Cooking for Napoleon

When I got married in the early seventies, no one told me that it wasn't expected of me to cook like a restaurant chef. I was under the impression that you had to be able to cook the best dishes, and be as good as any restaurant chef. So that was what I aimed at for all my married years.

I struggled through all sorts of cook books, some good some really awful, I gathered whatever cooking information I could from any chef who crossed my path. I never gave up the idea of matching the skills of a restaurant chef though. I still can't understand why my husband prefers the simple, ordinary food, you know, the kind you eat just to get your stomach full. As I mastered the skills of good cooking I started to really enjoy myself and to get adventurous, and my husband wasn't too happy ... but I didn't budge because the kids loved it.

So I was cooking feverishly, hoping to match any chef on the planet, under the false impression that it was expected of me. Eventually I realized that the idea of getting fancy food was to dress up and go out, and find a good restaurant –  away from the wife's boring home cooking – and enjoy something special by candle light. But by then I've already managed to cook quite a number of excellent dishes, and restaurants didn't attract me so much.

Today, when someone sits down in a restaurant and opens the menu, he'll find that the main dishes are always about steaks. You can get steak with chips, or rice, of fritters, or vegetables, etc., but mostly steak. Back when I was twenty two the menu's looked a lot different. One would find classic dishes like Chicken Kiev, Bœuf Stroganoff, Faison à la Normande, Chicken Maryland, Fondue Bourguignonne, etcetera on the Menu then.

Today I want to share with you a little of all those years of cooking away at the stove. When something goes out of fashion, it does not mean it is useless. One should never throw away old recipies, because one day you'll grow tired of the new way of cooking, and you'll try all the old recipies again. And you'll be surprised at how delicious they are.

So here is one recipe I've kept all these years. It is one of those classic, tasty dishes – Poulet à la Marengo.

There is a history to this one. Napoleon Bonaparte's chef was faced with the task of providing a superb meal for his General on the field of battle. He was well supplied with fairly luxurious ingredients, but had only one cooking utensil. Everything was therefore cooked together and that way he created a dish that has won universal acclaim.

Hope you enjoy it as much as Napoleon did.

Poulet à la Marengo

You will need for 4 servings:

1 young frying chicken

½ oz flour

Seasoning

2 oz butter or oil

4 oz small mushrooms

2 tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato purée

¼ pint dry white wine

1 clove garlic

few olives

1 small lobster

To garnish:

slices of bread, 4 eggs, parsley

Joint the chicken and coat it in seasoned flour. Fry in the butter until golden brown. Heat the butter in a heavy saucepan, add the chicken and fry to brown on all sides. Add the mushrooms, chopped skinned tomatoes, and tomato purée. Blend this with the white wine and make sure it is smooth. Pour over the chicken, then add the chopped clove of garlic and seasoning. Cover the pan with a tight fitting lid and simmer gently for approximately 30 minutes. Add the olives and the prepared lobster pieces and heat gently for about 10 minutes. Do not overcook, otherwise the lobster will toughen. While the lobster is heating, fry neat triangles of bread and the eggs. Dish the chicken and lobster mixture on to a hot platter and top with the eggs, fried bread and chopped parsley.

The white wine can be replaced with a dry cider which will give a pleasing variation. If you don't have lobster, scallops can be used instead.