Recipe no. 192 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 96.
Ingredients
- mussels
- clams
- onion
- carrot
- thyme
- bay leaf
- parsley
- water
- pepper
- spiny lobster
- prawns
- butter
- flour
- egg yolks
- lemon
- sea urchin puree
- rice
- broth
Preparation
- Cooking the seafoodPut into a saucepan two dozen mussels and a dozen clams with a sliced onion and carrot, thyme, bay leaf, parsley in sprigs, a glass of water and a few peppercorns. Cover the saucepan and set it on the heat. Once the mussels have opened, after two minutes of boiling, pour the broth into an earthenware bowl to let it settle, and decant it by straining.
- Preparing the garnishesTake the mussels out of their shells and trim them. Cut the tail of a cooked spiny lobster into dice and trim the tails of two dozen prawns.
- SauceWith a lump of butter the size of a walnut and a dessert spoon of flour cooked over the heat without letting it brown, then moistened with two decilitres, that is about a glass, of the mussel cooking liquid, a thick sauce is obtained; this sauce is then bound with two egg yolks mixed with the juice of a lemon and a few spoonfuls of sea urchin puree.
- CompositionPour half of this sauce over the garnish of mussels, clams, etc., which you will have put into a saucepan, and the other half into another small saucepan, thinning it with a few spoonfuls of mussel cooking liquid or broth.
- RicePrepare a rizoto as indicated in the previous article, moistening it with the mussel cooking liquid. If this moistening should be insufficient, it would be completed with water or broth. The rice being cooked quite firm, garnish it as indicated for rizoto financiere. The garnish of mussels, clams, prawns, etc., being well enclosed, and the mould well filled, turn it out onto a platter and pour the reserved sauce around it.
Reboul's text
Put into a saucepan two dozen mussels and a dozen clams with a sliced onion and carrot, thyme, bay leaf, parsley in sprigs, a glass of water and a few peppercorns.
Cover the saucepan and set it on the heat. Once the mussels have opened, after two minutes of boiling, pour the broth into an earthenware bowl to let it settle, and decant it by straining.
Take the mussels out of their shells and trim them. Cut the tail of a cooked spiny lobster into dice and trim the tails of two dozen prawns.
With a lump of butter the size of a walnut and a dessert spoon of flour cooked over the heat without letting it brown, then moistened with two decilitres, that is about a glass, of the mussel cooking liquid, a thick sauce is obtained; this sauce is then bound with two egg yolks mixed with the juice of a lemon and a few spoonfuls of sea urchin puree.
Pour half of this sauce over the garnish of mussels, clams, etc., which you will have put into a saucepan, and the other half into another small saucepan, thinning it with a few spoonfuls of mussel cooking liquid or broth.
Prepare a rizoto as indicated in the previous article, moistening it with the mussel cooking liquid.
If this moistening should be insufficient, it would be completed with water or broth.
The rice being cooked quite firm, garnish it as indicated for rizoto financiere.
The garnish of mussels, clams, prawns, etc., being well enclosed, and the mould well filled, turn it out onto a platter and pour the reserved sauce around it.
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 |
|---|---|
| trasvuja | decant |
| langousto | spiny lobster |
| carambot | prawns |
| para | trim |
| Julian | julienne |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 192, page 96. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.