eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
Though Nice may conjure up the very essence of sophisticated chic—The Promenade des Anglais, the Hôtel Negresco, and the casinos—its culinary traditions are all about simplicity. And its delicious dishes are known to have many health benefits, as its recipes are in tune with the natural cycle of the year using in-season fruits, herbs, and vegetables, as well as plenty of fish.
With recipes offering a relaxed flexibility with ingredients and seasonings, and suited to cooks of all levels of experience, this cookbook shows you how to make the best use of a Niçoise pantry stocked with the best quality extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, fresh garlic, and pots of aromatic herbs such as rosemary, thyme, and basil—and discover the wonderful, enticing world of tians, panisses, socca, and ganses. While not everyone will be able to dine alfresco under an olive tree, the way they do in Nice, this classic cookbook will at least allow you to recreate the city’s best-loved dishes.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781910690581 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Grub Street |
| Publication date: | 02/20/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 236 |
| Sales rank: | 1,030,515 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Soups
1 L'AIGA SAOU
L'Eau Salée
Garlic and Sage SoupFor 4
6 cloves garlic
¼ lb/100 g vermicelli
2 leaves sage (see page 13)
salt, pepper
2 tbs olive oil
2 oz/50 g grated Parmesan
1. Put the whole, peeled cloves of garlic into 31/2 pints/2 litres of water and bring to the boil.
2. Lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the vermicelli, crushing it slightly between the fingers. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the sage.
3. Simmer for a further 10 minutes. Remove the cloves of garlic and, placing them individually in a tablespoon, crush them with a fork to the smoothest paste possible.
4. Remove the liquid from heat, and stir in the garlic paste and olive oil. Serve hot with generous pinches of grated Parmesan.
• This soup is equally good when the vermicelli is replaced by tapioca, semolina, or couscous grain.
2 LU CAPOUN ROUT
Les Choux Farcis Cassés
Stuffed-Cabbage SoupFor 6
In the old days, this soup was quite simply the water in which stuffed cabbages (No. 152) had been boiled. During cooking, one or two of the cabbages would become untied, spilling their delicious contents into the water in which they were being boiled. Nowadays, this subtly-flavoured soup is made for its own sake with the ingredients that go into stuffed cabbage.
2 oz/60 g rice salt
5 sprigs parsley
¼ bay leaf
2 leaves sage
1 sprig thyme
2 medium onions
2 cloves garlic
2 eggs
30 tender cabbage leaves taken from the heart, or 30 broccoli sprouts
5 oz/150 g lean petit salé (see page 15)
2 tbs olive oil pepper
1. Wash the rice and drain well. Bring 5 pints/3 litres of water to the boil. Let the rice fall into it in a steady rain. Salt slightly.
2. Make a small bouquet garni with the parsley, bay leaf, sage, and thyme, and drop it into the boiling water along with the whole, unpeeled onions and the whole, peeled cloves of garlic.
3. Simmer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, separate the whites from the yolks of the eggs, and whip until stiff. Cut the cabbage or broccoli into strips, dip in the white of egg, and add to the soup along with the finely diced petit salé.
4. Simmer for a further 10 minutes. Put the egg yolks and olive oil into a soup tureen and mix well. Remove the onions, garlic, and bouquet garni from the soup, then pour it into the tureen, stirring all the time. Season with plenty of pepper.
• The cabbage or broccoli may be replaced by Swiss chard tops or any variety of green salad vegetable; if so, 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan and a large pinch of grated nutmeg should be mixed in with the egg yolks and olive oil in step 4.
3 LA SOUPA DÉ PEÏ
La Soupe de Poisson
Fish SoupFor 12 or more
There is an infinite variety of fish soups to be found along the northern Mediterranean coast from Genoa, in Italy, to the small French port of Collioure, by the Spanish border. The bourride of Toulon is made with white fish only and is almost milky in appearance. Bouillabaisse is a very liquid soup in which the fish (mainly small ones) should if possible remain whole. The fish soup of Nice is a smooth, creamy purée of rockfish, and owes its consistency to the incomparably tasty flesh of the conger eel. It is eaten with toasted French bread, Parmesan, and rouille (No. 24). Some Niçois prefer spaghetti or coarse vermicelli instead of bread. But in any case the soup is always made the same way. It only really succeeds when made for at least a dozen people. Allow at least 3 hours to prepare it.
13 lb/6 kg very small, fresh rockfish, including, if possible, rascasse (scorpion fish), wrasse, and the small green crabs known as charlatans or charloù in Niçois dialect (shore crabs will do)
2 lb/1 kg conger eel or moray eel, from the head or tail end
7 fl oz/200 ml olive oil
6 large onions, peeled
6 cloves garlic, peeled
4 fl oz/100 ml cognac
4lb/2kg tomatoes
bouquet garni
scant ¼ tsp saffron salt cayenne pepper
5oz/150g grated Parmesan
40 slices toast or 2–5 oz/50–150 g coarse vermicelli
1. Wash the fish very carefully to remove all traces of seaweed, sand, etc., but do not gut. Heat the olive oil in a stainless-steel frying pan until it is just beginning to smoke. Fry the fish in it until slightly browned, beginning with the sliced conger eel and larger fish. Remove the fish with a fish-slice and place in the bottom of a very large enamelled or stainless-steel saucepan, which should be kept warm on an asbestos mat or hotplate.
2. When all the fish and crabs have been sealed in the frying pan, cook the sliced onions and finely chopped garlic in the same oil till golden. Add to the fish. Deglaze the pan with the cognac and add to the rest of the ingredients.
3. Place the saucepan over a moderate heat and pour in 7 quarts/8 litres of cold water. Add the peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped tomatoes. Lastly, add the bouquet garni and the saffron.
4. Boil over a moderate heat for 1 hour.
5. Remove the soup from the stove and purée it, a ladleful at a time, until well broken up but not oversmooth. Put through a fairly fine sieve. (By the way, if you or your neighbours have chickens, give the birds the debris in the sieve – and see what gourmets they are!)
6. Put the sieved soup into a large flame-proof pot that can be used to serve the soup, and bring back to the boil. Correct seasoning carefully. Fish soup is the only Niçois dish that needs plenty of salt, though it should not, of course, be oversalted. It should also be quite fiery, so add the necessary amount of cayenne pepper, while remembering that the rouille with which the soup will be served will add plenty of punch.
7. If the soup is not to be served immediately, remove it from the stove and keep it at room temperature (you can even freeze it). Indeed, it will be all the tastier for being reheated gently for 30 minutes. It should be served with rouille (No. 24), grated Parmesan, and toast on the side (the toast can be replaced by vermicelli, which should be added to the soup during the last 20 minutes of cooking).
4 LA SOUPA DÉ L'AIRÉ SAN MICHÉÙ
Le Potage Aire Saint-Michel
Aire Saint-Michel SoupFor 6
This soup was invented by my father when he was a small child: in the district of Nice called the Aire Saint-Michel, he and his brothers and sisters would repair to a hut they had made of branches and play at being chefs. The dish has become something of a tradition in our family. The trouble is that it can be made only in springtime.
20 small globe artichokes
6 spring onions
5 oz/150 g young broad beans, shelled salt, pepper
¼ lb/100 g fine vermicelli
2 eggs
2 tbs olive oil
4 tbs grated Parmesan
1. Cut the whole of the artichokes, including even the top of the stem, into thin slices. Slice the spring onions.
2. Place the vegetables in 3 quarts/3½ litres of cold water, seasoned with salt and pepper, and bring to the boil. Simmer very gently (200ºF/95ºC) for 20 minutes.
3. Turn up the heat until the soup is boiling furiously. Add the vermicelli and cook for another 10 minutes.
4. Break the eggs into a soup tureen and beat them. Mix in the grated Parmesan and olive oil. Dilute this mixture with spoonfuls of hot soup, beating energetically all the time with a fork, until it is perfectly liquid, then pour in the rest of the soup in one go. Add plenty of pepper, check the seasoning, and serve.
5 LA SOUPA DÉ TOÙMATI
La Soupe de Tomates
Tomato SoupFor 10
There are an infinite number of ways of making tomato soup. Cream of tomato soup is greatly appreciated in the Anglo-Saxon countries and in Germany; the Niçois version is not so thick, but is stronger tasting. The following excellent recipe for tomato soup is the one most commonly encountered in the Comté de Nice, though I have tasted many variants of it.
4 large onions, peeled
2 cloves garlic, peeled
4 tbs olive oil
13 lb/6 kg tomatoes salt
2 lumps of sugar
10 leaves basil
1 sprig thyme
1 clove
½ bay leaf cayenne pepper
3 sprigs parsley
1. Slice the onions and chop finely 1 clove of garlic. Brown them in 3 tablespoons of olive oil.
2. Scald and peel the tomatoes, cut into quarters, salt, and put into a very large saucepan with the sugar and the browned onions and garlic. Add the basil, thyme, clove, bay leaf, and cayenne pepper (a pinch). Bring to the boil, and simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Purée until smooth. If the resulting purée looks too thick, dilute with a little boiling water until the desired consistency is obtained. Put back over a very gentle heat and simmer for another 15 minutes.
4. Pound the second clove of garlic in a mortar with the parsley. Mix 1 tablespoon of olive oil into the paste. Check the seasoning of the soup and remove it from the stove. Add the garlic, parsley, and olive oil paste, and serve immediately.
• This tomato soup can, if desired, be thickened or made more filling with the addition of mashed potatoes, fine semolina, very fine pasta, tapioca, or toast (the last two being particularly common in Nice).
6 LA SOUPA DÉ LIEUMÉ
La Soupe de Légumes
Vegetable SoupFor 8
¼ lb/100 g carrots, peeled
2 oz/50 g turnip, peeled
5 small courgettes (in winter, 1
lb/500 g pumpkin – see page 11)
½ lb/200g potatoes, peeled
10 Swiss chard tops
1 large leek
5 cloves garlic, peeled
5 large onions, peeled
¾ lb/300 g tomatoes
3 tbs olive oil
5 oz/150 g haricot beans (fresh if possible), green peas or broad beans, shelled
2 tbs chopped parsley
2 leaves sage
2 leaves basil salt, pepper
3 oz/80g rice or macaroni
3 oz/75 g grated Parmesan
1. Cut the carrots, turnip, courgettes, and potatoes into small dice. Slice the Swiss chard tops, leek, garlic, and onions. Peel and seed the tomatoes, chop coarsely, and leave to drain.
2. Put the olive oil into a deep saucepan and brown the onions. When they are just turning golden, add the leek, garlic, and tomatoes. Reduce over a moderate heat by at least a third. Add the rest of the vegetables (but not the peas or broad beans if these are being used) and the chopped herbs. (If dried haricot beans are being used, soak as indicated on the packet, and boil for 20 minutes before putting them in the soup.) Dilute with 3 quarts/3½ litres of hot water, and bring back to the boil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. After 25 minutes' cooking, add the rice or macaroni, and the green peas or: broad beans if they are being used instead of haricot beans. Correct seasoning. If the liquid seems to have reduced too much, add some boiling water.
4. Cook for another 20 minutes, and serve with grated Parmesan.
7 LOU PISTOU
Le Pistou
PistouFor 8
This is undoubtedly the most popular soup in the Nice area. The word pistou means 'pounded' in Niçois, and strictly speaking describes not the soup itself but the sauce that goes into it – a mixture of garlic, basil, olive oil, and Parmesan pounded together in a mortar.
It is sometimes erroneously supposed that pistou is the Niçois word for basil; the word is in fact balico.
The soup itself is basically the same as No. 6, though the rice or macaroni must be replaced by coarse vermicelli. Not all the ingredients listed in the previous recipe need to be included, but there are three absolute musts: tomatoes, courgettes, and fresh haricot beans. So it is a soup that really comes into its own from late spring to early autumn. Pistou may be a simple soup, but it is also extraordinarily subtle – as you will discover if you follow my recipe.
5 pints/3 litres vegetable soup (No. 6)
3 cloves garlic, peeled
10 large basil leaves
6 tbs grated Parmesan
3 tbs olive oil
1. Pound the garlic to a fine paste in a mortar. Avoid using hand-operated or electric garlic crushers, as they separate the pulp from the juice, thus spoiling the taste of the garlic. It is encouraging to note that those noblest of utensils, pestle and mortar, have recovered their rightful place in the modern kitchen and dining-room.
2. Wash the basil, dry well, add to the mashed garlic, and pound to a fine paste.
3. Pour the grated Parmesan into the mortar and incorporate carefully with a fork.
4. Give the pistou a creamy consistency by gradually adding the olive oil and mixing with a fork.
5. Pistou must never cook. It should be added to the soup at the very last moment, away from the heat, just before serving.
• The fact that pistou must never cook means, of course, that any tinned form of pistou soup, heated up at the last minute, can only cut a very sorry figure compared with the real thing. This probably explains why many a gourmet has been turned off pistou – through tasting the tinned version. The genuine Niçois recipe should, however, reveal the soup in all its delicious splendour.
• Pistou sauce is greatly appreciated all along the Ligurian coast (it is known as pesto in Italian). I will make no attempt to settle the question as to whether pistou migrated from Nice to Genoa, or vice versa, but let me simply say that the Ligurians like to add 1/4 lb/100 g of pine-nuts to the ingredients pounded in the mortar. In Portofino, this form of pistou with pine-nuts is eaten as an accompaniment to spaghetti and lasagne.
• In the north of the Alpes-Maritimes département, pistou sauce is often eaten with mutton.
8 LOU VÉLUTAT DÉ FAVA
Le Velouté de Fèves
Cream of Broad Bean SoupFor 8
3¼ lb/1½kg dried, or 4½ lb/2kg fresh broad beans, shelled
1 onion, peeled
4tbs olive oil
10 Swiss chard tops or leaves of 2 large lettuces.
bouquet garni
salt, pepper
¼lb/100g bread
2 oz/50g lean petit salé (see page 15)
1. Put the broad beans (if they are dried broad beans, they should first be soaked for at least 3 hours), sliced onion, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, Swiss chard tops or lettuce leaves cut into coarse strips, and bouquet garni into 5 pints/3 litres of water. Add salt and pepper, and bring to the boil. Cook over a moderate heat for 45 minutes.
2. Purée. Return to a very gentle heat.
3. Cut the bread into small dice (¼ inch/½ cm) and fry in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until golden brown.
4. Cut the petit salé into similarly small dice and fry until crisp.
5. Just before serving, drop the petit salé into the soup. Put the fried bread into a bowl, and serve on the side.
9 LA SOUPA DÉ PRIMA
Le Potage Printanier
Spring SoupFor 8
½ lb/200g small globe artichokes
½ lb/200g spring onions
½ lb/200g Swiss chard tops
½ lb/200g broad beans, shelled
½ lb/200g new potatoes
½ lb/200g peas, shelled
2 eggs
2 tbs olive oil salt, pepper
4 oz/100g grated Parmesan
1. Cut the artichokes (all except the green tips of the leaves), spring onions, and Swiss chard tops into thin slices. Put them, with the broad beans, into 5 pints/3 litres of cold water and bring to the boil over a moderate heat. Allow to cook for 20 minutes.
2. Add the potatoes, finely diced, and the peas. Boil for another 20 minutes.
3. Just before serving, and away from the heat, add the eggs, beaten thoroughly with the olive oil. Correct seasoning, and serve with a bowl of grated Parmesan on the side.
10 LA SOUPA DÉ COUGOURDA
La Soupe de Courge
Courgette or Pumpkin SoupFor 8
10 small courgettes or 3¼ lb/1½ kg pumpkin (see page 11)
4 large onions, peeled
1 clove garlic, peeled
bouquet garni
1 leaf sage salt, pepper
2 tbs olive oil
3 oz/80g rice
4 oz/100g grated Parmesan
1. Cut the courgettes or pumpkin into 1-inch/3-cm dice. Slice the onion and chop the garlic finely.
2. Place these ingredients, along with the bouquet garni and sage, in 5 pints/3 litres of boiling water. Add salt and pepper. Pour in the olive oil.
3. When the soup has simmered for 45 minutes, Purée and return to the saucepan. Bring back to the boil.
4. Add the rice and boil for a further 15 minutes. Serve with a bowl of grated Parmesan on the side.
11 LA SOUPA DÉ POUTINA O DÉ NOUNAT
La Soupe de Poutine ou de Nonats
Poutine or Nonat SoupFor 4
2 small onions, peeled
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 tbs olive oil
2 tomatoes
1 clove
½ bay leaf
¾ lb/300g poutine or nonats (see page 9 and No. 113)
salt, pepper
1. Slice the onions and crush the garlic. Put them in a frying pan with the olive oil and brown.
2. Add the peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped tomatoes, the clove, and the bay leaf. Cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Pour into a deep saucepan. Cover with 3½ pints/2 litres of boiling water.
4. After boiling the soup for 15 minutes, purée, return to the saucepan, and bring back to the boil.
5. Plunge the poutine or nonats into the liquid, and remove from heat immediately. Season with salt and pepper. Leave for 5 minutes before serving, but no longer, otherwise the fish will completely disintegrate.
12 LA SOUPA AÏ MUSCLÉ
La Soupe aux Moules
Mussel SoupFor 4
5 pints/3 litres s (discard any that are not tightly shut)
1 onion, peeled
1 clove garlic, peeled
bouquet garni (consisting of fennel and celery leaves as well as thyme, parsley, and bay leaf)
2 tbs olive oil
½ lb/200g tomatoes
1 pinch saffron salt, pepper
4 oz/125 g rice or 4 oz/125 g vermicelli
1. Scrub and beard the mussels, put into a saucepan with 2½ pints/1½ litres of water, and boil uncovered for 3 or 4 minutes until they open; shake the saucepan frequently during the process. Discard any that refuse to open.
2. Remove the mussels from their shells and put them back in their own cooking liquid, which should have been carefully poured off into another receptacle so as to remove any sand.
3. Put the finely sliced onion, chopped garlic, and bouquet garni in a large saucepan, and brown in the olive oil. Add the peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped tomatoes, cook over a high heat for 3 minutes, and cover with the mussels' cooking liquid.
4. Bring to the boil, add a small pinch of saffron, pepper, and salt (not much, as the mussels are already salty), and cook the rice or vermicelli in the soup for 15 minutes.
5. Just before serving, add the mussels to the soup. Do not allow them to boil, as further cooking would make them tough.
• This soup is sometimes thickened with 4 tablespoons of double cream or very firm mayonnaise.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Cuisine Niçoise"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Grub Street, London.
Excerpted by permission of Grub Street.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction,
Some Important Ingredients,
A Note on Conversions,
A Note on Utensils,
Acknowledgement,
Preface,
1. Soups,
2. Sauces,
3. Hors-d'Œuvre,
4. Meat,
5. Seafood,
6. Vegetables,
7. The Italian Connection: Pasta, Gnocchi, Polenta, Rice, etc.,
8. Sweets, Cakes, and Pastries,
9. Preserves,
A Note on Cheeses,
A Note on Drinks,
Measurements and Temperatures,