Potage Saint-Germaine – Pea Soup

Final soup for January. This time from Ma Cuisine by Auguste Escoffier, published by Paul Hamlyn in 1934. (I am becoming very proficient at locating the recipes in this long book which do not require meat jelly or double cream!)

This is the second version given, the first being just boiled, puree’d peas with a little stock added. I was attracted to the idea of eating something summer-y, as it’s been so effing cold over the last week.

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).

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.

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.]

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.