Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (20 page)

4)
Finishing the soup, and serving

3 to 4 Tb soft butter

2 to 3 Tb minced fresh parsley, chervil, or chives

Shortly before serving, set soup over moderate heat and stir continually with a wooden spoon until soup comes to just below the simmer. Remove from heat and stir in the butter, a tablespoon at a time. Serve in a warm tureen or soup cups, and decorate with the minced herbs.

To serve cold

Omit the final butter enrichment, and oversalt slightly. Clean off sides of pan with a rubber spatula and float a spoonful of cream on the surface. When cool, cover and refrigerate. Blend in more cream, if you wish, just before serving.

VARIATION

Velouté de Crustacés

[Cream of Shellfish Soup—for canned crab, and cooked or frozen crab or lobster meat]

Although the best shellfish soups are made, like the bisques, from fresh, raw shellfish in the shell, because every bit of the flavor goes into the soup, you can produce an excellent result with the cooked meat alone, plus either a fish stock or clam juice. This is a useful type of recipe for those times when you want something special on the spur of the moment. The technique here is almost the same as for the preceding scallop soup, but there is no
court bouillon
. (
NOTE
: this recipe works especially well with freshly cooked crab or lobster meat, as well as with the frozen meat or with canned crab. We have not found canned lobster to be at all successful.)

For about 6 cups, serving 4 people

1)
Preparing and flavoring the shellfish meat

7 to 8 ounces (1 packed cup) canned crab meat, or cooked or frozen crab or lobster meat

A large sieve and bowl

2 Tb butter

An 8-inch enameled or stainless frying pan

1 Tb minced shallots or scallions

⅛ tsp tarragon

Salt and pepper

Either
¾ cup dry white wine;

Or
½ cup dry white French vermouth

Commercially canned or frozen shellfish meat is usually packed with a preservative, which should be washed off. Therefore soak the meat in cold water for several minutes (or until completely thawed). Pick it over carefully to remove all bits of tendon, particularly if you are using crab meat. Drain thoroughly. Melt butter in pan, stir in shallots or scallions, then the shellfish meat. Season with the tarragon, salt, and pepper and sauté over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes so that butter and flavorings will penetrate meat. Add wine or vermouth, boil rapidly to reduce liquid by half, and set aside.

2)
The velouté soup base

½ cup very finely minced onion

4 Tb butter

A 2½- to 3-quart heavy bottomed stainless or enameled saucepan with cover

3 Tb flour

3 cups fish stock or clam juice brought to the simmer in a small saucepan

2 to 3 cups milk

Salt and pepper to taste

The shellfish meat

½ to ¾ cup heavy cream

2 egg yolks

Cook the onions slowly in the butter until tender but not browned. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, and beat in the hot liquid. Simmer partially covered for 20 minutes, thinning out as necessary with milk. Add the shellfish meat, simmer 2 to 3 minutes to blend flavors, thinning out again with milk if necessary. Correct seasoning. Pour ½ cup
cream into shellfish pan, blend in the egg yolks, then about 2 cups of hot soup added by driblets. Pour back into the soup.

(*) May be prepared ahead to this point, as directed in preceding recipe.

3)
Finishing the soup and serving

Follow directions in preceding recipe.

FRENCH FISH STEWS AND CHOWDERS

Bouillabaisse
is not the only French fish chowder. From that same Mediterranean coast comes the
bourride
—thick, rich, and reeking of garlic, while from the opposite corner of France comes the
marmite dieppoise
, with its mussels, sole, cream, and eggs. Inland France has its own special chowders too, called
matelotes, meurettes
, and
pauchouses
, made from fresh-water fish. These are all hearty dishes with big chunks of fish, and easily suffice as the main course of an informal lunch or supper.

FISH TO USE

For this type of recipe the fish should be fairly firm-fleshed so that it will keep its shape while it cooks. Whether fresh or frozen, it must smell as fresh as a breeze from the open sea or the primeval forest. You cannot, of course, duplicate a fresh-water chowder from Burgundy with ocean fish from the New Jersey or Oregon coast, but we do not think the fish itself is all that important: it is the rest of the ingredients and the general method that give each dish its special character. Here are some suggestions for both ocean fish and fresh-water fish with their French translations or equivalents.

Ocean fish

Cod (
cabillaud, morue fraîche
)

Conger eel (
congre, fiélas
)

Cusk (
brosme
, rare in France)

Goosefish, monkfish (
lotte de mer, baudroie
)

Haddock (
églefin
)

Halibut (
flétan
, rare in France)

Ocean whitefish, wolf fish, catfish (
loup anarrhique
, rare in France)

Pollack, green cod, coalfish (
lieu jaune
is a near equivalent)

Sea bass (
bar, loup
)

Whiting, silver hake (
merlu
or
colin
is the European cousin;
merlan
is no relation but a good choice)

Various rockfish, if you are a fisherman (the American sculpin is a cousin of the Mediterranean
rascasse
)

Fresh-water fish

Bass and perch (
perche
)

Carp (
carpe
)

Catfish (
lotte de rivière
)

Eel (
anguille
)

Pike (
brochet
)

Trout (
truite
)

Small carplike fishes (
tanche, barbeau, barbillon
are typical, and frequently mentioned in French recipes)

Scallops

Though rarely used for soups and chowders in France, scallops are delicious used in any of the following recipes, alone or in combination with other fish.