| Le Provençal de Paris 06 avril 1924 |
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Provencal cuisine Appetizers They come in two categories: hot appetizers and cold appetizers. Cold appetizers, created to whet the appetite and provide a pleasant pastime, have evolved in such a way that they have become indispensable. Thus, a lunch, even the best, without pretty hors d'oeuvres, would be considered incomplete. But, if cold hors d'oeuvres must lead the way for the dishes contained in the lunch menu, it is not the same for dinner, where this right is reserved for soup. We have had, many times, proof that the majority of these attractive preparations were harmful to the fine soups, the delicate veloutés and the tasty creams that they preceded. Among the most sought-after appetizers are fresh caviar, smoked salmon, prawns, oysters, plover eggs and melon. It is to these privileged people that we owe the disappearance of hot hors d'oeuvres. The hot hors d'oeuvres, however, had their reason for being; they pleasantly followed the soups and served as a link to the fish and butchery items. These little nothings or frivolities of times gone by lent themselves wonderfully to the composition and harmony of a beautiful menu. But, everything passes in life and follows the evolution which occurs in each era in the modification of our tastes. However, if hot hors d'oeuvres no longer have the role they once did, they are not completely forgotten, since we see them reappearing, not on dinner menus, but at lunch. Indeed, for some time now, it has been fashionable in large restaurants in Paris to serve hot and cold hors d'oeuvres during sophisticated lunches, which is very popular, especially with lovers of small delicacies, such as cute appetizers, poultry, partridge and foie gras rissoles; Périgord crepinettes; mushroom tartlets with cream, poultry croquettes with truffles; Pompadour-style milk trays, cheese fondants; loveettes and lamb brains in fritters; Muscovite pâtés, etc., etc. The composition of hot and cold hors d'oeuvres depends a lot on the taste of the person in charge. We can therefore vary them infinitely. A dinner on the Riviéra some friends passing through Monte-Carlo, like all visitors to this golden country, naturally could not resist the desire to tempt Fortune, but as far-sighted people, they resolved to form a capital of which one of They would be responsible for scattering at random a fairly respectable number of good hundred franc notes, which was immediately done. After an hour spent around a table hosted by many players, they were amazed at their own profit, which they decided to convert into a succulent meal at the Restaurant de l'ermitage, where a flowered table was selected for the same evening , and we prepared a very fine dinner washed down with the best wines. MENU Grimaldi grilled red mullet. - Choose freshly caught red mullet, weighing 150 to 200 grams each. Clean and grill them. Arrange them on a very hot dish, surround them with small bouquets of Nonnats fried in olive oil, interspersed with fried fennel greens. Serve at the same time a creamy Béarnaise sauce in which a few spoonfuls of fine meat glaze have been incorporated. Lai Lamb Saddle! Princess. - For 4 to 5 people, choose a lamb saddle, as fat and white as possible. Trim it, tie it up and put it in a saucepan of a size commensurate with the size of the saddle; lightly salt it, sprinkle it with melted butter and cook it gently, taking care not to let the butter burn, so as to keep it barely brown in color. Once the saddle is cooked, remove it from the pan and keep it warm. If the cooking butter combined with the fat from the lamb is too abundant, remove a third; then add to the remaining cooking a glass of white wine and reduce it by two thirds, add two deciliters of crème fraîche and 3 spoonfuls of melted meat glaze, and allow to boil for a few minutes. Arrange the saddle on a hot porcelain dish, surround it with morels sautéed in butter and sauce them with the prepared cream sauce (if there are no morels, replace them with browned porcini mushrooms); serve the remaining sauce in a gravy boat. At the same time send a vegetable dish of peas cooked according to the English method. Provençal-style Genets rails. - Choose very fresh Roles, clean them carefully, lightly salt them, wrap them in bacon strips, cook them in butter in a saucepan. As soon as they are cooked, remove them from the pan, remove the bacon and put it in a terrine heated in advance, the bottom of which will have been lightly rubbed with garlic. Cover them copiously with strips of raw black truffles and seasoned with salt and fresh ground pepper. Cover the terrine and keep it warm for the time necessary to allow the truffle to develop its aroma. Add to the cooking butter, a small glass of old Armagnac and a few spoonfuls of concentrated veal juice, and pour boiling over the truffles: cover the terrine immediately and only remove the lid when presenting the dish to the guests. A. Escoffier. |
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