Domestic French Cookery, 4th ed Part 9

RAGOOED CABBAGE.

Wash a fine savoy cabbage, and boil it for half an hour in salt and water. Then take it out, drain it, and lay it for ten minutes in cold water. Afterwards squeeze and drain it well, and take out the stalk.

Chop the cabbage slightly, and put it into a stew-pan with a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter, and add two table-spoonfuls of flour. Season it with salt and pepper, and moisten it with a little water. Let it stew slowly for an hour, and then serve it up.

Cauliflowers or broccoli may be done in the same manner.

RAGOOED MUSHROOMS.

Take a pint of fresh mushrooms. When they are peeled and the stalks cut off, put the mushrooms into a stew-pan with two table-spoonfuls of vinegar, a sprig or two of parsley, a small onion, a few chives chopped fine, some salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg. Let it boil gently for a quarter of an hour. Before it goes to table, stir in the yolks of two eggs.

If the onion has turned blue or black, throw the whole away, as it is evident that some poisonous ones are among the mushrooms.

PUReES.

The word Puree cannot be exactly translated, as there is nothing in the English language that gives precisely the same idea. In French it is generally applied to a certain manner of cooking vegetables that converts them into a substance resembling marmalade, which, when the coa.r.s.er parts are strained out, leaves a fine smooth jelly.

It is served up with meat.

PUReE OF TURNIPS.

Wash and pare some of the finest turnips. Cut them into small pieces, and let them lie for half an hour in cold water. Then take them out and drain them. Put them into a stew-pan, with a large piece of b.u.t.ter and some salt and pepper. Moisten them with a little broth or boiling water.

Let them stew over a very slow fire, for five or six hours, stirring them frequently. Then rub them through a sieve, and serve up the jelly with roast meat.

PUReE OF CELERY.

Wash your celery, peel it, and stew it slowly for three or four hours, with salt, and a very little water. Then pa.s.s it through a sieve, and season it with pepper, salt, and nutmeg to your taste.

PUReE OF ONIONS.

Take thirty onions; cut them in slices and put them into a stew-pan, with a little salt, pepper, and a grated nutmeg. Let them stew slowly till they are of a fine brown color, and then add a table-spoonful of broth or warm water.

When it has attained the proper consistence, strain it and serve it up.

PUReE OF MUSHROOMS.

Peel a pint of mushrooms, cut them in pieces, and put them in a pan with as much cold water as will keep them from burning. Throw in with them a small onion to test their goodness; as, if there is a bad or poisonous one among them, the onion will turn of a bluish black while cooking. In that case, throw them all away.

Stew them slowly till they have lost all shape and have become an undistinguishable ma.s.s. Then strain them.

Put into a stew-pan a large piece of b.u.t.ter, or a spoonful of flour, and two lumps of sugar. Add your puree, and let it stew again for about five minutes. When you take it off the fire, stir in the yolks of two eggs slightly beaten, and a spoonful of cream or rich milk. Put it in the middle of a dish, and lay round it thin slices of fried bread or toast.

PUReE OF BEANS.

Having strung and cut your beans till you have a quart, throw them into boiling water, with a little salt. Let them remain a quarter of an hour.

Then drain them, and throw into cold water to green them. After they have lain half an hour in the cold water, take them out and drain them again.

Put a large piece of b.u.t.ter into a stew-pan with some pepper, a little salt, and a spoonful of flour. Add your beans, and cover them with broth or warm water. Put in a bunch of sweet-herbs cut small, and stew the whole very slowly till it has dissolved into a ma.s.s. Then strain it. Put a piece of b.u.t.ter into the puree, and serve it up.

PUReE OF GREEN PEAS.

Take a quart of sh.e.l.led green peas. Wash them, and put them into a stew-pan with water enough to cover them, a little salt and pepper, a piece of b.u.t.ter the size of a walnut, a laurel leaf or a couple of peach-leaves, and a bunch of mint.

Let them stew very slowly; and if necessary moisten them occasionally with a little warm water or broth. Stir them frequently, that they may not stick to the pan. When they become of the consistence of marmalade, strain it. Chop an onion fine, fry it in b.u.t.ter, and have it ready to mix with the puree.

Dried split peas may be made into a puree in the same manner.

Purees may be made in a similar manner of different sorts of meat, poultry &c. seasoned, stewed slowly to a jelly, then strained through a cullender or sieve, and taken as soups.

EGGS, &c.

In choosing eggs, hold them up against the light, and if you see that the yolk is round, and the white thin and clear, you may suppose them to be good. But if the yolk appears to be broken and mixed with the white, giving it a thick cloudy look, you may be sure that the egg is bad. Eggs may be preserved by keeping them in a keg of lime-water, or by greasing each egg all over with dripping, and putting them into a tight vessel filled with wood-ashes, placing them all with their small ends downwards. You may also keep them by burying them in salt. Still they are never so good as when quite fresh.

When you break eggs for use, do every one separately, in a saucer. If you find the egg good, throw it into the pan in which they are to be beaten. If you meet with a bad one, throw it away and wash the saucer or get a clean one. A single bad egg will make the whole mixture heavy, spungy, and of an unpleasant taste.

BOILED EGGS.

When the water boils hard, put in the eggs, and let them boil exactly three minutes. Then take them out, and cover them up for about a minute, which will greatly improve them. Send them to table wrapped in a napkin, and laid in a deep dish.

FRIED EGGS.

Melt a piece of b.u.t.ter in a frying-pan. When it ceases to hiss, put in the yolks only of your eggs. Season them with pepper and salt. When fried, color them by holding over them a red-hot shovel.

STEWED EGGS.

Melt some b.u.t.ter in a dish that will bear the fire. Add to it salt, and nutmeg, and a little milk in the proportion of a table-spoonful to each egg. Mix them well together. Then lay over it the yolks of your eggs, first ascertaining that they are all good. Let it stew over a slow fire for a few minutes; and color it by holding over it a red-hot shovel. The eggs must not be allowed to get hard, but the surface should be soft and perfectly smooth and even.

Before you put in the eggs, you may stir into the mixture some heads of boiled asparagus.

STUFFED EGGS.