Recipe no. 57 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 38.
Ingredients
- eel
- onion
- carrot
- garlic
- bay leaf
- thyme
- celery
- red wine
- water
- broth
- oil
- mushrooms
- flour
- bread croutons
Preparation
- Preparing the fishTake an eel of medium size; after skinning it and cutting it into pieces, place these in a saucepan with an onion and a carrot cut into slices, 2 crushed cloves of garlic, a bay leaf, a sprig of thyme and a little celery. Add liquid, covering the pieces, with half red wine and half water, or broth if made on a meat day. Let it cook for half an hour.
- Preparing the garnishesYou will have beforehand prepared a dozen and a half small onions, which you will have browned briefly in oil, then moistened with broth and left to cook slowly, with heat above and below; when they are cooked, no liquid should remain in the pan, and the onions should be a fine russet colour; you will also have sauteed in oil a dozen mushroom caps, or the equivalent cut into pieces if they are large.
- FinishingWhen the fish is cooked, take it out into another pan. Add to its cooking liquid or broth a spoonful of flour mixed with 2 or 3 spoonfuls of water; bring to the boil and strain it over the fish; add the onions and the mushrooms; bring back to a boil and serve, surrounded with fried croutons of bread.
Reboul's text
Take an eel of medium size; after skinning it and cutting it into pieces, place these in a saucepan with an onion and a carrot cut into slices, 2 crushed cloves of garlic, a bay leaf, a sprig of thyme and a little celery. Add liquid, covering the pieces, with half red wine and half water, or broth if made on a meat day. Let it cook for half an hour.
You will have beforehand prepared a dozen and a half small onions, which you will have browned briefly in oil, then moistened with broth and left to cook slowly, with heat above and below; when they are cooked, no liquid should remain in the pan, and the onions should be a fine russet colour; you will also have sauteed in oil a dozen mushroom caps, or the equivalent cut into pieces if they are large. When the fish is cooked, take it out into another pan. Add to its cooking liquid or broth a spoonful of flour mixed with 2 or 3 spoonfuls of water; bring to the boil and strain it over the fish; add the onions and the mushrooms; bring back to a boil and serve, surrounded with fried croutons of bread.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| escourtega | to skin |
| tros | pieces |
| reveni | to brown briefly |
| rous | russet |
| sauta | to saute |
| deslega | to mix with liquid |
| farino | flour |
| croustet | croutons |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 57, page 38. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.