A Book of Mediterranean Food Read online

  RISOTTO AUX FRUITS DE MER

  For 4 people you need:

  4 or 5 pints mussels, 1 pint prawns, ½ lb rice, a glass of white wine, 2 shallots or small onions, a clove of garlic, grated cheese, olive oil, black pepper, 2 or 3 tomatoes, and a green or red pimento.

  Clean the mussels and put them to cook with 2 pints of water and the white wine, a chopped clove of garlic and shallot, and ground black pepper. When they are open, strain the stock into a basin and leave it while you shell the mussels, and the prawns. Now strain the stock through a muslin, and put it into a pan to heat up. In a heavy pan heat a little olive oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pan, and in it sauté a chopped shallot or onion; add the uncooked rice and stir it round in the oil until it is shiny all over, taking care not to let it stick to the pan; now add a large cupful of the mussel stock, which should be kept simmering on the stove; when the first cupful of stock has been absorbed, add some more; it is not necessary to stir continually, but the pan should be kept on a low flame, and stirred every time more stock is added; as the rice begins to swell and cook, larger quantities of stock can be added and care must be taken that the rice does not stick to the sides of the pan.

  In the meantime sauté the tomatoes and the pimento in a little more olive oil, and when the rice is soft add the mussels and the prawns and let them get hot; add this mixture to the risotto only at the last minute, stirring it lightly round. Serve the grated cheese separately, and if you like garnish the dish with a few mussels which have been left in their shells; they make a good decoration.

  PAËLLA VALENCIANA (1)

  There are countless versions of this celebrated Spanish rice dish. The only constant ingredients in every recipe are rice and saffron; and a mixture of pork, chicken, and shell fish is characteristic, although not invariable. Here is a simple, but authentic, version given me by a Spanish friend.

  First, the size and shape of the utensil in which the paëlla is cooked is important. It should be a wide, round shallow pan – and if you are cooking on gas or electricity a heavy one with a flat base – measuring (for the quantities given below, which will make a paëlla for 4 people) approximately 10 to 12 inches in diameter, about 2 inches deep, and with a minimum capacity of 4 pints.

  The typical Spanish paëllera, which originally gave the dish its name, has two lug or loop handles, depending on whether it is made of earthenware, aluminium, or heavy iron. A large heavy frying pan or sauté pan of approximately the same dimensions also does quite well for the purpose.

  Ingredients are:

  1 small roasting chicken weighing about 1½ lb or half a larger one, about ½ pint of unshelled prawns or 4 oz shelled or 6 giant Mediterranean prawns, 12 French beans (about 2 oz), 2 teacupfuls (10 to 12 oz) of Valencia rice (this is obtainable from Ortega’s, the Spanish shop at 74 Old Compton Street, Soho, but Italian Arborio or very good quality Patna rice can be used), 2 tomatoes, and seasonings of saffron, pimentón (this is the Spanish version of paprika pepper, which can be used instead), salt and freshly milled pepper, and olive oil for cooking.

  Cut the chicken into about 8 pieces. In the pan warm 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Put in the pieces of chicken, seasoned with salt and pepper. Let them cook very gently for about 12 minutes, mainly on the skin side, as this should be fried to a nice golden colour. Set aside on a plate.

  In the same oil fry the peeled and chopped tomatoes; stir in a teaspoon of paprika. Now add 2 pints of water. When it comes to the boil, put back the pieces of chicken and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Add the rice, the prawns (Spanish cooks don’t shell them; this is a matter of taste. I prefer them shelled), and the beans topped and tailed and broken into inch lengths. Cook steadily for 15 minutes; sprinkle in half a teaspoon of powdered saffron and a little salt. In another 5 to 7 minutes the rice should be cooked, but timing depends upon the quality of the rice, and the size and thickness of the pan and so on. If the water has evaporated before the rice is cooked, add a little more. If on the other hand there is still too much liquid by the time the rice is ready, increase the heat and cook fast until the rice is dry. Finally, taste for seasoning, and serve the paëlla in the pan in which it has cooked.

  The rice should be a beautiful yellow colour, and although moist, each grain should be separate. And if it is necessary to stir, use a fork, not a spoon, which might break the rice.

  To this basic mixture can be added other ingredients such as small dice of salt pork, mussels, or any other shell fish you please, artichoke hearts, green peas, sweet peppers, sausages, snails, rabbit; and, traditionally, the paëlla is eaten with a spoon although nowa-days forks are more commonly used. Knives should not be required.

  In south-eastern Spain, in the regions of Valencia and Alicante, paëlla is the favourite Sunday lunch dish. During the summer, in the country and seaside restaurants which cater for the locals as well as for summer visitors, there is a brisk Sunday trade in paëllas. Late in the afternoon, when the so erroneously named midday meal is at last over, you will see rows of metal paëlla pans, of assorted sizes, all burnished and shining, arranged in serried ranks and left drying in the sun outside the kitchens or in the courtyards.

  PAËLLA VALENCIANA (2)

  Chicken, lean bacon, oil, garlic, tomato, ground paprika, vegetables, snails, eels, rice, saffron, and crayfish.

  Method: First select a medium-sized chicken, cut into 14 or 16 pieces, and salt. Put a decilitre (2½ oz) of good oil into a medium-sized casserole and, when very hot, put the chicken into it and fry lightly, with some pieces of the lean bacon, for five minutes. Then add a small tomato peeled and cut into pieces, a clove of chopped garlic, French beans, and a couple of leaf artichokes (when beans or artichokes cannot be obtained, green peas can be substituted). Then add a teaspoonful of ground red paprika and 400 grammes (about 13 oz) of rice, all well fried, and a litre (all but 2 pints) of hot water. When the water is boiling, add a little saffron, eight small pieces of eel and a dozen snails, and salt to taste.

  When the rice is half cooked, add two crayfish per person.

  The rice should be cooked on a medium fire. After two or three minutes, cook on a slow heat for another ten or twelve minutes, which is all that is required to have the rice perfect. If you have an oven, it can be put in the oven to dry, but it is more typical to put the casserole on a small fire for a couple of minutes.

  If chicken is unobtainable, any kind of game or domestic poultry should be used. But if the flesh is not tender, the paëlla can be cooked as above, except that the rice, previously fried, will not be added until the meat has been cooked for about an hour.

  For 4 people.

  This recipe came from the Martinez Restaurant in Swallow Street, London, and is reprinted by kind permission of the Wine and Food Society, who originally published it.

  ARROZ A LA CATALANA

  ½ lb rice, 2–3 oz Spanish sausage,* 2 oz fresh pork, 2 oz pork fat, 2 large tomatoes, ½ lb fresh peas, 2 artichokes, 2 sweet red peppers, a squid, a dozen mussels, a few almonds and pine nuts, 2 cloves of garlic, an onion, saffron, parsley.

  Heat the pork fat in a large casserole, and put in the pork and the sausage cut in small pieces, together with the sliced onion. Let them fry a minute or two and add the pimentos, tomatoes, and the squid, all cleaned and cut in slices. Simmer for 15 minutes, add the rice, the peas, the cooked and shelled mussels, the hearts of the artichokes each cut into quarters, the garlic, the almonds and pine nuts, and saffron. Pour over 2 pints of boiling water. Let the whole mixture bubble for a few minutes, then lower the heat and cook gently until the rice is tender. Serve in the pan in which it was cooked, garnished with parsley.

  GENOESE RICE

  ½ lb rice, an onion, olive oil or butter, 1 lb of fresh green peas, a few dried mushrooms, ½ lb of coarse country sausage, 2 pints of meat or chicken broth, grated Parmesan cheese.

  Chop the onion and put it into a thick pan in which 3 tablespoons of olive oil or 1 oz butter has been heated. When the onion is just slightly golden add
the sausage cut into dice, 3 or 4 dried mushrooms, previously soaked ten minutes in warm water, and the shelled peas. Add the heated broth and leave to cook gently while the rice is cooked for 5 minutes in plentiful boiling salted water. Strain the rice, add it to the first mixture, and simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed, but the rice must not be quite dry. Stir in a handful of grated Parmesan, turn the whole mixture into a fairly deep fireproof dish, sprinkle with more cheese and put into a moderate oven for about 20 minutes, until a golden crust has formed on top of the rice.

  SULIMAN’S PILAFF (one of the most comforting dishes imaginable)

  Into a thick pan put 3 or 4 tablespoons of good dripping or oil, and when it is warm put in 2 cupfuls of rice and stir for a few minutes until the rice takes on a transparent look. Then pour over about 4 pints of boiling water and cook very fast for about 12 minutes. The time of cooking varies according to the rice, but it should be rather under-than overdone.

  In the meantime, have ready a savoury preparation of small pieces of cooked mutton, fried onions, raisins, currants, garlic, tomatoes, and pine nuts, if you can get them, or roasted almonds, all sautéd in dripping with plenty of seasoning.

  Put your strained rice into a thick pan and stir in the meat and onion mixture, add a little more dripping if necessary, and stir for a few minutes over a low flame before serving.

  Hand with the pilaff a bowl of sour cream or yoghourt.

  To Boil Rice

  There are a number of ways of boiling rice and many people have their own pet method. I give here the method I always use and which I have found entirely successful and exceedingly simple.

  First: Allow 2 to 3 oz of rice per person. Do not wash it.

  Second: Have ready a very large saucepan (not less than 6-pint capacity for 8 oz of rice) full of fast-boiling salted water.

  Third: Put in the rice, bring the water to the boil again, and let it boil fast for about 15 minutes. The exact time varies with the quality of the rice, the heat of the fire, and so on, and the only way you can be sure it is cooked is to taste it. Strain the rice through a colander, shaking it so that all the water drains out.

  Fourth: While the rice is boiling make your oven hot, and have ready a hot dish (preferably a large shallow fireproof platter on which you can serve the rice). When the rice is drained put it on to the hot dish, turn off the oven, and put the rice in it to dry for 3 or 4 minutes. Do not leave the oven on, or the heat will make the grains hard and brittle.

  When the rice is to be served plain, a half lemon boiled in the water with it is an improvement.

  POLENTA

  Polenta is finely ground Indian corn meal; it makes a filling but excellent dish and this is the recipe as it is cooked by northern Italians with large families to feed.

  1 lb of polenta will feed 6 hungry people. First prepare a very large heavy pan full of boiling salted water; when the water boils pour in the polenta, little by little, stirring all the time to eliminate lumps and adding more salt and pepper. It will take about 30 minutes to cook, and when ready is the consistency of a thick purée (rather like a purée of dried peas) and is poured out on to a very large wooden board, where it should form a layer about a quarter of an inch thick. Over it is poured a hot and rich tomato or meat sauce (see sauce bolognese for spaghetti), which is topped with grated Parmesan cheese. The board is placed in the centre of the table and everybody helps himself. Whatever is left over is trimmed into squares about the size of a piece of toast, and grilled over a very slow charcoal fire; the top crust of sauce and cheese remains undisturbed and the under side, being nearest the heat, is deliciously browned.

  To Cook Spaghetti

  Buy imported Italian spaghetti.*

  Do not break it up unless you want it to turn to a pudding. Allow approximately 2 oz of spaghetti per person; use a very large saucepan, at least 8 pints capacity for half a pound. Have the water well salted and boiling rapidly. The time of cooking varies between 12 and 20 minutes according to the quality of the spaghetti. Have a heated dish, preferably one which will bear a flame underneath, to receive the cooked pasta, with a coating of good olive oil on the bottom.

  Put the drained spaghetti into this receptacle and stir it round, much as you would toss a salad, for a minute or two, so that the whole mass receives a coating of oil and assumes an attractive shiny appearance instead of the porridgy mass too often seen.

  Lastly, if you are serving the classic spaghetti bolognese, that is, with a thick tomato and mushroom sauce (see p. 184), see that it is highly flavoured, of a suitable thickness and plentiful, accompanied by a generous dish of grated cheese.

  NEAPOLITAN SPAGHETTI

  Neapolitans often like to cat their spaghetti simply with olive oil and garlic; no sauce or cheese.

  When the spaghetti is almost ready put several cloves of coarsely chopped garlic with a cupful of the best olive oil into a small pan, and as soon as it is warm pour it over the drained spaghetti in the serving dish and mix it well.

  NEAPOLITAN SPAGHETTI WITH FRESH TOMATO SAUCE

  This is another favourite Neapolitan way of serving spaghetti. Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and put in a pound of very red and ripe peeled tomatoes (or the contents of a tin of Italian peeled tomatoes, which make a good substitute). Let them cook a few minutes only, until they are soft but not mushy, add a little chopped garlic, salt and pepper, and a handful of coarsely chopped fresh sweet basil or parsley. Pour the sauce over the spaghetti as soon as it is ready.

  SPAGHETTI À LA SICILIENNE

  Cook about ¾ lb of spaghetti in the usual way. Meanwhile make ready the following preparation: 4 rashers of bacon cut in large pieces, ¼ lb mushrooms, ½ lb chopped onions, 2 chopped cloves of garlic, a handful of stoned black olives, and 4 anchovy fillets. First fry the onions crisp in fat, add all the other ingredients to the pan, with a handful of coarsely chopped parsley, and cook together for a few minutes. Have ready a hot serving dish into which you put a tablespoon of olive oil, and when the spaghetti is cooked and drained put into the dish, stir round with the oil, pile the onion mixture on to the top in a thick layer and serve very hot, with grated Parmesan handed separately.

  NOODLES IN CHICKEN BROTH

  Cook the noodles about 8 minutes in the usual way. Drain them well.

  Have ready in another pan about 1½ pints of good chicken broth. When it is boiling, put in the noodles and simmer until they are cooked. Stir in then the same mixture as for spaghetti à la sicilienne (above) with the oil in which it has been fried.

  Serve in soup plates with plenty of broth to each helping, and grated cheese.

  FOIE DE VEAU AUX CAROTTES

  1½ lb calf’s liver, 2 onions, 3 lb carrots, a piece of pig’s caul.

  Soak the piece of caul in warm salted water for 5 minutes. Slice the liver, season, and tie up in the caul. Fry in butter with the chopped onions. When golden remove from the pan and, with the juice that has come from the liver as a basis, make an espagnole sauce (p. 181), but cook only for 20 minutes. Slice the carrots in rounds. Place the espagnole sauce in the bottom of a thick pan, put in the carrots and then the liver, still wrapped up in the caul. Cover the pan and cook as slowly as possible for 2½ hours. Before serving unwrap the liver.

  Liver cooked in this way also makes an excellent stuffing for tomatoes, aubergines, etc.

  CASSOULET TOULOUSAIN

  Of all the great dishes which French regional cookery has produced the cassoulet is perhaps the most typical of true country food, the genuine, abundant, earthy, richly flavoured and patiently simmered dish of the ideal farmhouse kitchen. Hidden beneath a layer of creamy, golden-crusted haricot beans in a deep, wide, earthen pot, the cassoulet contains garlicky pork sausages, smoked bacon, salt pork, a wing or leg of preserved goose, perhaps a piece of mutton, or a couple of pig’s feet, or half a duck, and some chunks of pork rind. The beans are tender, juicy, moist but not mushy, aromatic smells of garlic and herbs escape from the pot as the cassoulet is brought smoking hot from th
e oven to the table. French novelists, gourmets, and cooks have devoted pages to praise of the cassoulet, and its fame spread from south-western France, where it originated, first to Paris restaurants, then all over France; recently it has achieved some popularity in this country, no doubt because it seems an attractive solution to the entertaining of a fairly large number of people with little fuss or expense.

  A genuine cassoulet is not, however, a cheap dish. Neither are the materials always easy to find. When you consider that in the rich agricultural country of the Languedoc every farmer’s wife has the ingredients of the dish within arm’s length, festoons of sausages and hams hanging in her kitchen, jars of goose and pork preserved in their own fat on her larder shelves, you understand how the cassoulet came into being; it was evolved to make the best use of the local materials; when you have to go out and buy these things the cost is high (this is just as much the case in France as in England) and although quite a good dish can be made at moderate cost it should be remembered that tinned beans and sausages served in an earthenware casserole do not, alas, constitute a cassoulet.

  Bear in mind, also, that a cassoulet is heavy and filling food, and should be kept for cold winter days, preferably for luncheons when none of the party has anything very active to do afterwards.

  The ingredients for say 6 people are 1½ lb of good quality medium-sized white haricot beans (butter beans will not do, they are too floury), 1 lb of belly of pork, 1 lb of breast of mutton, ¼ lb of fresh rind of pork, or failing that of ham or bacon, 1 lb of fresh, coarse garlic sausage (not salame, but the kind sold for frying or boiling by French and Continental delicatessen shops), 2 or 3 pieces of preserved goose (in England replace this with half a duck, or omit it altogether), 1 lb of a cheap cut of smoked gammon, 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, herbs, 3 oz of goose dripping or pig’s lard, an onion.