Recipe no. 51 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 34.
Ingredients
- a chopped onion
- a chopped leek
- a few tablespoons of olive oil
- a peeled and finely chopped tomato
- 5 or 6 small spiny lobsters or sea crayfish (cigales)
- as many crabs
- 2 litres of boiling water
- bouquet garni (celery, parsley, thyme, bay leaf)
- pepper and a little salt
- 500 grams of rice
- 2 cloves of garlic
- a pinch of saffron
- 2 dozen mussels
- 2 dozen clams
- a drop of water
Preparation
- BrowningBrown the chopped onion and leek in the olive oil.
- Adding shellfish and tomatoAdd the tomato, the cigales and the crabs, stir a few turns in the saucepan with the wooden spoon, then moisten with the boiling water.
- Cooking the riceAdd the bouquet garni, pepper, salt lightly; when the boil is well under way, add the rice, garlic and saffron, cover and let cook.
- Preparing mussels and clamsWash the mussels and clams, make them open in a covered saucepan with a drop of water, tossing from time to time, then shell them.
- AssemblingPut the mussels and clams into the rice, add their water decanted of its grit; the rice should be cooked in 20 minutes, adding a little water if it were too thick.
Reboul's text
Put into a saucepan a chopped onion and leek, with a few tablespoons of olive oil, brown for a moment. Add a peeled and finely chopped tomato, 5 or 6 small spiny lobsters or sea crayfish called cigales, as many crabs from which you will have removed the small legs; let it turn a few times in the saucepan while stirring with a wooden spoon; moisten with 2 litres of boiling water. Add a bouquet garni made of a sprig of celery and parsley, thyme, a bay leaf tied together, the necessary pepper and a little salt; when the boil is well under way, add 500 grams of rice, 2 cloves of garlic and a pinch of saffron; cover and let cook.
Separately, wash 2 dozen mussels cleanly, put them into a saucepan with as many clams and a drop of water. Cover the saucepan, set it on the heat, and toss the mussels from time to time. A few minutes are enough to make them open; then empty into some vessel the water they have given off. Take the mussels and clams out of their shells and put them into the rice; add their water, all or in part, after carefully decanting it to remove the grit that settles at the bottom.
The rice should be cooked in 20 minutes; if it were too thick, you would add a little water, or some of the mussel cooking liquid if any remained; but with the proportions given it should be just right once cooked.
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 |
|---|---|
| cebo | onion |
| pòrri | leek |
| òli | olive oil |
| cigalo | cigale (sea crayfish) |
| favouio | crab |
| amaneu | bouquet garni |
| ris | rice |
| safran | saffron |
| cuié | wooden spoon |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 51, page 34. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.