Recipe no. 118 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 63.
Ingredients
- tuna steak, 3 centimetres
- salted water
- lemon
- anchovy fillets
- oil
- onions
- carrots
- lettuce hearts
- sorrel
- salt
- pepper
- white wine
Preparation
- Preparing the tunaTake a tuna steak 3 centimetres thick; blanch it in salted water with a squeeze of lemon juice and stud it with a few anchovy fillets.
- Initial cookingPut a few spoonfuls of oil, a few slices of onions and carrots in a saute pan or a small pot; put the tuna on top, cover the pan, set it over a moderate heat and let it sweat.
- Adding vegetablesTurn the steak, arrange around it a few lettuce hearts that you will have blanched, and, on top, a handful of sorrel; let it sweat a few more minutes covered and season with salt and pepper.
- FinishingWhen it begins to catch, that is, when the cooking liquid starts to stick, add liquid with a glass of white wine and let it cook thus for half an hour over a low heat. During this time turn the lettuces a few times without moving the tuna steak.
- ServingWhen ready to serve, arrange the sorrel in a heap on one end of the dish, the vegetables from the pan on the other, the tuna steak in the middle, the lettuces around it, and the juice poured over.
Reboul's text
Take a tuna steak 3 centimetres thick; blanch it in salted water with a squeeze of lemon juice and stud it with a few anchovy fillets.
Put a few spoonfuls of oil, a few slices of onions and carrots in a saute pan or a small pot; put the tuna on top, cover the pan, set it over a moderate heat and let it sweat.
Turn the steak, arrange around it a few lettuce hearts that you will have blanched, and, on top, a handful of sorrel; let it sweat a few more minutes covered and season with salt and pepper.
When it begins to catch, that is, when the cooking liquid starts to stick, add liquid with a glass of white wine and let it cook thus for half an hour over a low heat.
During this time turn the lettuces a few times without moving the tuna steak.
When ready to serve, arrange the sorrel in a heap on one end of the dish, the vegetables from the pan on the other, the tuna steak in the middle, the lettuces around it, and the juice poured over.
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 |
| blanqueja | to blanch |
| casseto | small pot |
| òli | oil |
| susa | to sweat |
| agradello | sorrel |
| bagna | to add liquid |
| vin | white wine |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 118, page 63. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.