Oeufs a la Niege
Favourite Recipes
JANE GRIGSON was a self-taught cook – as, doubtless, are most of her readers – she learnt how to prepare food from consulting books or from friends and from her family. Jane was principally interested in domestic food and home cooking and when describing how she cooks she is a comforting presence in one’s kitchen. She is always cheerful and you can almost hear her peals of laughter at the numerous idiocies of modern life.
Compared with recipes written by a chef, Jane is especially alert to the unexpected or puzzling elements sometimes encountered when cooking from a published recipe. “If the filling rises alarmingly, do not worry. It will fall when you take it out of the oven” is a reassuring footnote to a recipe for Old-fashioned Apricot Tart. And how endearing of an author to confess that she always offers up a silent prayer when baking a souffle. In the course of writing her seven principal works Jane researched and tested thousands of recipes. Here, we have chosen some of our favourites.
Oeufs a la Niege
Chosen by Clarissa Hyman
From Food with the Famous, originally published in 2018.
It's hard to have a favourite Jane Grigson book, but 'Food with the Famous' is one that I've dipped in and out of for so many years my old Penguin copy has completely fallen apart. But I still love the blend of acute culinary observation, gentle wit, literary context and ongoing relevance of the recipes she includes.
Ingredients
8 large eggs
400 ml (14 fl oz) milk
200 ml (6 fl oz) cream
half a vanilla pod
vanilla sugar
Method
The dessert at Gervaise’s squalid wedding wedding meal – an ‘extra’ which caused argument when the bill was presented – was ‘oeufs a la neige’, eggs in the snow. Being considered rather grand, it was greeted with a respectful pause, though as it turned out the egg whites had been overcooked (take warning).
There is some argument in France as to whether you should poach the egg whites in the milk destined for the custard. Or whether you should first make the custard and then poach the whites in water. I think the second method is easer, and it seems to make no difference to the flavour.
Separate the eggs into two basins. Bring milk, cream, vanilla pod and 125g (4oz) sugar slowly to the boil. Whisk it into the beaten egg yolks, then pour the mixture back into the pan and cook over a low heat until the custard thickens, coating the back of the spoon. Taste and add more sugar if you like. Strain into a large shallow dish, leave to cool, then chill in the refrigerator.
Whisk the whites until stiff, then put in 450g (15 oz) vanilla sugar, bit by bit, as if you were making meringue. Put on a wide pan of water to boil. Adjust to simmering point. Poach ‘eggs’ of the meringue, shaping them with two tablespoons and slipping them into the water. Turn with a skimmer. Place them, sell drained, in a pile in the middle of the custard. Tryout an experimental ‘egg’ first, to see how you go: do not despair if the final pile looks a little raggy. Cook some sugar with a little water to a golden brown caramel and dribble it down the ‘eggs’ – this turns the dessert into ‘ile flottante’ or floating island.
Quinces baked in the French style (Coings au four)
Favourite Recipes
JANE GRIGSON was a self-taught cook – as, doubtless, are most of her readers – she learnt how to prepare food from consulting books or from friends and from her family. Jane was principally interested in domestic food and home cooking and when describing how she cooks she is a comforting presence in one’s kitchen. She is always cheerful and you can almost hear her peals of laughter at the numerous idiocies of modern life.
Compared with recipes written by a chef, Jane is especially alert to the unexpected or puzzling elements sometimes encountered when cooking from a published recipe. “If the filling rises alarmingly, do not worry. It will fall when you take it out of the oven” is a reassuring footnote to a recipe for Old-fashioned Apricot Tart. And how endearing of an author to confess that she always offers up a silent prayer when baking a souffle. In the course of writing her seven principal works Jane researched and tested thousands of recipes. Here, we have chosen some of our favourites.
Quinces baked in the French style (Coings au four)
Chosen by Sally Holloway
From Jane Grigson's Fruit Book, originally published in 1982.
This recipe is a family favourite. I’m not sure I would have discovered it if we hadn’t had a glut of quinces on our tree a few years ago and were casting around for ‘ways to use up quinces’. It is completely delicious and simple but it is one of Jane’s less discursive recipes, buried amid a whole host of quince recipes (of how many cook books can you say that?). I’d love to have known more about Isaac Newton’s love for quinces – and, given the size of them, one can only speculate what might have happened had a quince fallen upon his head … (Note - baked quince was Sir Isaac Newton's favourite pudding)
Ingredients
Six to eight quinces
Lemon juice
150g (5oz 2/3cup) caster sugar
100g (3.5oz scant 1/2 cup) lightly salted or unsalted butter
3 generous tablespoons (1/4 cup) whipping or double cream
Method
Allow one for each person. Peel and hollow out the cores of six to eight quinces, being careful not to pierce through the bottom of the fruit. Sprinkle each one with lemon juice as you go. Stand the quinces in a buttered gratin dish.
Mix together to a cream the caster sugar, butter, and cream. Stuff the quinces with this mixture – if there is some left, add halfway through the cooking. Top each quince with a level tablespoon of sugar and bake at gas 5/190˚ (375˚ F) until the quinces are tender. Serve with cream and sugar.
Stuffed cabbage in the Trôo style
Favourite Recipes
JANE GRIGSON was a self-taught cook – as, doubtless, are most of her readers – she learnt how to prepare food from consulting books or from friends and from her family. Jane was principally interested in domestic food and home cooking and when describing how she cooks she is a comforting presence in one’s kitchen. She is always cheerful and you can almost hear her peals of laughter at the numerous idiocies of modern life.
Compared with recipes written by a chef, Jane is especially alert to the unexpected or puzzling elements sometimes encountered when cooking from a published recipe. “If the filling rises alarmingly, do not worry. It will fall when you take it out of the oven” is a reassuring footnote to a recipe for Old-fashioned Apricot Tart. And how endearing of an author to confess that she always offers up a silent prayer when baking a souffle. In the course of writing her seven principal works Jane researched and tested thousands of recipes. Here, we have chosen some of our favourites.
Stuffed cabbage in the Trôo style
Chosen by Lucy Hambidge
From Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book, originally published in 1999.
Madame Glon lived in great simplicity next door to Jane and Geoffrey in Trôo and used to look after the cave for them when they weren't there. My mother also tried to mess around with this recipe (apples, onions etc), but nothing ever tasted better than the original. A firm favourite in our house, and good with mashed potatoes.
Ingredients
1½ - 2 kg cabbage
¾ kg good sausages or sausagemeat
Salt, pepper, butter
Method
Cut the cabbage across into slices, and blanch it for five minutes in hard-boiling, salted water. Drain it and run it under the tap to prevent further cooking at this stage. Butter an ovenproof or flameproof pot (according to whether you intend to cook the dish on top of the stove or in the oven). Put in a third of the cabbage. Remove the skin from the sausages if necessary, and put half over the cabbage. Then repeat, and cover with a final layer of cabbage. Season each layer as you go. Dot over with butter and cover tightly. Bake at 150°C/Gas Mark 2 for two and a half hours, or simmer on top of stove very gently. With a Chinese cabbage, you would need to two to two and a half hours.
