MENU II

(January.')

Fetits crimes k la Dieppoise.

Odtelettes de veau k la Bordelaise.

Poudiag k, la Turque.

Bouch6es k la Dauphise.

I. These can be made of any white fish. I will take a sixpenny whiting. Order it to be sent home as it is. Take the flesh from each side in two fillets, and put them aside separately, creams with Chop up the head, bones, and skin, put shrimp them into a stewpan, moisten with half a pint each of cold milk and water ; season with salt and pepper, bring slowly to the boil over a low fire, then add two ounces of minced onion, half one of celery, a sprig of parsley, and a teaspoonful of dried herbs. Simmer forty-five minutes and strain. Put the strained broth into a saute-p3.n with an upright rim, boil, put in the fillets, reduce to simmering, and as soon as soft take them out, put them into a mortar, and pound them to a paste ; weigh, and for six ounces of whiting allow two ounces of butter or fat of cooked ham, and two ounces of bread panada; mix, and pass all through a wire sieve. Now add to the puree thus obtained two whole eggs and the yolk only of another. Beat well together, season, add a tablespoonful of cream, put the mixture

8 FIFTY LUNCHES.

into buttered darioles, tap each smartly on a folded cloth laid on the table to cause the filling to be even, and poach very gently about thirty-five minutes. The steaming should be done in this vs^ay : — Choose a roomy stewpan, lay a sheet of paper folded in four at the bottom of it, pour in hot water about an inch deep, set on the fire, and when nearly boiling shp in the darioles ; let boiling begin, but at once reduce to gentle simmering, keeping the pan covered. While this is proceeding, turn the broth in which the fillets were cooked to a sauce, thickening with half an ounce of butter and half an ounce of flour. Bring to the boil, pass through a hair sieve, add three pennyworth of picked shrimps finely minced and a tablespoonful of cream. When the creams are ready turn them out of the moulds, dish in a circle on a hot dish, and mask with the sauce. A pile of cooked fillets of cucumber may be arranged in the centre. This dish may be made of previously cooked fish, but in that case it would be advisable to get a few fish-cuttings to make a broth for the sauce. The creams can also be served cold, masked with the sauce, reduced to such a consistency as to coat them, cucumber or other salading in the centre, dressed with mayonnaise sauce. To get a smooth masking omit the shrimps in making the sauce, and use them in the salad.

2. Choose six veal cutlets, trim them neatly, and lard them in the ordinary manner. Set them aside while you prepare a satUe- or fricandeau- Veal cutlets pan with a cover, to receive them in this with Borde- ^ -d . . ■. r ■.,

laise sauce, manner : — Butter its surface with an

ounce and a half of butter, lay over that

ENDIVE PUREE. 9

three ounces each of finely minced onion, carrot, and turnip, and the peelings and stalks (chopped small) of a quarter of a pound of mushrooms ; season with pepper, salt, and powdered herbs ; fry for five minutes, then add an ounce of meat glaze ; melt this and lay the cutlets on the surface of the vegetables, larded side uppermost. Moisten now with hot broth in sufficient quantity to come level with the surfaces of the cutlets, cover them with a buttered paper, cover the pan, and simmer gently for about an hour and a quarter ; when quite tender take the pan from the fire, remove the cutlets, strain off the broth into a bowl, wipe out the pan, brush off any pieces of vegetable that may adhere to the cutlets, and lay them in the pan again. Have ready melted an ounce of glaze, dilute this with half a gill of the strained broth, push the pan into the oven, and glaze the cutlets by basting them with the melted glaze. When heated through and nicely glazed, arrange the cutlets in a line on a small hot joint dish (silver if possible) garnished with endive puree, and send this sauce round in a boat. Having skimmed off all fat from the broth, take two gills of it, add one gill of good thick tomato puree, boil up, add a teaspoonful of cornflour diluted with broth, skim, strain, and serve.

Remove the outside leaves from two heads of endive of a good size, wash them well, cut each in four, and plunge the pieces into fast-boiling salted water ; boil for twenty or twenty- ^^^f-f^^ five minutes, drain, " refresh " them with

10 FIFTY LUNCHES.

a douche of cold water, and, after pressing all mois- ture from them, turn them out on a board and chop them up as small as possible. Melt two ounces of butter in a stewpan, put in the chopped endives, dust over with salt and a pinch of powdered mace, and stir without stopping over a moderate fire until the vegetable has absorbed the butter ; next moisten with half a gill of ci^eam, good white sauce, or milk, stir till well mixed and of a fairly thick consistency, and arrange the fiiree round the cutlets.

3. Make a pint of coffee custard in this way : —

Roast four ounces of coffee-berries by moving

„ „ them about over a low fire in a saute-

custard pan, lubricated with half an ounce of

^iddinga butter. Boil three-quarters of a pint

of milk, take it off the fire, empty the

newly roasted berries into it, and let them thus soak,

covered up, in a warm place for about an hour.

Strain, and turn the milk to a custard with four eggs,

sweetening with an ounce of sugar. Strain this when

made. Choose a pint border mould with a hollow

rim, butter it well, line it with crushed ratafias, pour

in the custard, and steam gently (process given in

No. i) till firm. Let it get cold in the mould, then

turn it out, glaze it with diluted apricot jam, fill the

hollow rim with preserved chei'ries, and send apricot

sauce in a boat separately : — Put three tablespoonfuls

of the jam in a gill of water, with a liqueur-glass of

rum ; boil, pass through a strainer, and let it get cold.

4. Choose a dozen feoMcAec-moulds, line them with

COFFEE CUSTARD PUDDING A LA TURQUE. ii

melted aspic jelly about an eighth of an inch thick, keep them on ice, fill them with anchovy cream, and when set tm-n them out ; dish in a circle, and garnish with hard-boiled eggs and cress. For the anchovy cream take four hard-boiled yolks of egg, twelve fillets of anchovy, and two tablespoonfuls of mayon- naise sauce ; pound, and pass all through a hair sieve, add a giU of diluted aspic, and fill the hollows of the lined bouchee-m.o\AdiS. Let this set.