Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery Part 8

EGGS, CURRIED.--Take some hard-boiled eggs, cut them in halves (remove the half-yolks), and cut them into rings. Place all these rings round the edge of the dish, and pile the white rings up to make a sort of border; pour some thick curry sauce in the middle, place the half-yolks at equal distances apart, on the white round the edge, and sprinkle a few specks of green parsley round the edge on the whites; this will give the dish a pretty appearance.

EGGS, DEVILLED.--Take, say, half a dozen eggs, boil them hard, remove the sh.e.l.ls while hot, cut them in halves, scoop out the yolk, and cut a tiny piece off the bottom of each white cup, so that it will stand upright--a la Columbus. Next take all the yolks, and put them in a basin, and pound them with a little b.u.t.ter till you get a thick squash; add some cayenne pepper, according to taste, a little white pepper, a little salt, and a few drops of chilli-vinegar or ordinary vinegar; you can also add a little finely chopped parsley--say a teaspoonful. Fill each cup with some of this mixture, and as there will be more than enough to fill them, owing to the b.u.t.ter, bring them to a point, like a cone. Devilled eggs are best served cold, in which case they look best placed on a silver or ordinary dish, the bottom of which is covered with green parsley; the white looks best on a green bed. Some cooks chop up the little bits of white cut off from the bottom of the cups, divide them into two portions, and colour one half pink by shaking them in a saucer with a few drops of cochineal. These white and pink specks are then sprinkled over the parsley.

N.B.--In an ordinary way devilled eggs require anchovy sauce to be mixed with the yolks, but anchovy sauce is not allowed in vegetarian cookery.

EGGS A LA BONNE FEMME.--Proceed exactly as in making devilled eggs, till you place the yolks in the basin; then add to these yolks, while hot, a little dissolved b.u.t.ter, and small pieces of chopped cold boiled carrot, turnip, celery, and beet-root; season with white pepper and salt, and mix well together. Add also a suspicion of nutmeg and a little lemon-juice.

Fill the cups with this while the mixture is moist, as when the b.u.t.ter gets cold the mixture gets firm. If you use chopped beet-root as well as other vegetables, it is best to fill half the cups with half the mixture before any beetroot is added, then add the beet-root and stir the mixture well up and it will turn a bright red. Now fill the remaining half of the cups, and place them on the dish containing the parsley, alternately. The red contrasts prettily with the light yellowish white of the first half. Do not colour the white specks with cochineal, as this is a different shade of red from the beet-root. You can chop up the white and sprinkle it over the parsley with a little chopped beet-root as well.

EGGS A LA TRIPE.--Small Spanish onions are perhaps best for this dish, but ordinary onions can be used. Cut the onions cross-ways after peeling them, so that they fall in rings, and remove the white core. Two Spanish or half a dozen ordinary onions will be sufficient. Fry these rings of onions in b.u.t.ter till they are tender, without browning them. Take them out of the frying-pan and put them aside. Add a spoonful of flour to the frying-pan, and make a paste with the b.u.t.ter, and then add sufficient milk so that when it is boiled and stirred up it makes a thick sauce; add pepper and salt, a little lemon-juice, and a small quant.i.ty of grated nutmeg. Put back the rings of onions into this, and let them simmer gently. Take half a dozen hard-boiled eggs, cut the eggs in halves, remove the yolks, and cut the whites into rings, like the onions, mixing these white egg-rings with the onions and sauce; make the whole hot and serve on a dish, using the hard-boiled half-yolks to garnish; sprinkle a little chopped parsley over the whole, and serve.

EGG, FORCEMEAT OF, OR EGG b.a.l.l.s.--Take three hard-boiled yolks of eggs, powder them, mix in a raw yolk, add a little pepper and salt, a small quant.i.ty of grated nutmeg, about a saltspoonful of finely chopped parsley, chopped up with a pinch of savoury herbs, or a pinch of dust from bottled savoury herbs, sifted from them, may be added instead. Roll these into b.a.l.l.s not bigger than a very small marble, flour them, and throw them into boiling water till they are set.

In many parts of the Continent, hard-boiled yolks of eggs, served whole, are used as egg b.a.l.l.s. A much cheaper way of making egg b.a.l.l.s is as follows:--Beat up one egg, add a teaspoonful of chopped blanched parsley, some pepper and salt, and a very little grated nutmeg. Sift a bottle of ordinary mixed savoury herbs in a sieve, and take about half a saltspoonful of the dust and mix this with the egg, This will be found really better than using the herbs themselves. Now make some very fine bread-crumbs from _stale_ bread, and mix this with the beaten-up egg till you make a sort of soft paste or dough; roll this into b.a.l.l.s the size of a marble, flour them, and throw them into boiling water. The b.a.l.l.s must be small or they will split in boiling.

EGGS AU GRATIN.--Make about half a pint of b.u.t.ter sauce, make it hot over the fire, and stir in about two ounces of Parmesan cheese, a quarter of a nutmeg grated, some white pepper, and the juice of half a lemon. Make this hot, and then add the yolks of four eggs. Stir it all up, and keep stirring very quickly till the mixture begins to thicken, when you must instantly remove it from the fire, but continue stirring for another minute. In the meantime have ready some hard-boiled eggs, cut these into slices, and make a circle of the bigger slices on a dish; then spread a layer of the mixture over the slices of egg, and place another layer on this smaller than the one below, then another layer of mixture, and so on with alternate layers till you pile it up in the shape of a pyramid.

Spread a layer of the remainder of the mixture over the surface, and sprinkle some powdered light-coloured bread-raspings mixed with some grated Parmesan cheese over the whole; place the dish in the oven to get hot and to slightly brown, and then serve. Some fried bread cut into pretty shapes can be used to ornament the base.

EGGS AND SPINACH.--Make a thick puree of spinach; take some hard-boiled eggs, cut them in halves while hot, after removing the sh.e.l.ls, and press each half a little way into the puree, so that the yellow yolk will be shown surrounded by the white ring. Be very careful not to smear the edge with the spinach.

N.B.--Sometimes eggs are poached and laid on the spinach whole.

EGGS AND TURNIP-TOPS.--Proceed exactly as above, using a puree of turnip-tops instead of spinach.

EGGS AND ASPARAGUS.--Have ready some of the green parts of asparagus, boiled tender, and cut up into little pieces an eighth of an inch long so that they look like peas. Beat up four eggs very thoroughly with some pepper and salt, and mix in the asparagus, only do not break the pieces of green. Melt a couple of ounces of b.u.t.ter in a small stew-pan, and as soon as it commences to froth pour in the beaten-up egg and asparagus; stir the mixture quickly over the fire, being careful to sc.r.a.pe the bottom of the saucepan. As soon as the mixture thickens pour it on some hot toast, and serve.

EGGS AND CELERY.--Have ready some stewed celery on toast. (_See_ CELERY, STEWED.) Poach some eggs and place them on the top. Hard-boiled eggs, cut into slices, can be added to the celery instead of poached eggs.

When stewed celery is served as a course by itself, the addition of the eggs and plenty of bread make it a wholesome and satisfying meal.

EGG SALAD.--(_See_ SALADS.)

EGG SANDWICHES.--(_See_ SANDWICHES.)

EGG SAUCE.--(_See_ SAUCES.)

EGG TOAST.--Beat up a couple of eggs, melt an ounce of b.u.t.ter in a saucepan, and add to it a little pepper and salt. As soon as the b.u.t.ter begins to froth, add the beaten-up egg and stir the mixture very quickly, and the moment it begins to thicken pour it over a slice of hot b.u.t.tered toast.

EGGS A LA DAUPHINE.--Take ten hard-boiled eggs, cut them in halves and remove the yolks, and place the yolks in a basin with a piece of new bread, about as big as the fist, that has been soaked in some milk, or better still, cream; add a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, a quarter of a grated nutmeg, and two ounces of grated Parmesan cheese; rub the whole well together, and then add two whole eggs, well beaten up, to the mixture to moisten it. Next fill all these white cups of eggs with some of this mixture, place the eggs well together, and spread a thin layer of the mixture over the top; then take a smaller number of half-eggs, filled, and place on the top and make a pyramid, so that a single half-egg is at the top. You can place ten half-eggs at the bottom in one layer, six half-eggs on the top of these, spreading a thin layer of the mixture, then three half-eggs, one more layer of the mixture, and then one half-egg at the summit. This dish is sometimes ornamented by forcing hard-boiled yolks of eggs through a wire sieve. It falls like yellow vermicelli into threads.

This dish should be placed in the oven, to be made quite hot, and some kind of white sauce should be poured round the edge.

EGGS AND BLACK b.u.t.tER.--Fry some eggs, serve them up on a hot dish, and pour some black b.u.t.ter round the base. (_See_ BLACK b.u.t.tER SAUCE.)

EGGS AND GARLIC.--This is better adapted for an Italian than an English palate. Take half a dozen heads of garlic and fry them in a little b.u.t.ter in order to remove the rankness of flavour. Take them out and pound them in a mortar with rather more than a tablespoonful of oil; heat this on the fire in a stew-pan, after adding some pepper and salt. Beat up an egg, and stir this in with the oil and garlic till the mixture gets thick. Arrange some slices of hard-boiled eggs--four eggs would be sufficient--pour this mixture in the centre, and serve.

EGGS WITH MUSHROOMS.--Take half a pint of b.u.t.ton mushrooms and, if fresh, peel them and throw them instantly into water made acid with lemon-juice, in order that they may not turn a bad colour. In the meantime slice up a good-sized Spanish onion, and fry the onion in a little b.u.t.ter. As soon as the onion is a little tender, chop up and add the mushrooms. Put all this into a stew-pan with a little b.u.t.ter sauce, or a little water can be added and then thickened with a little b.u.t.ter and flour. Let this simmer gently for nearly half an hour, add a little made mustard, pepper and salt and a dessertspoonful of vinegar. Before sending to table add half a dozen hard-boiled eggs; the whites should be cut into rings, and should be only put into the sauce long enough to get hot; the yolks should be kept separate, but must be warmed up in the sauce.

EGGS AND ONIONS.--Cut up a large Spanish onion in slices, and fry it in some b.u.t.ter till it is a light brown and tender, but do not let it burn; drain off the b.u.t.ter and put the fried onion on a dish; sprinkle some cayenne pepper and a little salt over the onions, and squeeze the juice of a whole lemon over them. Now poach some eggs and serve them on the top of the onion.

EGGS AND POTATOES.--Take the remains of some floury potatoes, beat up an egg, and mix the potato flour with the egg. You can also chop up very finely a small quant.i.ty of onion and parsley, and season with plenty of pepper and salt. The respective quant.i.ties of floury potatoes and beaten egg must be so regulated that you can roll the mixture into b.a.l.l.s without their having any tendency to break. Make the b.a.l.l.s big enough so that when you press them between the hands you can squeeze the ball into the shape of an ordinary egg, or you can mould them into this shape with a tablespoon.

Now flour these imitation eggs in order to dry the surface, and then dip them into well-beaten-up egg and cover them with dried bread-crumbs, and fry them in a little b.u.t.ter or oil, or brown them in the oven, occasionally basting them with a little b.u.t.ter.

EGGS AND SAUCE ROBERT.--Take some hard-boiled eggs, cut them into quarters, and make them hot in some Sauce Robert--(_see_ ROBERT SAUCE)--and serve with fried or toasted bread in a dish.

EGGS AND SORREL.--Make a thick puree of sorrel--(_see_ SORREL SAUCE)--and serve some hard-boiled or poached eggs on the top.

EGGS, BROILED.--Cut a large slice of crumb of bread off a big loaf; toast it lightly, put some pieces of b.u.t.ter on it, and put it on a dish in front of the fire; then break some eggs carefully on to the toast, and let them set from the heat of the fire like a joint roasting; when the side nearest the fire gets set, it will be necessary to turn the dish round. When the whole has set, squeeze the juice of an orange over the eggs, and a little grated nutmeg may be added. The eggs and toast should be served in the same dish in which they are baked.

EGGS, b.u.t.tERED.--Break some eggs into a flat dish, then take a little b.u.t.ter and make it hot in a frying-pan till it frizzles and begins to turn brown. Now pour this very hot b.u.t.ter, which is hotter than boiling water, over the eggs in the dish. Put the dish in the oven a short time, and finish off setting the yolks with a red-hot salamander.

EGGS, SCRAMBLED.--Scrambled eggs, when finished properly, should have the appearance of yellow and white streaks, distinct in colour, but yet all joined together in one ma.s.s. Melt a little b.u.t.ter in the frying-pan, break in some eggs, as if for frying; of course, the whites begin to set before the yolks. As soon as the whites are nearly but not quite set, stir the whole together till the whole ma.s.s sets. By this means you will get yellow and white streaks joined together. It is very important that you don't let the eggs get brown at the bottom; you will therefore require a perfectly clean frying-pan and not too fierce a fire.

EGGS IN SUNSHINE.--This is a name given to fried eggs with tomato served on the top. You want a dish that will stand the heat; consequently, take an oval baking-tin, or enamelled dish that you can put on the top of a shut-up stove. Melt a little b.u.t.ter in this, and as soon as it begins to frizzle break some eggs into the dish, and let them all set together. As soon as they are set, pour four or five tablespoonfuls of tomato conserve on the top; this is much better than tomato sauce, which contains vinegar. Or you can bake half a dozen ripe tomatoes in a tin in the oven, and place these on the top instead of the tomato conserve.

EGGS AND CUc.u.mBER.--Peel and slice up two or three little cuc.u.mbers of the size generally sold on a barrow at a penny each. Put these with two or three ounces of b.u.t.ter in a stew-pan, and three small onions about the size of the top of the thumb, chopped very fine; fry these and add a dessertspoonful of vinegar. When the cuc.u.mber is tender, and a little time has been allowed for the vinegar to evaporate, add six hard-boiled eggs, cut into slices; make these very hot and serve. Pepper and salt must be added.

EGGS WITH CHEESE.--Take a quarter of a pound of grated cheese (the cheese should be dry and white), melt this cheese gently in a stew-pan over the fire, with a little bit of b.u.t.ter about as big as the thumb, in order to a.s.sist the cheese in melting. Mix with it a br.i.m.m.i.n.g teaspoonful of chopped parsley, two or three tiny spring onions, chopped very fine, and about a quarter of a small grated nutmeg. When the cheese is melted, add six beaten-up eggs, and stir the whole together till they are set. Fried or toasted bread should be served round the edge of the dish.

LITTLE EGGS FOR GARNISHING.--This is a nice dish when you require a lot of white of eggs for other purposes, such as iceing a wedding-cake, or making light vanilla or almond biscuits.

Take six hard-boiled yolks, powder them, flavour with a little pepper and salt, and mix in three raw yolks; mix this well together, and roll them into shapes like very small sausages, pointed at each end like a foreign cigar. Flour these on the outside, and throw them into boiling water.

These can be used for garnishing purposes for the vast majority of vegetarian dishes. They can be flavoured if wished with grated nutmeg, chopped parsley, and a few savoury herbs.