Salade Alice

Another recipe I have been waiting for an excuse to make and which I hoped might provide a some variety to the selection at our party, as it’s base ingredients weren’t butter, cheese or white flour.

I feel, however, that Escoffier is probably spinning in his grave. This comes from the Salade Composées (Compound Salads) section of Ma Cuisine (Paul Hamlyn, 1934).

Salade Alice (Alice Salad)

Medium-sized red dessert apples, lemon juice, apple balls, cut with a very small vegetable ball cutter, redcurrants, almonds or walnuts, salt, cream, lettuce

Cut a slice from the stalk end of the apple and remove as much of the fruit as possible. Rub the inside of the apple case with lemon juice to prevent it from discolouring. Mix the apple balls, redcurrants and chopped nuts. Sprinkle with salt and lemon juice and bind with the cream. Fill the apple cases, replace the lids and serve on hearts of lettuce, cut into halves or quarters.

Notes

• To make a bite-sized version (actually more like 2 bites), I cut the apples into quarters and then halved those to make triangular scoops to hold the filling.
• I don’t own a vegetable ball cutter of any size, so I just chopped the apple into small pieces.
• I didn’t use much cream or salt.
• I used Pink Lady apples.
• As walnuts are fairly unpopular, I used raw, finely chopped almonds.
• I used frozen red currants, picked out of a pack of mixed frozen berries.
• I omitted the lettuce.

Results

The balance of flavours was delightful, although I would only want to eat the whole apple as suggested, if it was a small one, such as a Discovery. I think the lettuce would be nice if walnuts were used and will definitely make these again.

Compounded  by Elly

Salad Elona

I have been looking forward to this salad since I bought the strawberries 2 days ago when the weather was delightful, but today it is grey and soggy out.  No matter, I love salads which mix fruit and vegetables and I also love WINE so I am excited about this.

This gem is one of many from the June chapter, written by Harold Wilshaw, of The Reader’s Digest Cookery Year (1976 edition).  Salad Elona was actually invented in the 1930s by cookery writer and journalist Ambrose Heath (1891–1969) for his wife but was popularised by this cookbook. Mr Wilshaw also wrote several other intriguingly titled volumes including Ready when you are: Recipes for Absentee Cooks, Delicious Chicken Dishes (I’m intrigued by this as the cover shows chicken drumsticks in cream sauce with grapes) and Cookbook for the Needy Greedy.

Salad Elona

This unusual salad of cucumbers and strawberries is an ideal dish to serve with cold chicken and turkey, or with delicately flavoured fish such as salmon or turbot.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Chilling time: 1 hour
Ingredients (for 4 – 6 people)
1 small cucumber
12 large strawberries
Salt and black pepper
1 – 2 tablespoons of dry white wine or white wine vinegar

Peel the cucumber and slice it thinly. Wash and hull the strawberries, drain them in a colander and then cut them into think even slices. Arrange the slices on a shallow serving dish – an outer circle of cucumber, slightly overlapped by a circle of strawberry, then more cucumber, finishing with a centre of strawberry slices.

Season lightly with salt and freshly ground pepper. Sprinkle the wine or vinegar over the salad and chill in the refrigerator before serving.

• I made a smaller version as per.
• I used wine – I only have red wine vinegar.
• The photo shows off the fact that it is hard to finely slice (by hand) a peeled cucumber and that my pepper grinder produces inconsistently sized pieces of pepper (i.e. they are the black bits!)

Conclusion

Now admittedly I can eat ridiculous quantities of strawberries and cucumber and both were very ripe but this is a lovely, lovely dish. I actually forgot to add the salt and have subsequently read (in another version, also not Heath’s original) that the cucumber should be salted and left to drain prior to assembling. For me, however, this was unnecessary as I ate the salad by itself as a starter and didn’t find it overly watery. Perhaps the salt would be suitable if you were eating it with cold cuts as suggested, as it would give the dish a more savoury flavour. I greatly approve of its simplicity, ease of assembly and bright flavour. If I wanted to make this even faster, I would use a squeeze of lemon or lime juice as dressing and serve instantly.

Circled by Elly

Tian de Courgettes a la Provencale

It’s not quite courgette season yet – they still need plenty of seasoning so this recipe by Escoffier (Paul Hamlyn, 1934) is perfect.

Tian de Courgettes a la Provencale

The name tian is given to a round dish, which is popular in Provence; it is about 2 inches in height and of various sizes.

Ingredients

1lb courgettes
Salt
Pepper
Pinch Nutmeg
Oil
Pinch Garlic
4 oz rice
½ pint water
Grated cheese
Chopped parsley
1 slice bread

Peel and thinly slice the courgettes, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and cook gently in the oil with the garlic. Cook the rice in the boiling water for 18 minutes. Mix the courgettes and rice together, add 2 – 3 tablespoons of grated cheese and a little chopped parsley. Put in the tian.

Dip a slice of bread into the water, press well to extract the moisture and spread over the top. Sprinkle with grated cheese, brush with oil and brown in a moderate oven.

Note: In place of the tian, a soufflé or gratin dish could be used. [Thank God!]

• I took ‘a pinch’ to mean one very small clove – probably this was more than the recipe intended.
• I cooked the courgette in a pan with the lid on for about 10 minutes – shaking it occasionally for even cooking.
• I used brown bread and as I estimated the bread was supposed to cover the top of the dish entirely, I used one and a half slices, as the loaf was small.
• I used Cheddar, although I imagine Gruyere was the intended cheese.
• I tried baking it in the oven, but got bored with waiting for it to brown sufficiently and ended up finishing it off under the grill.
• The only oval dishes I own are very large so I used a small square one. (The portion showed below is half of the amount I cooked.)

Conclusion

I think when people rue the prevalence of Thai red curry etc, it’s this kind of  thing they miss. (Not, sadly, the fact that most such food in the UK bears little resemblance to the original dishes.) This was just so easy and satisfying. The seasoning, in particular, is fantastic – the nutmeg, courgette and cheese blend together perfectly. I wasn’t in love with the bread topping, although the brown bread I used was very light – I thought crumbs and cheese would have been more suitable but apart from that, the whole was  much more than the sum.   I’m also very happy with my decision to  have some thick tomato sauce with it.

Baked by Elly

Salade des Haricots Verts (French Bean Salad)

I decided to make this salad from Escoffier (Paul Hamlyn, 1934) as an accompaniment to a second lamb steak.  It is simply too cold and wet out for a leafy green salad.

Salade des Haricot Verts (French Bean Salad)

Cook the beans in salted water, rinse is cold water, then dry in a cloth.

Rub the bottom of the salad bowl with garlic, add salt, freshly ground pepper, a little vinegar and 3 times the amount of olive oil. Mix all well together and put in the beans. Thinly sliced tomatoes and fillets of anchovy are sometimes added to this salad. [Not if I’m making it.]

In Provence they sometimes make a salad of French beans, potatoes and vegetable marrow, all cooked in salted water and seasoned as above.

Notes

• I decided to make the provencale variation at the bottom of the recipe.
• I only learnt about rubbing the bottom of bowls with garlic when I had this –I am ashamed! (In my defence, I usually only dress salads with lemon juice, yoghurt or a combination of the two.)
• I used red wine vinegar. This didn’t seem quite right but it was that or cider vinegar or rice vinegar.
• I used courgette instead of vegetable marrow.

Conclusion

A delicious and easy salad – I boiled the potatoes for 8 minutes, then added the beans and brought to the boil, then added the courgette and brought to the boil again, then drained the lot. The salad went really well with the lamb (which was marinated with garlic and rosemary for an hour before cooking) – the mix of vinegar with the rich flavour of the lamb was especially good.

Cooked by Elly

Pommes de Terre Menagere (Fried mashed potatoes with chives)

This is a terrible thing to admit but I swiped my mother’s copy of ‘Ma Cuisine’ by Auguste Escoffier at least 6 years ago and have never cooked anything from it. I have protected it from 4 house moves and a flood. I have kept it proudly in several very small kitchens (just look at that cover!) however the gelees, pates moules and rognures went  untested.

Today this will change, just about. I have chosen a dish from the vegetable section which is barely a recipe at all, more a slightly more complex way of doing something I already do. The copy I have is Vyvyan Holland’s original 1934 translation, (published byPaul Hamlyn) -  I love the blunt style as well as the assumption of some culinary knowledge.

Pommes de Terre Menagere (Fried mashed potatoes with chives)

2lb. large potatoes
Salt
Pepper
3 tablespoons chopped chives
3 – 4 tablespoons boiling milk
Flour
Butter, oil or lard for frying

Cook the potatoes in salted water, then drain thoroughly and mash with a fork. Add seasoning, chives and boiling milk and mix thoroughly. Shape into small balls the size of an egg, then flatten slightly into small cakes. Coat with flour and fry on both sides.

Note 1 beaten egg may be added with the milk

Notes

• Obviously I didn’t cook 2 lbs of potatoes
• I served these with steamed kale and some grated cheese. (Mmmm, bits from the fridge!)
• Nice to have a choice of fat for cooking  and it’s true that solid fat is unnecessary for cooking potato cakes – I chose olive oil.

Conclusion

Well, they’re potato cakes with all the deliciousness and limitation that that implies. They’re richer and fluffier than the kind I normally make. The amount of chive gives a lovely additional tangy note. Everyone knows you should put chives in fish cakes -  I say, who needs the fish?

Cobbled together by Elly