Saturday lunch menu

 Saturday Lunch menu

soupe a la Victorine

fougasse

Somerset Brie

watercress
 

 

I made the fougasse (bread) first. Ingredients are as simple: strong white bread flour, salt, dried yeast, thyme, vegetable oil for oiling and milk for brushing. Lorraine's instructions are simple to follow and always work. Brilliant!

The dough was kneaded for 5 mins using a dough hook on a machine, then flattened out onto an oiled baking sheet and then slashed in the traditional leaf pattern. The fougasse had to prove until it doubled in size, but I knew from the outset that the yeast was not as active as it should have been and it only rose very silghtly. But it went into the oven anyway, and came out looking pretty good.

Soup of the day was a puree of white beans with an eggplant and tomato garnish. Ingredients were white beans, leeks, onions, butter, bay leaves, thyme, sage, pork butt or Italian or Polish sausage, salt, peppercorns, eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, chicken stock, fresh herbs.

I started off with a homemade stock (I find it cheaper than store bought and I find those little stock cubes have some sort of fatty residue which is disgusting) which I made yesterday.

I used haricot beans for this recipe because I like them and I don't know what Great Northern or Small White beans were in Julia's recipe. I must admit, I used canned beans. I added them after the leeks and onions were rendered down to a soft consistency and added water. To this I added bay leaves, fresh thyme and sage. (Julia says add fresh unsmoked bacon at this point, but since I like belly pork I decided to gently fry some lardons separately and add them at the end). Simmer for 15 mins.

(Here I am trying to learn something new and I start fiddling with the recipe. I have always thought that one should make the exact recipe the first time, and then alter it next time. But today I have this thing in my head about chewing on little pieces of belly pork in amongst the soft soup. Well, we'll see ...)

So second stage is the eggplant and tomato garnish. I took two firm eggplants and cut them into half-inch dice. They were tossed in the bowl with salt and let to stand for 20 mins. In the meantime, the tomatoes were prepared (peeled, seeded and juiced? which I took to mean pulped) and cut into half-inch squares. They were strained and juice was reserved, albeit not very much.

Then oil was heated in a pan and the eggplant (which had been drained & dried on kitchen paper) was sauteed, tossed and browned lightly. The tomato pulp and 2 cloves (Julia said 4 but I thought it was too much - maybe the garlic in 1970 was less pungent) of crushed garlic were tossed into the eggplant, the tomato juice was added and pan covered. It was simmered slowly for 15 minutes until the eggplant was tender. This was set aside.

Back to the soup base, it was brought to simmer and thinned out to a consistency which I like (not too thin) with my chicken stock. This was about 1 litre. My pork belly lardons were added, along with the eggplant and tomato. This was all simmered for 3 to 4 minutes to blend the flavours. I checked for seasoning and added 3 tabs of herbs - I had parsley.

It was very good and very hearty.

The salad was just lovely peppery watercress. Since seeing the BBC's Great British Food Revival on watercress, I have been trying to seek out the stuff whenever I see it. Historically, there used to be an enormous need for it but since the marketing of seemingly more exotic rocket (arugula) elbowed watercress aside in the 80s, watercress is now almost entirely bought from outside the UK, which is nothing short of ridiculous. So that's why I chose watercress.

To finish, Somerst brie.

Next time, I'll omit the pork belly lardons(!) and have croutons instead because the pork flavour did not enhance the soup flavour. It should have been a ham flavour.


soupe a la Victorine
Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Julia Child and Simone Beck, Vol. 2, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1970
fougasse
Baking Made Easy, Lorraine Pascale, HarperCollinsPublishers, London, 2011