September 09
Cardinal Richelieu's Birthday
 

Cardinal de Richelieu's popular image has been distorted by the Dumas père (December 05) novels as Louis XIII's (May14 ) treacherous, self-seeking first minister who was inundated in court intrigues. While all of this may be at least partially true, these are only a few facets in the mosaic of the man whose political brilliance shaped modern France into a strong, centralized state and whose elitism was the hallmark of contemporary French culture. Richelieu was convinced that his standards of grace, order, and harmony were ordained by God to be the standards of the French nation and eventually the world's.

The cardinal's extraordinary aesthetics helped him establish one the the greatest art collections of the seventeenth-century. The collection was divided between his Paris residence (the Palais-Cardinal, now the Palais-Royal on the Rue Saint-Honoré) and his country home (the chateau de Richelieu). Painting really mattered to Richelieu, not so much for its own sake as for its power to suggest states of mind that he regarded as indispensable

Cardinal Richelieu

The Palais-Cardinal housed collection of five hundred major paintings including masterpieces by Da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, del Sarto, Poussin, Reubens, Bellini and Correggio. The two marble slaves of Michelangelo, now in the Louvre, flanked the gate to the main pavilion of the chateau de Richelieu.  His collection of antique sculpture, jewels, bronzes, tapestries, Persian rugs, and Chinese lacquers was unmatched and envied by the kings of Europe.

Richelieu has been a character in more than sixty films and television productions, due in part to the continued popularity of the Dumas novels. Memorable portrayals of the cardinal include those by George Arliss in Cardinal Richelieu (1935); Raymond Massey in Under the Red Robe (1937); Vincent Price in The Three Musketeers (1948) and in a television production of the same title in 1960; Christopher Logue in Ken Russell's The Devils (1971); Charlton Heston in The Three Musketeers (1973)  and again in The Four Musketeers (1974); and Stephen Rea in The Musketeer (2001).

 Richelieu is credited with introducing the eggplant to French cuisine and serving it often at state banquets. Eggplants had been nicknamed the "mad apple", because of their reputation of being poisonous, a reputation that they shared with the Cardinal. Richelieu's passion for eggplant spawned a wide spectrum of recipes. The most impressive is Aubergines Cardinal which is the French version of moussaka. In this creation, eggplant, duxelles, and chopped ham are cooked in a charlotte mold lined with the eggplant skins

 		  

Aubergines Cardinal
 (The Cardinals' Eggplant)
 
Ingredients
 

2 lbs cooked ham, ground
1 large onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese
1/2 cup white glace de viande*
1 cup dry white wine
8 oz cream cheese, cut in 1" cubes
2 cups Béchamel sauce*

*See Appendix A
 

4 large unblemished eggplants
2/3 cup olive oil
2 cups duxelles*
2 eggs
1/3 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 TB butter


 
Instructions
 
  1. Cut the eggplants in half. Make several slashes in the eggplant flesh (not the skin). Sprinkle eggplants with salt, rubbing salt into slash marks. Let them sit for 30 minutes, flesh side down on paper towels to drain. Squeeze gently to remove additional liquid. Wipe dry with paper towels.
  2. Pour 1/4 cup olive oil in a deep covered skillet. Place as many eggplant halves in skillet as fit. and sauté for 15 minutes covered. Turn eggplants over and sauté for another 15 minutes, being careful not to break skins. Add more oil if necessary. Repeat until all eggplants have been cooked. Allow eggplants to cool for at least 15 minutes so they can be handled.
  3. Preheat oven to 350º F.
  4. Put 2 TB olive oil in skillet and cook onions for 4 to 5 minutes, until translucent and soft. Add garlic and cook for 1 more minute.
  5. Carefully remove eggplant skins in tact. Put flesh aside. Butter Charlotte mold. Line bottom of mold with a buttered circle of waxed paper. Line charlotte mold with eggplant skins, making sure that the skins overlap at least 1 inch. Let ends of skins hang over mold. Retain 1 skin for final assembly.
  6. Roughly mash eggplant flesh with the back of a wooden spoon in a large bowl. Add chopped ham, onions, garlic, parsley, duxelles, Swiss cheese and eggs. Mix thoroughly and add salt and pepper to taste.
  7. In a food processor equipped with chopping blade or in a blender, add glace de viande, wine, and Béchamel. Blend. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  8. Fill Charlotte mold halfway with eggplant mixture. Pour in one half of Béchamel mixture. Gently stick fork in eggplant mixture to help Béchamel mixture mix thoroughly . Repeat procedure with balance of eggplant and béchamel mixtures. Cut remaining eggplant skin to cover filling. After covering filling, lap over eggplant skin flaps hanging over Charlotte mold. Cover with a circle of buttered waxed paper.
  9. Place mold in a pan of water reaching two-thirds up on the mold. Bake for 1&1/2 hours. Remove mold from water and let rest 20 minutes before unmolding. Peal off waxed top and run a thin knife around the sides of the mold. Invert and remove waxed paper from top.
     
Serves 6-8