Mediterranean Seafood - Prospect Books

270 mediterranean seafood
‘To make the aïoli sauce:
‘Allow roughly 2 large cloves of garlic per person and, for eight people, the
yolks of 3 eggs and nearly a pint of very good quality olive oil – failing
Provençal olive oil, the best Italian or Spanish will do. Crush the peeled garlic
in a mortar until it is reduced absolutely to pulp. Add the yolks and a pinch of
salt. Stir with a wooden spoon. When the eggs and garlic are well amalgamated,
start adding the oil, very slowly at first, drop by drop, until the aïoli
begins to thicken. This takes longer than with a straightforward mayonnaise
because the garlic has thinned the yolks to a certain extent. When about half
the oil has been used, the aïoli should be a very thick mass, and the oil can
now be added in a slow but steady stream. The sauce gets thicker and thicker,
and this is as it should be; a good aïoli is practically solid. Add a very little
lemon juice at the end, and serve the sauce either in the kitchen mortar in
which you have made it or piled up in a small salad bowl. Should the aïoli
separate through the oil having been added too fast, put a fresh yolk into
another bowl and gradually add the curdled mixture to it. The aïoli then
comes back to life.’
(Elizabeth David, French Provincial Cooking)
Oursinado
Sea-urchins serves six
This is one of the best of the fish-plus-soup dishes, but it is not to be
attempted unless you can obtain lots of sea-urchins (p. 217).
Buy 20 of them. Buy too 1 kg (2¼ lb) of slices of angler-fish (p. 168), sea bass
(p. 68), daurade (p. 75), sole (pp. 162–4) or other good white fish. Take care as
you go home to advertise your intentions, and indeed imply the prowess
which you hope to display, by carrying the oursins in a fisherman’s open
basket, which is in any case the most practical method of transporting so
many large and delicately spiked creatures.
The cleaned pieces of fish are put in a casserole with an onion and a carrot,
both finely chopped, a little parsley and a bouquet garni or bay leaf. Pour over
all this 225 ml (8 fl oz) of white wine and ½ litre (17½ fl oz) of water. Season
with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover and cook gently
for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces of fish.
While the fish is cooking, cut open the oursins and remove the corals. They
should fill a wineglass. In a second casserole mix 50 g (2 oz) of butter with 6
egg-yolks. By this time casserole No. 1 will be standing at the side of the stove,
as the fish will be cooked. Remove from it about two-thirds of broth and add
this little by little to the butter and egg mixture in casserole No. 2. Place
casserole No. 2 in a bain-marie (i.e. stand it in something bigger in which
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