Sometimes it seems to me that I have been teaching people to cook all my life. Of course, that isn't so. There was a time when I myself had to be taught. But it is a fact that when a chef reaches the top of the ladder that he has climbed with such painstaking care, he must take on the responsibility of overseeing the apprentis who are always being trained in kitchens of any importance. At least that is the system long followed in fine French establishments. How else do you suppose the traditions of this great cuisine could have been kept alive? How else could the necessary special skills be passed along?
We French chefs take great pride in our cuisine française. We don't want it lost to posterity. Most certainly we don't want the great restaurants of the world ever to lack well-trained artisans. So passing along the gros bonnet has become a prideful duty and responsibility, and I confess to a sentimental pleasure in it.
Some of us, myself for example, have gone one step further and attempted to teach others than prospective chefs the ways of fine French cooking, and with some success. However, I do find that no matter how well received our books and articles are, we hear always one criticism: that we take it for granted that all readers know as much about this type of cooking as dedicated, experienced gourmet cooks. And such cooks, our critics point out, are actually very few. Newlyweds eager to establish a bon ménage insist that we can't make our instructions too simple for them. And this is particularly true of young men and women who have never done any cooking before.
So in this new series of articles on French cooking, my sights are set on those who want to start from the very beginning. Or even before that, if such were possible. The “whys” as well as the “hows” will be explained. If fear and lack of confidence have been holding you back, your uncertainty will disappear, petit à petit, until yon are able to say, “This is the way I have always warned to be able to cook.”
We must start by conceding that the only way to become an expert is by endless practice. Cooking is no different from playing the piano, driving a car, swimming, painting, or any other skill. You learn by doing, mais oui. But more important, you become skillful by doing again and again until each step is automatic and perfect. Nothing can take the place of learning by constant repetition. So whatever each lesson is concerned with, whether with chopping an onion or making pastry, I shall expect you to be as persistent in perfecting it by constant practice as if your livelihood depended on it.
At the same time, each article will be planned to teach you to make dishes that go together and to give you combinations that you can serve and enjoy, attractive little meals at first, then important courses in longer meals, and eventually, I hope, les grands diners.
Although this may sound tiresome, I should not be doing my job if I didn't remind you that a good cook is a clean, tidy, well-organized worker. He arranges the equipment he is using—cutting board, knives, bowls, beaters, casseroles, kettles, and so forth—in an orderly fashion and stores them where he can put his hands on anything he may need at a minute's notice. Young apprentice chefs are taught to clean and scour all the things they use and keep the places where they work scrupulously clean. They learn to respect their tools, and in later years when someone else is delegated to clean up after them, they know from experience what that person can be expected to do and how he should do it.
A good cook, like any other good worker, knows what he is going to do before he begins. Ingredients and utensils needed are checked to make sure that all are on hand. Recipes are read—and reread if necessary—to make certain that every step is understood. Finally the time required for preparation and cooking—and chilling, if that is needed—must be estimated so that the dish will appear on the table at its peak of excellence, exactly on time.
It isn't difficult for a Frenchman to decide what dish in French cuisine is the first that you should learn to make. It is, naturellement, soup. Every French home serves soup regularly, no French restaurant would dream of leaving soup off the menu, and in many French entrées, soup stock is one of the ingredients. Alors!
We begin with soup, a very simple one and its variations. Even a child can make this soup. And when I say that, I mean it, because I could make this simple soup when I was only eight years old. Of course, I had already been watching ma mère for a good two years, fetching this, stirring that, asking endless questions. She had not actually been teaching me to cook at this early age, but I was left-handed, and she was trying to train me to use my right hand. In those days schools would not permit a child to write or work with his left hand. There were no books on child psychology to guide my puzzled father and mother. Their typically French commonsense approach was to develop my facility with the right hand by interesting me in tasks at home where I could be watched and supervised. Since my mother spent so much of her time in the kitchen, cooking turned out to be the easiest approach. The sharp raps on the knuckles from the schoolmaster's hard ruler that had made me so nervous were replaced, when I slipped into my left-handed ways, by my mother's gentle, “la main droite, mon petit.” Meanwhile the kitchen activities became so fascinating that I was absorbing more than anyone realized. It came as a pleasant surprise therefore when my first steaming kettle of leek and potato soup awaited my mother one Sunday when she returned from church.
Many of the most popular French soups are the variations of this leek and potato soup. In our section of France it was served for breakfast, especially in cold weather, like the hot cereal of American and English breakfasts.
Alors, If you are going to be a good potager, a competent soup chef, you'll need a capacious kettle—a six-quart size for an average family — measuring spoons, cup and quart measures, a wooden cutting board, knives, a large spoon, sieves, and kitchen bowls. This basic equipment is used for many other things besides soup. If you are buying new equipment, select good sturdy utensils of heavy metal, because food is less apt to scorch in heavy metal. A heavy pan will not dent and warp; in addition it holds the heat and thus saves fuel. The cutting board must be thick and heavy, and it must not warp even after hundreds of washings, because unless it is absolutely flat the slicing knife misses a part of the final edge of whatever food you are cutting up. Also it must be large enough to hold the food as it falls away from the knife and perhaps scatters a bit. Knives are important; I consider that nothing takes the place of good steel that will hold a sharp edge. A chef has his knives regularly sharpened and then keeps a steel handy to touch up the edge whenever he uses one. As you progress you may acquire knives of many sizes and shapes, but three really good knives—a small one for paring, one slightly larger for cutting vegetables and the like,and a big one for slicing meat and poultry—are better than a dozen poor knives that never hold a good cutting edge. Two sieves, one with a fine screen, the other coarser, will be needed; and they should be large enough to handle material poured through by the quart.
Gourmet cookery requires meticulous perfection even in small details. And the first detail every chef apprenti must learn is to cut vegetables up quickly and correctly, particularly the onions, potatoes. and carrots that be uses every day. You must have noticed how evenly the vegetables are sliced and diced in first-class restaurants! Chances arc that the chef who cut them up learned to cut vegetables when he was twelve or thirteen years old and has done if every day since. If you were to watch him, his hand would be quicker than your eye. There is a goal for you! Aside from the fact that a hodgepodge of uneven pieces is not attractive, uneven pieces cook unevenly. For example, small bits of onion cooking in butter will brown—may almost burn—before the larger pieces are soft, while tiny pieces of potato boil to a mush before the larger chunks are tender.
A basic rule to remember in cutting food is that you cannot do a good job unless the surface which lies on the board is Hat. When a vegetable slips and rolls under the hand, it is only too easy to cut the lingers, too, so the curved side of the carrot, potato, or onion must be sliced off or the vegetable cut in half, so that it lies Hat and firm on the board. Also, if you watch a chef, you will see that he holds his hand on the vegetable in such a way that the ends of the fingers curve under it slightly and that he angles the blade of the knife very slightly away from his hand. He then can work with lightning speed with no danger of cutting himself. Now prepare to shed some tears!
ONIONS
Cut a thin slice from the top of the onion and peel the onion from top to bottom, tearing it away from the bottom. Trim the base a little, being careful to leave the layers of onion firmly attached to it.
To dice the onion, place it on its base and slash it in half from top to bottom. Work with one half at a time. Lay the half onion cut side down on the board with the base end to the left. Hold the onion with the left hand and cut it with the right, unless you too are left-handed! Put the blade of the knife on top of the onion, point toward the base end bur about one-half inch away from it. Cut down to the board, making even, lengthwise slices from the base end to the top end the thickness of the dice desired. The slices remain attached to the base. Now hold the knife so that its flat side is parallel to the board and slice through the onion sideways. starting at the top end, to one-half inch from the base end, making the horizontal slices the same thickness as the vertical ones. Hold this bundle of strips firmly with the left hand and Cut across them, starting at the top end and working back toward the base. Voilàl! Off fall the evenly diced pieces of onion. The tiny half-inch bit left at the base can be cut separately or used in the stock pot.
To slice an onion, cut a thin piece off one side of the peeled onion to make a firm flat surface to rest on the board. Lay the onion flat side down with the base of the onion at the left. Starting at the right and working toward the base, cur across the onion in even slices of the desired thickness.
CARROTS
Peel or scrape the carrots, trim both ends, and cut than Crosswise in halves or thirds. Work on one piece at a time. To dice the carrots, cut a thin slice from one side to make a flat surface and lay the carrot flat side down on a board. Slice it lengthwise to any desired thickness, discarding a thin slice from one side to make another flat surface. Turn over the pile of slices 60 that they rest on the last cut surface. Slice again lengthwise to the same thickness as the first slices, making square-ended strips. Grasp the bundle of strips with the left hand and slice across them to make square, uniform dice.
To make julienne—small thin square-ended strips—follow the procedure for dice, cutting the slices very thin, from one-sixteenth to one-eighth inch thick, then cut across the bundle of strips to make uniform strips one to one and a half inches long. To make bâtonnets, which are thicker julienne, follow the directions for julienne, but cut the slices one-quarter inch thick and the strips one inch long.
To make paysanne, or thin discs, use small carrots two to two and a half inches long or trim large carrots to this size. Cut a thin slice from one side to make a flat surface, lay the carrot flat side down on the board, and slice across the carrot as thinly as possible.
POTATOES
Follow the directions for carrots, cutting the slices one-half inch thick, more or less, according to the requirements of the particular recipe. Keep peeled potatoes always covered with water to prevent them from darkening.
WHITE TURNIPS
Follow the directions for carrots. For turnips paysanne, cut the turnips in quarters lengthwise and trim the quarters to the shape of carrots, Slice as for carrots paysanne.
CELERY
Wash the celery and scrape off the strings. Cut the stalks in lengths of one or one and a half inches as desired. To dice these lengths of stalks, cut them in strips about as wide as the stalk is thick and cut across the strips to make even dice. To make julienne and bâtonnets, slice the stalks lengthwise, one-sixteenth to one-eighth inch thick for julienne, one-quarter inch thick for bâtonnets.
LEEKS
Leeks usually have quantities of sand hidden between their layers. They require special cleaning as follows:
Cut off the coarse green tops; the undamaged green tops can go into the stock pot. Cut off the roots but leave the base intact. Lay the leek on a board and slice it lengthwise through the center, to within one and a half inches of the base. Turn the leek and slice it again through the center, thus quartering the leek without separating it from the base. Hold the leek under running water from the faucet, rolling it in the hands so that the water flushes out all the sand.
To make dice, julienne, or bâtonnets, lay the leek on a board, cut it in one- or two-inch lengths, and proceed as for celery.
These basic directions may be applied to all kinds of vegetables. Remember these rules: use a heavy, absolutely flat board and a sharp chef's knife about six or seven inches long; don't try to work on too long or too large a vegetable, but cut it into manageable smaller pieces; cut a thin slice from one side or cut the vegetable in half to provide a flat surface to rest on the board. And I'd suggest keeping a ruler handy to measure the width of your slices unless you have a better eye for measurements than most novices.
With the soup recipes that follow you will have plenty of opportunity to practice cutting vegetables. And starting with this combination of leeks, onions, and potatoes, you can make many different soups. If you can't buy leeks in your market, substitute onions: 1 medium onion for 2 medium leeks. The flavor of the soup won't be quite the same, but you will still have a delicious soup. But you must use butter, not a substitute, if you want a real French soup. You'll notice that the vegetables arc not strained in the simplest basic recipe, soupe bonne femme but they are in potage Parmentier, or cream of leek and potato soup, and that the latter is also richer in milk and can be made richer with egg yolks and cream. Vicbyssoise is strained several times, and its high proportion of cream makes it very smooth and very rich. Adding oilier vegetables to soupe bonne femme produces spring soup, while adding sorrel to potage Parmentier makes it into crème santé and water cress changes it to crème cressonière. With vichyssoise à la Ritz and carrot soup there arc seven different soups, all stemming from soupe bonne femme, our basic leek and potato soup, which is begun by cooking the leeks and onions in butter CO temper their sharpness and bring out their characteristic flavor Cook the onions and leeks very slowly in the butter, until they are soft and translucent; never let them brown so that they discolor the soup. After the soup starts to boil, turn down the heat and cook it slowly, because rapid boiling will reduce the liquid to much. Salt lightly at the beginning and adjust the seasoning at the last.
With these soups, serve very thin slices of French bread dried in a slow oven, or cut slices one-half inch thick and brown them in butter. Or cut French bread into inch-thick slices, cut each slice in half, and scrape away the soft crumb. Dry the crusts in a slow oven. These crispy curls of crust may be served in the soup, or passed to eat with it.
Soupe Bonne Femme
Remove the green tops and roots from 4 leeks, clean them well, and cut them in one-third-inch dice. There should be at least 1 ½ cups. If leeks are not available, substitute 2 onions. Peel and dice 1 medium onion. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy soup kettle, add the leeks and the onion, cover the kettle, and cook very slowly a few minutes, or until the vegetables are soft but not brown. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon. Pare and dice 4 or 5 potatoes. There should be 3 to 3 ½ cups of dice. Add the potatoes, 1 quart hot water, and 2 teaspoons salt to the kettle and cook slowly for 30 to 40 minutes, until the potatoes are very soft. Add 2 cups hot milk and 1 tablespoon butter. Taste the soup and if necessary correct the seasoning with salt. Makes 6 to 8 servings.
Spring Soup
Remove the green tops and the roots from 2 or 3 leeks, clean them well, and cut them in small dice, enough to fill 1 cup. Dice 1 onion; a small one should make the necessary ¼ cup. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a heavy kettle, add the leeks and the onion, cover the kettle, and cook the vegetables slowly for a few minutes, or until they are soft but not brown. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon. Pare 2 potatoes and cut them in quarters and then in thin slices, to measure 1 ½ to 2 cups. Pare 2 medium carrots and cut them in thin slices. Add the potatoes, the carrots, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 ½ cups hot water to the kettle. Cook the mixture slowly for 15 minutes. Add ¼ cup rice and, when it is available, 10 to 12 stalks of fresh asparagus, cleaned and cut into small pieces, and cook the soup for 25 minutes longer. Add ½ pound spinach, thoroughly washed and chopped, and cook for 10 minutes. Add 1 cup light cream and bring the soup back to the boiling point. Taste it and correct the seasoning with salt if necessary. Makes 6 to 8 servings.
Potage Parmentier
Remove the green tops and roots from 4 leeks, clean them well under running water, and cut them in small dice. There should be ½ cups. If leeks are not available, substitute 2 onions. Dice 1 onion. There should be ½ cup. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy soup kettle, add the leeks and onion, cover the kettle, and cook the vegetables slowly for a few minutes, until they ate soft but not brown. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon. Pare and dice 4 or 5 potatoes. There should be 3 to 3 ½ cups of dice. Add the potatoes, 3 cups hot water, and 2 teaspoons salt to the kettle, and cook slowly for 30 to 40 minutes, until the potatoes arc very soft. Strain the soup through a fine sieve or force it through a food mill, return the strained puree to the kettle, bring it back to a boil, stirring constantly to keep it from scorching, and add 3 cups hot milk and 1 tablespoon butter. Taste the soup and if necessary correct the seasoning with salt. Makes 6 to 8 servings.
For a richer soup, mix 2 egg yolks with ½ cup cream, warm the mixture with 1 cup of the hot soup, then pour it into the kettle, stirring briskly. Bring the soup to the tailing point, stirring it constantly, but do not allow it to bubble up and boil violently, because this would cause the eggs to cook and separate from the mixture, thus curdling it.
Crème Santé (Cream of Sorrel Soup)
Prepare 1 ½ quarts simple potage Parmentier, without egg yolks and cream. Clean and shred sorrel to make ½ cup, firmly packed. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a small pan, add the sorrel, and cook it slowly, stirring, until most of the moisture is cooked away. Add the sorrel to the potage Parmentier. Mix 1 egg yolk with ½ cup cream, warm it by adding 1 cup of the hot soup mixture, and return it to the kettle, stirring briskly, bring the soup just to the boil, stirring it constantly, but do not allow it to boil.
Crème Cressonière (Cream of Water Cress Soup)
Prepare 1 ½ to 2 quarts simple potage Parmentier, without egg yolks and cream. Wash 2 bunches of water cress and cook the cress for 3 or A minutes in boiling salted water. Drain the cress well, rub it through a sieve, and combine the puree with the potage Parmentier. Add 1 cup cream and reheat the soup to the boiling point.
Crème Viebyssoise Glaeée
Remove the green tops and roots from A leeks, clean them well, and cut them in small dice, enough to fill 1 ½ cups. Dice 1 onion. There should be ½ cup. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy soup kettle, add the leeks and onion, cover the kettle, and cook the vegetables slowly for a few minutes, until they arc soft but not brown. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon. Pare and dice A or 5 potatoes, to make 3 to 3 1/3 cups of dice. Add the potatoes, 1 quart hot water, and 2 teaspoons salt to the kettle and cook the soup slowly for 30 to 40 minutes, until the potatoes are very soft. Strain the soup through a fine sieve or force it through a food mill. Return the strained puree to the kettle and add 2 cups hot milk and 2 cups light cream. Bring the soup back to the boil, stirring it occasionally to keep the purée from settling to the bottom and scorching, and strain it again through a fine sieve. Cool the soup, stirring it occasionally to keep it smooth. Strain it again and add I cup heavy cream. Mix well and chill thoroughly. Sprinkle with chopped chives.
Crème Vichyssoise à la Ritz
Add 1 cup tomato juice to 3 cups crème vichyssoise and serve well chilled.
Créme Crécy (Cream of Carrol Soup)
Pare A or 5 medium carrots and cut them in thin slices. Dice 1 onion. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a heavy soup kettle, add the carrots and onion, cover the kettle, and cook the vegetables slowly for 15 minutes. Do not let them brown. Add 1 quart hot water, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon sugar, and ½ cup rice. Cook the soup slowly for 45 minutes, until the carrots are very soft. Strain the soup through a fine sieve or force it through a food mill, return the purée to the kettle, and add 2 more cups hot water. Bring the soup to a boil and add 1 cup light cream and 1 tablespoon butter. Taste it and if necessary correct the seasoning with salt. Makes 6 to 8 servings.
A large bowl of good soup makes a satisfying light lunch or supper and a small serving of it provides the fust course for a hearty lunch or for a dinner. In either case, a salad is an excellent choice for another course, There are innumerable combinations of greens, of greens and cooked vegetables, and of greens, cooked vegetables, julienne of cooked meat and poultry, and hard-cooked eggs. Certainly no salad need be dull. But the greens must be properly prepared, the dressing must be piquant, and everything, both ingredients and serving dishes, should be as cold as possible.
When you shop for salad greens, select only those that are fresh and crisp looking. You can't bring back to wilted greens their original freshness. In addition to the usual Boston and iceberg lettuces, look for Bibb lettuce, romaine, chicory, escarole, endive, and water cress, and, in season, for very young dandelions and field salad. Don't cut the head; separate from it as many leaves as you need and wash them well in cold water. (Boston lettuce particularly is a bad actor when it comes to sand hidden in the crevices.) Dry the leaves thoroughly. Dressing will not cling to wet leaves, bur will slip off and form a watery pool in the bottom of the bowl. Put the washed leaves in a colander and shake out as much water as possible. Then tear the leaves into whatever size is indicated, put them in a wire salad basket or a kitchen towel, and shake off the water. They can be shaken with less spattering in a towel, and are less apt to be bruised. Wrap the leaves in a dry towel and put them in the refrigerator until serving time.
Tossed salads demand a French dressing: the French call this vinaigrette sauce. Vinaigrette sauce is a mixture of oil, acid, and seasonings. But the oil must be of high quality; most people prefer good olive oil. The acid may be any kind of vinegar, cider, malt, or wine, or it may be an herb-flavored vinegar or lemon juice. The important thing is that the acid must never overpower the oil. The old rule says, “Be a miser with vinegar and a spendthrift with oil.” If you like a sharper dressing, don't increase the proportion of vinegar, but add a little mustard to the sauce, A pepper mill is an indispensable accessory to salad making; the flavor of freshly ground peppercorns is considerably richer and more intense than that of ready-ground pepper.
And a final precaution: toss the greens with the dressing at the last possible moment. Use just enough dressing to coat the leaves; more is wasteful and unattractive. If the salad is allowed to stand, it will wilt. If you want to cut or trim the greens, use a silver knife. Steel knives cause the cut edges to darken quickly. And finally, serve the salad cold, from a cold bowl, on chilled plates.
Vinaigrette Sauce
Mix together ½ teaspoon salt, a little freshly ground pepper, and 1 tablespoon vinegar. Add 3 to A tablespoons good salad oil and mix all together well. This is enough to dress a salad for 3 persons. For a sharper dressing, add a little dry or prepared mustard.
Vinaigrette with Herbs
Add to vinaigrette dressing 1 teaspoon mixed finely chopped parsley, tarragon, chervil, and chives.
Tossed Green Salad à la Française
Select salad greens in season. Wash, drain, and dry them thoroughly, and chill them. Rub the inside of a chilled wooden salad bowl well with a piece of cut garlic and put the greens in the bowl. Add vinaigrette sauce and toss the leaves with a large fork an d spoon until all are coated with the dressing.
Chiffonade Salad
Add to mixed greens prepared for salad celery cut in julienne, quartered tomatoes, chopped hard-cooked egg, water cress, chopped beets, and chopped chives, all to 'taste. Toss well with vinaigrette sauce at the table.
Chef's Salad
Fill a chilled salad bowl one-quarter full with shredded lettuce. On this arrange equal amounts of uniform julienne of boiled chicken, smoked ox tongue, smoked ham, and Swiss cheese. Garnish with ½ hard cooked egg for each serving and with water cress. Serve vinaigrette sauce separately and toss the salad at the table.