Domestic French Cookery, 4th ed Part 8

Boil eight or nine large potatoes with a little salt, and then peel and cut them in slices. Put into a stew-pan a large piece of b.u.t.ter, a spoonful of flour, some salt, and half a grated nutmeg. Add a half-pint of cream, and mix all together. When this sauce boils, put in your sliced potatoes, and let them stew a quarter of an hour.

STEWED POTATOES WITH TURNIPS.

Pare and boil an equal quant.i.ty of turnips and potatoes. When done, drain and mash them. Melt some b.u.t.ter in a stew-pan, and add to it a little mustard. Stew the mixed potatoes and turnips in it, with a small quant.i.ty of hot milk, for about ten minutes.

ASPARAGUS WITH CREAM.

Wash and boil four or five bundles of asparagus. Have ready a pint of cream, or a pint of milk, with the yolks of six eggs stirred into it.

Take four large rolls of bread, and cut a round piece out of the top of each. Scoop out the crumb from the inside of the rolls, and put it into the cream with the heads of the asparagus, of which you must save out a sufficient number (with a small piece of the stalk left on each) to stick the rolls with. Make holes in the top-pieces of the rolls.

Fry the rolls in b.u.t.ter. Put the most of the asparagus heads into the cream mixed with the crumb of the rolls, and simmer it awhile over a slow fire. When the rolls are fried, fill their cavities with the mixture. Stick the tops with the remainder of the asparagus, and lay them on the rolls.

Asparagus may be simply boiled with salt, and served up on toasted bread dipped in oil, and eaten with oil sauce.

POTATOES STEWED WHOLE.

Boil two dozen small new potatoes, with some salt. Put into a stew-pan a piece of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, half the peel of a lemon grated, half a nutmeg grated, some salt, two or three lumps of sugar, and three tea-spoonfuls of sweet oil. Lay the potatoes in this mixture, squeeze over them the juice of a lemon, and let them stew gently about ten minutes.

FRIED POTATOES.

Make a batter with the yolks of three eggs, a little salt, a table-spoonful of oil, a table-spoonful of brandy, and sufficient flour or grated bread to thicken it. Have ready some large cold potatoes cut in slices. Dip each slice in the batter, and fry them in b.u.t.ter.

FRIED CAULIFLOWER.

Wash a fine large cauliflower, and cut it into quarters. Having boiled some water with salt, throw the cauliflower into it, and boil it till you can nip it easily with your fingers. Take it out and drain it. Then put it into a pan with salt, pepper and vinegar, and let it lie half an hour, turning it frequently.

Make the following batter, which must be prepared half an hour or more before it is wanted, that it may have time to rise. Take three table-spoonfuls of flour, three beaten eggs, a table-spoonful of b.u.t.ter melted in a little warm water, a spoonful of sweet oil, and a spoonful of brandy. Stir all together; and if you find it too thin, add a little more flour; cover it, and let it set half an hour. Then beat to a stiff froth the whites of the eggs, and stir them hard into the batter. Dip your quarters of cauliflower into this mixture, and fry them of a fine light brown.

When the cauliflower is done, let it remain in the pan a quarter of an hour before you send it to table. Lay fried parsley round it.

Broccoli may be fried in the same manner.

FRIED CELERY.

Take ten or twelve fine stalks of celery. Cut them into pieces about six inches long, and lay them an hour in salt and water. Drain them, spread them on a dish, and sprinkle them with powdered sugar. Make a batter of eggs, milk, and grated bread; allowing four eggs to a pint of milk. Dip each piece of celery into the batter, and fry them in b.u.t.ter.

BROILED MUSHROOMS.[71-*]

Peel, wash, and drain your mushrooms, and then cut them in pieces. Make a square case of white paper, and b.u.t.ter it well. Fill it with the mushrooms mixed with b.u.t.ter, salt, and pepper. Broil them on the gridiron over a clear fire, and serve them up in the paper.

If you choose, you may mix with the mushrooms some chopped onion and sweet-herbs.

[71-*] In gathering mushrooms, take only those that are of a pale pink color underneath, and a dull white or pearl color on the top.

Those that are perfectly white above, or whose under side is white, yellow, or any color but pale pink, are unfit to eat, and poisonous.

After being gathered awhile, the pink tinge changes to brown, but it always appears on the good ones while in the ground.

STUFFED CABBAGE. (CHOUX FARCIS.)

Take a large cabbage, with a hard full head; put it into boiling water with some salt, and let it boil from five to ten minutes. Then take it out and drain it. Cut off the stalk close to the bottom, so that the cabbage may stand upright on the dish, and then carefully take out the inside leaves or heart; leaving the outside leaves whole.

Chop fine what you have taken out of the inside, and chop also some cold ham and veal, or cold chicken. Likewise four eggs boiled hard. Mix together the chopped eggs, the ham and veal, the cabbage heart, and some grated bread, adding salt and pepper. Fill the cabbage with this stuffing, and tie tape round it to keep the outside leaves together.

Then put it into a deep stew-pan, with a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, and an onion stuck full of cloves. Let it simmer over a slow fire for two hours or more.

When it is done, take off the tape, set the cabbage upright in a dish, and pour melted b.u.t.ter over it.

Lettuce may be done in the same manner.

STUFFED POTATOES.

Take eight very large potatoes, wash and pare them. Make a small slit or incision in each of them, and scoop out carefully with a knife as much of the inside as will leave all round a sh.e.l.l about the thickness of two cents. Then make a force-meat of the substance you have taken out of the inside, mixing it with two minced onions, a small piece of minced cold ham or pork, about two ounces of b.u.t.ter, and a little parsley; adding the yolks of two or three beaten eggs. Mix the stuffing thoroughly, by pounding it in a mortar.

b.u.t.ter the inside of the potatoes, and fill them with this mixture. Then having b.u.t.tered a large dish, lay your potatoes in it separately. Bake them half an hour, or till they are of a fine brown.

When you mash potatoes, moisten them with milk or cream, adding a little salt. Heap them up on the dish in the form of a pyramid. Smooth the sides of the pyramid with the back of a spoon, and brown it by holding over it a red-hot shovel.

STUFFED CUc.u.mBERS.

Cut off one end of each of the cuc.u.mbers, and scoop out all the seeds with a fork. Then pare them. Prepare a stuffing made of bread crumbs, cold meat minced, salt, pepper, and sweet-herbs. Fill your cuc.u.mbers with it, and fasten on with a skewer the pieces you have cut off from their ends. Sow up every one separately in a thin cloth. Put them into a pan with b.u.t.ter, flour, a bunch of sweet-herbs, and a little warm water.

Let them stew very slowly for about two hours, and then take them out.

Remove the cloths, and serve up the cuc.u.mbers with the sauce under them.

STUFFED TOMATAS.

Scoop out the inside of a dozen large tomatas, without spoiling their shape. Pa.s.s the inside through a sieve, and then mix it with grated bread, chopped sweet-herbs, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Stew it ten minutes, with a laurel leaf, or two peach leaves. Remove the leaves, and stuff the tomatas with the mixture, tying a string round each to keep them in shape. Sprinkle them all over with rasped bread-crust. Set them in a b.u.t.tered dish, and bake them in an oven. Take off the strings, and serve up the tomatas.

Egg-plants may be cooked in the same manner.

CAULIFLOWERS WITH CHEESE.

Having washed and boiled your cauliflowers in salt and water, drain them well. Make a white sauce in a small pan, with b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, and a little milk. Pour some of this sauce into the bottom of a dish that will bear the fire. Chop your cauliflower, and spread a layer of it on the sauce. Then cover it with a layer of rich cheese, grated and slightly sprinkled with pepper. Then spread on the remainder of the cauliflower, and then another layer of peppered cheese, and so on till your dish is nearly full. Pour over it the rest of the sauce. Prepare two or three handfuls of grated bread, mixed with a little of the grated cheese. Spread it all over the surface of the last layer of cauliflower, and smooth it with the back of a spoon. Allow a quarter of a pound of cheese to each cauliflower.

Put the dish in a slow oven about a quarter of an hour before you serve it up, and bake it till a brown crust forms on the outside. Clear off the b.u.t.ter from the edges of the dish, and send it to table hot.

Broccoli may be done in the same manner.