A richer sauce may be made by adding ½ cup cream sauce to the liquid in the pan and thickening the mixture with I egg yolk mixed with 3 tablespoons cream. Add a little of the hot sauce to the egg and cream. Combine the mixtures. Cook the sauce, stirring constantly, until it comes to the boiling point, but do not allow it to boil up.
Frogs’ Legs Marinière
Follow the recipe for frogs’ legs poulette, omitting the mushrooms.
Fried Frogs’ Legs with Eggs
Clean frogs’ legs, cut off the feet and soak the legs in cold water to cover for 2 hours. Drain and dry them thoroughly. Heat 2 whole eggs lightly, season them with a little salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg and add 2 tablespoons cream. Dip the frogs’ legs in this mixture and in fine, fresh bread crumbs. Fry the legs in deep hot fat or oil to a golden brown. Drain them on absorbent paper. Serve with tomato sauce to which a few drops of lemon juice have been added.
Turban of Frogs’ Legs with Curry
Prepare enough rice pilau to fill a ring mold; keep it warm.
Clean 3 or 4 dozen frogs’ legs, cut off the feet, and soak the legs in cold water to cover for 2 hours. Drain and dry them thoroughly.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan and add 1 tablespoon chopped shallots or onion. Add the frogs’ legs and ¼ cup white wine. Cover the pan and simmer the legs for 5 to 6 minutes. Sprinkle them with 2 tablespoons curry powder and add 1 cup cream. Bring the sauce to a boil and cook slowly 6 or 7 minutes longer. Remove the frogs’ legs from the pan and bone them. Reduce the liquid to about half its original quantity and add 1 cup cream sauce. Correct the seasoning with salt. Toss about 3 tablespoons of this sauce with the cooked rice pilau and pack the rice firmly in a buttered ring mold. Set the mold in a pan of hot water to keep it hot. Return the frogs’ legs to the sauce and keep them hot. To serve, unmold the rice ring on a serving dish and fill the center of the ring with the frogs’ legs and sauce. Serve very hot.
Riea Pilau
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a pan with a tight-fitting cover. Add I tablespoon finely chopped onion and cook until the onion is soft but not brown. Stir in 1 cup rice, 2 cups boiling water or white stock, and 1 teaspoon salt, and bring the liquid to a boil. Cover the pan closely and cook the rice in a hot oven (400° F.) or over very low heat on top of the stove for 18 to 20 minutes, or until all liquid has been absorbed and the rice is just cooked through. Turn the rice into a hot dish and with a fork mix in 1 tablespoon hot melted butter. Keep the rice in a warm place.
Scallops, which like oysters live in the waters of many parts of the world, vary, like the oyster, in size, flavor, and texture according to their habitat. There arc almost three hundred different species of scallops. Their shells are very beautiful—and useful, too, since they are used as baking and serving dishes for the fish, which accounts for the fact that in the early days in New England any creamed dish baked in the oven was called “scalloped.” The scallop shells can be bought in housewares stores. They are inexpensive, but they are a bit fragile, and although they are not affected by heat, they will break easily. You should buy about twice as many as you need so that you have replacements ready at hand.
The decorative radial ribbing on the scallop shells has given us a way of tracing their history. For example, the shells were incorporated in many old coats of arms, and they were worn in the middle ages by pilgrims to the Shrine of Saint James the Great at Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The Hispanic Society in New York has a sixteenth century statuette of Saint James the Great which shows the saint in pilgrim’s dress with the shell in the center of his wide brimmed hat, as the pilgrims wore it. Some say these shells were merely souvenirs of the pilgrimage, others that they were a charm to protect the pilgrims during the long journey home from the shrine. But Sir Waller Raleigh, who made this pilgrimage, wrote of the “scallop shell of quiet,” and obviously regarded it as a symbol of meditation.
There are several French names for scallops, but they are seldom used. The scallop is always called coquille Saint-Jacques, literally Saint James’ shellfish. In France you buy scallops in the shell and open them yourself by heating them very slightly in the oven just enough to relax the muscle that holds the shell closed. In the center of the shell is the muscle or edible portion. The shells are then cleaned and used for cooking and serving the fish. In France, the delicate orange coral is always cooked with the scallops, which have a finer texture and a less robust flavor than our American scallops.
In this country two kinds of scallops arc available; the bay scallop and the sea scallop. Bay scallops are small and there may be as many as forty to the pound. They are expensive, too, because they are sweeter and more tender than sea scallops, which run only twelve or fifteen to the pound. The large sea scallops may be cut in thick slices for cooking. In this country scallops are always removed from their shells as soon as they are caught and frozen or iced immediately for shipment. Like other frozen sea foods, scallops must be cooked as soon as they are defrosted. Even the freshly caught ones should not be kept longer than overnight. Bay scallops are best in cold weather, but in the summer months shipments come to our markets from cold northern waters.
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