Recipe no. 142 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 75.
Ingredients
- mussels
- carrot
- onion
- bay leaf
- parsley
- white wine
- shallots
- flour
- butter
- lemon
Preparation
- Preparing and cooking the musselsScrape and wash your mussels well, put them in a saucepan with a finely sliced carrot and onion, a bay leaf and a sprig of parsley; add a dash of white wine, set it over the heat covered and let it cook, giving them a little toss now and then.
- Removing one shellWhen they are well open, remove just one shell from each, and keep them warm in a covered saute pan.
- Preparing the brothStrain their cooking liquid into a bowl and let it settle.
- Preparing the sauceSeparately, put one or two finely chopped shallots in a small saucepan with a glass of white wine, let it reduce, add the mussel liquid, pouring it slowly so as not to include the sediment that has settled; reduce it by half; bind this sauce with a small spoonful of flour worked with a piece of butter the size of a walnut; season, add lemon juice, a pinch of parsley and pour this sauce over the mussels which you will have arranged on a dish.
- ServingServe very hot.
Reboul's text
Scrape and wash your mussels well, put them in a saucepan with a finely sliced carrot and onion, a bay leaf and a sprig of parsley; add a dash of white wine, set it over the heat covered and let it cook, giving them a little toss now and then. When they are well open, remove just one shell from each, and keep them warm in a covered saute pan. Strain their cooking liquid into a bowl and let it settle. Separately, put one or two finely chopped shallots in a small saucepan with a glass of white wine, let it reduce, add the mussel liquid, pouring it slowly so as not to include the sediment that has settled; reduce it by half; bind this sauce with a small spoonful of flour worked with a piece of butter the size of a walnut; season, add lemon juice, a pinch of parsley and pour this sauce over the mussels which you will have arranged on a dish. Serve very hot.
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 |
|---|---|
| rascla | to scrape |
| pastenargo | carrot |
| cebo | onion |
| laurié | bay leaf |
| juvert | parsley |
| vin | white wine |
| couquiho | shell |
| eschaloto | shallots |
| farino | flour |
| burre | butter |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 142, page 75. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.