The Cook's Decameron Part 27

Chop a little sorrel, a small bit of onion, mint, parsley, marjoram, and fry in two ounces of b.u.t.ter, add some cut-up asparagus, salt, and pepper. Then add three eggs beaten up and a little grated cheese, and make your omelette.

No. 209. Frittata Montata (Omelette Souffle)

Ingredients: Eggs, Parmesan, pepper, parsley.

Beat up the whites of three eggs to a froth and the yolks separately with a tablespoonful of grated Parmesan, chopped parsley, and a little pepper. Then mix them and make a light omelette.

No. 210. Frittata di Prosciutto (Ham Omelette)

Ingredients: Eggs, ham, Parmesan, mint, pepper, clotted cream.

Beat up three eggs and add to them two tablespoonsful of clotted cream, one tablespoonful of chopped ham, one of grated Parmesan, chopped mint and a little pepper, and make the omelette in the usual way.

Sweets and Cakes

No. 211. Bodino of Semolina

Ingredients: Semolina, milk, eggs, castor sugar, lemon, sultanas, rum, b.u.t.ter, cream, or Zabajone (No. 222).

Boil one and a half pints of milk with four ounces of castor sugar, and gradually add five ounces of semolina, boil for a quarter of an hour more and stir continually with a wooden spoon, then take the saucepan off the fire, and when it is cooled a little, add the yolks of six and the whites of two eggs well beaten up, a little grated lemon peel, three-quarters of an ounce of sultanas and two small gla.s.ses of rum.

Mix well, so as to get it very smooth, pour it into a b.u.t.tered mould and serve either hot or cold. If cold, put whipped cream flavoured with stick vanilla round the dish; if hot, a Zabajone (No. 222).

No. 212. Crema rappresa (Coffee Cream)

Ingredients: Coffee, cream, eggs, sugar, b.u.t.ter.

Bruise five ounces of freshly roasted Mocha coffee, and add it to three-quarters of a pint of boiling cream; cover the saucepan, let it simmer for twenty minutes, then pa.s.s through a bit of fine muslin. In the meantime mix the yolks of ten eggs and two whole eggs with eight ounces of castor sugar and a gla.s.s of cream; add the coffee cream to this and pa.s.s the whole through a fine sieve into a b.u.t.tered mould.

Steam in a bain-marie for rather more than an hour, but do not let the water boil; then put the cream on ice for about an hour, and before serving turn it out on a dish and pour some cream flavoured with stick vanilla round it.

No. 213. Crema Montata alle Fragole (Strawberry Cream)

Ingredients: Cream, castor sugar, Maraschino, strawberries or strawberry jam.

Put a pint of cream on ice, and after two hours whip it up. Pa.s.s three tablespoonsful of strawberry jam through a sieve and add two tablespoonsful of Maraschino; mix this with the cream and build it up into a pyramid. Garnish with meringue biscuits and serve quickly. You may use fresh strawberries when in season, but then add castor sugar to taste.

No. 214. Croccante di Mandorle (Cream Nougat)

Ingredients: Almonds, sugar, lemon juice, b.u.t.ter, castor sugar, pistachios, preserved fruits.

Blanch half a pound of almonds, cut them into shreds and dry them in a slow oven until they are a light brown colour; then put a quarter pound of lump sugar into a saucepan and caramel it lightly; stir well with a wooden spoon. When the sugar is dissolved, throw the hot almonds into it and also a little lemon juice. Take the saucepan off the fire and mix the almonds with the sugar, pour it into a b.u.t.tered mould and press it against the sides of the mould with a lemon, but remember that the casing of sugar must be very thin. (You may, if you like, spread out the mixture on a flat dish and line the mould with your hands, but the sugar must be kept hot.) Then take it out of the mould and decorate it with castor sugar, pistacchio nuts, and preserved fruits. Fill this case with whipped cream and preserved fruits or fresh strawberries.

No. 215. Crema tartara alla Caramella (Caramel Cream)

Ingredients: Cream, eggs, caramel sugar, vanilla or lemon flavouring.

Boil a pint of cream and give it any flavour you like. When cold, add the yolks of eight eggs and two tablespoonsful of castor sugar, mix well and pa.s.s it through a sieve; then burn some sugar to a caramel, line a smooth mould with it and pour the cream into it. Boil in a bain-marie for an hour and serve hot or cold.

No. 216. Cremona Cake

Ingredients: Ground rice, ground maize, sugar, one orange, eggs, salt, cream, Maraschino, almonds, preserved cherries.

Weigh three eggs, and take equal quant.i.ties of castor sugar, b.u.t.ter, ground rice and maize (the last two together); make a light paste with them, but only use one whole egg and the yolks of the two others, add the sc.r.a.ped peel of an orange and a pinch of salt. Roll this paste out to the thickness of a five-s.h.i.+lling piece, colour it with the yolk of an egg and bake it in a cake tin in a hot oven until it is a good colour, then take it out and cut it into four equal circular pieces. Have ready some well-whipped cream and flavour it with Maraschino, put a thick layer of this on one of the rounds of pastry, then cover it with: the next round, on which also put a layer of cream, and so on until you come to the last round, which forms the top of the cake. Then split some almonds and colour them in the oven, cover the top of the cake with icing sugar flavoured with orange, and decorate the top with the almonds and preserved cherries.

No. 217. Cake alla Tolentina

Ingredients: Sponge-cake, jam, brandy or Maraschino, cream, pine-apple.

Make a medium-sized sponge-cake; when cold cut off the top and scoop out all the middle and leave only the brown case; cover the outside with a good coating of jam or red currant jelly, and decorate it with some of the white of the cake cut into fancy shapes. Soak the rest of the crumb in brandy or Maraschino and mix it with quarter of a pint of whipped cream and bits of pineapple cut into small dice; fill the cake with this; pile it up high in the centre and decorate the top with the brown top cut into fancy shapes.

No. 218. Riso all'Imperatrice

Ingredients: Rice, sugar, milk, ice, preserved fruits, blanc-mange, Maraschino, cream.

Boil two dessert-spoonsful of rice and one of sugar in milk. When sufficiently boiled, drain the rice and let it get cold. In the meantime place a mould on ice, and decorate it with slices of preserved fruit, and fix them to the mould with just enough nearly cold dissolved isingla.s.s to keep them in place. Also put half a pint of blanc-mange on the ice, and stir it till it is the right consistency, gradually add the boiled rice, half a gla.s.s of Maraschino, some bits of pineapple cut in dice, and last of all half a pint of whipped cream. Fill the mould with this, and when it is sufficiently cold, turn it out and serve with a garnish of glace fruits or a few brandy cherries.