The Auvergne is known everywhere for its potée, a noble dish which crops up all over Frame with slight variations. This hearty soup is one of the two best known Auvergnat dishes—(he other being the time-honored coq au vin—but many are the lesser known specialties in this rough and mountainous region. Because this dish belongs to the soil and is a staple, complete meal in most peasant families of Auvergne, it is included here, even if the very first ingredient may give you pause.
Of course, if you just don't happen to have a salted pig's head handy, the potée is still fairly nourishing with the other meats.
La Potée Auvergnate
Put into a large soup pot 1 salted pig's head, cut in four pieces, 2 pounds of lean bacon, all one piece, and 1 pound of ban: with the bone (cut from the lower part of the leg). Cover with about 4 ½ quarts water, simmer, and skim. After ½ hour, add 3 or 4 carrots, 2 or 3 white turnips, a bunch of leeks, and a few Stalks of celery, all peeled and cut in coarse pieces. To this add a bouquet garni and 2 cloves of garlic, mashed. Cook, covered, on a low fire for 1 hour.
At this point add 2 cups dried beans. which have been soaked and half cooked in boiling water, and a fine head of cabbage, which has been quartered, blanched for a few minutes in boiling water, and drained. Cover and cook for 1 ½ hours. Add 8 potatoes, peeled and quartered, and a large cervelas sausage, or several of the frankfurter type, and simmer for ½ hour. Watch the level of the water and add a little more from a steaming teakettle, if necessary. The salty meats are seasoning enough.
When the time comes to serve this ample dish to eight or ten hungry guests —who should have been laboring in the fields all day fully to appreciate it drain the meats and arrange them in artistic fashion in the center of a large platter, surrounded by most of the vege' tables arranged in little piles. The soup itself, with the remaining vegetables, is placed in a large, hot tureen from which it is ladled forth into big, deep soup plates containing thin slices of French bread which have been dried in the oven.
Colin Bonne Femme Comme à lonzac (Baked Fish jonzae)
In a shallow baking dish place 2 strips of bacon and a layer composed of 1 carrot, I onion, 1 shallot, and ¼ pound mushrooms, all finely chopped, and 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, 1 teaspoon chopped celery, ½ teaspoon chopped thyme, and 2 tablespoons diced ham. Reserve a little of this mixture, Season the rest with salt and pepper and place on this fragrant bed a 2-to 2 1 /2-pound slice of halibut or other fish suitable for baking. Sprinkle over this the small amount of mixture held aside, season with salt and pepper, and pout in ¾ cup dry white wine. Dot with butter and bake in a moderate oven (375° F.) for about 45 minutes, or until the fish is cooked and the sauce somewhat reduced. Sprinkle with lemon juice and serve.
Fricassée de Poulet à p'Auvergnate (Fricassee of Chicken Auvergne)
Cut a tender roasting chicken in serving pieces and place it in an earthen baking dish with a piece of bacon rind or a slice of bacon, I onion and 1 carrot, both sliced, 1 small stalk of celery with leaves, 2 cloves, 1 bay leaf, ½ teaspoon thyme, 2 cloves of garlic, unpeeed, and a large sprig of parsley. Add 2 tablespoons vinegar, about I ½ cups water, salt and pepper to taste, and butter the size of an egg. Cover and cook in a moderate oven (375° P.) for about 45 minutes, or until the chicken is done.
Remove the pieces of chicken and strain off the stock. There should be about I ½ cups of liquid. In another pan blend I ½ tablespoons butter with 1 tablespoon flour and gradually stir in the hot slock. Add the pieces of chicken and simmer together for 1 or 2 minutes. Add ¼ pound mushrooms, sliced and cooked, and 1 teaspoon chopped parsley and thicken with 1 egg yolk mixed with a little of the hot sauce.
The Auvergne is the home of a fine Bleu cheese, and this recipe of the region would indicate that a Roquefort dressing is not so purely an American innovation as has been assumed.
La Salade Aveyronaise
Mash in a salad bowl 4 tablespoons Roquefort or Bleu cheese and blend with 2/3 cup cream until perfectly smooth. Add to this 4 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice, a little salt, plenty of freshly ground pepper, and 2 teaspoons each chopped chervil and tarragon. Mix with enough shredded lettuce to serve six. This is excellent served with a dark bread like pumpernickel.
Le Milliard (Cherry Flan)
Butter a pic plate and cover the bottom with a layer of black Bing cherries placed fairly close together but not touching. They can be fresh cherries with the stems removed or canned ones drained of their juice. In either case, the pits are left in, as (his is considered to add to the flavor. Put ¾ cup sifted flour, a pinch of salt, and ½ cup sugar in a bowl and make a hole in the center. Into tin's pour 3 beaten eggs and stir in the flour very gradually until all is well blended and free of lumps. Add gradually I cup milk, stirring constantly. Pour this over the cherries in the pie pan and bake for about 40 minutes in a moderate oven (375° F.). When done, sprinkle with sugar and serve warm.
Checklist for French Provinces Available
For those fortunate gourmets who arc sailing or flying to France this summer, we have assembled a handy checklist of the restaurants and hotels recommended thus far by Samuel Chamberlain in “An Epicurean Tour of the French Provinces,” which began in GOURMET in March 1947—We will be happy to send you this checklist at your request.
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