French Provincial Cooking (56 page)

A dish for those who may find the amount of oil normally used in cooking aubergines excessive.

Slice 2 unpeeled aubergines obliquely and about
inch thick. Plunge into boiling salted water and cook for 3 minutes. Leave in a colander to drain very thoroughly. Arrange in a large, flat, lightly oiled baking dish. Spread each slice thickly with a
coulis
of tomatoes, made as in the recipe below, sprinkle with breadcrumbs and chopped parsley, pour a few drops of oil on each slice, cook uncovered in a slow oven for about an hour. Like most aubergine dishes, this one can be eaten hot or cold.

If you have no suitable dish, the aubergine slices can be cooked on a baking sheet.

Melt a finely chopped shallot or small onion in a mixture of oil and butter; add 1 lb. of roughly chopped ripe tomatoes; season with salt, a lump of sugar, a little freshly-ground pepper, some chopped parsley and celery leaves or dried basil. Simmer until the tomatoes are soft and thick. Sieve through the food mill. If too liquid, return to the pan and let the sauce dry out a little over gentle heat.

There are any amount of versions of this dish, the variations being mainly in the proportions of each vegetable employed, the vegetables themselves being nearly always the same ones: aubergines, sweet peppers, onions, tomatoes, with courgettes sometimes being added and occasionally potatoes as well. Some people add mushrooms, but this is a rather pointless addition because they get completely lost in the mass of other vegetables. Garlic is optional, but the cooking medium must be olive oil.

To make a dish of
ratatouille
sufficient for about eight people, the ingredients are 3 medium-sized onions, 3 large aubergines, 3 large sweet red peppers, 3 courgettes, 4 large tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, a few coriander seeds, fresh or dried basil if available, or parsley, 2 coffee-cups (after-dinner size) of olive oil.

Prepare the vegetables by slicing the onions thinly and cutting the unpeeled aubergines and courgettes into
inch thick rounds and then into cubes. The aubergines, and the courgettes if they are being used, should be sprinkled with salt and put into a colander with a plate and a weight on the top, so that excess moisture is pressed out. This will take an hour or so. Cut the peppers in half, remove the core and all the seeds, wash them, and slice them in thin strips. Skin the tomatoes.

Heat the olive oil in a wide, heavy and shallow pan. Put in the onions and, when they are soft—but not brown—add the aubergines, courgettes, peppers and chopped garlic. Cover the pan and cook gently for 40 minutes. Now add the chopped and skinned tomatoes, a teaspoon or so of pounded coriander seeds, and taste for seasoning. Cook another 30 minutes until all the vegetables are quite soft, but not too mushy. Stir in the basil or parsley and serve hot as a separate dish, or cold as an hors-d’œuvre.
Ratatouille
is a dish which takes kindly to reheating but, of course, it can be made in smaller quantities. Also, it can perfectly well accompany a joint of lamb or veal, grilled chops, steaks or sausages.

Slice the unpeeled aubergines thinly and in bias cut rounds. Salt them and leave in a colander for an hour. Dry very carefully. Fry them slowly in plenty of hot, but not too hot, oil, turning them over from time to time. When quite soft take them out; drain them; put them in a warmed dish. In the remaining oil fry for a few seconds only a handful of parsley chopped with 2 cloves of garlic; pour this over the aubergines and serve hot. If other herbs such as marjoram or basil are available add some to the parsley mixture.

Since aubergines were originally an import to southern France from the Orient, it is natural that the French should have accepted some of the methods of cooking them in their native countries. The two following recipes are examples of such dishes.

Cut three unpeeled aubergines—the round variety are best for this dish—into slices about
inch thick. Salt and leave to drain in a colander for an hour. Shake them dry in a cloth; fry them in moderately hot olive oil until both sides are golden. Remove them from the pan, and in the same oil cook 3 thinly-sliced large onions until soft and pale yellow; add 3 skinned and chopped tomatoes and a chopped clove or two of garlic. Season with salt, a teaspoonful of ground allspice and a pinch of sugar. Cook until the sauce is thick. Lay the aubergine slices on an oiled baking sheet, or shallow dish, put a tablespoon of the sauce on each slice, bake in a moderate oven for 40 to 50 minutes.

A dish which could well precede the roast as an hors-d’œuvre (it is excellent cold) or go with it, hot, as a vegetable.

This is a French version given in the
Larousse Gastronomique
, and probably worked out by Prosper Montagné, of the famous Turkish dish for which there are many recipes, and which gets its name (which means ‘satiated or exhausted Imam’) from the legend that the first time it was made and put before a certain Imam, he over-indulged in the rich and aromatic confection.

4 aubergines, 4 tomatoes, 4 medium-sized onions, about 2 oz. currants, salt, pepper, ground allspice, parsley, olive oil, a clove of garlic, a bay leaf.

Remove the stalks from the aubergines, but do not skin them. Make four or five lengthways incisions in each aubergine, from end to end, but without cutting right through. Salt them and leave to drain while the stuffing is prepared.

Fry the finely chopped onions in olive oil until they turn colour. Add the skinned and chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper, about half a teaspoon of allspice and a tablespoon of chopped parsley. Fry gently until the tomatoes and onions are amalgamated almost into a purée. Add the currants which have been previously soaked a few minutes in water. Cook 2 or 3 more minutes, until the oil is all absorbed and the mixture fairly dry. Leave to cool a little and then, with a small spoon, stuff the mixture into the slits in the aubergines, putting in as much as they will hold. Put them in a fireproof dish in which they will fit comfortably and pour olive oil over them to come half-way up. Add a clove of garlic and a bayleaf.

Cover the pan and cook very slowly either on top of the stove or in a low oven for about an hour, until the aubergines are quite soft, and there is a slightly sticky residue at the bottom of the pan. If they are cooked too fast the skins will be tough and the dish spoilt.

Leave them to cool in the oil, and serve them cold next day, with most of the oil poured off, and make the rest of the meal light and plain.

Cut unpeeled aubergines into long, thin slices. Salt and leave them to drain. Dip them in frying batter (see below) and cook them 2 or 3 minutes, until they are crisp and golden, in a deep pan of very hot oil. Drain them on kitchen paper and serve them piled up on a hot dish with lemon.

Sieve
lb. of flour; stir in 3 tablespoons of olive oil and a pinch of salt; gradually add approximately
pint of tepid water. Stir to a smooth cream. Leave to stand 2 hours.

Before using, fold in the stiffly whipped white of 1 small egg.

This is the frying batter I have always used in preference to any other. It is one which is light and crisp and makes only a thin coating for the food to be fried, rather than a heavy greasy blanket.

During the summer, young beetroots, simply scrubbed, boiled 20 to 40 minutes according to size, then peeled, sliced and served with parsley butter, make a delicious vegetable dish.

In the winter, much more use could be made of the large cooked beetroots to be bought at the greengrocers. Of course, they must be chosen from a greengrocer who cooks them carefully, which is none too common. Sliced and dressed with oil and vinegar and a touch of garlic, or garlic vinegar, with chopped parsley and strips of raw celery mixed in at the last moment, they make a good salad. Or sliced and heated very gently with a little butter, a peeled chopped tomato or two and a little parsley, they make a nice hot vegetable to go with pork chops or a steak, especially useful for people in a hurry.

On page 427 is an excellent recipe for hare served with beetroot.

Medium to large beetroots are scrubbed but not peeled, and cooked in a baking tin in the oven in much the same way as baked potatoes. They take a good deal longer, about 3 hours in a slow oven for medium-sized beets, so this is a vegetable to cook when the oven is already in use for some other long and slow-cooked dish.