thrushes and thrush pâtés are great specialities. I have chosen this particular recipe chiefly because of Prosper Montagné’s interesting note about the olives:

 

‘Have some fine well-hung thrushes; pluck, singe, gut and truss them, wrap them in thin slices of smoked streaky bacon. Brown them in butter, in a shallow earthenware pan (
poëlon
); when they have taken colour, add some tomatoes, a large onion, a clove of garlic, a sprig of parsley, all finely chopped, with a sprig of fennel, salt and pepper and, the most important, a good saucerful of
olives
cassées.

‘
Olives cassées
are a speciality of Provence, more especially of the region between Avignon and Arles, which means St. Rémy, Maillane, Les Baux and Tarascon. They are prepared as follows: Take 2 or 3 kilos (4 to 6
lb.) of fine green olives. Choose the almost round ones, the pointed variety being kept for the preparation known as
à la picholine,
which is almost the only method known for green olives outside the olive-producing area. Crack the olives on a chopping board, without breaking the stones. Put them into an earthenware jar filled with water; the olives must not be closely packed but must swim at their ease. Change the water every day for 6 to 8 days, and when the olives have lost all their bitter taste change the water for the last time, adding 8 to 10 oz. of melted salt and a big bouquet of fennel.

‘These olives keep only a maximum of 2 to 3 months. Usually they are prepared in the second fortnight of October and eaten until Christmas.’

PROSPER MONTAGNÉ:
Le Trésor de la Cuisine du Bassin Mediterranéen

This is a dish which is said to have come from the Abbey of St. Sulpice in the Valromey in Bresse. The noble lady after whom it is called was the rich and beautiful Marquise de Valromey, who married her brother-in-law, the Marquis de Valromey, after her first husband had divorced her to enter holy orders. Diane de Châteaumorand, it seems, was much addicted to hunting and coursing and was well versed in the art of game cookery:

‘Put your skinned and cleaned hare, cut into pieces, in a big bowl and pour over it a glass of wine vinegar, half a glassful of olive oil, salt, pepper, a little bunch of thyme and a sliced onion. Keep aside the liver and the blood. Turn the hare several times in its marinade and leave it at least 12 hours before cooking it.

‘Chop together an onion and a little under 1 oz. of fresh pork fat; put these ingredients together with 2 oz. of fresh butter into an earthenware or iron pot. Add the pieces of hare. Let them cook 20 minutes; sprinkle over them 1 oz. of flour; stir and simmer for 25 minutes. Add a soup ladle of beef stock and the same quantity of good red wine. Season with pepper and salt and cook another 35 minutes.

‘Pound the liver to a fine paste; add the strained marinade; stir in the blood of the hare. Put through a fine sieve: 5 minutes before serving time add this mixture to the hare. Allow just to come to the boil. Taste the sauce; if it is insipid, add a few drops of vinegar. Finally, add a spoonful of olive oil. The
civet
can be made the day before it is to be eaten; it is all the better for being heated up. Its succulence depends upon the quality of the hare and the quantity of blood saved. The colour of the dish should be that of good chocolate cooked in water.’

 

This recipe is given in
La Table au Pays de Brillat-Savarin,
by Lucien Tendret, who also gives instructions (see recipe below) for a saddle of hare baked in cream. The two recipes can be usefully combined, using the saddle only for the cream dish and all the rest for Diane de Châteaumorand’s
civet;
but if you do as Tendret suggests and make it the day before it is to be eaten, do not add the thickening of the animal’s liver and blood until serving time. As a matter of fact, the addition of these ingredients gives the sauce a pretty powerful flavour which is not to everyone’s taste, and the sauce being thick enough before the blood and liver are added, the dish
can
be served just as it is. If you choose to serve it in this way, then it becomes simply a stew rather than a
civet.

The amounts of oil and wine vinegar for the marinade are about 3 and 6 oz. respectively, and of stock and wine for the cooking, 4 to 5 oz. each. Do not forget the final addition of the spoonful of olive oil.

The
râble
is, correctly speaking, the back or saddle of the hare only; when it includes the hind legs it is called a
train de lièvre.

Put the saddle of hare in an oval earthenware pot. Cover it with super-excellent cream (
excellentissime
is the word Tendret uses), add 2 spoonfuls of finely-chopped shallot and half a claret glass of red wine vinegar. Cook gently for 1
hours, frequently basting the meat With the cream which surrounds it; do not worry if the sauce takes on a sinister aspect and appears to be separating; it will put itself to rights, so wait until it is done; add salt but no pepper.