The Skilful Cook Part 43

Bake in a moderate oven for about twelve minutes.

Dish in a circle, and pour over white sauce, mixed with chopped truffle.

Fillets of Sole a la Maitre d'Hotel.

_Ingredients_--Fillets of sole.

Lemon juice and salt.

_Method._--Roll or fold the fillets, and cook like the Sole _a la Rouennaise_.

Cover them with the same sauce as in the last recipe, using chopped parsley instead of truffle.

Sole au gratin.

_Ingredients_--1 sole.

1 dessertspoonful of chopped parsley.

1 chopped shalot.

6 chopped b.u.t.ton mushrooms.

Lemon juice.

Pepper and salt.

oz. of b.u.t.ter.

Brown bread-crumbs.

_Method._--Grease a dish that will stand the heat of the oven.

Sprinkle on it half of the parsley, shalot, and mushroom, with lemon juice, pepper, and salt.

Lay the sole on the mixture, and sprinkle the remainder of the parsley, &c., over it.

Cover with brown bread-crumbs, and put half an ounce of b.u.t.ter about it, in small pieces.

Bake from ten to fifteen minutes, according to size, and serve-with glaze poured round it.

Gurnets baked.

_Ingredients_--2 or more gurnets.

Some veal stuffing, omitting the suet.

A little stock.

winegla.s.s of sherry.

1 or 2 dessertspoonfuls of mushroom catsup.

Some brown sauce.

Pepper and salt.

_Method._--Remove the head and fins of the gurnets, and stuff them with veal stuffing, fastening it in with small skewers.

Lay them on a well-b.u.t.tered baking-tin, and pour over them the stock, sherry, and catsup.

Bake them in a moderate oven until cooked.

Then place them on a hot dish, mix the liquor from them with the sauce and pour over.

Stewed Eels.

_Ingredients_--2 lb. of eels.

1 pint of stock.

1 winegla.s.s of port.

1 tablespoonful of flour.

A few drops of lemon juice.

Pepper.

Salt.

Cayenne.

2 oz. of b.u.t.ter.

_Method._--Cut the eels in pieces about 2 inches long.

Fry them brown in the b.u.t.ter.

Then put them in a stewpan with the stock.

Stew gently, until tender.

Then remove them from the stock, and put them in a hot dish.

Thicken the stock with the flour.

Add the wine, lemon juice, and seasoning.

Pour over the eels, and serve very hot.

PASTRY.

Few people are successful in making pastry. Yet, with a little practice, there is no reason why any one should not make it with some degree of perfection, if the following rules are carefully attended to.

Make the pastry in a cool place, not in a hot kitchen. The board, rolling-pin, and hands should be as cold as possible. Handle it very lightly. The colder pastry is kept during making, the lighter it will be, because it will contain more air; cold air occupies a much less s.p.a.ce than warm. The colder the air, the greater, consequently, will be its expansion when the pastry is put into a very hot oven. Roll the paste lightly, and not more than necessary. Puff paste is a kind of fine sandwich. There should be a certain number of layers of dough and layers of b.u.t.ter. Take care, therefore, that the b.u.t.ter is not allowed to break through the dough; and be _very careful to follow_ the directions given for making this pastry. Its manufacture requires patience, because, if it is not properly cooled between the turns, the friction of rolling will warm the b.u.t.ter, and cause it to smear into the dough. For short crust, rub the b.u.t.ter or fat lightly into the flour with the tips of the fingers; and do not use more water than necessary in mixing it. This is a common mistake; and too much water deprives the paste of its shortness. Short paste is the best for children and persons of weak digestion; the flour in it being more thoroughly incorporated with the fat, gets better cooked. It is, therefore, capable of more perfect mastication than puff or flaky crust, both of which are liable to be swallowed in flakes.

However well pastry is made, success will not be attained unless the oven is rightly heated. The very lightest crusts will often be totally spoiled in the baking because this important point is not attended to.

If the oven is not very hot, the fat will melt and run out of the pastry before the starch grains in the flour burst; consequently, they cannot afterwards expand, however hot the oven may be made; and in this way the paste will become heavy. Take great care, therefore, that the oven is very hot when the paste is put into it.

Watch the paste carefully that it does not take too dark a colour. When it is well thrown up and nearly cooked, it may be removed to a more moderately heated part of the oven if it should appear to be browning too quickly.