Twenty-four Little French Dinners and How to Cook and Serve Them Part 5

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Sardines Grillees Chapon a l'Indienne Pommes de Terre en Matelote Salade Beaucaire Creme Fouettee

=Sardines Grillees.=--Grill half a dozen sardines, or as many as desired, for a few minutes. Melt b.u.t.ter in a frying-pan, stir in a little flour and moisten with hot water, then add a few drops of vinegar, a dash of mustard, salt and pepper. Pour this very hot over the sardines.

=Chapon a l'Indienne.=--Prepare and truss a capon as for roasting, rub all over with b.u.t.ter and place in a ca.s.serole with a good sized slice of salt pork. Cook over a slow fire for three hours. In the meantime cook a cupful of rice, season it with a little curry powder and pimento, and place around the capon on the platter on which it is served.

=Pommes de Terre en Matelote.=--Slice freshly boiled potatoes and cook en ca.s.serole with seasoning of pepper and salt, two or three sliced onions, a sprig of chopped parsley, a lump of b.u.t.ter and a small amount of flour and water. Cook till all the ingredients are well blended and when heaped on a platter and ready for the table, pour over a gla.s.s or two of wine.

=Salade Beaucaire.=--Chop coa.r.s.ely celery and endive together, season with oil, vinegar and mustard an hour before using. Just before taking to the table, add chopped boiled ham, a sour apple, diced, moistened with a little tarragon and mayonnaise. Surround the salad with a border of small potatoes, boiled and sliced, alternated with slices of beet.

=Creme Fouettee.=--Whip cream till it is very thick or make about a quart of custard. Mash thoroughly a pound of cherries or raspberries, or both with powdered sugar. Mix with the cream or custard, beat again and serve immediately. In summer this may be iced with good results.

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Potage Macedoine Homards et Champignons Cotelettes de Mouton a la Brunoise Pet.i.ts Pois a la Francaise Choux a la Creme

=Potage Macedoine.=--Place thin pieces of ham in the bottom of a saucepan and then put in three each of turnips, potatoes and onions, all cut up small. Pour in some stock, season with pepper and salt and simmer till the ham and vegetables are cooked. Add a quart of milk and bring almost to a boil, strain and serve immediately.

=Homards et Champignons.=--Cut an equal quant.i.ty of lobster meat and mushrooms into dice. Boil some veloute sauce together with some essence of mushrooms till somewhat reduced, then thicken and mix with the lobster and mushrooms. Fill ramekin cases with the preparation, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, pour over a little melted b.u.t.ter and bake in the oven till browned. Serve piping hot.

=Cotelettes de Mouton a la Brunoise.=--Trim mutton cutlets neatly, cutting away all fat, and place side by side in a large stewpan. Cover with well-flavored stock and leave to simmer, well covered, for an hour and a half. Take equal quant.i.ties of turnips, onions and celery and double the amount of carrots, cut all into quarter-inch cubes and fry in b.u.t.ter till they begin to color, putting in first the carrots, then the celery, then the onions and last the turnips. When all are done, drain and allow them to simmer gently in a little common stock. A little while before the cutlets are done drain off all the surplus stock from the vegetables, or boil it down quickly over a hot fire. Dress the cutlets on the rim of a platter, heap the vegetables in the center and pour the gravy all over them. Accompany with mashed potatoes.

=Pet.i.ts Pois a la Francaise.=--Cook a pint of sh.e.l.led peas till tender, drain and place on the back of the fire with not quite a gill of the water in which they have been boiled, a little flour and an ounce of b.u.t.ter. Simmer for five minutes, adding pepper and salt to taste and just before taking from the fire add the yolk of an egg mixed with a tablespoonful and a half of cream. Serve very hot in china or paper cases.

=Choux a la Creme.=--Put a small piece of b.u.t.ter in a saucepan with half a pint of water, a teaspoonful of sugar, a piece of lemon peel and a little salt. Boil well together, stir in two tablespoonfuls of flour and stir till thick and cooked. Allow this paste to cool and then work into it two eggs and sufficient milk to make it thin enough to drop from a spoon. Heat lard in a deep frying pan, not quite to the point of boiling, and with a spoon drop the paste into it in lumps about the size of a hen's egg. When slightly brown and well swollen, remove the cakes, drain them well, scoop out a little of the top of each to form a hollow and allow them to cool. Whip cream to a stiff froth and put a small amount into the hollow of each chou, arrange on a fancy dish and serve.

The chou may be filled with jelly or preserves if preferred.

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Potage a la Printaniere Paupiettes de Veau Pommes de Terre, Maitre d'Hotel Salade de Laitue Feuillantines

=Potage a la Printaniere.=--Cut two carrots and one turnip into shapes with a vegetable scoop, simmer for twenty minutes in salted water, drain and place in a quart of the water in which the potatoes (in this same menu) were boiled. Add a handful of chiffonade, cook five minutes and serve.

=Paupiettes de Veau.=--Cut thin cutlets from a fillet of veal and beat them flat and even. Also mince a small quant.i.ty of the veal very fine, mix it with some of the kidney fat, also minced fine, and half a dozen minced anchovies, adding a little salt, ginger and powdered mace. Place this mixture over the slices of veal and roll them up. Beat up an egg, dip the rolled slices in it and then in sifted breadcrumbs. Let them stand for fifteen or twenty minutes, egg them again, roll in breadcrumbs and fry to a golden brown in boiling lard or clarified dripping, or stew them in some rich gravy with half a pint of white wine and a small quant.i.ty of walnut pickle.

=Pommes de Terre, Maitre d'Hotel.=--Cut up carefully selected, underboiled and cold potatoes in rather thick slices. Dredge half a tablespoonful of flour in a saucepan with a lump of b.u.t.ter and when smooth add gradually a cupful of broth, stirring till it boils. Place in the potatoes along with a tablespoonful of chopped parsley and pepper and salt. Stew for three or four minutes, remove the pan to the side of the fire and add quickly the yolk of an egg previously well beaten with a teaspoonful of cold water and a little lemon juice. When the egg has become thickened, turn the potatoes with their sauce on a flat dish and serve.

=Salade de Laitue.=--Select fine lettuces, remove the coa.r.s.e outer leaves, wash and wipe, place in a salad bowl and sprinkle over a tablespoonful of chopped chives, half a teaspoonful each of chopped chervil and tarragon. Season with a pinch of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper, two tablespoonfuls of vinegar and a tablespoonful and a half of oil. Mix thoroughly and serve.

=Feuillantines.=--Prepare some puff paste; roll out to about a third of an inch thick and cut into strips an inch wide and two inches long.

Spread a baking dish thick with b.u.t.ter, arrange the pieces of paste on it, placing them upon their sides and leaving a small s.p.a.ce between them. Put them in the oven and when they are firm and their sides have spread, glaze them with white of egg and dust with powdered sugar. As the feuillantines are cooked set them on paper and drain off any extra grease. Now mask them separately with small quant.i.ties of different colored jams. Arrange on fancy edged dish-paper or a folded napkin on a dish and serve.

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Potage Creme d'Orge Buf a la Mode Pommes de Terre, Sautees Salade de Romaine Souffle au Chocolat

=Potage Creme d'Orge.=--Mix in a saucepan a teacupful of barley, an onion, a small piece of cinnamon, half a blade of mace and three pints of water in which potatoes have been boiled. When the mixture boils remove from the center of the fire and allow to simmer slowly for three hours or more. Pa.s.s through a fine sieve and return to saucepan. Mix in two tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter and half a pint of boiling milk, season with pepper and salt. Beat an egg yolk in a teacupful of milk, mix in the soup but do not allow to boil after egg is added. Serve with croutons.

=Buf a la Mode.=--Take the under part of a round of beef, place it in a deep earthen dish and pour over it spiced vinegar. Let the meat remain in this for several hours, then dress it with strips of salt pork, a third of an inch square, inserted in incisions made a few inches apart.

Stuff larger incisions with breadcrumbs highly seasoned with salt, pepper, onions, thyme and marjoram. Bind the beef into a shape to retain the dressing and dredge with flour. Then cut up two onions, half a carrot and half a turnip and fry in fat drippings till brown and place in a stewpan. Brown the meat all over with the same fat, place on a trivet in the pan, half cover with boiling water, add a small quant.i.ty of mixed herbs tied in a bag, cover and simmer for about four hours, or till done. Take out carefully, remove strings and cloth, and place on a large dish. Skim off the fat from the gravy, add more seasoning, thicken with wetted flour worked smooth, boil for eight or ten minutes and strain over the meat. Decorate with small onions and potato b.a.l.l.s.

=Pommes de Terre, Sautees.=--Boil potatoes until almost done, cut into quarters or slices of medium thickness. Melt b.u.t.ter or clarified drippings in a frying pan, put in the potatoes sprinkled with salt and pepper and finely chopped parsley and toss over the fire till they are a fine golden brown color. Serve with chopped parsley.

=Salade de Romaine.=--Put crisp leaves of romaine in a salad bowl rubbed lightly with a shallot or new onion. Make the following dressing. Take one hard-boiled egg and mash it as finely as possible with a fork, add a little paprika, a pinch of salt, half a teaspoonful of French mustard, a teaspoonful of hashed chives, the same of hashed tarragon, two tablespoonfuls of oil and three of vinegar. Add this to the romaine, toss well and serve.

=Souffle au Chocolat.=--Mix a small tablespoonful of starch with a gill of milk and when quite smooth add two ounces of powdered sugar and two ounces of b.u.t.ter. Put the mixture into a saucepan and stir over the fire till it boils. When cold stir in an ounce of grated chocolate and the yolks of two eggs. Beat well together till perfectly smooth, then mix in the whites of the eggs. Pour into a b.u.t.tered souffle dish and bake for forty minutes.

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Potage Gourmet Eglefin a la Maitre d'Hotel Pommes de Terre, Ca.s.serole Salade de Tomates et de Laitue Canards Sauvages, Sauce Orange Souffle au Citron

=Potage Gourmet.=--Pour into a saucepan about a quart of the water in which potatoes have been boiled, add a small amount of cold chicken cut in small dice, two tablespoonfuls of boiled rice, two tablespoonfuls of cooked green peas and one truffle cut into dice, also pepper and salt, along with one or two whole cloves. Bring to a boil, allow to simmer for fifteen minutes, and serve.

=Eglefin a la Maitre d'Hotel.=--Cut a cleaned haddock open at the back on each side of the bone, dust with pepper and salt, dip in flour, place on a gridiron over a clear fire and cook for about twenty minutes, turning carefully from time to time. Remove from the fire, place two ounces of b.u.t.ter on the back of the fish, place it in the oven to melt the b.u.t.ter, then, put the fish on a hot platter and sprinkle with mince parsley and lemon juice, the latter heated.

=Pommes de Terre, Ca.s.serole.=--Boil a pound or two of potatoes, drain and mash and make into a stiff paste by adding b.u.t.ter and milk together with a little salt. Form into a ca.s.serole, put on a dish, make an opening in the top, brown in the oven and serve.

=Salade de Tomates et Laitue.=--Split the white leaves of lettuce into quarters and place in a bowl. Cut tomatoes into thin slices and place over the lettuce. Season with a sauce made of one part of vinegar, two of oil, a little salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over just before serving.

=Canards Sauvages, Sauce Orange.=--Roast two wild ducks over a brisk fire, having them underdone, more or less, according to taste. Baste all the time they are cooking with b.u.t.ter and the juice of lemon and serve with the following sauce. Shred finely the rind of two oranges and parboil in a little water. Melt an ounce of b.u.t.ter and stir into it a dessertspoonful of flour moistened with a little water. Stir well over the fire and then add the juice of the two oranges, some very clear gravy, flavor with pepper and salt and cayenne, then add the parboiled orange rind. Let the sauce boil and keep hot till wanted.