Date I made these
recipes: July 14, 2013 (Bastille Day)
Andre Simon’s French Cook Book, New Edition Revised by Crosby Gaige
Published by: Little, Brown and Company
© 1948; 1938
Recipe:
Chicken Marengo – p. 42-43
French Menus for Parties by the Chamberlains – recipes by Narcisse
Chamberlain (recipes by Narcissa Chamberlain; photographs by Samuel
Chamberlain)
Published by: Hastings
House
© 1968
Recipe:
Tomatoes Provencale – p. 40
The month of July is just so
much fun with parties and events galore!
First we have the 4th of July, America’s
Independence Day, then we have Bastille Day, France’s
version of our Independence Day and for three weeks in a row, we have the Tour
de France, the great bicycle race that brings bicyclists through the French
countryside and French mountaintops, ending this coming Sunday, July 21, in Paris on the
Champs-Elysees.
Since I missed out on
celebrating the 4th of July with appropriate 4th of July
food (I was so busy that week that the day came and went), I was determined to
make something for Bastille Day and so I did in the form of Chicken Marengo and Tomatoes Provencale (Tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, parsley, bread
crumbs). C’est tres bon! (It’s very
good.)
According to Andre Simon’s French Cook Book, Chicken
Marengo was “supposedly invented by a desperate chef in the field the night
before the battle of Marengo for his hungry boss, Napoleon.” Since I am not up on my French history or
Napoleon (the man or the delicious French dessert), I did an internet search
and discovered that the Battle of Marengo was fought on June 14, 1800 between
France (under Napoleon) and Austria (although the battle was fought in
Piedmont, Italy). The Austrians lost
that battle but went on to become a mean competitor against France where it
counts the most – the pastry department. I mean come on, Austrian sachertorte
anyone?
Although there were plenty
of desserts in both of these cookbooks, I went with my standard selections of
main and side dishes because with the weather heating up, turning on my oven to
bake anything was out of the question.
Out of the two dishes, Chicken
Marengo and Tomatoes Provencale,
my favorite was actually the tomatoes, possibly because there were fewer steps
involved but also because it was more flavorful than the chicken. The chicken dish was okay but I’ve said this
before: most chicken no longer has any
flavor. Seriously, I bought two large
chicken breasts from Whole Foods, known for all their organic and farm-fresh
items and they were just bland; if not for the sauce, I would have been crying. Consider this: Chef Andre Simon was born in 1877 and died in
1970 (I don’t know why it was so shocking to see that 1970 date but it was) when
people were definitely in a “grow your own” phase and I am willing to bet that his
chicken tasted like chicken should when he was cooking.
Chef Andre’s version of Chicken Marengo is fairly simplistic
compared to others I’ve seen but simple is a good thing. I liked his addition of some white wine and brandy
although in all likelihood, the alcohol burned off in the cooking. Bummer, that (so be sure to supplement the
recipe with a lovely glass of wine). And
as is typical of this time, recipes and ingredients are included in the
narrative which makes reading them a challenge – for example, we get a bit of
the history and then in the middle of the paragraph, the text reads “Buy a pair
of broilers…” Okay, then—good thing I
didn’t get too invested in reading about Napoleon and his battle!
And then we have the
Chamberlains – Narcisse (author), Narcissa (mom and recipe developer) and
Samuel (dad and photographer) who spent years writing and editing cookbooks and
food articles as well as photographing them. Their names might be familiar to
cookbook aficionados as Narcissa and Samuel authored the Clementine in the Kitchen, published in 1943. The Chamberlain family lived in France for many years and traveled much of Europe before heading back to the states in 1943 so Sam
could teach at M.I.T. Daughter Narcisse
enjoyed an illustrious career as a book editor before passing away in 2008 at
age 83.
Now, I want to note that
whenever I read about this type of family, the type that can just up and move
to Paris and live there and travel all of Europe, I get ever-so-slightly
jealous because how fabulous, right?
Talk about a cocktail conversation starter: “Yes, I grew up in Paris…you?” But then I have to stop and remind
myself that I was one lucky gal growing up, traveling most of the United States and a good portion of Canada before I
turned 18. When my parents did road
trips, they did ROAD TRIPS. We’d take on
a slew of states at a time as we winged our way from Michigan
to Florida or Michigan
to California and our annual trips to visit
grandma in New Jersey sometimes led us through
Canada,
just for a change of scenery.
Today’s youth on the other
hand, is more accustomed to airplane travel and seem to have bypassed visiting
most states for the opportunity to go to Europe, something I didn’t do until I
was almost 30. When I did land on French soil, I spent some time in Paris before heading off with a friend to Provence and the French
Riviera and was quite pleased to see that the photos that I took then look very
similar to the ones taken by Samuel Chamberlain 20 years earlier. There’s progress and then there’s
preservation, something the French seem to take very seriously.
As to the recipes,
although every culture upgrades its food to modern times, I am fairly certain
that most French dishes – at least the staples like Boeuf Bourguignon - remained
the same between then and now. Europeans have long embraced the concept of
“farm to table, buying food only when needed and only if absolutely fresh. If anything, my guess is that I’d likely have
found far better tomatoes, used in the Tomatoes
Provencale recipe, in France
than in the U.S.
where we have often sucked the taste right out of our animals and produce. But one works with what one has and what
“one” had wasn’t bad. As expected, the
chicken tasted more flavorful after it sat a day and although the tomatoes
could have been a bit riper, they still tasted pretty good. So there you go – some history, some recipes,
and some thoughts on protein and produce to boot! Bon appétit everyone!
Chicken Marengo (serving size not indicated but
you’ll be using 2 broilers weighing 2.5 pound each – that’s a lot of chicken!)
5 pounds chicken (broilers
recommended)
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots (Ann’s
Note: the recipe doesn’t say what to do
with them but I’d go with “mince” – same with the garlic. I diced the tomatoes into small pieces)
1 clove garlic
1 ½ cups sliced mushrooms
6 medium-size tomatoes
½ cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon brandy
If necessary, cut up your
chicken into pieces and fry them in olive oil until lightly colored, turning so
all sides are done evenly. Lower the
flame and cover for a scant 10 minutes; then remove the chicken from the
oil. Put in its place the shallot,
garlic, mushrooms and tomatoes. (See my
note above.) Let these ingredients cook
in the oil till the mushrooms are done.
Add the white wine and brandy and blend till the liquid is reduced about
a third; then return the chicken, cover, and let cook gently for perhaps 15
minutes, till you are sure the chicken is completely tender. Serve in the sauce.
Tomatoes Provencale – Serves 6
6 small ripe tomatoes (cut
in half, seeded, seasoned with salt and pepper)
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
Chopped parsley (generous
amount)
3 tablespoons coarse bread
crumbs.
Cut the tomatoes in
halves, shake out the seeds, and season tomatoes with salt and pepper. In a large skillet cook them lightly on both
sides in 4 tablespoons of hot olive oil.
Add 2 minced cloves of garlic and cook the tomatoes another 2 or 3
minutes. Remove them to a heated platter
and sprinkle them with plenty of chopped parsley. Add 3 tablespoons of coarse bread crumbs to
the juices remaining in the skillet, sauté them for a minute or two until they
are brown and sprinkle them over the tomatoes.
(Ann’s Note: I needed to add a
bit more olive oil to the skillet to crisp the bread crumbs.)
