Twenty-four Little French Dinners and How to Cook and Serve Them Part 4

Read novel on https://www.novelall.com

XII

MENU

Potage Riz, Crecy Canapes de Saumon Fume Paupiettes de Porc, Sauce Piquante Asperges en Pet.i.ts Pois Tarte a la Turque

=Potage Riz, Crecy.=--Cut several firm, red carrots lengthwise, using only the red part. Place in a ca.s.serole with a good bouillon and allow to simmer over a slow fire. Pa.s.s through a sieve when the carrots are soft, and put back in the bouillon. Add a cupful of cooked rice, bring to a boil and serve.

=Canapes de Saumon Fume.=--Cut a smoked salmon into slices and spread them with b.u.t.ter, adding pepper and salt and a pinch of nutmeg. Heat over a crisp fire, place on a hot dish, cover with croutons and serve.

=Paupiettes de Porc, Sauce Piquante.=--Take small slices of cold roast pork and spread them with sausage meat. Roll them and fasten with skewers, then cover with a thin coating of lard or with oiled paper and cook them over a low fire in a ca.s.serole. When thoroughly done, take off the papers, cover with breadcrumbs and brown. Serve with a piquant sauce.

=Asperges en Pet.i.ts Pois.=--Cut up the green part of two bunches of asparagus, roll in b.u.t.ter and add a little salt. Heat a cupful of flour, being careful not to allow it to color, and dredge the asparagus with it. Put into a saucepan with sufficient milk and water in equal parts to cover, add a bouquet of herbs and allow the whole to simmer till the asparagus is cooked. Season with white pepper and serve.

=Tarte a la Turque.=--Boil a cupful of rice till thick in milk to which has been added a stick of cinnamon, a little lemon juice and sugar. When the rice is cooked allow to cool. Make a border of it on a b.u.t.tered plate and fill the center with a marmalade made as follows: Cut the peeled stalks of a bunch of rhubarb into dice and allow them to simmer in a small amount of water till they are of the consistency of marmalade. Add three or four teaspoonfuls of sugar, a lump of b.u.t.ter and the rind of a lemon. Take from the fire and immediately add the beaten yolks of two eggs. Arrange, as stated, in the middle of the rice, sprinkle with a little more sugar and set in the oven for fifteen minutes or more before serving.

XIII

MENU

Potage a la Chicoree Allumettes d'Anchois Buf Bouilli en Vinaigrette Pommes Maire Salade de Tomates Creme Brulee

=Potage a la Chicoree.=--Pick carefully and wash two or three heads of chicory, cut into shreds and pa.s.s through a little heated b.u.t.ter without allowing to take color. Then add sufficient of the water in which the Pommes Maire (below) were boiled to make the required quant.i.ty of soup, add pepper and salt, simmer for an hour. Just after taking from the fire add the beaten yolk of an egg. Pour into the tureen over toasted slices of stale bread.

=Allumettes d'Anchois.=--Make a fritter paste with flour and oil, omitting salt. Soften with white wine. Wash the desired number of anchovies, remove the bones and draw out the salt by soaking in milk.

Dip into the paste and fry.

=Buf Bouilli en Vinaigrette.=--Cut cold, lean beef into narrow, thin slices. Place it in a bowl with a finely chopped onion and some chervil, a few cut-up gherkins, a teaspoonful of capers, pour oil, a little vinegar and the juice of half a lemon over, add pepper and salt, toss well together and serve at once.

=Pommes Maire.=--Use "kidney" potatoes if procurable; if not, ordinary potatoes of small size. Boil in salt water and peel while still hot, then cut in thick chips and place in a ca.s.serole and cover with boiling milk. Season with pepper and salt and allow to boil, turning with a fork till the milk has boiled away. Remove from the fire, pour over a cup of rich milk, season again and serve.

=Salade de Tomates.=--Cut a pound of not too ripe tomatoes into one inch cubes, add salt, pepper, vinegar and oil to taste and then toss together with a minced onion. Serve right away. If desired, cold boiled beef in dainty slices may be added.

=Creme Brulee.=--Blend a tablespoonful of flour with the yolks of three eggs and place in a ca.s.serole. Pour slowly in a pint or more of milk, add a pinch of cinnamon, a few drops of extract of lemon or any flavor desired, and stir constantly over the fire. When the cream is cooked, make a caramel sauce in a porcelain pot by melting five or six lumps of sugar and cooking to the browning point. Pour this into a serving dish, pour the cream over it and allow to cool.

XIV

MENU

Bisque d'Herbes Turbot a la Rachel Choufleur au Gratin Salade Barbe de Capucin Gateau de Frangipane

=Bisque d'Herbes.=--Chop together about a handful each of lettuce, sorrel, spinach, also a small onion, a little celery and some chervil and cook all with an egg-sized piece of b.u.t.ter for fifteen minutes, stirring constantly. Then add three tablespoonfuls of flour made smooth with a little stock, stir in four cupfuls of the cauliflower water (which you will have from a recipe following) into which has been beaten the yolk of an egg. Serve very hot with croutons.

=Turbot a la Rachel.=--Boil the fish in salted water. Whitefish or haddock will serve as well as turbot. Make the following sauce: Smooth and brown together two tablespoonfuls of flour and two ounces of b.u.t.ter and stir in five gills of water in which the fish was boiled, adding a teaspoonful each of anchovy essence and mushroom catsup. Remove from the fire and beat in the yolks of two eggs and the juice of one lemon. Color with liquid carmine or a few drops of cochineal and pour over the fish.

=Choufleur au Gratin.=--Dip the cauliflower into ice water, then plunge it into boiling salted water to cook fifteen minutes. Cut a slice off the stalk, remove the leaves, lay on a flat dish and cover with a cream sauce. Sprinkle with grated breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan cheese, brown in the oven and serve.

=Salade Barbe de Capucin.=--Lay the stalks of American endive in a dish and cut into small pieces a medium shallot. Mix, add a French dressing and sprinkle with finely chopped tarragon leaves.

=Gateau de Frangipane.=--Whisk together a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar and the whites of three eggs, then beat in three tablespoonfuls of milk, the grated peel of a lemon and a dash of salt. Then stir in half a pound of flour. Bake in patty tins and when done scoop a piece out of the top of each patty and fill with jam. Then pour over a sauce made as follows: Put two winegla.s.sfuls of white wine into a small saucepan and stir in a cupful of orange marmalade with the juice of a lemon. Thicken with a little corn-starch.

XV

MENU

Potage Bisque Canard a la Pertinset Pommes de Terre a la Creme Choufleur au Beurre Noir Salade de Lentilles Peches au Vin

=Potage Bisque.=--Boil as many crabs as are needed in water, adding salt, pepper, two good sized onions and equal quant.i.ties of carrots and chives. Remove the crabs and take the meat from the claws. Mash the vegetables until they form a puree and add a good sized lump of b.u.t.ter.

Place over the fire with water or bouillon and allow to come to a boil.

Serve very hot with croutons and the meat from the crab claws.

=Canard a la Pertinset.=--Place a carefully prepared duck in a ca.s.serole and dredge it with a lump of melted b.u.t.ter, add two onions, one clove, a dash of garlic. Put in the oven but do not allow the onions to become too brown before removing the duck. Then add five or six tomatoes, one gla.s.s of white wine, a gla.s.s of bouillon, a few cloves and a bayleaf.

Let this boil over a low fire, then mash the tomatoes and onions, put back the duck into the ca.s.serole and boil for forty minutes.

=Pommes de Terre a la Creme.=--Put into a ca.s.serole a lump of b.u.t.ter, a pinch of flour, salt and pepper, nutmeg and a young onion. Mix well and add a cup of rich milk. Place on the fire, stir constantly, and remove as soon as the mixture comes to a boil. Meanwhile boil as many potatoes as are required in salted water. Peel and cut into slices, add to the sauce and serve.

=Choufleur au Beurre Noir.=--Boil a cauliflower and drain. Add a pinch of salt, nutmeg and a dash of vinegar to a pint of the water in which the cauliflower was cooked. Melt two tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter and when it is a light brown add it to the mixture. Pour over the cauliflower on a hot platter.

=Salade de Lentilles.=--Having boiled two cupfuls of lentils till they are tender, season them either hot or cold with a little garlic cut up fine, or with chives and serve in lettuce leaves with a French dressing.

=Peches au Vin.=--Put peaches into a stewpan and cover them with water.

In ten minutes remove the skins. Then place them in a shallow dish and cover them either with Madeira or Moselle wine and allow them to stand for at least two hours. Then drain them, place them in the dish in which they are to be served and cover them with vanilla sugar. Set the wine in which they have been soaked on the fire, add sugar to taste, and pour the sauce boiling over the peaches.

XVI

MENU