In the Beginning

In the beginning there was a boat on the River Seine in Paris...........

I can see Gilka, standing in the tiny kitchen on the boat. She is making a vinaigrette, a dressing for the salad, in a large bowl. Into the bowl she puts a teaspoon of Maille moutarde de Dijon, a pinch of salt, a tablespoon of red wine vinegar, 4 tablespoons of sunflower oil, a finely chopped spring onion and a tablespoon of very finely chopped parsley.

 'Very important ma cherie' she says stirring the dressing briskly. 'Nothing worse than getting pieces of parsley stuck in your false teeth at the dinner table!' 

Washed and dried green mignonette salad leaves go into the bowl on top of the dressing. 

Gilka places an egg in a small pan of cold water and brings the water to the boil. Just as it boils she removes the egg and places in under cold water. The egg is then removed from the shell and spooned onto the top of the salad in the bowl.

 The bowl of salad will only be tossed, slowly, and dare I say, lovingly, when everyone is seated at the table. It will be served as a simple first course. Often with comments from the various family members about the taste of the vinaigrette, the crispness or otherwise of the salad leaves or the lack of salt......

Gilka follows her Lyonnaise family tradition of serving a green salad before the main meal and not after, as a Parisian family would do.

We sometimes eat at a small table on the deck of the boat. It is summer and very pleasant watching the different boats going past on the river or glancing across to the marble statues among the trees in the Parc de St Cloud opposite. 

Gilka often prepares a number of simple salads which we eat with pieces of white baguette and some cheese, a camembert, or a piece of brie or a slice of cantal.

To make carrots rapees finely grate 3-4 large carrots. Stir in several tablespoons of vinaigrette made with an extra half teaspoon of mustard and a generous sprinkling of finely chopped parsley.  Gilka sometimes used Jacques favourite mustard flavoured with chopped tarragon leaves. Scatter over a handful of black olives.

Celeri remoulade is one of my favourites. I had never tasted celeriac before moving to Paris.

Finely grate a large, fine celeriac into a bowl. Stir in several tablespoons of mayonnaise made with extra Dijon mustard to taste.  Add a handful of finely chopped parsley.

Mayonnaise can easily be made by whisking two egg yolks, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of Maille Dijon  mustard into a bowl. Slowly whisk in, drop by drop, a quarter of  a cup of sunflower, canola or grapeseed oil or a mix of half olive oil with any of these. Then add the next quarter of a cup of oil in a thin stream, whisking well all the time to avoid curdling. 

Finally a squeeze of lemon juice or a little hot water can be added if the mayonnaise is too thick. This was my variation. The French family preferred their mayonnaise thick and flavoursome.

Every time we ate mayonnaise  in a meal with the family we would hear the story of Cesar, who had once drunk a litre of curdled mayonnaise so that his wife Mido would not be concerned that she had wasted half a litre of oil.