poulet, poulet

'Archiduc: the name given to French dishes inspired by Austro-Hungarian cuisine at the time of Belle Epoque.'

- Larousse Gastronomique

5. Poulet saute archiduc

Larousse tells me it's very Archiduc to cook things with onions, paprika, brandy, whisky, port and Madeira. I like this Archiduc stuff already. The preparation for chicken described in the poulet saute archiduc recipe is simple and, incidentally, repeated almost verbatim in the chicken entry (although the latter has a slight difference: a splash of stock is added with the cream when preparing the sauce).

The recipe starts off like many of Larousse's chicken recipes. You joint a chicken (I took the lazy route and bought half a dozen drumsticks) and saute the pieces in butter. When they're half done you add some pre-softened onions and the paprika (I opted for a mixture of hot paprika and smoked sweet paprika). When the chicken has cooked through, you set it aside and deglaze the pan with white wine (naturally, still a skint student, I bought six buck utility wine). You reduce the wine and then add--because this wouldn't be a French book without calls for more, more, more dairy fat--150 mL double cream. Reduce the cream and then add some lemon juice and, naturally, a knob of butter. The recipe suggests pairing the dish with cucumber.

6. cooking French beans

French beans are, in Australia at least, more commonly sold as green beans. Larousse suggests a simple preparation and offers a handful of suggestions for enlivening it--for example, you could puree the beans with cream or serve them with anchovies and garlic. I hated green beans as a kid but now I rather like them. They're cheap and easy to cook.

I've always followed Neil Perry's method for preparing green beans. In his excellent book good food, he recommends cooking them until 'all the starch has converted to sugar'. Larousse suggests a slightly shorter cooking time: 3-5 minutes for small beans. I've heard debate over whether one should salt the water when cooking beans (for both fresh and dried beans). Larousse settles the matter: use salt.

7 & 8. Preparation of cucumbers, cucumber salad

I've never thought of salad as involving a single vegetable. Tomato salad, in my experience, is, sure, dominated by tomatoes, but also features garlic and maybe red onion and possibly even basil. Larousse's cucumber salad, though, is a salad of cucumbers.

Oddly, I've never really bothered with cucumbers. No idea why, but I just don't buy them unless I find myself craving freshly made tzatziki--and, mostly, I'm happy with good quality, pre-prepared tzatziki. Anyway. The process is simple. You take cucumbers. You peel cucumbers. You split cucumbers in half lengthways. You de-seed cucumbers.

To make the salad, all you do is slice the cucumbers and season them generously (as they are pretty bland, after all) with mint leaves or vinaigrette.

9. Vinaigrette

Vinaigrette is one of those basic sauces that, I think, everyone should be able to prepare. What's simpler than combining salt with something acidic (say, vinegar or lemon juice), something fatty (say, olive oil or creme fraiche), salt and, perhaps, something else (herbs and/or garlic--Larousse says you could even use mustard).  You put everything in a jar (or, if you're like me, a cup), put the lid (or cling film) over the top and shake it to emulsify it. A couple of minutes work and you're done. Making vinaigrette is a piece of piss and will result in, for sure, a better product than any of that crap that comes in plastic bottles.

I followed Larousse's instruction of a 1:1 acid:fat ratio: the acid being utility white wine vinegar and the fat being utility extra virgin olive oil. I had some chives leftover from the baked potatoes so, naturally, my vinaigrette was destined before it was even born to be a chive vinaigrette (which, coincidentally, Larousse says works well with cucumber salad). I also added a single clove of garlic (crushed) and freshly ground black pepper. Perhaps I was missing the point of the salad but I wanted a vinaigrette with guts.

I think, overall, tonight's menu was okay. The arciduc sauce had a nice but mild hotnes. As for the chicken itself, I should have chosen a better cut: thighs, perhaps, as the connective tissue that runs along the bones didn't fully break down. The beans were crisp and got on well with the vinaigrette--perhaps moreso than the cucumber. The vinaigrette tasted good on its own and, I think, would work nicely in some salads, but the flavour of the cucumbers was too mild to stand up to it. I had too much acid in there. An extra glug or two of oil and I think I'd have had a nicer dressing.