The Perfect Meal (31 page)

The roast

The pit

The butchers

The feast

Marie-Dominique

The leftovers

“And what about the menu for the great
repas
. Is that finished too?”

“Oh, yes. It’s done.”

I’d mentally compiled it in the car as we drove home that night. I looked forward to eating it one day, sharing the experience with friends as we had shared the ox at Bugnicourt. Sharing was the sauce. The Bible was right. “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred with it.”

“That calls for a celebration,” Boris said. “Let me buy you lunch.”

Lunch! A stream of impressions ran through my mind: a crimson lobster claw cracked in the blistering sun of Sète; golden champagne and rose petals on a mountaintop in Provence; dark figs sautéed in spices with a fat duck breast; mussels tasting of pine ash and the sea; the alien perfume of truffle; the forest flavor of fresh girolles; garlic, apples, oysters, chicken, thyme—and beef. The stalled ox where love is.

“Thanks,” I said, “I already ate.”

The Menu

Aperitif

Kir royal Florian with confiture of preserved rose petals

Canapés

Toasts with Gentleman’s Relish and halved quail’s eggs

Cucumber sandwiches

Wine: Vin jaune, or “yellow wine,” from the mountainous southeastern region of France, the Jura. Dry sherry, which Jura wine resembles, can be substituted.

Entrée

French caviar with blinis and crème fraîche

Wine: A dry champagne, or a white chenin blanc, such as a Savennières from the Loire region

Fish

Bouillabaisse à l’ancienne

Wine: Continue with the Savennières, or substitute a more robust and aromatic rosé from the Languedoc, around Sète and Marseilles

Meat

Boeuf Bourguignon façon Jean-Christophe

Wine: Traditionally, this dish should be eaten with the same wine as used in the cooking: ideally, a burgundy made from pinot noir grapes. However it’s permissible to use a less expensive wine for cooking and a better-quality pinot noir as an accompaniment.

To Refresh the Palate

Sorbet Calvados

Poultry

Guinea Hen à l’Escoffier

Wine: A dry, slightly acid white—Sancerre, Muscadet, Meursault—or a white Beaune such as Puligny-Montrachet

Cheeses

Cheeses of the Auvergne: Cantal vieux, Fourme d’Ambert, Saint-Nectaire

Wine: A lightly sweet and fragrant but robust white, Monbazillac, Riesling, or Gewürztraminer

Dessert

Parfait Swann with baby madeleines

Wine: Continue with the same white as drunk with the cheeses, or return to champagne

Coffee and sweetmeats

Fruits and rose petals confit Florian

Digestif

Cognac is the traditional digestif, but if you fancy a change, try Armagnac, a brandy distilled in the Gascony region. In the fourteenth century, Cardinal Vital Du Four claimed that this rich brown spirit “recalls the past to memory, renders men joyous, preserves youth and retards senility. And when retained in the mouth, it loosens the tongue and emboldens the wit.” In other words, the perfect lubrication for after-dinner conversation.

Recipes

Kir Royal Florian

Place a coffee spoon of Florian Confiture Pétales de Rose in the bottom of a champagne glass. Add some lychee-based liqueur such as Soho or Lichido to taste, and top up with cold champagne.

Gentleman’s Relish

I
NGREDIENTS

7 ounces anchovies, drained and coarsely chopped

5 ounces butter

2 tablespoons fresh white bread crumbs

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 dash fresh ground black pepper

1 pinch ground cinnamon

1 pinch freshly ground nutmeg

1 pinch ground mace

1 pinch ground ginger

M
ETHOD

Using a mortar and pestle, pound the anchovies and butter until they resemble a smooth paste. You could also use a food processor. Stir in the bread crumbs, peppers, and spices, and spoon the paste into a large ramekin. Cover and chill before serving.

Bouillabaisse (Serves 4)

There are numerous recipes for this dish, which is best cooked in quantity, for at least a dozen guests, and using whole fish. This recipe is adapted for fewer people and the home kitchen. If you can acquire some shrimp or lobster shells, fish heads, and trimmings, it will improve the flavor and increase the golden color associated with the dish.

I
NGREDIENTS

3 or 4 pounds raw Mediterranean fish—John Dory, monkfish, snapper. Try to include some oily fish, such as red mullet or mackerel. Avoid salmon and other cold-water fish, which are not typical of the Mediterranean. If you have a good fishmonger, ask him to fillet the fish but give you the bones, heads, and other trimmings.

1 pound raw shrimp in their shells, or a lobster, or both (In both cases, frozen whole shrimp or lobster tails can be substituted.)

1 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon fennel seed

2 onions, sliced

4 cloves garlic, crushed

4 stalks celery, finely chopped, but with some of the tenderer leaves retained

1 green chili, chopped (optional)

1 bay leaf

3 whole cloves

1 pound ripe tomatoes, peeled and seeded, or 14-ounce can chopped tomatoes or pulp

Bottle dry white wine

2 cups water

½ teaspoon powdered saffron or natural saffron strands

Salt and pepper to taste

3 sprigs fresh thyme or ¾ teaspoon dried thyme

M
ETHOD

Cut the fish into large chunks. Remove shells and heads from shrimp, and shells from lobster tails.

If you are using fish heads, bones, trimmings, shrimp shells, etc., wrap them in a knotted cloth or piece of muslin.

Heat the olive oil in a pot large enough for four quarts.

Add the fennel seed. When it begins to brown and pop, add the onion and garlic. Sauté, stirring, until the onion is golden and translucent.

Add the celery, chili, bay leaf, and cloves.

Sauté until the celery is soft.

Add tomatoes, white wine, and water.

(If using) add muslin containing the fish and shrimp heads, lobster shells, trimmings, etc.

Boil at high heat for two minutes, then reduce the heat, and simmer for five more minutes.

(If using) remove the cloth containing the fish heads, shells, etc., and discard.

Add the fish chunks to the broth, with saffron, and salt and pepper to taste.

Simmer only until the fish is cooked through—about three minutes. Even when off the heat, it will continue cooking, so err on the side of too little rather than too much.

Serve in soup plates with plentiful French bread.

Guinea Hen à l’Escoffier

This is Alexandre Gastaud’s recipe as it first appeared in the
New York Times
.

Clean and truss a fat guinea hen weighing one and a half pounds. Cook it in butter in a saucepan with a medium-size quartered onion. When the bird is three parts done, sprinkle it with a teaspoonful of genuine Rozen paprika and one quarter-pint of cream (sour, if possible) or with ordinary heavy cream acidulated by means of a few drops of lemon juice. Finish the cooking, basting the piece the while with cream. Dish the bird in a casserole with some fresh mushrooms tossed in butter and strain over with the cream. Close the casserole hermetically and let simmer two minutes before serving.

N
OTES

• Guinea hens, sometimes called
pintades
, are increasingly available, but a good free-range chicken can be substituted.

• Saucepans in professional kitchens are larger than the domestic variety. Home cooks should sauté the bird whole in plenty of butter in a large casserole, then cover and pot-roast it until almost ready to serve (i.e., when a skewer stuck into the thigh of the bird produces clear juices).

• Rozen, or Rosen paprika, is a Hungarian paprika from which the seeds and stems have been removed before grinding. As its main function is to create a pink sauce, any good-quality paprika should serve.

• To “dish” a bird, carve it in the kitchen and bring to the table in a large dish, dressed with the sauce.

(Both the following dishes are the creations of Dr. Nicole Larroumet.)

Sautéed Figs as a Vegetable (Serves 4 to 6)

I
NGREDIENTS

8–12 ripe but firm figs (2 per person)

Salted butter

½ teaspoon white pepper

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon allspice

½ teaspoon ground cloves

Balsamic vinegar

M
ETHOD

Quarter the figs and sauté briefly in plenty of butter, making sure they don’t become mushy. When they are warmed through and giving off juices, sprinkle with the powdered spices, turning so that they mix with the butter.