Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing-Dish Dainties Part 11

[Ill.u.s.tration: Halibut Salad.

(See page 64)]

=Sh.e.l.ls of Fish and Mushrooms.=

Cut cold fish--salmon, halibut, lobster, etc.--into small cubes, mix with one-third in measure of cooked mushrooms, also cut small, and add for each cup of mushrooms and fish one tablespoonful of gherkins cut fine. Season with French dressing and let stand one hour; then drain, and mix with jellied mayonnaise. Fill chilled sh.e.l.ls with this preparation, rounding it on the top. Make smooth, and mask with jellied mayonnaise. Decorate with gherkins and the white of a hard-boiled egg cut in fanciful shapes, and with stars of mayonnaise.

=Oysters in Aspic Jelly.=

Parboil, drain, cool, and wipe dry one quart of oysters. Make a pint of mayonnaise sauce with aspic jelly and coat the well-dried oysters with the sauce. Prepare a quart of chicken aspic. Dip in half-set aspic the white of egg, poached and cut in fanciful shapes, and small gherkins cut in thin slices, and decorate the bottom and sides of a charlotte or cylindrical mould standing in ice water. Pour in jelly to the depth of half an inch; when set, arrange the oysters on it in a circle, one overlapping another; pour in more jelly, and, when set, dispose upon it another circle of oysters. Continue this order until the mould is filled. When removed from the mould, garnish with chopped aspic and fans cut from gherkins and lettuce. Serve with the remainder of the pint of mayonnaise.

=Oyster-and-Celery Salad.=

Parboil the oysters (heating them to the boiling-point in their own liquor), drain, and, if large, halve each; marinate with a French dressing (_i.e._, toss the bits of oyster in oil enough to coat them nicely; then toss them in a little lemon juice, dust with salt and pepper, and set aside to become thoroughly chilled). When ready to serve, drain again and add about one-third as much in bulk of fine-chopped celery and one or two tablespoonfuls of pickled nasturtium seeds or capers; then mix with mayonnaise or a boiled dressing. Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves. Cabbage, sliced as for slaw, may be used in the place of celery. Garnish with small pickles cut in thin slices and spread to resemble a fan.

=Oyster-and-Sweetbread Salad.=

Cut a pair of cold cooked sweetbreads into cubes. Parboil one pint of oysters, drain, cool, and cut in halves; marinate the sweetbreads and oysters with French dressing, and allow them to stand at least half an hour; drain, mix with mayonnaise, and serve on a bed of lettuce or cress. Or, surround with a circle of chopped cuc.u.mbers seasoned with French dressing.

=Shrimp Salad in Cuc.u.mber Boats.=

Pare the cuc.u.mbers, which should be rather short, and cut them in halves lengthwise; remove the seeds and steam until tender; chill, and arrange on lettuce leaves, or on a bed of watercress. Clean and marinate the shrimps. If large, divide into two or three pieces. Mix with mayonnaise and place in the cuc.u.mbers. Decorate with stars of mayonnaise and whole shrimps.

=Shrimp Salad with Aspic Border.=

Set a border mould in ice water; dip hard-boiled eggs, cut in halves lengthwise and trimmed to fit the mould, in aspic jelly, and press against the sides of the mould alternately with small vegetable b.a.l.l.s, or peas dipped in half-set aspic; fill gradually the empty s.p.a.ce in the mould with partly cooled jelly, adding vegetables here and there if desired. Dip in hot water and turn from the mould. Fill in the centre with lettuce, torn in pieces, and one pint of shrimps, broken in pieces and dressed with French dressing. Smooth the mound and mask with jelly mayonnaise. Decorate with shrimps and small heart leaves of lettuce.

=Shrimp Salad with Aspic Border, No. 2.=

Decorate the sides of a ring mould, chilled, with hard-boiled eggs cut in halves, alternated with hearts of lettuce cut in halves; dip the egg and lettuce in half-set aspic, and they will adhere to the sides of the mould. Then proceed as above.

=Shrimp Salad.=

Take the shrimps from the sh.e.l.ls, reserve the most perfect for garnishing, and break the others into pieces; marinate with French dressing. When ready to serve, drain, and mix with shredded lettuce, or celery cut fine, and mayonnaise. Shape in a mound on a bed of lettuce leaves and mask with mayonnaise. Use capers or olives, chopped very fine, to mark out five or six designs on the mound; a scroll effect is always pretty. Fill in the designs with shrimps and the rest of the mound with capers, sifted yolks or chopped whites of cooked eggs; or fill the designs with the capers or eggs and the rest of the mound with shrimps. Finish with a tuft of lettuce at the top.

=Scallop Salad.=

Soak the scallops in salted water (a tablespoonful of salt to a quart of water) one hour; rinse in cold water, cover with boiling water, and let simmer five or six minutes. Rinse again in cold water, drain, and when cold cut into slices. Cut white stalks of celery into small pieces.

Mix the celery and scallops--half as much celery as scallops--with mayonnaise or boiled dressing, and shape in a mound. Mask the mound with a thin coating of mayonnaise. With large-sized capers outline a design on each of the four sides of the mound, fill these with whites of eggs, cooked and chopped fine. Ornament with figures cut from slices of boiled beets. Fill in the s.p.a.ces around the designs with capers, and garnish with green celery leaves and white stalks of celery, fringed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sh.e.l.l of Fish and Mushrooms.

(See page 65)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Shrimp Salad in Cuc.u.mber Boat.

(See page 67)]

=Sardine Salad.=

Lay the sardines upon soft paper, that they may be freed from oil.

Sc.r.a.pe off the skin and remove the bones; squeeze over them a little lemon juice. Arrange upon a bed of crisp lettuce leaves, or upon shredded lettuce, and dress with either French or mayonnaise dressing.

Garnish with hard-boiled eggs cut in slices.

=Sardine Salad, No. 2.=

Arrange a pint of cold cooked fish, flaked, on a bed of lettuce leaves and cover with sardine dressing. Carefully split six selected sardines; remove the bones and arrange the halves on the top of the salad, with the heads at the centre. Garnish with slices of lemon.

=Sardine-and-Egg Salad.=

Skin and bone a dozen sardines and put them in a mortar; remove the sh.e.l.ls from an equal number of hard-boiled eggs and cut them into halves crosswise, so as to form cups with pointed edges; put the yolks into the mortar with the sardines, add a tablespoonful, or less, of chopped parsley, a dash of pepper and salt, and work to a smooth paste; moisten with salad dressing and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cut a thin slice from the ends of the egg cups, that they may be set upright on the serving-dish, and fill with the mixture, making it round on the top like a whole yolk. Arrange these on a bed of watercress, or shredded lettuce, and sprinkle plentifully with French dressing.

=Lobster Salad.=

Cut lobster meat in dice and marinate with French dressing. Keep on ice until ready to serve, then drain carefully. Make cups of the inside leaves of lettuce, put a spoonful of the lobster meat in the centre of each cup, and press mayonnaise dressing through a pastry bag with star tube attached on the top of the lobster in each nest. Or, arrange the lobster in a mound on a bed of lettuce leaves, and mask the mound with mayonnaise. Finish the centre with a little bouquet of the heart leaves of lettuce; sift dried coral in a circle about it, and below that arrange circles of sifted yolk or chopped white of egg alternately with the coral. Garnish with the fans and feelers of the lobster. Or, arrange as before, then finish the centre with a bouquet of heart leaves of lettuce and the head of the lobster. Garnish with stars of mayonnaise and fans from the tail.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Shrimp Salad, Border of Eggs in Aspic.

(See page 68)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lobster Salad.]

=Lobster Salad, No. 2.=

Remove the flesh carefully from the sh.e.l.l of a lobster, so as to keep the sh.e.l.l of body and tail intact; wash and dry the sh.e.l.l and arrange on a bed of lettuce leaves. Marinate the flesh, cut into cubes, with French dressing. After an hour drain, mix with an equal quant.i.ty of shredded lettuce, and replace in the sh.e.l.l. Garnish with mayonnaise and the lobster coral. Dry the coral thoroughly, after which it may be pa.s.sed readily through a sieve.

=Lobster Salad, No. 3.=

INGREDIENTS.

2 good-sized lobsters.

Lettuce.

Mayonnaise, or sauce tartare.

Lobster cutlets.