Summer Cooking by Elizabeth David

Author:Elizabeth David [David, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781405913980
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2013-03-04T00:00:00+00:00

VEGETABLES

The tender young vegetables of early summer, broad beans, green peas, new potatoes, new turnips, young carrots, are nearly always best quite plainly cooked and eaten with plenty of fresh butter. A little later, when they are more plentiful, cheaper, but less tender, they can be cooked in a variety of enterprising ways, with cream and sauces and stock, with ham and bacon, made into purées, soufflés, soups and salads, and flavoured with fresh herbs.

As well as the classic vegetable dishes such as petits pois à la française, glazed carrots and navets glacés, I have given in the following chapter a few recipes which may provide new ideas for English kitchens. Most of these are for vegetables to be served as a separate course. The time and trouble necessary to the preparation of fresh vegetables, as well as their delicious fresh flavour, deserve full recognition.

For a summer luncheon what could be better than a cold pâté or terrine, followed by a dish of hot green peas cooked in butter, or peas and carrots mixed, or well-buttered french beans and new potatoes? Small new beetroots, hot, with butter and chives, are good with a grilled pork chop, while baby turnips make one of the nicest accompaniments to braised lamb or mutton. English tomatoes, plentiful from May onwards, are at their best raw, as salads to go with grilled or roast meat and chicken; Florentine fennel, now imported in fairly large quantities, makes the most refreshing of salads. Mediterranean pimentos, aubergines and courgettes (the Italian zucchini) begin to get reasonable in price by early September, and for people who like southern food and garlicky smells this is the time for oil-flavoured Provençal ratatouilles, and rich Basque pipérades of eggs, pimentos, and onions served with grilled gammon or coarse country sausages.

ASPARAGUS

Cut the cleaned asparagus all the same length, tie them together in bundles, and put them upright in a deep pan of boiling water, to which a lump of sugar as well as salt has been added. Cook them so that the heads do not come into contact with the water, but are cooked by the steam. Cooking times vary between 15 minutes for small asparagus to 30 minutes for the large ones. Drain them very carefully or they will break.

They are best served with the classic melted butter, sauce hollandaise, sauce maltaise or the vinaigrette sauce with eggs described on page 159, which goes well with them whether hot or cold. Oil and lemon is good too but asparagus won’t stand up to vinegar. The tips of the small green asparagus make delicious omelettes and go well with eggs cooked in cream (see page 58).

ASPARAGUS WITH PARMESAN CHEESE

One of the Italian ways of eating asparagus is to cut off the entire part of the stalk which is inedible, after they are cooked; then put them in a fireproof dish, sprinkle them lightly with grated Parmesan, then with melted butter, and put them in the oven just long enough for the cheese to melt.

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