French Classics Made Easy (71 page)

1.
Place the whole egg, egg yolk, salt, and pepper in a food processor or blender. Process until well blended.

2.
With the machine running, slowly pour in the oil, gradually increasing the amount added as the sauce thickens. As soon as the sauce is very thick, thin with 2 teaspoons of the vinegar, followed by the remaining oil.

3.
Stop the machine and taste the mayonnaise. Add more vinegar, if necessary, and adjust the seasoning to taste. Cover the surface of the mayonnaise with plastic wrap. It can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

NOTE

You can also make mayonnaise by hand with a whisk or electric beater.

AIOLI

Aioli, the “butter” of Provence, is found in every restaurant in the south of France. The region, which traditionally is not known for its dairy products, uses this strong garlic mayonnaise instead of butter in many instances. Spread on bread and lightly toasted, it makes wonderful garlic bread. It can be used as a dip for raw vegetables, or be spread on a piece of fish and broiled, and it is a must to serve with Mediterranean Fish Soup (
page 21
) or American Bouillabaisse (
page 99
).

The sauce is easily made in a blender, by first puréeing the garlic and then adding the yolk, salt, and oil, and thinning it in the end with lemon juice. Note that I use extra-virgin olive oil for its heightened flavor, which reminds me of Provence.

MAKES 1 CUP

E
GG
S
AFETY

There are numerous sauces and dishes in classic French cooking that are made with raw or barely cooked eggs. Because eggs can carry a strain of bacteria called
Salmonella
(though the rate of contamination is only 1 in 20,000 eggs), it’s best to take some precautions. Buy very fresh eggs and keep them well refrigerated. Or look for pasteurized eggs if you’re concerned. And never serve raw eggs to very young children, the elderly, pregnant women, or anyone whose immune system is impaired.

1 egg yolk

Salt

5 cloves garlic, crushed through a press or finely chopped (see Note)

¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

1.
In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk with a pinch of salt. Add the garlic.

2.
Whisking, slowly begin adding the oil, drop by drop at first. As the mixture thickens, more oil can be incorporated more rapidly.

3.
Thin the sauce with some lemon juice when it becomes very thick and follow with the remaining oil. Whisk in salt and additional lemon juice to taste. The aïoli should be the consistency of mayonnaise.

NOTE

If you find the sauce too strong on garlic, simply use less the next time and thin your first batch with a little plain mayonnaise.

VARIATIONS

ROUILLE

This spicy garlic mayonnaise is traditionally served with bouillabaisse. Rouille gets its rusty color (
rouille
means rust) and its fiery hotness from a crushed, small fresh red chili pepper. When not available, I use a crushed small dried red chili pepper or add cayenne powder to taste (¼ teaspoon or more). The traditional recipe also calls for soup-soaked bread or potato, but I leave it out.

B
ASIL
A
IOLI

[AÏOLI AU BASILIC]

Add 10 to 15 chopped fresh basil leaves (to taste) to make a delicious basil and garlic mayonnaise. Try it as a dip for shrimp or vegetables.

GREEN MAYONNAISE

[SAUCE VERTE]

Sauce verte is a green mayonnaise served with cold poached fish and seafood. The sauce is made with a variety of greens and herbs that are first briefly blanched and refreshed to heighten their color, then squeezed dry and chopped along with the mayonnaise ingredients in a blender or food processor. It is not always possible to find all the herbs listed (see Note).

If you already have some homemade mayonnaise on hand, simply chop the herbs after squeezing them dry and mix them with the prepared mayonnaise.

MAKES 2 CUPS

12 leaves spinach, stemmed, or 30 to 40 baby spinach leaves

25 chives or 2 scallions

15 sprigs watercress, stemmed

4 sprigs fresh tarragon or 1 teaspoon dried tarragon

6 sprigs fresh parsley

12 sprigs fresh chervil

6 fresh basil leaves

1 egg

1 egg yolk

½ teaspoon salt

⅛ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1½ cups light olive oil

2 to 4 teaspoons tarragon vinegar or lemon juice

1.
Drop all the greens (including all the fresh herbs) into a small pot of boiling water for 30 to 45 seconds. Drain and refresh under cold running water. Press or squeeze the greens to extract their moisture. Place in paper towels and squeeze dry.

2.
Place the greens together with the egg, egg yolk, salt, and pepper in a food processor. Process until well blended.

3.
With the processor running, slowly pour in the oil, gradually increasing the amount added as the sauce thickens. As soon as the sauce is very thick, thin with the vinegar or lemon juice to taste.

4.
Stop the machine and taste the mayonnaise. Add more vinegar or lemon juice, if necessary, and adjust the seasoning to taste. Serve with poached fish. Cover the surface of the mayonnaise with plastic wrap and refrigerate if storing.

NOTE

Try to use at least four different herbs. The proportions can vary, and the amounts given in the ingredients are to be used as a guide. The greater the variety of greens and herbs, the better the sauce will be. I have not given dried equivalents for the fresh chervil and basil in the recipe, for I do not like them in this sauce.

REMOULADE SAUCE

[SAUCE RÉMOULADE]

This classic French sauce, similar to a tartar sauce, is also a member of the mayonnaise family. It is excellent with both fried and cold poached fish and seafood. Try mixing it with mussels, crabmeat, shrimp, or tuna for seafood salads with a new twist. Cornichons are small sour French gherkin pickles, which can be found in the imported food section of most supermarkets.

MAKES 1¼ CUPS TO SERVE 8 TO 10

6 medium cornichons, finely chopped

1 tablespoon capers, finely chopped

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 sprig fresh tarragon, chopped (see Note)

3 sprigs fresh parsley, chopped

1 cup mayonnaise, homemade (see
page 331
) or store-bought

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Refrigerate, with the surface covered in plastic wrap, until ready to serve.

NOTE

If fresh tarragon is not available it can be omitted entirely, but if you are making your own mayonnaise, use tarragon vinegar to add more flavor.

COLD HORSERADISH SAUCE

[SAUCE RAIFORT]

This creamy horseradish sauce is ideal to serve with cold roast beef. I also like to use it with sliced cold beef that’s been boiled, braised, or corned.

The classic version of this sauce is made with bread crumbs, which are moistened in milk and then squeezed dry; then mustard, fresh horseradish, vinegar, sugar, and heavy cream are added.

The interpretation that follows does away with the bread crumbs, vinegar, and sugar. I whip the cream to replace the body the bread crumbs add to the sauce.

MAKES 1 CUP TO SERVE 8

1 cup heavy cream, whipped

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 to 3 tablespoons prepared horseradish, to taste

Mix all the ingredients together and serve chilled.

VINAIGRETTE

[SAUCE VINAIGRETTE]

In its simplest form, a vinaigrette, or French salad dressing, is one part vinegar or lemon juice to three or four parts olive or vegetable oil. It is seasoned with a little salt and pepper. Mixed extremely well just before using, the vinaigrette is smooth and delicate tasting; if not well blended, it can be harsh and oily. If the oil and vinegar used have excellent flavor, nothing else is needed to dress a mixed green salad.

Dijon mustard is used as a basic vinaigrette ingredient by many chefs. Besides adding flavor, it also acts as an emulsifier, holding the oil and vinegar in suspension longer. Other ingredients added to a vinaigrette are chopped fresh herbs, chopped shallots, chopped hardcooked egg, and garlic.

I generally keep a bottle of vinaigrette in the refrigerator ready to use, shaking it well just before pouring it over a salad.

Using the proportions shown here, it’s easy to scale this recipe up or down. I use a blender whenever making large quantities of the dressing.

MAKES 1¾ CUPS

3 tablespoons tarragon vinegar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 to 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard, to taste

1 clove garlic, halved (see Notes)

¼ teaspoon salt

⅛ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1¼ cups light olive or other vegetable oil

1.
In a small bowl or jar, mix the vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper together.

2.
Add the oil and mix all ingredients until well blended and smooth. Blend well again just before using.

Notes:
Because garlic can overpower a salad, add a halved garlic clove instead of chopped garlic to the dressing. In this way you can remove it when the dressing has acquired sufficient garlic flavor.

When entertaining, I make the dressing keeping in mind what I am serving before and after the salad. For example, if garlic is not present in the other dishes, I do not use it in the vinaigrette.

BREADS

The first thing you are served in a French restaurant is bread and butter. And it continues to be an important feature of the meal all the way through to the cheese course.

Only a very few restaurants make their own bread or rolls, for there is usually a bakery within a few blocks that makes good bread, but the top restaurants all have their special bakeries. And with such good bakeries around, it is the rare home cook who makes bread.

In some areas of the United States, finding a well-made, freshly baked loaf of French bread may be a rarity and is sufficient reason to make your own. Bread making is easy with the aid of a food processor. And except for the time required for rising, it is also quick.

B
READ
B
ASICS

FLOUR:
This is the most important ingredient in bread. I prefer unbleached flour to bleached. If the flavor or texture of your bread is not up to your expectations, try making your next loaf with 50 percent bread flour. Bread flour contains more gluten (the protein in flour) than all-purpose, so a dough made from it is more elastic, and the bread chewier. I find that bread made with 100 percent bread flour is too difficult to work with, so I mix it half-and-half with all-purpose flour.