122. Medici Eggs.
Four fresh eggs, 500 grams of spinach, 150 grams of butter, two deciliters of milk, i.e. a glass of cooking, five tablespoons of thick, fresh milk cream, 50 grams of grated Gruyere cheese, 20 grams of flour, a tablespoon of vinegar, salt, pepper.

Clean, wash the spinach and drain it. Boil your milk and let it cool. Take another saucepan, deep but quite small, in which you melt 40 grams of fresh butter over moderate heat, then throw in the 20 grams of flour which you mix in, stirring with a wooden spoon. Do not let it scorch. As soon as the mixture is golden brown, remove to the corner of the stove.

Then pour in the milk, not boiling but quite hot, taking care to stir with the wooden spoon. When all the milk is poured in, return to full heat (moderate heat) and always stir your sauce while it cooks, which takes seven to eight minutes; add salt at this time.

Add part of the milk cream (two tablespoons only) to the sauce spoonful by spoonful, stir constantly and add the pepper. Pass the sauce through a fairly fine sieve and return it to the deep spouted saucepan.

Then place this saucepan in a frying pan containing hot water and put everything over moderate heat. Stir the sauce again with the wooden spoon for six to seven minutes. Remove the frying pan from the heat, divide 20 grams of butter into small pieces and take half of the grated Gruyere; you add 25 grams of Gruyere cheese to the sauce, then mixing well the small pieces of butter that you sprinkle on the surface. Let the finished sauce stay warm in the pan while you prepare the spinach and eggs.

Cook the spinach in boiling salted water, taking care not to put it in a tinned pan, which would turn it dark blue. A maximum of ten minutes of cooking is enough; remove them from the water and drain them in a colander until they are cool enough.

Take them in small handfuls, squeezing them well between your hands to release the water. Chop them very finely. Return them to high heat in a flat saucepan, lightly salt them and leave them on the heat for five minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon, allowing the water to completely evaporate. When they are adequately dry, remove the frying pan to the corner of the stove. Put three spoonfuls of cream and 115 grams of butter in the spinach. Stir well to incorporate everything.

Take a gratin dish. Garnish the bottom with the spinach which forms a thick layer and keep this dish warm while you poach your eggs. Place your four poached eggs on the spinach layer.

Take the small, deep saucepan with a spout, where the Mornay sauce has been kept warm, and gently pour this sauce into the dish so that it covers the eggs and waters the spinach. Sprinkle everything with the remaining grated Gruyère cheese; then add, in small pieces, the 35 grams of butter. Place your dish in a very hot oven for three to four minutes, while it browns, and serve immediately with warm plates.

123. Fresh Indian-style herring.
four medium-sized milk herrings, 50 grams of butter or vegan, two egg yolks, half a liter of well-defatted broth, 10 grams of kari, an onion, two or three medium-sized mushrooms, 15 grams of flour , 5 grams of celery, a tablespoon of lemon juice, a sprig of thyme, half a bay leaf, salt.

Scale your herring, remove the gills, wash each fish well and dry them. Split the herrings from the back along their entire length and remove the bone. Remove the milts and put them aside on a plate. Cut off the heads and the ends of the tails.

Indian sauce.
Peel the onion and cut it into thin rings. Peel and wash the mushrooms; cut them into small pieces, heads and tails. In a saucepan, put 50 grams of butter and place over a good heat. When the butter is melted, add the onion rings, mushroom pieces, celery, thyme and half a bay leaf. Fry these condiments. Add 15 grams of flour, with the wooden spoon, stir well, add the kari powder and continue mixing.

Then pour in the broth little by little, stirring constantly, and continue until the sauce starts to boil well. Then remove the pan to the corner of the fire so that it boils very gently for 20 minutes.

Culsson des milts.
In another saucepan put a good quantity of water and salt it a little. When this water begins to boil, add the lemon juice. When the boiling is strong, put the milts of your herrings into this water, and let cook for five minutes. Remove them with the skimmer and place them on a sieve so that they drain.

Cooking the fillets.
Once the sauce has cooked, pass it through a fine sieve; it should be a little clear. Put it back in the same pan, where there should not be the slightest residue of the condiments; place the utensil over the heat, so that the sauce will quickly boil well. Place the herring flesh in a frying pan. Pour the boiling sauce over these fillets and let them cook over moderate heat for a quarter of an hour in this sauce, without covering the pan.

Place the milts and fillets on the serving dish. Keep the dish warm. Beat the two egg yolks in a bowl with a fork. Boil your sauce for a few moments, stirring to reduce it. Remove the frying pan from the heat, mix the beaten egg yolks into the sauce. Once the sauce is finished and thick, pour it into the dish over the milt and herring fillets. Serve immediately with warm plates.

124. Normandy potatoes.
500 grams of new long potatoes, the pink kind and quite small, two tablespoons of butter, salt, two tablespoons of milk cream, one tablespoon of chopped parsley.

Remove the skin from the potatoes by scraping and peeling them. Soak them for twenty to thirty minutes in cold water and dry them.

Put two tablespoons of butter in a saucepan. When the butter is melted but not too hot, add the potatoes; cover the pan, and cook over a very low heat. After a while the potatoes release water, which, mixed with the melted butter, forms a sort of thick broth in which they must cook slowly. Keep them well turned, stirring the pan from time to time. When they are tender, you remove the lid from the pan and finish cooking without letting your potatoes brown. Salt, drain the melted butter remaining in the bottom of the pan and sprinkle them with two tablespoons of thick milk cream,

Then you sprinkle them with a tablespoon of chopped parsley. You sauté them two or three times in the cream over as low a heat as possible and immediately serve them.

125. Poached eggs with chicory.
Four eggs, two beautiful curly chicories, 125 grams of butter, stale bread crumbs to make four croutons, a tablespoon of vinegar, fine and coarse salt, pepper.

Peel the chicory and wash them carefully, cook them for ten minutes in boiling salted water. Remove and drain. Squeeze them and sprinkle them with fresh water, drain again, then chop them very finely.

Put 100 grams of butter in a saucepan, place the chopped chicory there. Put on low heat and salt; do not cover the pan. While cooking, stir from time to time with a wooden spoon. Cook for ten minutes.

Take a round, hollow serving dish, which you have kept warm. Garnish the bottom with this chicory dressing. Keep the dish warm.

With the remaining butter, fry the stale bread crumbs cut into four flat, round pieces, one centimeter thick, which you place on the chicory garnish. Poach your eggs and put one on each crouton in the serving dish. Lightly pepper the surface of each egg and serve immediately.

126. Chicken tartare.
A young, semi-fat chicken, a piece of butter, half a bay leaf, parsley, chopped spring onions, salt, pepper, two egg yolks, bread crumbs, two shallots, remoulade sauce.
Pluck, flambé and gut the chicken carefully. Remove the head, neck and legs. Split your chicken from the stomach side, down to the rump; open it, flatten it with the cleaver, without breaking the bones too much.

In a large frying pan, put a good piece of butter, half a bay leaf, chopped parsley and spring onions. Add salt and pepper. As soon as the butter melts, add the chicken and only let it cook halfway. At this time, remove it.

Dissolve two egg yolks with the melted butter which has just been used for this cooking and which has remained in the frying pan. Dip the chicken in this mixture, so that it is well soaked. Then, bread it with bread crumbs, mixed with two finely chopped shallots. Now put on the grill, over low heat; turn it over so that it takes on a nice color on each side. Serve it with a cold tartar sauce, otherwise known as remoulade.

Remoulade sauce. Two egg yolks, a tablespoon of mustard, a little salt, lemon juice, oil, a teaspoon of chopped shallots and as much parsley.

This sauce is usually served cold. Put two raw egg yolks, a tablespoon of mustard and a little salt in a large bowl. With a wooden spoon, always turn this mixture on the same side, as if making mayonnaise, at the same time incorporate first, drop by drop, then in a small continuous stream, good olive oil, and time occasionally a little lemon juice.

Continue doing this until you have the required amount of sauce. So add a teaspoon of chopped shallots, and as much chopped parsley. You can, if you want, add either chopped gherkins or very finely chopped capers. You can replace the lemon juice with vinegar. This sauce should be kept a little thick.