Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1 Read online

  For 4 to 6 servings

  8 to 12 strips of ham ¼ inch thick and about 2 by 3 inches across

  2 Tb olive oil or butter

  An 8- to 9-inch enameled skillet

  Brown the ham slices lightly on both sides in hot oil or butter. Set them aside, and reheat just before using them at the end of the recipe.

  ½ cup thinly sliced yellow onions

  ½ cup thinly sliced green or red bell peppers

  Salt and pepper to taste

  In the same oil or butter in which you browned the ham, cook the onions and peppers slowly, covering the skillet, until they are tender but not browned. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

  ½ clove mashed garlic

  Speck of cayenne pepper

  2 or 3 firm, ripe, red tomatoes peeled, seeded, juiced, and sliced

  Salt and pepper

  Stir in the garlic and pepper. Lay the tomatoes over the onions and sprinkle with salt. Cover and cook slowly for 5 minutes. Uncover, raise heat, and boil for a few minutes, shaking the pan occasionally until the juice from the tomatoes has almost entirely evaporated. Season to taste, and reheat just before using.

  (*) Recipe may be prepared ahead to this point.

  1½ Tb olive oil or butter

  An 11- to 12-inch serving skillet or shallow, fireproof serving dish

  8 to 10 eggs beaten lightly with ¼ tsp salt and a pinch of pepper

  A large table fork

  2 to 3 Tb minced parsley or mixed fresh green herbs

  Heat the oil or butter in the skillet or dish. When very hot, pour in the eggs. Stir rapidly with a fork until the eggs have just set into a creamy mass. Remove from heat and spread over them the hot pipérade, mixing a bit of it delicately into the eggs. Lay the warm ham strips over the pipérade. Sprinkle with the herbs and serve immediately.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ENTRÉES

  AND LUNCHEON DISHES

  PIE DOUGH—PASTRY CRUSTS

  Pâte Brisée

  PTE BRISÉE

  [Short Paste, Pastry Dough, Pie Crust]

  A good French pastry crust is tender, crunchy, and buttery. The best one, pâte brisée fine, is made in the proportions, according to weight, of 5 parts flour to 4 parts butter. American all-purpose, hard-wheat flour produces a slightly brittle crust if only butter is used. However, a mixture of 3 parts butter and 1 part vegetable shortening will give a tender crust with a good buttery flavor. Unlike standard American methods, the French system calls for a fraisage at the end of the operation, which is a short pushing out of the dough with the heel of the hand to insure an even blending of fat and flour.

  Proportions per cup of flour

  (Directions for measuring flour and tables of equivalents are here.)

  1 cup all-purpose flour (5 ounces)

  3 ounces (¾ stick) butter and 1 ounce (2 Tb) vegetable shortening

  3 to 4½ Tb iced water

  ½ tsp salt

  ⅛ tsp sugar (optional, for color)

  Directions for making short paste by hand and in the food processor

  Hand mixing. You must train yourself to work rapidly, particularly if your kitchen is warm, so that the butter will soften as little as possible. Use very quick, light finger movements, and do not linger on the dough at all with the warm palms of your hands. A pastry blender may be used if you wish, but a necessary part of learning how to cook is to get the feel of the dough in your fingers. Il faut mettre la main à la pâte!

  2 cups all-purpose flour (scooped and leveled)

  1 tsp salt

  ¼ tsp sugar

  6 ounces (1½ sticks) chilled butter cut into ½-inch bits

  4 Tb chilled shortening

  Place flour, salt, sugar, butter, and vegetable shortening in a big mixing bowl. Rub the flour and fat together rapidly between the tips of your fingers until the fat is broken into pieces the size of oatmeal flakes. Do not overdo this step as the fat will be blended more thoroughly later.

  A scant half cup of iced water, plus droplets more as needed

  Add the water and blend quickly with one hand, fingers held together and slightly cupped, as you rapidly gather the dough into a mass. Sprinkle up to 1 tablespoon more water by droplets over any un-massed remains and add them to the main body of the dough. Then press the dough firmly into a roughly shaped ball. It should just hold together and be pliable, but not sticky. Proceed to the fraisage.

  Short paste in the food processor. The preceding proportions are right for machines with a 2-quart capacity; a large container would take double the amount. Measure the dry ingredients into the bowl (equipped with the steel blade). Quarter the chilled sticks of butter lengthwise and cut crosswise into ⅜-inch pieces; add to the flour along with the chilled shortening. Flick the machine on and off 4 or 5 times, then measure out a scant half cup of iced water. Turn the machine on and pour it all in at once; immediately flick the machine on and off several times, and the dough should begin to mass on the blade. If not, dribble in a little more water and repeat, repeating again if necessary. Dough is done when it has begun to mass; do not overmix it. Scrape the dough out onto your work surface, and proceed to the fraisage.

  The fraisage—or final blending (for hand-made and machine dough)

  Place the dough on a lightly floured pastry board. With the heel of one hand, not the palm which is too warm, rapidly press the pastry by two-spoonful bits down on the board and away from you in a firm, quick smear of about 6 inches. This constitutes the final blending of fat and flour, or fraisage.

  With a scraper or spatula, gather the dough again into a mass; knead it briefly into a fairly smooth round ball. Sprinkle it lightly with flour and wrap it in waxed paper. Either place the dough in the freezing compartment of the refrigerator for about 1 hour until it is firm but not congealed, or refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

  Uncooked pastry dough will keep for 2 to 3 days under refrigeration, or may be frozen for several weeks. Always wrap it airtight in waxed paper and a plastic bag.

  Rolling out the dough

  Because of its high butter content, roll out the dough as quickly as possible, so that it will not soften and become difficult to handle.

  Place the dough on a lightly floured board or marble. If the dough is hard, beat it with the rolling pin to soften it. Then knead it briefly into a fairly flat circle. It should be just malleable enough to roll out without cracking.

  Lightly flour the top of the dough. Place rolling pin across center and roll the pin back and forth with firm but gentle pressure to start the dough moving. Then, with a firm, even stroke, and always rolling away from you, start just below the center of the dough and roll to within an inch of the far edge.

  Lift dough and turn it at a slight angle.

  Give it another roll. Continue lifting, turning, and rolling, and, as necessary, sprinkle board and top of dough lightly with flour to prevent sticking. Roll it into a circle ⅛ inch thick and about 2 inches larger all around than your pie pan or flan ring. If your circle is uneven, cut off a too-large portion, moisten the edge of the too-small portion with water, press the two pieces of pastry together, and smooth them with your rolling pin.

  The dough should be used as soon as it has been rolled out, so that it will not soften.

  Making a pastry shell

  Flan ring, false-bottomed cake pan

  A French tart, quiche, or pie is straight sided and open faced, and stands supported only by its pastry shell. In France the shell is molded in a bottomless metal flan ring that has been set on a baking sheet. When the tart is done, the ring is removed and the tart is slid from the baking sheet to a rack or the serving dish. You can achieve the same effect by molding your pastry in a false-bottomed, straight-sided, cake pan 1 to 1½ inches deep. When the shell is ready for unmolding, the pan is set over a jar and the false bottom frees the shell from the sides of the pan. It is then, with the aid of a long-bladed spatula, slid off its false bottom and onto a rack or the serving dish. You can also make pastry shells
using two matching pie pans; once in a while the weight of the filling will force the outward-slanting sides of the shell to collapse, so we are not recommending it.

  Quiches

  Partially baked pastry shells are used for quiches and for tarts whose filling cooks in the shell. Fully baked shells are for tarts filled with cooked ingredients that need only a brief reheating, or for fresh fruit tarts that are served cold.

  Butter the inside of the mold. If you are using a flan mold, butter the baking sheet also.

  Either reverse the dough onto the rolling pin, and unroll it over the mold; or fold the dough in half, in half again, then lay it in the mold and unfold it.

  Press the dough lightly into the bottom of the cake pan, or onto the baking sheet if you are using a flan ring. Then lift the edges of the dough and work it gently down the inside edges of mold with your fingers, taking in about ⅜ inch of dough all around the circumference. This will make the sides of the pastry shell a little thicker and sturdier. Trim off excess dough by rolling the pin over the top of the mold.

  Then with your thumbs, push the dough ⅛ inch above the edge of the mold, to make an even, rounded rim of dough all around the inside circumference of the mold.

  Press a decorative edge around the rim of the pastry with the dull edge of a knife.

  Prick bottom of pastry with a fork at ½-inch intervals.

  To keep the sides of the pastry shell from collapsing and the bottom from puffing up, either butter the bottom of another mold, weight it with a handful of dry beans, and place it inside the pastry; or line the pastry with buttered, lightweight foil, or buttered brown paper. Press it well against the sides of the pastry, and fill it with dried beans. The weight of the beans will hold the pastry against the mold during the baking.

  Refrigerate if not baked immediately.

  For a partially cooked shell: Bake at the middle level of a preheated 400-degree oven for 8 to 9 minutes until pastry is set. Remove mold or foil and beans. Prick bottom of pastry with a fork to keep it from rising. Return to oven for 2 to 3 minutes more. When the shell is starting to color and just beginning to shrink from sides of mold, remove it from the oven. If it seems to you that the sides of the shell are fragile, or are liable to crack or leak with the weight of the filling to come, do not unmold until your tart or quiche is filled and finally baked.

  For a fully cooked shell: Bake 7 to 10 minutes more, or until the shell is very lightly browned.

  Unmolding: When the shell is done, unmold it and slip it onto a rack. Circulation of air around it while it cools will prevent it from getting soggy.

  OPEN-FACED TARTS

  Quiches

  Quiche Lorraine, although it seems to be the most well known, is only one of a series of generally simple-to-make and appetizing entrées. A quiche is a mixture of cream and bacon, such as the quiche Lorraine, or cheese and milk, or tomatoes and onions, or crab, or anything else which is combined with eggs, poured into a pastry shell, and baked in the oven until it puffs and browns. It is practically foolproof, and you can invent your own combinations. Serve it with a salad, hot French bread, and a cold white wine; follow it with fruit, and you have a perfect lunch or supper menu. Or let it be the first course of your dinner. You can also make tiny quiches for hot hors d’oeuvres.

  The following recipes are all designed for pastry shells 8 inches in diameter. The quiche ingredients should fill the shell by no more than three fourths, to allow room for puffing. An 8-inch shell will hold about 2½ cups of filling and serves 4 to 6 people. A 10-inch shell, serving 6 to 8, will hold one and a half times this amount of filling or slightly more.

  The partially cooked shell may be baked hours ahead of time, and the filling prepared and refrigerated in its mixing bowl. Half an hour before serving, the filling is poured into the shell and the quiche is set in a 375-degree oven. In 25 to 30 minutes it will have puffed and the top browned. A knife plunged into the center should come out clean, and the quiche is ready to serve. It will stay puffed for about 10 minutes in the turned-off hot oven with the door ajar. As it cools, it sinks down. It may be reheated, but will not puff again. A cold quiche makes a good snack and is easy to take along on a picnic.

  QUICHE LORRAINE

  [Cream and Bacon Quiche]

  The classic quiche Lorraine contains heavy cream, eggs, and bacon, no cheese. The bacon is usually blanched in simmering water to remove its smoky, salty taste, but this step is optional. Diced, cooked ham, sautéed briefly in butter, may replace the bacon.

  For 4 to 6 servings

  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

  3 to 4 ounces lean bacon (6 to 8 slices, medium thickness)

  1 quart water

  An 8-inch partially cooked pastry shell placed on a baking sheet

  Cut bacon into pieces about an inch long and ¼ inch wide. Simmer for 5 minutes in the water. Rinse in cold water. Dry on paper towels. Brown lightly in a skillet. Press bacon pieces into bottom of pastry shell.

  3 eggs or 2 eggs and 2 yolks

  1½ to 2 cups whipping cream or half cream and half milk

  ½ tsp salt

  Pinch of pepper

  Pinch of nutmeg

  1 to 2 Tb butter cut into pea-sized dots

  Beat the eggs, cream or cream and milk, and seasonings in a mixing bowl until blended. Check seasonings. Pour into pastry shell and distribute the butter pieces on top.

  Set in upper third of preheated oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until quiche has puffed and browned. Slide quiche onto a hot platter and serve.

  Quiche au Fromage de Gruyère

  [Swiss Cheese Quiche]

  Follow the preceding recipe, but stir 2 to 4 ounces (½ to 1 cup) grated Swiss cheese into the egg and cream mixture. The bacon is usually omitted, and you may use all milk instead of cream.

  QUICHE AU ROQUEFORT

  [Roquefort Cheese Quiche]

  For 4 to 6 servings

  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

  3 ounces (6 Tb) Roquefort or blue cheese

  6 ounces (2 small packages) cream cheese or cottage cheese

  2 Tb softened butter

  3 Tb whipping cream

  2 eggs

  Salt and white pepper

  Cayenne pepper to taste

  ½ Tb minced fresh chives or ½ tsp minced green onion tops

  An 8-inch partially cooked pastry shell placed on a baking sheet

  Blend the cheese, butter, and cream with a fork, then beat in the eggs. Force the mixture through a sieve, to get rid of the lumps. Season to taste and stir in the chives or green onion tops. Pour into the pastry shell and set in upper third of preheated oven. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until quiche has puffed and top has browned.

  Quiche au Camembert

  [Camembert Cheese Quiche]

  Instead of Roquefort cheese, use the same amount of Camembert, Brie, or Liederkranz, but remove the outside crust of the cheese. Or use a mixture of all or some of these, including Roquefort cheese, if you have leftovers.

  QUICHE À LA TOMATE, NIÇOISE

  [Fresh Tomato Quiche with Anchovies and Olives]

  For 4 to 6 servings

  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

  An 8- to 9-inch enameled or stainless steel skillet

  ¼ cup minced onions

  2 Tb olive oil

  Cook the onions slowly in the olive oil for 5 minutes or so, until tender but not browned.

  1¾ to 2 lbs. firm, ripe, red tomatoes

  1 large clove mashed garlic

  ½ tsp oregano, basil, or thyme

  ½ tsp salt

  ⅛ tsp pepper

  Peel, seed, and juice the tomatoes, and chop the pulp roughly. Stir the tomatoes into the skillet and add the garlic, herbs, and seasonings. Cover skillet and cook for 5 minutes over low heat. Uncover, raise heat and cook for 5 minutes or so more, shaking pan occasionally, to evaporate the juice almost entirely. Allow to cool slightly.

  1 egg and 3 egg yolks

  8 chopped anchovy filets


  3 Tb olive oil (including oil from anchovy can)

  3 Tb tomato paste

  3 Tb chopped parsley

  1 tsp paprika

  Pinch of cayenne pepper

  Beat the egg, egg yolks, anchovies, oil, tomato paste, parsley and seasonings in a mixing bowl until blended. Gradually fold in the cooked tomatoes. Check seasoning.

  An 8-inch partially cooked pastry shell on a baking sheet

  12 pitted black olives (the dry Mediterranean type)

  ¼ cup grated Parmesan or Swiss cheese

  1 Tb olive oil

  Spread tomato mixture in pastry shell. Place olives over the top in a decorative design. Spread on the cheese and dribble the oil over it. Bake in upper third of preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until quiche has puffed and browned on top.

  QUICHE AUX FRUITS DE MER

  [Shrimp, Crab, or Lobster Quiche]