Action Cook Book - Len Deighton

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mixture is then put into a mould and chilled. Experts argue about adding some gelatine. If you do so, dissolve it according to directions on packet, making it a little weaker than instructed, and blend into mousse mixture before chilling.

      Quenelles: There is one recipe where the blender really takes the stage, that is in making quenelles, which are something between a soufflé and a dumpling. Without a blender this recipe requires hours of pounding in a mortar. With a blender, merely select the flavour you want: veal, fish, chicken, game, etc., and proceed: Measure 15 oz. (by bulk, see Measuring section, page 30) of soft breadcrumbs (easy to make in a dry blender). Now put 5 oz. milk in with the breadcrumbs, let it whizz a moment, then tip it out; put it to one side. Don’t bother to clean the blender; put into it half a pound of the raw ingredients you have chosen (if it’s to be fish, use salmon, whiting, sole, pike, trout or brill—remove skin and bone, of course). Add two teaspoons of salt and a dash of pepper and nutmeg. Whizz the blender until it is all a smooth paste, then add 3 oz. of soft (not melted) butter, one whole egg and two extra yolks, and the milk-and-breadcrumb mixture. When it is all quite smooth, the quenelle mixture is made. Drop spoonfuls of it into just simmering water for ten minutes. Lift out gently. Taste the first one and adjust seasoning.

      Here is a simpler (and a little less authentic)

      Quenelles de Poisson. Use one pound of white fish fillets (that saves the boning and skinning), cut them into small pieces and put them into the blender along with a chunk of onion, a teaspoon of salt, a pinch of pepper and four eggs. Whizz the blender until all this is quite smooth, then add 4 oz. of double cream. If your blender is small, you may have to do it in two stages.

      Have a tin of fancy cream soup on the simmer (lobster bisque or cream of mushroom), having diluted it with milk. Drop the quenelles gently into the simmering soup. This mixture is a little sloppier than the previous one, but the quenelles get firmer as they cook. Don’t boil the soup; just keep it very hot.

      Sauce Normande: For a sauce to go with the quenelles, try this: it is not quite the Sauce Normande it pretends to be, but it will pass in a crowd. Make a strong white stock of a suitable kind (i.e. for fish quenelles use plenty of white fish, include the heads—see Rich Stock grid). Reduce it to 3/4 pint to make it strong. When it is ready, add this to a roux (which is equal amounts—say 1 oz.—of butter and flour cooked over a low flame without going brown for three or four minutes). When you add the fish stock a little at a time to the roux, it will thicken. Stir it and watch that it doesn’t go lumpy (if it does go lumpy you can give it a second or so in the blender, but it is much better not to have to). Let it have a quarter of an hour over a low flame; you must not go away and leave it, but you can be mixing an egg yolk into 3 oz. of cream. Add this to the sauce, stirring it well in. If it boils, it will curdle and nothing can save you. If it doesn’t curdle pour it over the quenelles and serve. If it does curdle, pour it over the quenelles and serve them by candlelight.

      Croquettes are distant relations of quenelles, but croquettes are made from cooked meat or fish. I will give a general style of recipe, but there are a great many variations. For the best croquettes do not use leftover fish—cook it specially in a good fish stock (just a little lemon juice, salt and pepper, and a bay leaf is better than plain water). Remove the flesh, mash carefully (avoid the bones). Blend it. Add to this a Béchamel sauce (which is a roux into which boiling milk has been poured a little at a time while it thickens to a good creamy white sauce). Make some Duchesse potato (see page 249). Mix the fish, the Béchamel and the potato together—the fish should predominate. Dip in egg (and breadcrumbs if you like). Shallow-fry. Variations on croquettes are at your discretion. Anchovy and chopped onion are good additions.

      Remember that white fish needs a colourful vegetable or garnish.

      Real Horseradish Sauce. Horseradish pieces (2 oz.) + 1 teaspoon sugar + 1/2 teaspoon salt + 1/2 teaspoon mustard + tablespoon vinegar + 3 tablespoons milk. Blend. Mix generous cream into it. Serve.

      To prepare Steak au Poivre for 6-8 people, blend briefly about 5 dessertspoons whole peppercorns. Press on to steaks. Fry them to your taste. Remove steaks, déglacer pan.

      BLENDER SWEETS

      Egg Custard is especially simple with a blender. Blend sugar, hot milk, cream and eggs (at least 3 eggs per pint of milk). Bake 45 mins. in a water-jacket at Regulo 2 (325° F.). Egg custard as a sauce has the same ingredients, but is made over a low flame, stirring all the time. For further instructions, see the Crème Caramel pages 276-7.

      Various Desserts. Fruit Fool is made by putting almost any soft fruit with sugar and thick cream in the blender; chill; serve. The Fruit Fool recipe will give you ice cream if you put it in the freezing compartment. Instead of soft fruit, use chocolate or very strong coffee to make coffee or chocolate ice cream.

       MEASURING

      The greatest source of confusion in cookery measurements is the American cup. Most English measurements are in weight, but now and again we hear of the English cup. In each case ‘a cup’ is half a pint, but the English pint is 20 oz. and the American pint is 16 oz.

      Buy any sort of measure that is marked in ounces. A 10-oz. measure is a convenient size for the average kitchen. Once you have a measure of this sort, the American recipes are easy to understand.

      Here are five items showing what one English pound equals in American cups:

Butter 1 lb. = 2 cups
Flour 1 lb. = 41/2 cups
Sugar 1 lb. = 2+ cups
(brown moist sugar 21/2 cups)
Raw Rice 1 lb. = 2 cups
Crumbs 1 lb. = 4 cups

      Another baffling word in recipes is gill. In standard recipe use it means a quarter of a British pint.

      French recipes use litres. One litre is 13/4 British pints. A demi-litre is half a litre. A deci-litre is a tenth of a litre.

      French recipes measure weight in grammes.

      100 grammes = 31/2 oz.

      1 litre = 500 grammes = 1 lb. 11/2 oz.

      1 kilogramme = 1,000 grammes = 2 lb. 3 oz.

      BUYING FOOD

      Buying food can be confusing. Spinach, for instance, will shrink to almost nothing, while rice can be around the house for days because of miscalculation.

      Meat. Buy 8 oz. per head if there is bone in it, and 6 oz. per head if it is without bone. Very lean meat in a rich sauce (e.g. Beef Strogonoff) can have less. Allow 12 oz. per head of the gross weight of chicken, and 4 oz. per head for any liver dish. Fish, as an entrée 6 oz., as a main course 8 oz.

      Root Vegetables like carrots and potatoes should be calculated at 6 oz. per head. Double

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