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Coquilles of Scallops, Indienne
Place a pound and a half very fresh scallops in a pint of boiling water with half teaspoon salt and boil for five minutes. Drain, and keep a gill of the liquor for further use.
Mix in a saucepan one tablespoon butter with two tablespoons flour. Moisten with a gill milk, the liquor from the scallops and a half gill cream. Season with half teaspoon salt, one saltspoon cayenne pepper and a half teaspoon curry powder; mix well until it comes to a boil. Add the drained scallops, mix a little, then cook for five minutes. Divide the preparation evenly into six table shells, lay them on a tin, spread two tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese over, set in oven for ten minutes, remove and serve.
A straightforward creamed scallop gratin, but the original cooks the scallops three times over. That is the one thing worth changing.
- The hinge: total cooking timeFive minutes boiling, five minutes in the sauce, then ten in the oven will leave scallops springy and weeping liquid. Poach them 1 to 2 minutes only, until just opaque, fold them into the finished sauce off the heat, and use the oven only long enough to brown the cheese.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is 1/2 cup (4 fl oz), so you want 1/2 cup of the scallop liquor, 1/2 cup milk and 1/4 cup cream. A saltspoon is about 1/4 teaspoon, which is a generous amount of cayenne for six shells.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. Use 425F, or better, a broiler for 2 to 3 minutes until the Parmesan is spotted brown.
- "Table shells"Real scallop shells sold for service, or the tinned metal coquilles of the period. Shallow 4-inch gratin dishes or ramekins do the same job; set them on a sheet pan as directed since they tip easily.
- Scallops"Very fresh" here means just that: not stale, and in this period not frozen. As a modern matter, buy dry-packed scallops if you can; wet-packed ones treated with phosphate release water and will thin the sauce badly.
- The sauceOne tablespoon butter to two of flour looks flour-heavy by volume, though by weight the two are nearly equal. Tip the butter up slightly if you want a smoother velouté, and it is worth cooking the roux a minute before moistening.
- Curry powderHalf a teaspoon across six servings is a whisper, in keeping with the period's idea of "Indienne." Bloom it in the butter with the flour rather than stirring it into the finished sauce, or it will taste raw and dusty.
- YieldSix shells as written, which is a first course. For four as a light main, divide into four dishes and add a little more sauce.
Coquille is simply French for shell, and the name describes the vessel rather than the dish: any creamed, sauced mixture run into a scallop shell and browned under cheese or crumbs was a coquille, whether it held scallops, lobster, salmon or leftover chicken. The tag à l'indienne in French professional cooking of this era conventionally implied curry seasoning, and often an accompaniment of rice; the curry powder itself was a commercial blend that had been a fixture of European and American kitchens since the nineteenth century and was used in the classical repertoire as a single flavouring note, measured in fractions of a teaspoon. The "Indian" element, then, is a French sauce with curry powder stirred in, served in a shell. Baked shells of this kind were popular partly because they suited the service of the day, individually portioned, browned to order, and requiring no carving at table.