Recipe no. 70 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 44.
Ingredients
- whiting
- single cream
- double cream
- salt
- pepper
- nutmeg
- water
- flour
- mussels
- onion
- thyme
- bay leaf
- white wine
- butter
- broth
- egg yolks
- lemon
Preparation
- Preparing the quenellesTake about half a kilo of whiting flesh, pound it in a mortar; once it is finely pounded, work in, using the pestle, a quarter litre of single cream or double cream; season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and pass through a sieve; shape it into quenelles rolled on the floured table, in the form of large corks, lightly flattened. Drop them into boiling, salted water. Let them simmer a few minutes at the side of the heat without boiling: this is called poaching. When they are firm to the touch, take them out to pass them through cold water and then drain them. Put them in a wide, shallow saucepan, buttered beforehand; moisten with a spoonful of broth and keep warm.
- Cooking the musselsSeparately, after washing a few dozen mussels well, put them in a saucepan with a finely sliced onion, a sprig of thyme and a bay leaf; add half a glass of white wine, cover the saucepan and set it over a lively heat. When the mussels are open, strain the cooking liquid into a bowl and, taking them out of their shells, place them on a plate.
- Toulon sauce and platingIn another saucepan, put a piece of butter the size of a walnut, melt it; add a spoonful of flour, stir over the heat without letting it brown, and add liquid with the mussel cooking liquid and a few spoonfuls of broth, to obtain a fairly thick sauce; add two egg yolks mixed with a squeeze of lemon juice and a piece of butter the size of a walnut. Work it briskly over the heat without letting it boil, and throw in the mussels; arrange the quenelles all around the dish, garnish the middle with the mussels and coat the quenelles with the sauce.
Reboul's text
Take about half a kilo of whiting flesh, pound it in a mortar; once it is finely pounded, work in, using the pestle, a quarter litre of single cream or double cream; season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and pass through a sieve; shape it into quenelles rolled on the floured table, in the form of large corks, lightly flattened. Drop them into boiling, salted water. Let them simmer a few minutes at the side of the heat without boiling: this is called poaching. When they are firm to the touch, take them out to pass them through cold water and then drain them. Put them in a wide, shallow saucepan, buttered beforehand; moisten with a spoonful of broth and keep warm.
Separately, after washing a few dozen mussels well, put them in a saucepan with a finely sliced onion, a sprig of thyme and a bay leaf; add half a glass of white wine, cover the saucepan and set it over a lively heat. When the mussels are open, strain the cooking liquid into a bowl and, taking them out of their shells, place them on a plate.
In another saucepan, put a piece of butter the size of a walnut, melt it; add a spoonful of flour, stir over the heat without letting it brown, and add liquid with the mussel cooking liquid and a few spoonfuls of broth, to obtain a fairly thick sauce; add two egg yolks mixed with a squeeze of lemon juice and a piece of butter the size of a walnut. Work it briskly over the heat without letting it boil, and throw in the mussels; arrange the quenelles all around the dish, garnish the middle with the mussels and coat the quenelles with the sauce.
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 |
|---|---|
| raviolo | quenelles |
| piela | to pound |
| mourtié | mortar |
| muscado | nutmeg |
| ensacado | rolled |
| enlugra | to poach |
| deslega | to mix with liquid |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 70, page 44. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.