If you want a clue to the esteem in which us gourmets français hold vegetables, just notice with what tare the French cook and serve them. Watch, too, the dedicated zeal of French shoppers, from chefs with their huge orders to housewives carrying the family market baskets. But don't overlook the fact that none of this would be possible if it weren't for the farmers who grow the vegetables that keep alive the prestige of fine French cooking. It's like the house that Jack built in reverse, n'est-ce pas? Une petite bistoire de la ferme au gourmet.
Many French chefs have been raised, as I was, in small towns where the distance from farm to home is a matter of an hour or so. They, too, can recall, as I can, mothers who examine almost every individual bean and pea pod in les litres purchased. And many a chef remembers, as I do, working as a boy on his uncle's or grandfather's farm. He is thus the better able to judge, in later years, when beans or peas have been left too long on the vine. and to tell by looking at a carrot whether the soil it came from could give it good flavor. It is interesting, too, how many French chefs become garden enthusiasts. I have known many who have turned this hobby into a profitable business. They can always find customers because they understand what their fellow chefs are looking for.
In the classic French cuisine, as in much Continental cookery, the vegetable is usually served as a separate course to be enjoyed and savored as much as the soup or salad, and consequently it must be as carefully prepared. In America, so often vegetables are cooked indifferently and served on the same plate with the entree, with the general idea (usually a true one) that they won't be eaten anyway. Every in making less formal dishes like stews, where meat and vegetables are cooked and served together, the French cook doesn't overlook the culinary requirements for each vegetable. Mais non. Those which require longer cooking, like carrots and onions, are added before the more delicate ones, like peas, so that all arc cooked”) point.
I have to admit that when 1 arrived here to open the kitchens of the old Ritz-Carlton in 1910, the vegetable situation in New York came as quite a shock. No one grew leeks for soup nor shallots for sauces. When I found out that few Americans used these vegetables, it wasn't too difficult to understand why no one bothered to grow them commercially. What really puzzled me was why vegetables which were part of the American diet—peas, beans, carrots, beets, and so on—were so large and coarse, and never graded according to size. With my French training, I just couldn't understand that. Man Dieu, I would have considered it worth my job to have served petits pois, à la françaisec made of a hodgepodge of large and small peas, or green beans with seeds inside them half the size of dried beans. But no one knew better than I did that a good chef has to be ingenious more often than creative. I solved this problem by running the shelled peas through a coarse sieve to screen out the large ones, which I used for pea puree and potage Saint-Germain. Green beans were sorted and only the tiny ones prepared for guests. The larger ones were cooked for the stuff. And we learned, too. how to trim carrots of all sizes down to plump, tiny, even shapes.
Always. I kept thinking there must be someone near Mew York who could and would grow the kind of vegetables that I had been taught were good enough to be served at a Ritz table. And there was. Who else but another French chef, one who knew how?
In those days, one of the chefs at the Hotel Astor was a Frenchman from Normandy. Louis Deligny yearned for more good country air than a steaming hoc kitchen would ever give him. He finally decided to quit New York as soon as the busy months were over each year and devote the spring and summer to growing vegetables: ! was his first customer. In fact, he really didn't need any other customers, because 1 was ready to buy all that his Batavia farm produced. Deligny was as good a gardener as he was a chef, and I began to feel that the vegetables served at the New York Ritz could compare with those served at the Ritz in Paris. We now had tiny fresh peas in spring, baby green beans all summer, carrots, beets, and new potatoes, all coming along lender and sweet in their turn. I even tried preserving beans in salt as I had seen my mother do. I had an empty shortening barrel scrubbed well and packed the little beans in layers with coarse kitchen salt between them. A heavy cover weighted them down to keep them completely covered with the brine that formed. The barrel was stored in a cold-room with a temperature of about forty to forty-five degrees. When no fresh beans were available. I soaked the stored beans in fresh water to remove the salt, and they cooked up tender and green and delicious. That, of course, was before the days of frozen vegetables. Alors, Monsieur Deligny moved to Florida and for many years from there sent me fresh peas and beans over a much longer season. This Normand loved gardening, as must of his countrymen do. and it meant much to him to grow his produce for someone who really appreciated it. He lived to be past eighty years old. so 1 guess his work agreed with him.
Gradually it got around that Louis Diat of the Ritz was interested in any grower who had very special, very fine produce to sell, whether it was field grown in season or raised out of season in a hothouse. Many chefs came to my office to talk about what they grew or thought they could grow. I found one man. for example, who specialized in herbs, and for years he supplied me with beautiful mint, parsley, chives, tarragon, chervil, and thyme all year round. There was also an unusual Pennsylvania farmer who had enormous greenhouses and the knack of growing almost anything in them. His hothouse produce was so good you could scarcely believe it was out of season. From him we got the year's very first asparagus. When? Always in time for our New Year's live celebration! After that we could count on the supply until the end of February, when the first of the California crop came in. His hothouse tomatoes, served in the middle of winter, were as fine of flavor and as meaty as the tomatoes of midsummer. He even had melons from February to May, big juicy ones larger than cantaloupes, with sweet pink flesh. But in spite of the excellence of these out-of-season produces, I must admit that I still like best the vegetables that come along through the year, each kind in its season.
Now, anyone interested in fine cooking should also be interested in marketing. It is difficult to judge by appearance alone the quality of meat, the flavor of melons, or the saltiness of ham and bacon, but everybody can easily learn how to pick out good vegetables. Any observant eye can see the difference between old vegetables and those recently picked. Fresh vegetables have a plump look that indicates a delectable juiciness inside. They have a slight crispness—the bean snaps and the pen pod crackles. The ends of beans and pea pods, the tips of carrots. and the cut ends of asparagus do not look dry, withered, or faded when these vegetables are fresh. Spinach that is getting old is apt to become soft and splotchy. The tips of overripe asparagus soften too, and take on a bruised look. All the care and skill in the world put into cooking vegetables is half lost if quality and freshness are missing.
Of course, if you can grow vegetables in your own garden you are fortunate indeed. For there is nothing better than a freshly picked vegetable, nicely cooked. Remember that the richer the soil, the quicker vegetables mature and the more tender and succulent they arc. Pick young small vegetables and do your picking early in the day. before the sun gets too high in the sky.
As for cooking vegetables, the younger the vegetable the less time needed to took it. It takes just a little practice to be able to judge by look and feel how much cooking will be needed. The times given in the recipes that follow are for young, fresh produce.
The French like a subtle blending of flavors, and this preference holds true for vegetable cookery. A French cook may slip a little onion into the kettle, or perhaps a faggot made by tying together paisley and chervil, and sometimes tiny cubes of fat salt pork that have been looked to a golden brown. French cooks also like to combine several vegetables in one dish, as in the recipes fur vegetables primeurs and spring soup (bat follow. However, if peas, or peas and carrots, or beans are to be dressed very simply, this is the way the French do it: When the vegetable is tender, they quickly cook away whatever water remains in the pan and add a lump of butter or a little heavy cream. Then the French chef continues to cook the vegetable until the butter or cream has blended with it, shaking the pan all the while. This process is called lier au beurre or lier Z1a la crème. In other words, the butter or cream serves not merely as a sauce but also as a liaison holding the vegetables together. The following recipes present the traditional ways of cooking spring and early summer vegetables.
Petits Pois à la Française (Peas French Style)
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan, add 6 tiny white onions, 5 or 6 shredded leaves of lettuce, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon sugar and 3 sprigs each of parsley and chervil tied in a faggot. Add 2 to 3 cups freshly shelled tiny peas, mix all together and add ½ cup water. Bring the liquid to a boil and simmer the peas, closely covered, for about 25 minutes or until they are just done. Only 2 or 3 tablespoons water should remain in the pan. Remove the faggot, take the pun from the fire and add a little beurre manie made by creaming 1 tablespoon butter with ½ teaspoon flour. Return the pan to the heat and shake the pan to combine the peas with the butter and flour mixture until the liquid boils again.
Petits Pois Paytanne (Peas Country Style)
Cut enough fat salt pork into fine dice to make ½ cup, cover the dice with water, and parboil them for 5 minutes. Drain off the water. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan, add the pork dice, ½ cup carrots, scraped and diced, and 10 tiny white onions. Cook the vegetables, shaking the pan occasionally, until they are all a light golden brown. Remove the vegetables from the pan with a skimmer.
In the fat in the pan, brown lightly 1 teaspoon flour. Add 5/4 cup chicken stock or water, bring the liquid to a boil and add the browned carrots, onions and pork dice, 2 cups freshly shelled peas, 4 shredded leaves of lettuce, and 4 sprigs each of parsley and chervil tied in a faggot. Add 1 tablespoon sugar, bring the liquid to a boil, cover the pan and simmer the vegetables for 30 minutes, or until they are tender. Discard the Faggot. Reduce the liquid, if necessary, to ½ cup. Correct the seasoning with salt.
Here are two versions of creamed carrots and peas. The first is the simpler method; the second adds a few extra flourishes.
Carottes et Pois à la Crème I (Creamed Carrots and Peas I)
Put in a saucepan 1 cup carrots, scraped and diced or cut into small balls. Add I tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon sugar and enough water to half cover the carrots. Bring the liquid to a boil, cover the pan and simmer the carrots until they are tender and the water has entirely cooked away, Meanwhile cook 2 cups shelled peas separately in salted water, drain them and add them to the carrots. Add I cup sauce crime (September, 1955) and shake all together well.
Carottes et Pois à la Crème II (Creamed Carrots and Peas II)
Put in a saucepan 1 cup carrots, scraped and diced or cut into small balls. Add enough water barely to cover, a very little salt, I tablespoon sugar and 2 tablespoons butter. Bring the liquid to a boil, cover the pan and simmer until the water has almost cooked away and the butter and sugar form a syrup. Continue cooking the carrots, shaking the pan constantly until the syrup glazes them. In another pan prepare petits pois à la française. Discard the faggot and combine the peas with the carrots. Add ½ cup heavy cream and cook briefly, shaking the pan constantly.
Cut sliced bread in 1 ½ inch roundor diamond-shaped croutons, brush the croutons with beaten egg yolk and bake them in the oven or under the broiler until the egg has set. Arrange the croutons in a circle around the vegetables.
Carottes Vichy (Glazed Carrots)
Put in a saucepan 2 cups carrots, scraped and cut into very thin slices. Add 2 tablespoons butter, I tablespoon sugar, ½ cup water and, if desired, a very little salt. Bring the liquid to a boil, cover the pan and simmer the vegetables until all the water has cooked away. Uncover the pan and continue to cook the carrots, shaking the pan, until they are lightly glazed by the butter and sugar remaining in the pan. Sprinkle them generously with chopped parsley.
In France, we like to cook spinach in a large quantity of boiling salted water, adding the spinach to the pot little by little so that the boiling never stops. You may like to try my method as a change from the usual American practice of cooking spinach in the water that clings to the leaves after washing.
Epinards en Branches (Spinach)
Wash 3 pounds very young, tender spinach thoroughly in several waters, lifting it out of the basin so that the sand remains on the bottom. Cook the spinach rapidly in 1 quart boiling water with ½ teaspoon salt for 6 to 8 minutes. Turn the spinach into a colander or a sieve to drain, and press our as much water as possible. Return the spinach to the pan and shake it over the heat until all the surplus water cooks away. Serve with melted butter or meat gravy.
Epinards à la Crème (Creamed Spinach)
Clean very thoroughly 3 pounds spinach and cook it in 1 quart boiling water with ½ teaspoon salt for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, pressing out as much water as possible. Chop the spinach very finely, or force it through a coarse sieve. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan. add 2 teaspoons flour and cook the roux until it begins to turn golden. Stir in the spinach and cook it for a few minutes until it is quite dry. Season with ½ teaspoon salt and, if desired. a grating of nutmeg. Stir in ½ cup rich milk or cream, bring the mixture to a boil and cook it for a few minutes longer. Garnish with small triangles of bread browned in butter, or with quarters of hard-cooked egg.
Souffle d'Epinards au Jamhon (Spinach and Ham Soufflé)
Drain 2 pounds cooked spinach in a colander and blanch it by running cold water through it. Drain it again, squeezing out as much water as possible, then chop it very finely or rub it through a coarse sieve. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan, add the spinach and cook it over high heat, stirring constantly until all the water has cooked away. Add 1 ½ tablespoons Hour, a little salt and pepper, and a grating of nutmeg. Stir well, add ½ cup boiling chicken stock or hot milk and mix thoroughly. Bring the liquid to a boil, cover the pan and cook the spinach for 10 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat and add A tablespoons grated Parmesan, ½ cup lean Virginia ham cut in very small dice, 1 tablespoon butter and 3 beaten egg yolks. Beat the mixture thoroughly and fold in 4 stiffly beaten egg whites. Turn the mixture into a buttered souffle mold or baking dish, round the surface into a dome shape and sprinkle it with a little grated Parmesan and a little melted butter. Bake the souffle in a moderate oven (350° to 375° F.) for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it is well puffed and lightly browned.
Turban d'Epinards {Spinach Ring)
Drain 3 pounds cooked spinach well, chop it finely and rub it through a coarse sieve. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan, add 1 tablespoon Hour and cook the roux until it begins to brown, Mix in the spinach and cook it until all the moisture cooks away. Season with salt and a grating of nutmeg. Add 1 large, or 2 small eggs, well beaten. Turn the mixture into a ring mold, set the mold in a pan of boiling water and bake it in a moderate oven (350° to 375 F.) for 20 to 25 minutes. Unmold the ring on a serving dish and fill the center with creamed mushrooms, creamed carrots or any other creamed vegetable.
Haricots Verts Lyonnaise (Green Beans Lyonnaise)
Wash and cut the ends from 1 ½ pounds young green beans and cut them in 1-inch lengths, or slice each bean down the center lengthwise and then across the center to make 4 pieces. If the beans are very small and young. leave (hem whole. Cook the beans in 1 quart boiling water with 1 teaspoon salt for 20 minutes, or until they arc just tender, and drain them. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a saucepan, add 1 medium onion, finely chopped, and cook the onion until it begins to take on color. Add the beans and shake the pan over the heat to mix the vegetables with the butter and onions. Correct the seasoning with salt and sprinkle the beans with finely chopped parsley.
Haricots Verts Paysanne (Green Beans Country Style)
Prepare 1 ½ pounds young green beans as directed above. Parboil ½ cup diced salt pork or bacon in water to cover for 5 minutes, and drain it. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan, add the pork dice and brown them lightly. Remove and reserve the dice. To the fat in the pan add 2 onions, chopped. and brown them lightly. Add 4 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped. 2 potatoes cut in large dice, ¾ teaspoon salt, a little pepper, the pork dice and the green beans. Add ½ cup water, bring the liquid to a boil, cover the pan and cook the mixture slowly for about 30 minutes, or until the vegetables arc tender.
Serve vegetables and sauce together.
Pommes Nouvelles (New Potatoes)
Scrub the skin from tiny new potatoes, parboil them in salted water. CO cover for 2 or 3 minutes and drain them well. For each cup of potatoes, heat well 2 tablespoons good beef or goose fat. Cook the potatoes until they arc tender and golden brown all over. Drain the potatoes and pour off the fat from the pan. Return the potatoes to the pan, add 1 tablespoon butter for each cup of potatoes and cook, rolling the potatoes in the butter as it melts. When the potatoes are well coated with butter, season them with a little salt and sprinkle them with finely chopped parsley.
If desired, butter may be used instead of goose or beef fat, but in this case the butter must first be Clarified (that is, melted and the clear butter poured off the milky sediment at the bottom of the pan), or the potatoes will stick to the pan and break.
Oseille Purée (Sorrel Purée)
Wash thoroughly 3 pounds sorrel, drain it, and in only the water that clings to the leaves, cook it over a hot fire for 15 or 20 minutes, or until it is very soft. This is called “melted” sorrel. Drain the sorrel, pressing out as much water AS possible. Rub it through a sieve. This recipe makes 2 cups sorrel purée, which may be seasoned with butter and salt, or used like spinach and other vegetable purees.
Oseille Braisée (Braised Sorrel)
Make 3 cups sorrel puree (above), using 5 pounds sorrel. In a casserole melt 3 tablespoons butter, add 2 tablespoons flour and cook the mixture until it begins to color. Add the sorrel purée, ½ teaspoon salt. 1 tablespoon sugar and ½ cup stock. Stir the mixture well and bring it to the boiling point. Cover the pan with a piece of buttered paper, adjust the lid and braise the sorrel in a moderate oven (350° F.) for about 1 hour. Remove the casserole from the oven and beat in 2 beaten eggs. Bring the mixture back to the boiling point over direct heat, but do not allow it to boil. Correct the seasoning with salt and add either 1 tablespoon butter or 2 tablespoons cream or 2 tablespoons natural gravy from the meat the braised sorrel is to accompany.
Vegetables Primeurs (Mixed Spring Vegetables)
Cook 1 ½ cups peeled carrots cut in dice or small balls with 1 tablespoon butter and a little sugar, shaking the pan occasionally until the carrots are lightly browned. Peel and trim 2/3 cup small white spring turnips and 10 to 12 tiny spring onions, and brown them in the same way. As each vegetable is browned, remove it to another saucepan. Then add to the combined vegetables 3 springs each of parsley and chervil tied in a faggot and 4 leaves green lettuce, shredded, 2 cups shelled peas, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon sugar and enough chicken stock barely to cover the vegetables. Cover the pan and cook the vegetables for 30 minutes, or until they are lender. Discard the faggot. Slightly thicken the liquid that remains with 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed to a paste with 2 tablespoons cold water (or stock) or with beurre manié made by mixing 1 ½ tablespoons butter with 1 teaspoon flour. Bring the mixture to a boil and serve immediately.
To use this combination of vegetables for a stew, remove the meat and the sauce from the casserole when they are half done, wash the casserole and return the meat to it, reserving the gravy. Brown the vegetables in the butter and sugar and combine them with the peas. Put the vegetables on top of the meat and strain the sauce over them. Continue to cook the stew until the meat is tender and the vegetables are done.
Spring Soup
Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a large saucepan. Add 3 leeks, cleaned and chopped, and 1 onion, chopped, and cook the vegetables until they begin to take on color. Add 2 potatoes. 1 sliced Carrot, ½ tablespoon salt and 2 quarts water. Bring the liquid to the boil and cook it for about 15 minutes. Add ¼ cup rice and the tender tipper pans of 12 stalks of asparagus, cut in pieces. and cook for 25 minutes longer. Add 1 pound fresh, washed spinach, coarsely chopped, and cook the soup for 10 or 15 minutes longer. Correct the seasoning with salt and a little pepper, and finish the soup with ½ cup cream.