Weather: If it rains on Saint
Médard’s day, there will be another forty days of wet weather.
If on the eighth of June it
rain
It foretells a wet harvest,
man sain.
If it rains on St. Médard's
day, it will rain for forty days, unless it is dry on St. Barnabas [and then
all bets are off]
and
If it rains on St. Médard's day, there will be a wet harvest.
and
If it rains on the day of Saint
Médard, we will not have wine nor lard.
[oh, boo! No rain! No rain!]
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The Mind has its own goddess
too. I note a sanctuary
Was vowed to Mind, during
the terror of war with you,
Perfidious Carthage. You
broke the peace, and astonished
By the consul’s death, all
feared the Moorish army.
Fear had driven out hope,
when the Senate made their vows
To Mind, and immediately she
was better disposed to them.
The day when the vows to the
goddess were fulfilled
Is separated by six days
from the approaching Ides.
Today, the ancient Romans
invoked Mens, the female personification of the mind. Later she became a goddess of the mind and right thinking,
with a sanctuary on the Capitol.
The object of her worship, according to Sir William Smith, was that the
citizens might always be guided by a right spirit.
Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Biography, Mythology, and Geography (1871), p. 502
I think this is a perfect
day, in the midst of the season when many are calling upon their (probably depleted) brain reserves
to pass tests and competitions, to serve Brain Food, which to me has always
meant fish and shellfish. And
there is no better way to get a goodly variety of brain food than by enjoying
BOUILLABAISSE
A true bouillabaisse should
contain at least eight different kinds of fish/shellfish, and the fish should
be a mix of those considered heavy (cod, haddock, sea bass) and more delicate
types (sole, flounder, perch).
Traditional bouillabaisse includes eel, but I am not fond of eel, and
always leave it out. I’m also not
good with lobsters, so any lobster meat added is already removed from the
shells and merely heated through.
That is not traditional, though, so I will add the directions for
lobsters.
As with all good peasant
dishes, the amounts are general, as are the ingredients – use what you have and what you like.
Fish and shellfish
Keeping your light and heavy
fish separate, cut 3 pounds of mixed fish into serving sized chunks.
If you are adding eel, you
already know how to prepare it, and how much you want. Cut it into 3-inch pieces.
If you are adding lobster,
split 2 pounds of them down the middle, head to tail, on the underside and
remove the intestines. Break off
the claws and crack them. Cut the
tail and body into pieces.
Wash 3 dozen clams.
Devein and shell 1 pound of
shrimp.
Vegetables
Thoroughly clean 3 leeks and
cut the white portions into small pieces.
Peel and chop 2 large onions
and 3 garlic cloves.
Peel and seed 3 tomatoes (I
use nice, large Roma tomatoes) or substitute 2 cups of tomato juice.
Make a bouquet garni: into a
cheesecloth bag, put 1 teaspoon of thyme, 1 bay leaf, 1 tablespoon of chopped
parsley, ½ tablespoon of chopped celery
leaves, and 1 teaspoon of rosemary.
If you’d rather add the herbs without the cheesecloth bag, then do so.
Dissolve a pinch of saffron
in a cup of dry white wine. Save
the remaining wine for dissolving the cook later, or use it to give her courage in facing lobsters.
In a large cooking pot or
kettle, heat 1/3 cup of olive oil and add the vegetables (including the
tomatoes, but not the tomato juice), cooking them for a few minutes. If you are not using the bouquet garni,
add the teaspoon of thyme now.
Otherwise, drop in the bouquet garni. Arrange the heavy fish (and the eel if you are using it) on
the vegetables and cook for about 8 minutes.
Arrange the delicate fish
and the lobster pieces on the previous layer; pour over it the wine mixed with
saffron, and season with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste. Cover the whole mess with fish stock,
clam broth, or water (or all three).
If you didn’t use tomatoes, add the tomato juice now; if you didn’t use
the bouquet garni, add the remaining herbs now. Bring to a boil, reduce heat,
and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
Add the clams and the shrimp
(this is where I also add the lobster meat which someone has already
thoughtfully removed from the shell); cook until the clam shells open.
That’s it. Spoon the ingredients into bowls
(large, flat soup plates show off your masterpiece nicely) and ladle broth on
top of each serving. Serve with
thick slices of French Bread, toasted or not, to aid in getting every delicious morsel.
Here’s to your brain, and right
thinking.
