Recipe no. 121 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 65.
Ingredients
- tuna steak, 1.5 kilos
- eel flesh
- salt
- pepper
- nutmeg
- spices
- bread
- butter
- eggs
- strips of eel fat
- pieces of trout
- onion
- carrot
- fish bones
- white wine
- water
- tomato puree
- flour
- truffle
- paper
Preparation
- Preparing the stuffingHave a fine tuna steak of about 1.5 kilos. Take half of it, from the fattier side, and cut it into pieces; put it on a plate with about the same volume of eel flesh stripped of its bone, season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and spices; pound it, adding a piece of soaked bread of about 200 grams, after having squeezed the water out of it well; add a piece of butter the size of an egg, then 2 egg yolks. When the stuffing is nice and smooth, pass it through a sieve and set it aside.
- Preparing the pieces of tunaSeparately, cut the rest of the tuna into 3 or 4 square pieces, lard these with a few strips of eel fat that you have reserved and a few pieces of trout. Put these pieces of tuna in a saucepan with a piece of butter the size of a walnut, an onion and a carrot; cover and let it cook slowly, turning the pieces.
- Cooking liquidYou will have beforehand browned in butter, with sliced carrots and onions, all the bones and trimmings of the fish; then add liquid, half white wine half water, with seasoning. When your tuna is nicely browned on each side and the pan juices begin to catch, add a spoonful of tomato puree, then the bone stock; let it cook half an hour covered, then take the tuna out onto a dish and let it cool. Let the sauce reduce by half and strain it into a bowl, to use later.
- Preparing the pastryPrepare a pastry as we are about to describe. Put a pound of flour on the table arranged in a ring, place in the middle three egg yolks, 200 grams of butter, a glass of water and a pinch of salt. The dough should be firm and above all mixed fairly briskly without being overworked. It is usually prepared a few hours ahead, kept cool before use.
- Filling the mouldTake three quarters of it, shape it round, roll it out to a thickness of about 6 millimetres. Butter the inside of a pie mould that you have chosen and place it on a baking sheet. Carefully press the pastry inside so that it adheres well to the sides and takes their shape well. Put a layer of the prepared stuffing about 2 centimetres thick on the bottom and all around, arrange the pieces of tuna in the middle putting a fine truffle between each; cover with the rest of the stuffing, moisten the inner edge of the pastry with a brush dipped in water; then cover the stuffing with the rest of the pastry, rolled out to the same thickness as the first, seal the edges well by pressing them with thumb and forefinger, trim the excess pastry evenly, pinch the edges with a pastry pincer.
- Cooking and finishingGlaze with a beaten egg, make a hole in the middle; insert into it a piece of stiff paper rolled up to serve as a chimney, which will let the steam escape, since without this precaution it would burst the pastry during cooking. Put it in a moderate oven and give it about 2 hours of cooking, take it out then and let it cool; then pour, through the opening made, the prepared sauce, which should be set into jelly, and which you will have melted. Keep it cool until serving time. It should only be served the next day.
Reboul's text
Have a fine tuna steak of about 1.5 kilos. Take half of it, from the fattier side, and cut it into pieces; put it on a plate with about the same volume of eel flesh stripped of its bone, season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and spices; pound it, adding a piece of soaked bread of about 200 grams, after having squeezed the water out of it well; add a piece of butter the size of an egg, then 2 egg yolks.
When the stuffing is nice and smooth, pass it through a sieve and set it aside. Separately, cut the rest of the tuna into 3 or 4 square pieces, lard these with a few strips of eel fat that you have reserved and a few pieces of trout. Put these pieces of tuna in a saucepan with a piece of butter the size of a walnut, an onion and a carrot; cover and let it cook slowly, turning the pieces.
You will have beforehand browned in butter, with sliced carrots and onions, all the bones and trimmings of the fish; then add liquid, half white wine half water, with seasoning. When your tuna is nicely browned on each side and the pan juices begin to catch, add a spoonful of tomato puree, then the bone stock; let it cook half an hour covered, then take the tuna out onto a dish and let it cool.
Let the sauce reduce by half and strain it into a bowl, to use later.
Prepare a pastry as we are about to describe. Put a pound of flour on the table arranged in a ring, place in the middle three egg yolks, 200 grams of butter, a glass of water and a pinch of salt. The dough should be firm and above all mixed fairly briskly without being overworked. It is usually prepared a few hours ahead, kept cool before use.
Take three quarters of it, shape it round, roll it out to a thickness of about 6 millimetres. Butter the inside of a pie mould that you have chosen and place it on a baking sheet. Carefully press the pastry inside so that it adheres well to the sides and takes their shape well.
Put a layer of the prepared stuffing about 2 centimetres thick on the bottom and all around, arrange the pieces of tuna in the middle putting a fine truffle between each; cover with the rest of the stuffing, moisten the inner edge of the pastry with a brush dipped in water; then cover the stuffing with the rest of the pastry, rolled out to the same thickness as the first, seal the edges well by pressing them with thumb and forefinger, trim the excess pastry evenly, pinch the edges with a pastry pincer.
Glaze with a beaten egg, make a hole in the middle; insert into it a piece of stiff paper rolled up to serve as a chimney, which will let the steam escape, since without this precaution it would burst the pastry during cooking. Put it in a moderate oven and give it about 2 hours of cooking, take it out then and let it cool; then pour, through the opening made, the prepared sauce, which should be set into jelly, and which you will have melted.
Keep it cool until serving time. It should only be served the next day.
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 |
|---|---|
| roudello | steak |
| farço | stuffing |
| piela | to pound |
| burre | butter |
| anguielo | eel |
| lardoun | strips of fat |
| troucho | trout |
| muscle | pie mould |
| daureja | to glaze |
| four | oven |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 121, page 65. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.