Imaginative Cuisine

By George Turrell

This book is intended for those of us, amateurs, who love to cook. Directly related is that of receiving guests, preparing for a family visit, or a tête-à-tête. Clearly, the cook’s job is quite different in each case. The elements of a meal depend not only on the number of persons to be served but also on the products available at each season of the year, the contents of the freezer, and finally, the family budget. If your guests’ individual tastes are known, they should of course be carefully considered.

The available time for shopping, preparation, and eating are also important—as is the preparation. Is the meal to be in the form of a buffet, as appropriate for a large number of guests—a formal, multicourse affair à la française—or a simple casserole, one-dish meal? This questions is fundamental when the choice is made of the dishes to be prepared. Perhaps these chapters will help to resolve some problems in the construction of a menu and will complement the traditional cookbooks. Above all, it is hoped that this book might be a source of inspiration to the imaginative amateur in the kitchen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: May 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781490780979

George Turrell

Is a retired Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Sciences and Technology of Lille, France. He has taught physics and physical chemistry in four countries over the past fifty years and has gained industrial experience from several major laboratories in North America. His research has included the direction of numerous theses and the publication of more than a hundred scientific papers.

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Copyright 2017 George Turrell.

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ISBN: 978-1-4907-8096-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-8097-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017904838

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CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Soups and Salads

Eggs — From The Hen And Other Lady Birds

Meat

Seafood — Skinfish and Shellfish

Vegetables

Starches

Cheese

Fruit and other Desserts

Beverages — Com’ on, the drinks are on me!

Herbs and Spices — Sugar and spice and everything nice

Sauces and Condiments

A Bit Of Biochemistry

Stocking the Larder

Acknowledgments

Dedication

PREFACE

One who loves to cook, an amateur in the true sense of the word, takes note of what he eats as he travels. Each meal in a restaurant or chez friends is an occasion to enrich his stock of culinary ideas. Cookbooks and the so-called ladies’ magazines are also sources of inspiration. They should be considered to be bedtime reading, like short stories, and never be allowed to enter the kitchen. If a very specific recipe is needed, as in pastry cooking, the ingredients, quantities, oven temperatures, timing, etc. can be copied for use in the kitchen. If you take your cookbook into the kitchen, your favorite cake will soon be identified by the ugly spots on the appropriate pages.

I mention pastry cooking in the previous paragraph because it is the one area where exact quantities of the various ingredients are important. In most others the chef can play it by ear, at least after his very first experiment with a given recipe. Of course this remark does not apply to professional cooking, as a restaurant chef must make exactly the same dish a multitude of times. Furthermore, he cannot afford to make mistakes. We amateurs are not governed by these limitations.

My own interest in cooking developed from childhood, when I followed my mother’s dessert-making with intense interest. My mother was from Oregon, but her cooking was influenced by many years of residence in France, where I spent my infancy. She was an expert on desserts and salads, but her preparation of meat was systematically disastrous. Back in Oregon during the years of the Second World War, my mother worked and my retired father and I shared the shopping chores and much of the cooking. When I left home to continue my university studies, I rented a large apartment that I shared with several other chemistry students. The establishment soon became known as The Chowder House. We were a very well organized group. Each day one of us was responsible for the shopping, the preparation of the evening meal and the necessary elements — leftovers or other — for lunch the following day. Two other members had the job of cleaning up and washing the dishes. These tasks were rotated on a day-to-day basis. Similarly, the victim responsible for house cleaning was replaced weekly.

Clearly, at the Chowder House cooking was a new experience for most of the students. However, for each member the caustic criticism by his peers resulted in a very rapid learning process. Cookbooks borrowed from the Home Ec. library were often found in the apartment. Fortunately, we had a number of foreign students who joined our group. They had Asian, Jewish, Italian or Mexican backgrounds. These influences resulted in an international Chowder House cuisine that became well known. We often invited our professors and their wives to dinner.

An anecdote that will always remain in my reminiscences was due to the arrival of a young Japanese student at the Chowder House. He spoke very little English, but was very polite and had a lot of patience. I took him for his first visit to a grocery store in the United States. He noticed cans with pictures of dogs on the labels. His logical conclusion was that the cans contained dog meat. He said, Oh, I’m sorry, we don’t eat dogs. It is thus that the cultures of various parts of the world are learned. Otherwise it is by travel and, above all, by living in a given country for an extended period.

My indirect culinary experiences were as an engineer in two major industrial research laboratories. At Dupont in the early fifties I measured the mechanical properties of Teflon. Anyone who has a non-stick pan has used Teflon. At the time when I made my first contact with this unusual polymer the idea of using it as a coating for frying pans was suggested, but the fear was of the toxic products that are formed when Teflon is heated to a high temperature. Many years of research went into the study of this problem before the coated pans finally appeared on the market.

A few years later as a young engineer at Bell Labs, my research was concerned with the development of the magnetron, an intense source of power in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The application at that time was to radar, primarily for military use. However, the company was always looking for commercial applications and the idea of microwave cooking was already being considered. The fact that with microwaves one cannot brown, only cook from the interior, was considered to be a major limitation to this method. Would the public buy it? Furthermore, what are the inherent dangers of microwave radiation? These problems were the subjects of much subsequent research. The result is the microwave oven as we now know it.

I left the New York area in the fifties and began my peregrinations with two years in New England — followed by a year in Paris, thanks to the Guggenheim Foundation. There, I learned a bit more about French cuisine. With relatively limited resources, I ate in the little family style restaurants. What a marvellous experience! And, what luck to have avoided the haute cuisine and associated snobbism for which Paris is known to many tourists.

The following eight years in Washington, D.C., in a Greek, Italian, Jewish neighborhood was for me an unusually rewarding period. The morning kala to my friends in the little grocery store, the fresh-baked Italian bread and the Sunday morning meeting at the local Deli were pleasures not to be forgotten. Oddly, the characteristic cuisine that came from the South was not easy to find in Washington, except in Black homes. There, the greens, hog maws and chitterlings were often present. My maternal grandfather from Virginia learned of these things from his neighbors; they were known as Negroes at that time. He wouldn’t eat a meal without his greens. Furthermore, he couldn’t stand the odor of butter at the table!

My personal experiences included many years in Bordeaux, followed by the République Démocratique du Congo (Zaïre) and Québec, before finally returning to France — on a farm near Limoges. I have lived for the past twenty years in the North, first on a farm not far from Lille — and more recently in the city. Throughout these adventures I have studied the cuisine of each area and have done my lab work in the kitchen on a daily basis. These many experiences are the inspiration for my cooking efforts, whose results I have tried to convey to the readers of this volume.

George Turrell      Lille, France, August 14, 2002

INTRODUCTION

Although the emphasis in this book is on the esthetic aspect of gastronomy, the question of health must always be kept in mind. The key word in both cases is equilibrium. To construct a menu, it is important to consider briefly the choice of foods on a day-to-day, or meal-to-meal, basis. That is to say, what criteria establish a person’s diet? A brief résumé of the chemical aspects of this question is presented near the end of this book.

The structure of a meal varies considerably depending on the period in history, as well as the economic level of the people. In the Byzantine period, a description of a shoemaker’s morning starts with his breakfast of tripe and local cheese, followed by four overflowing glasses of wine. At noon he stops work and tells his wife what to prepare for the midday meal: soup, fish and stew. He then washes up and drinks sweet wine from a huge goblet, says his prayers and eats.¹*

At the same epoch the rich participated in much more ceremony, including a meal consisting of at least three courses. The numerous hors-d’œuvres, chosen to whet the appetite, were followed by roasted meats and desserts consisting of fruits and sweets.

In France the meal was not a democratic institution until after the Revolution. Before, the poor were often starving. On the other hand the elaborate menues of the Louis eventually had to give way to simpler faire. To quote Marie-Antoine Carême (1784-1833): I shall propose then ... to serve four courses instead of eight and that they be served one after the other; that way, they will be better and hot. This procedure is now known throughout the world.

In the construction of a relatively elaborate meal for family and guests, consideration must be made to the balance — that is the equilibrium of the various dishes to be served. For the cook it is usual to start by thinking about the main course, the plat de résistance. It is often meat, but not necessarily so. In a formal meal a starter is essential, although it can well be simply a soup or a traditional hors-d’œuvre.

A couple of generations ago in France, a fish or other seafood course was inserted between the hors-d’œuvres and the main dish. This practice is now rare and seafood appears either as the main course or, in lighter form, as the starter. Vegetables are now presented as a sort of garnish to the main dish, while the salad that traditionally followed is often elevated to first position — that is to say, it can serve and be served, as the starter. In this case it is usually in the form of a mixed salad, offering a multitude of possibilities for the imaginative chef.

Returning to the French tradition, a cheese platter follows the salad — then, a dessert. Nowadays there is an increasing tendency, as in ordinary restaurants, to present cheese or dessert. However, many sweet-toothed guests may be disappointed if you omit the dessert. On the other hand, if you are offering a good wine, cheese is essential — and vice versa. One way of resolving this problem is to incorporate cheese in either the starter or the main course. The cheese platter is then superflous and you may save a few pennies when you buy your wine.

The chapter on beverages will touch the subject of wines and coffee. Here it is sufficient to point out that the custom of serving a different wine for each course has disappeared. Even the presentation of a dry white wine on a seafood starter, followed by a red with the meat, is being abandoned. The only rule that has remained is: Drink only water with a vinaigrette.

After the Second World War, in Paris we used to pay two sous for each hunk of baguette, as well as 25 for a knife and fork! Times have changed and only in strange places (England, for example) is one obliged to pay for a slice of bread. In your home, bread should always be on the table — unless of course you are serving a traditional Asiatic or African meal. While on the subject, some readers may remember the old song from the depression days, You don’t get bread with one meat ball.

The word balance should be applied to taste, color and texture, as well as nutriments. This principle is important not only for a particular dish, but also for the series of dishes that constitutes the meal. Don’t serve a highly seasoned dish before a relatively bland one. In a given meal more than one sauce is to be avoided.

It might be said that a dish is like a painting — to be enjoyed for its color, form and texture, as well as its taste. Even everyday dishes require only a bit of effort to be attractively presented.

A meal is like symphony; it is the ensemble of sensations — that brings pleasure to the table. Don’t forget that the decoration of the table should provide an important contribution. Clearly the table is special when guests are expected.

When I was a small boy my big sister had the job of setting the table when guests were coming. She would ask, "Are these gold-dish people? If so, she had to trot out the Limoges and polish the silverware.

To finish this chapter I should like to make a remark about the so-called nouvelle cuisine, although it is no longer new. However, many restaurants have been influenced by it. If you have a lot of money, this paragraph is not for you. The in thing for a certain class in France is the restaurants that claim to prepare la haute (et nouvelle) cuisine. Their dishes are characterized by very large, decorated plates (Limoges, of course) adorned with very little to eat. It must be admitted that they are often interesting dishes, but as you have started one, you will have finished it and still be hungry. When you get the bill you will be finished. The illustration below is by Kay Nienhuls, Berkeley, California.

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SOUPS AND SALADS

Soups

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At one time the word soup was used to refer to the solid ingredients that float in a broth. It has now become more general and is used here to include a wide variety of liquid dishes. Many bear French names, such as: potage, consommé, bouillon, velouté, bisque, potée, …..

Before modern refrigeration soup was prepared for the evening supper, as a way of using up the leftovers from the midday meal. This tradition is maintained to a large extent in rural France, even to this day. In Belgium, however, soup is often on the noon menu. Although in Europe soup is usually served at the beginning of a meal, in China it is presented at the end — to fill the interstices. Although it was basically a peasant dish and somewhat of a family symbol, soup has now become more sophisticated. A lobster bisque served in a high-class restaurant is quite different from the home-made dishes improvised from leftovers — but not necessarily better.

Soups are often characteristic of a country or a region. In the following paragraphs you will find brief descriptions of a number of them — many of which I have enjoyed in my travels. I have not specified ingredients or quantities, so as to encourage the home cook to try, taste, and improvise.

Borscht

This is the famous red beet soup, presumably of Russian-Jewish origin. To make it, you have to start with raw beets. In France they are very difficult to find unless you go to a farm where they are grown, as the French insist on cooking the beets before sending them to market! Assuming that you have raw beets, cut them very fine — or better, grate them. This way they have more surface and will allow the bright red dye (anthrocyanine) to pass into the cooking water. The beets are simmered for an hour in beef broth (bouillon) to which has been added onions, salt, pepper — and sometimes a little tomato paste and a bit of sugar. This soup can be served either hot or cold and is traditionally topped with sour cream. Some cooks add a bit of lemon juice for flavor, but the citric acid tends to make the beautiful red color somewhat paler.

There are many variations of borscht depending on the country that has borrowed it. In the Swedish version (rödbetssöppa) butter and flour — and a glass of sweet wine! — are added to the beet-bouillon mixture. The soup is garnished with sliced sausage of the Frankfurter type. A Spanish version is flavored with cumin and topped with sliced flat parsley and garlic-flavored yogurt instead of sour cream.

Bouillon

The word bouillon usually refers to the broth or juice resulting from the cooking of vegetables, meat, fish etc. However, in the North of France it often means the ensemble of various vegetables, as well as the liquid. In the Southwest it is the custom to eat first the meat and vegetables that are floating in the soup and then add wine (red, of course) to the remaining bouillon before drinking it from the bowl. The expression for this procedure is faire chabrot (or chabrol), as illustrated on the previous page.

Clam chowder

The word chowder is probably a deformation of the word chaudrée, from old French, and thus employed in Québec. It was the soup prepared in the cauldron (chaudron) that hung in the fireplace. This soup is the all-time American favorite and the origin of the name of our old student eating establishment. It exists in two different regional forms: New England and Manhattan. To make either one you must of course have some clams — although not necessarily, as described below. If you have fresh clams, you can proceed as indicated in the chapter on seafood. The water used for steaming is saved as the stock for the soup. If you use canned clams, be sure to save the liquid. Unless they are quite small, the clams are usually cut in several pieces. In