7. SPECIALITES DE LA MAISON

A speciality de la maison is simply the main dish you pre­pare best.

It may be tripe or Chateaubriand; a special sauce for codfish cakes or Lobster Thermidor; it can be your own trick of preparing hash, stew, or a slumgullion of tasty left­overs—or it may be a recipe used only for champagne occa­sions.

No matter what its ingredients, a Speciality is simply the recipe you have made your very own, either by embroidering on a basic dish, or by learning to create a traditional recipe with the definitive touch.

But it is always the dish you have made so many times that you scarcely need to glance at the cookbook—and the mere suggestion that this might be scheduled for tonight's menu will brighten all eyes (and increase the saliva).

For instance—spaghetti. Despite the calories, everyone enjoys it, if the sauce is special . . . and nothing is simpler than to create your own variation of here—because its fat content adds to the cooking liquid). Brown and pull apart meat into crumbs with a fork.

BASIC SPAGHETTI SAUCE

2 olive oil

1 clove garlic

2 large yellow onions, thin-sliced

½ green pepper, seeded and thin-sliced

2 or 3 stalks of celery, coarsely cut

1 tsp oregano

½ pound ground beef

2 tins condensed tomato soup

1 small tin tomato paste

2 small tins of mushroom “bits and pieces”(or ¼ pound fresh mushroom stems, thin sliced)

1 C water

Saute onion, celery and green pepper in olive oil for 3 minutes; add ground meat(the cheapest grade is advisable)

Add soup, oregano, mushrooms and tomato paste—plus a little water if needed to keep the sauce from being too thick.

Cover and simmer over the lowest possible heat for 25 minutes, checking occasionally to be sure it does not stick to the pan.

Serve on thin spaghetti—which cooks while the sauce is maturing. Place plenty of grated Parmesan cheese on the table, to sprinkle on top.

This is the basis for your own invention. You may add a cup of mixed leftover cooked vegetables; this not only ex­tends the sauce for unexpected guests but also cleans out the refrigerator painlessly. . . . Beans of all sorts, peas, carrots, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower . . . anything and everything is permissible in a good spaghetti sauce.

SPAGHETTI CARUSO substitutes ½ a pound of fresh chicken livers for the ground beef . . . and CLAM SAUCE is rapidly made by using a tin of minced clams (with their juice) instead of meat.

Cooked lobster meat, crabmeat, cleaned shrimps, or diced chicken can also be substituted for the raw ground beef— or you may use 2 dozen well scrubbed Cherrystone clams or fresh mussels, distributed atop the sauce for the final ten minutes of cooling.

Traditional seasoning is oregano, but marjoram, basil, rose­mary or summer savory will do equally well. A teaspoon of celery seeds can replace celery stalks, and ¼ tsp garlic powder can replace the minced garlic clove.

For the palate geared to hot seasonings, add a tablespoon of Worcestershire Sauce, or a tablespoon of "hot" catsup.

OLLA PODRIDA – the Spanish equivalent of a New England boiled dinner, although fancier. This requires two steps in cooking.

½ pound each:veal cutlet, round steak, lamb chops(boned), cooked ham

1 chicken breast

2 smoked sausages(Spanish chorizon, if possible – or sweet Italian sausage)

3 T olive oil

1 tin of cooked chick peas(Garbanzos beans)

2 chopped onions

2 minced cloves of garlic

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

2 quarts water

1 cup shredded white cabbage

½ package frozen peas

½ package frozen string beans

1 large cucumber, peeled and sliced

1 head of lettuce, coarsely shredded

Step #1:

Brown the beef, veal, lamb and chicken in hot olive oil. Combine browned meats in a pressure cooker, with ham, sliced sausages, onions, garlic, salt and pepper, cover with water and cook for 30 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. Allow pressure to decrease normally, and store in refrigerator over­night.

Step #2:

Cook cabbage, peas and beans for 10 minutes in 2 cups of stock, while reheating stew separately.

Add drained chick peas to the stew.

Add lettuce and cucumber to cabbage mixture and cook another 10 minutes.

To serve:

Place meats and chick peas on a platter; vegetables in another platter; combine all cooking juices in a soup tureen.

Provide each guest with an old-fashioned flat-lipped soup plate and a salad-sized plate, and allow him either to com­bine everything in the soup dish or eat broth separately from meat and vegetables.

A good green salad and plenty of crusty French bread completes the meal.

MUSHROOMS FARCIS Anything “farcis” means “stuffed”

12 immense mushrooms – separate the caps, and chop the stems finely

¼ cup finely minced leftover chicken

1 clove pressed garlic(or a dash of garlic powder)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 eggs

¼ cup butter

salt and pepper

Saute chopped mushroom stems in the butter for 10 min­utes, add garlic, parsley and seasonings. Mix with minced chicken, and lightly beaten eggs. Pile into mushroom caps. Dust the tops with a few bread crumbs, a teaspoon of grated Parmesan cheese, and a dash of paprika. Place caps in a buttered baking pan, and cook 15 minutes in a moderate oven.

FROGS' LEGS

The small Eastern variety of frogs' legs are always prefer­able in delicacy of taste to the big western and mid-Western frog saddles, and for quick-cookery, only the small frogs' legs can be prepared in a short time. The large legs need to be soaked in milk or a wine marinade for several hours before cooking.

Frogs' legs are particularly a French specialty, and al­though they are classed with fish and seafood dishes, actually taste very much like chicken.

Best known preparation is probably

FROGS' LEGS PROVENCALE

The legs are sauteed until brown, and served with a foaming butter sauce, heavily seasoned with garlic.

2 pounds small frogs' legs

2 T minced fresh parsley

5 T butter 

3 large cloves of garlic, finely minced

2 T lemon juice  

Wash the frogs' legs, wipe dry, and saute in 2 tablespoons of butter until they are a golden brown (about 10-15 min­utes).

Remove to a heated serving dish, sprinkle with the lemon juice and parsley. Add remaining butter and garlic to the frying pan, stir over medium heat until the butter browns slightly and foams—pour the foaming butter-garlic sauce generously over the frogs' legs and serve at once.

A second well-known preparation for frogs' legs is

FROGS' LEGS POULETTE

Traditionally, this is a dish of the meat from cooked frogs' legs, in a rich cream sauce, served in patty shells or individual ramekins.

2 pounds of small frogs’ legs

2 T butter

½ cup dry white wine

1 small white onion, minced

1 small scraped carrot, minced

2 generous T flour

1 T lemon juice

1 T minced fresh parsley

½ tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

¼ tsp pepper

¼ tsp paprika

½ cup cream

2 egg yolks

Wash and dry the frogs' legs, saute in butter with onion and carrot for 5 minutes, turning constantly. Sprinkle with the flour, add wine, lemon juice, salt, pepper and parsley. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly to prevent flour lumps; reduce the heat and simmer very gently for 15 minutes.

Remove frogs' legs from pan and keep warm.

At this point, traditionally, the meat is removed from bones and reheated in the sauce, to be served in individual portions—but for quick gourmet cookery, you may save time by serving the whole cooked legs in the sauce.

In either case, add cream, paprika and sugar to the pan sauce and blend well. Thicken with lightly beaten egg yolks, and pour over the frogs' legs on their serving dishes. Garnish with a sprinkle of minced fresh parsley and a dash of paprika.

ESC ARGOTS (Snails)

Snails are another typically French gourmet dish, but one that depends entirely upon the sauce, as snail meat itself is both leathery in texture and uninterestingly tasteless.

Snails are generally served in their shells, in special small pans; they should be served hot-hot-hot, and for ease in handling, it's worth while to buy the real snail tongs.

Any gourmet food store, as well as most supermarkets today, sells packaged snails—with or without shells. For an appetizer, 4 or 6 snails is the usual portion; as a main dish, serve a full dozen. Shells are easily soaked clean, to be re­tained from one meal to the next, and once you have suffi­cient small snail shells on hand, you can buy the canned cooked snails alone.

Escargots Bourguignonne is the most familiar recipe, and once you have mastered the method, you can invent your own personal sauce.

4 dozen snails, and 4 dozen snail shells

¾ cup butter

2 finely minced shallots

1 large(or 2 small) garlic cloves, peeled and pressed

1 T minced fresh parsley

1 tsp chervil

1 T minced fresh chives(or 1 tsp dried chives)

½ tsp salt, ¼ tsp pepper, ¼ tsp paprika

1 T brandy, or Burgundy(optional)

Drain the can of snails.

Heat oven to 450.

Cream together: butter, herbs, seasonings, add the brandy or wine last, if you use it. Blend smoothly.

Put a tiny bit of the butter mixture in each snail shell, insert a snail and close the opening evenly with more of the creamed butter.

Arrange the snails in their pans—or standing upright in individual serving dishes.

Bake 6 or 7 minutes, until the snails are heated through and the butter melts.

Snails absolutely require crusty French or Italian bread, and a real gourmet literally mops up his snail pan sauce with his fingers.

Snails can also be prepared in advance and held in the refrigerator overnight until they are put in the oven—and in this case, you may make the sauce even more quickly by melting the butter and blending in your choice of herbs and seasonings. Dribble a bit of the melted butter into each snail shell, insert the snail and pour more melted butter sauce to fill the chinks to the top. Allow a good 10 minutes for baking snails that have come from the refrigerator.

SNAILS IN CREAM Rich, but good

4 dozen canned snails, well-drained

1 tin condensed mushroom soup

1 cup cream

1 minced onion

Combine all ingredients in the top of a double-boiler, stir smoothly, and simmer until hot and well-blended. Serve in 4 patty shells.

CHICKENBURGERS

Walter Winchell’s favorite dish – a soft hand made from raw ground chicken…

2 cup ground raw chicken(the meat from 4 chicken breasts put through your grinder)

1 cup cream

1½ tsp salt

¼ tsp nutmeg

½ cup of bread crumbs

1 T minced parsley

Combine all ingredients—the mixture should be rather soft. Shape into four portions and coat with more bread crumbs.

Place on a lightly greased broiling pan, dot with bits of butter, and broil 8 or 9 minutes on each side.

1 can condensed mushroom soup

1 cup thin cream

1 lightly beaten egg yolk

2 T dry sherry

1 minced truffle

2 tsp lemon juice

½ tsp paprika

Combine soup and cream in the top of a double boiler, blend smooth. Add sherry, minced truffle, lemon juice and paprika and blend again. Finally, thicken with egg yolk and serve handsomely, dribbled about the base of each chickenburger and sprinkled with fresh parsley or a colorful dash of paprika.

Serve with SAUCE SUPREME, which is basically the old familiar white sauce enriched with mushrooms, cream and egg yolks . . . but a satisfactory approximation is quickly made as follows:

SQUABS

Pigeon squab is infinitely superior to chicken squab, but unless you live in the country, you may have to settle for the chicken.

Rock Cornish Game Hens are delicious, but it is not pos­sible to do them justice in less than a full hour. A half-Game Hen, stuffed with wild rice, is sometimes available in a frozen foods department of good supermarkets; if you can find this, it can be cooked (well-basted with a butter sauce) in an electric oven or broiler—in about 30 minutes.

Fresh squab, whether pigeon or chicken, can be cooked more quickly if they are split—and it's customary to split them from the back to the breastbone without entirely cut­ting them apart. They are then flattened out, and sauteed on both sides in plenty of butter.

PIGEONNEAUX SMITANE

Sauteed squabs in a sour cream sauce.

4 squabs, split from the back and flattened for quick cooking

2 ripe tomatoes, peeled and coarsely cut

½ cup butter(sweet butter is preferable)+2 T

1 T cognac

2 minced shallots

1 T fresh minced chives

4 mushrooms, coarsely cut

1 crumbled bay leaf

1 pinch thyme

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp summer savory

2 T dry white wine

1 cup heavy sour cream

Saute the flattened squabs in melted butter for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle with a tablespoon of good brandy, and saute for another ten minutes, turning the squabs frequently so they will brown attractively.

In a separate pan, melt 2 T butter, and very gently saute the shallots, chives, mushrooms, tomatoes, bay leaf, thyme, summer savory and paprika for 10 minutes. In another pan, scald the sour cream.

Transfer the browned squabs, plus enough pan juice to protect them from burning, to a casserole and place in a 350 oven.

Combine remaining pan juice from the squabs with the sauteed vegetables, add wine and scalded sour cream. Sim­mer for 8 minutes, stirring smoothly.

Finally pour over the cooked squabs on serving dishes.

PARTRIDGE

2 partridge – cleaned and wiped with a cloth. Do not wash!

3 raw onions

6 strips of bacon

2 T parsley flakes

2 bay leaves

2 tsp juniper berries

¼ tsp thyme

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

½ lb butter, melted

2 tsp garlic powder

½ cup sliced mushrooms

12 whole green olives

Brandy

Pre-heat oven to 400. Wipe the partridges with a clean cloth, inside and out. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and thyme; combine juniper berries, 2 strips bacon, bay leaves, parsley, 1 tsp garlic powder and 1 coarsely sliced onion, and distribute between the two partridge cavities. Tie 2 strips of bacon around each partridge breast.

Place the partridges on their sides in a baking dish, and pour melted butter over them. Add sliced mushrooms, 2 coarsely sliced onions, olives and remaining tsp of garlic powder.

Bake for 30 minutes at 400, turning and basting every 5 minutes.

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