The Belgian Cook-Book by Mrs. Brian Luck Published: 1915
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PART II
The second half of this little book is composed chiefly of recipes for
dishes that can be made in haste, and by the inexperienced cook. But such
cook can hardly pay too much attention to details if she does not wish to
revert to an early, not to say feral type of cuisine, where the roots
were eaten raw while the meat was burnt. Because your dining-room
furniture is Early English, there is no reason why the cooking should be
early English too. And it certainly will be, unless one takes great
trouble with detail.
Let us suppose that at 7:30 P.M. your husband telephones that he is
bringing a friend to dine at 8. Let us suppose an even more rash act. He
arrives at 7:15, he brings a friend: you perceive the unexpressed
corollary that the dinner must be better than usual. In such a moment of
poignant surprise, let fly your best smile (the kind that is practiced by
bachelors' widows) and say "I am delighted you have come like this; do
you mind eight or a quarter past for dinner?" Then melt away to the cook
with this very book in your hand.
I take it that you consider her to be the junior partner in the
household, you, of course, being the senior, and your husband the
sleeping partner in it. Ask what there is in the house for an extra dish,
and I wager you the whole solar system to a burnt match that you will
find in these pages the very recipe that fits the case. A piece of cold
veal, viewed with an eye to futurity, resolves itself into a white creamy
delightfulness that melts in your mouth; a new-laid egg, maybe, poached
on the top, and all set in a china shell. If you have no meat at all, you
must simply hoodwink your friends with the fish and vegetables.
You know the story of the great Frenchwoman:
"Helas, Annette, I have some gentlemen coming to dine, and we have no
meat in the house. What to do?"
"Ah! Madame, I will cook at my best; and if Madame will talk at her best,
they will never notice there is anything wrong."
But for the present day, I would recommend rather that the gentlemen be
beguiled into doing the talking themselves, if any shortcoming in the
menu is to be concealed from them, for then their attention will be
engaged.
It takes away from the made-in-a-hurry look of a dish if it is decorated,
and there are plenty of motifs in that way besides parsley. One can use
beetroot, radishes, carrots cut in dice, minced pickles, sieved egg; and
for sweets, besides the usual preserved cherries and angelica, you can
have strips of lemon peel, almonds pointed or chopped, stoned prunes cut
in halves, wild strawberries, portions of tangerine orange. There is a
saying,
Polish the shoe,
Though the sole be through,
and a very simple chocolate shape may be made attractive by being
garnished with a cluster of pointed almonds in the center, surrounded by
a ring of tangerine pieces, well skinned and laid like many crescents one
after the other. There is nothing so small and insignificant but has
great possibilities. Did not Darwin raise eighty seedlings from a single
clod of earth taken from a bird's foot?
It is to be regretted that Samuel Johnson never wrote the manual that he
contemplated. "Sir," he said, "I could write a better book of cookery
than has ever yet been written. It should be a book on philosophical
principles."
Perhaps the pies of Fleet Street reminded him of the Black Broth of the
Spartans which the well-fed Dionysius found excessively nasty; the tyrant
was curtly told that it was nothing indeed without the seasoning of
fatigue and hunger. We do not wish a meal to owe its relish solely to the
influence of extreme hunger--it must have a beautiful nature all its own,
it must exhibit the idea of Thing-in-Itself in an easily assimilable
form.
I am convinced, anyhow, that this little collection (formed through the
kindness of our Belgian friends) will work miracles; for there are plenty
of miracles worked nowadays, though not by those romantic souls who think
that things come by themselves. Good dinners certainly do not, and I end
with this couplet:
A douce woman and a fu' wame
Maks King and cottar bide at hame.
Which, being interpreted, means that if you want a man to stay at home,
you must agree with him and so must his dinner.
M. LUCK.
HORS D'OEUVRE
(Herring and Mayonnaise)
Take some salt herrings, one for each person, and soak them for a day in
water. Skin them, cut them open lengthways, take out the backbone, and
put them to soak for a day in vinegar. Then before serving them, let them
lie for a few minutes in milk, and, putting them on a dish, pour over
them a good mayonnaise sauce.
[Mme. Delhaye.]
CARROT SOUP
Wash and scrape a pound of carrots, slice them, treat two medium sized
potatoes in the same manner, add a bay leaf, a sprig of thyme and a
chopped onion. Cook all with water, add salt, pepper, and cook gently
till tender, when pass it through a sieve. Put in a pan a lump of butter
the size of an egg, with a chopped leek and a sprig of chervil. Let it
cook gently for three or four minutes, then pour on the puree of carrots
and let it all come to the boil before taking it off to serve.
[Madame Stoppers.]
SORREL SOUP
Take a quart of bouillon or of meat extract and water. Fry in butter a
carrot, a turnip, an onion, a small cabbage, all washed and chopped, and
add half a teaspoonful of castor sugar. Put your soup to it and set on
the fire. Let it simmer for twenty minutes, add any seasoning you wish
and a little more water, and let it simmer for another half hour. Then
shred a bit of basil or marjoram with a handful of well washed sorrel,
throw them in, cook for five minutes, skim it, pour it into a soup
tureen, and serve.
OSTEND SOUP
There are many varieties of this soup to be met with in the different
hotels, but it is a white soup, made of fish pieces and trimmings,
strained, returned to the pot, and with plenty of cream and oysters added
before serving. It should never boil after the cream is put in. A little
mace is usual, but no onions or shallot. A simple variety is made with
flour and milk instead of cream, the liquor of the oysters as well as the
oysters, and a beaten egg added at the last moment.
[Esperance.]
ANOTHER SORREL SOUP
Take a tablespoonful of breadcrumbs, moisten them in milk in a pan, then
add as much water as you require. Throw in three medium potatoes, a
handful of well washed sorrel, and a sprig or two of chervil, a lump of
butter, pepper, and salt. Bring to the boil, simmer for quarter of an
hour, pass through a tammy, heat again for ten minutes and serve burning
hot.
[Esperance.]
HASTY SOUP
Into a quart of boiling water throw lightly four tablespoonfuls of
semolina, so that the grains are separated. Let it boil for a quarter of
an hour, with pepper and salt. Take the tureen and put the yolk of an egg
in it with a bit of butter the same size, mix them with a fork and pour
in a teacupful of hot water with extract of meat in it, as strong as you
wish. Quickly pour in the semolina soup and serve it at once. This is a
quickly made and inexpensive dish, besides which it is a nice one.
[Madame Alphonse F.]
ARTICHOKES A LA VEDETTE
Boil some globe artichokes in salted water till they are tender. Take out
the center leaves, leaving an even fringe of leaves on the outside.
Remove as much of the choke as you can. Put them back in a steamer. Toss
some cooked peas in butter, then mix them in cream and taking up your
artichokes again put in your cream and peas in the center of each, as
much as you can get in. The cream is not necessary for this dish to be a
good one, but the artichokes and peas must both be young. As a rule
people cut their fruit too soon and their vegetables too late.
[Chef reconnaissant.]
SURPRISE POTATOES
Quarter of an hour will suffice to prepare and cook this savory surprise,
once the potatoes are baked. Take three large potatoes of symmetrical
size, clean and bake them; cut each in two and remove the inside without
injuring the skin. Melt half an ounce of butter by the fire, add two
ounces of potato passed through a sieve, a teaspoonful of grated
parmesan, pepper, salt, and a tablespoonful of milk. Then stir in the
yolk of an egg and presently the white, well beaten. Fill the empty
potato skins with the mixture which ought to rise and puff out in ten or
twelve minutes.
VEGETABLE SALADS
Sometimes one has a few leeks, a half cauliflower, a handful each of peas
and beans. Instead of currying these vegetables (which removes all
distinctive flavor from them) cook them gently, and toss them when cold
in a good salad dressing. If you can give the yolk of an egg to it, so
much the better. Any cold meat is improved by a side dish of this sort.
The vegetables that one can curry with advantage are large marrows, cut
into cubes, turnips, potatoes, parsnips.
[Marguerite Leblanc.]
TOMATOES A LA SIR EDWARD GREY HOMMAGE
Take some fine firm tomatoes, not very ripe. Turn them with the stalk
side up and cut a slice off the top with a sharp knife. Take out the
inside with a teaspoon. Break into each tomato a pullet's egg, sprinkle
with pepper and salt. The inside of the tomato you will pass through a
fine wire sieve and it will be a thick liquor; mix it with bread-crumbs,
salt, pepper, and some grated cheese till quite thick. Put this mixture
on the top of each egg and place all in the oven for three or four
minutes, so that the eggs are only just set and no more.
[Amie inconnue.]
STUFFED CARROTS
Take some good sized carrots, and after washing them well and cutting off
the green tuft, cut each one across about two and a half inches from the
leaves. Scoop out the inside yellow part, leaving a case of the redder
part and a piece to form the bottom, at the smaller end. Then stew the
cases very gently till a little tender, but not quite soft. Take them out
of the water, drain them, and then placing each on its small end, fill up
with hot chopped mushrooms, that have been tossed in butter. Arrange in a
circle on a dish, and garnish with small sprigs of carrot leaves. The
insides that you have scooped out are to be used for soup flavoring.
[Pour la Patrie.]
TO COOK ASPARAGUS
One should not let the tips of this vegetable touch the water. Take your
bundle, dip the stalks in warm water to remove any dust, and the tips
also, if it is necessary. Then tie the bundle round with tape, keeping
the ends of stalks even so that it will stand upright. Place them in
boiling water with the heads just sticking out, and keep them like that.
In this way the heads, which are very tender, will be cooked in the steam
and will not drop off.
[Pour la Patrie.]
TOMATOES IN HASTE
Butter a pie-dish, preferably a fireproof china dish. Open a tin of
tomatoes and remove as much skin as you can if they are the unpeeled
kind. Put a handful of crumbled brown bread in the dish with lumps of
butter, then pour on that some tomatoes, dust with pepper and salt, then
more bread, and so on, finishing at the last with lumps of butter, and a
thick sprinkling of grated cheese. Bake for twenty minutes.
[Pour la Patrie.]
KIDNEYS AND LETTUCE
Put on some water to boil. Take your lettuce, and choose the round kind,
and wash it well. Take out neatly with your fingers the center leaves,
and fill up instead with a sheep's kidney which you have lightly dusted
with flour, pepper, and salt. Tie the lettuce round very firmly and set
it in a pan of boiling water that covers up only three quarters of the
vegetable. Boil for eighteen minutes. Take out the lettuce, untie it,
drain it, and serve at once. Kidneys are good when they are placed inside
large Spanish onions and gently stewed, in which case a dab of made
mustard is given them.
TOMATO RICE
Put on your rice to boil. Make a tomato sauce by stewing them gently, and
then rubbing them through a sieve; this makes a puree, which you must put
back to heat with pepper and salt and a small quantity of made mustard.
Then grate some parmesan, or failing that, some Gruyere cheese. Take off
the rice, drain it, keeping it hot, put it on a dish and pour over it
your puree. Then sprinkle the grated cheese thickly on top of all.
[Pour la Patrie.]
RICE WITH EGGS
Boil some rice till it will press closely together. Fill some teacups
with it, pressing the rice well down; then leave a hole in the middle and
pour into each hole a small raw egg, yolk, and white. Set the tea-cups to
cook in the oven, and when the eggs are just set and no more, press on
them some more rice. Turn them out of the teacups, and if you have rubbed
the inside of the cups with a little butter this will be easy, and
sprinkle over the top of each mold plenty of chopped parsley. Do not
forget salt and pepper to season the ingredients.
[Pour la Patrie.]
BROAD BEANS IN SAUCE
Take your shelled beans, very young and tender. Throw them into boiling
water for a minute, then pour the water away. Heat for a pound of beans
one and one-half pints of milk, stir in four ounces of salt butter, a
very little chopped parsley, salt and pepper. Do not let the milk boil,
but when it simmers put in the beans. When they have been heated for ten
minutes, thicken your sauce with the yolks of two eggs and a
tablespoonful of cream. Take out a bean and eat it to see if it is
cooked, and if so, pour all on a hot dish. Garnish with fried sippets of
bread. Old broad beans can be treated in the same way, but they must
first be skinned.
[Aimee.]
OMELETTE OF PEAS
Beat up three eggs, to which add one tablespoonful of grated cheese,
pepper, and salt, and mix thoroughly. Butter an omelette pan, and pour in
the mixture, keep moving it gently with a fork while you sprinkle in with
the other hand some cooked green peas. The omelette will be cooked by the
time you have sprinkled in two handfuls. Slip it off on to a very hot
dish, fold over, and serve at once.
[Jean O.]
BRUSSELS ARTICHOKES
Wash well some globe artichokes, and boil them in salted water. Meanwhile
make a good mushroom filling, highly seasoned, of cooked mushroom, dipped
into butter, pepper, salt, a few breadcrumbs, and shreds of ham. Remove
the center leaves from the vegetable and as much of the choke as you can.
Fill up with the mushroom force and stew gently in brown sauce flavored
with a bunch of herbs.
[F. R.]
BELGIAN SALAD
is merely endive, washed and torn apart with red peppers added here and
there as well as the ordinary salad dressing.
Belgian asparagus is done by adding to the cooked vegetable a
bechamel sauce, poured over the dish, and then slices of hard boiled eggs
placed on the top. The giant asparagus is used, and it is eaten with a
fork.
[A Grocer's Wife.]
BRUSSELS CARROTS
Cut young carrots in small pieces, blanch them in salted water; melt some
butter in a stew pan, add enough water and meat extract to make
sufficient to cover the carrots, season with pepper, salt and a pinch of
sugar and toss the carrots in this till they are tender. Then add the
yolk of an egg and a tablespoonful of cream, holding the pan just off the
fire with the left hand, while you stir with the right. When it is well
mixed pour all out on a vegetable dish and sprinkle over with chopped
parsley.
[Amie reconnaissante.]
CARROTS AND EGGS
Make the same preparation as above, for the sauce, with the same
seasonings, but add a dust of nutmeg. Then add half a pint of white stock
which will be enough for a small bunch of carrots; simmer them for
fifteen minutes and then break in three whole eggs, taking care that they
fall apart from each other. Let them cook till nearly set (for they will
go on cooking in the hot sauce after you remove them from the fire) and
serve at once. This is nearly as good if you use old carrots sliced,
instead of the young ones.
[M. Zoeben.]
CUCUMBERS AND TOMATOES
Take two earthenware pots and put some tomatoes to stew in one, in water,
pepper, and salt. Peel a cucumber, open it, remove the seeds and stuff it
with any forcemeat that you have; but a white one is best. Let it cook
gently in some brown stock, well covered over. When tender put the
cucumber along the dish and tomatoes on each side. A puree of potatoes
can surround them.
[A. Fanderverde.]
RED HARICOTS
Soak some white haricot-beans over night, or stew them till tender in
some weak stock. Make a tomato sauce in a saucepan, and flavor it rather
strongly with made mustard, stirring well, so that it is well
incorporated. When the beans are tender, drain them from the liquor
(keeping them hot) and reduce that to half its quantity. Put back the
beans and add the tomato sauce, heat for a couple of minutes, and serve
with three-cornered pieces of toast.
[Elise et Jean.]
POTATOES A LA BRABANCONNE
Boil some potatoes, rub them through a sieve, add pepper, salt, and a
tablespoonful of cream to a pound of potatoes, rub through a tammy again.
Chop a shallot, a spring or two of parsley and mix them in, sprinkling in
at the same time a dust of nutmeg and a dessertspoonful of grated cheese.
Place the puree in a dish to be baked, and before setting it in the oven
sprinkle on the top some bread-crumbs, and cheese grated and mixed and
one or two pats of salt butter. Bake till it is a golden brown.
[Elise et Jean.]
FLEMISH PEAS
Cook some young peas and some carrots (scraped and shaped into cones) in
separate pans. Then put them together in an earthenware close covered pan
to simmer together in butter and gravy, the first water having been well
drained from them. Season with pepper and salt and let them cook gently
for ten or twelve minutes; do not uncover the pot to stir it, but shake
it every now and then to prevent the contents from burning.
[Amie inconnue.]
CHOU-CROUTE
Take as many white September cabbages as you wish, trim them, cut in
halves, remove the stalks, wash them very thoroughly and shred them
pretty finely. Procure an earthenware crock and put in a layer of
cabbage, sprinkle it with coarse salt, whole pepper, and juniper berries.
Fill up the crock in this way, put on the lid, and keep it down closely
with weights. It will be ready in about six weeks' time, when the
fermentation has taken place. It is good with pork or bacon.
SPINACH FRITTERS
Take any cold boiled spinach--though people generally eat all that there
is--and mix it thickly with the yolk of egg and a little rice flour; you
may add a little powdered sugar. Have ready some boiling fat, and drop
spoonfuls of the spinach into it. If the fat is hot enough the fritters
will puff out. Drain them quickly and serve very hot.
HARLEQUIN CABBAGES
Shred some red cabbage, to half a pound of it add two medium sized
apples, minced finely without core or skin, a bit of fat bacon, season
with pepper, salt, vinegar, which should be tarragon vinegar, and put it
to simmer in some gravy or milk and water. It should cook for an hour
over a gentle fire. Cook separately some green cabbage, cleaned, boiled
till tender in salted water, chopped, then put back on a gentle fire with
salt, pepper, a dust of nutmeg, and some fat or butter. Let it heat and
mix well, and then serve the two colors side by side in the same dish;
the red cabbage has a sour and the green has a nutty flavor which is very
agreeable.
LITTLE TOWERS OF SALAD
Put a couple of eggs on to boil hard, while you make a thick mayonnaise
sauce. Cut some beetroot, some cucumber, some cold potato, some tomato
into slices. Peel your eggs, and slice them, and build up little piles of
the different things, till about two inches high. Between each slice you
will sprinkle grated breadcrumbs, pepper, salt, a tiny scrap of chopped
raw shallot, parsley, all mixed in a cup. Finish with the rounded ends of
white of egg on the top, put lettuce round and pour the dressing over it.
PUFFS FOR FRIDAY
Make a batter of a beaten egg, a dust of rice flour, pepper, salt and as
much cream as you can give. Roll out this batter so thinly that you can
almost see through it. Cut it into rounds and put on it any cooked
vegetables that you have, but they must be highly seasoned. Cold potatoes
will do if they are done with mustard, vinegar, or a strong boiled sauce.
Fold over the paste, press it together at the edges, and fry in hot fat.
HADDOCK A LA CARDINAL
Take some fillets of haddock, or cod or hake, and poach them gently in
milk and water. Meanwhile, prepare a good white sauce, and in another pan
a thick tomato sauce, highly seasoned, colored with cochineal if need be,
and as thick as a good cream. Lay the fillets when cooked one each on a
plate, put some of the white sauce round it, and along the top put the
tomato sauce which must not run down. A sprig of chervil is to be placed
at each end of the fillet.
[Seulette.]
SKATE STEW
Put the fins, skin, trimmings of skate into water enough to cook them,
with pepper and salt and simmer for half an hour. Strain it through a
fine sieve. Make a brown sauce of butter and flour, pepper, salt, adding
a little milk, about a teacupful for a pound of skate, then squeeze in
the juice of half a lemon, and if you have it, a glass of white wine.
Take the skate, cut it in pieces, simmer it in salted water; when cooked,
strain away the water, dish the fish, pouring over it the above sauce.
Decorate with strips of lemon peel laid in a lattice-work down the
center.
[Une epiciere.]
TO DRESS COARSE FISH
Any fish is good if dressed in this way. Make a brown sauce, well
flouring it with salt, pepper, and dried herbs. Mince and fry a shallot
and add it, then a large glass of red wine, a few drops of lemon juice.
Cook some fish roe, sieve it, and stir it into the sauce. Take your fish
and simmer it in milk and water till cooked, then heat it up quickly in
the sauce to serve.
[F. R.]
FLEMISH SALAD
This is fillets of herring, laid in a bowl with slices of apple,
beetroot, cold potatoes, and cold cooked sprouts, covered with the
ordinary salad dressing. If the fish is salted, let it soak first of all
in milk to take away the greater part of the salt. This is a winter dish,
but the same sort of thing is prepared in summer, substituting cold
cooked peas, cauliflower, artichokes, beans, with the fish.
[Amie reconnaissante.]
FLEMISH SAUCE
This popular sauce is composed of melted butter thickened with yolk of
egg and flavored with mustard; it is used greatly for fish.
BEEF SQUARES
If you have a small piece of very good beef, such as rump steak or fillet
of beef, it is more economical to cut it into squares, and grill it
lightly at a clear fire. Have ready some squares of toast, buttered and
hot, lay these on a hot dish with a bit of steak on the top, and on the
top of that a slice of tomato much peppered and salted and a small pile
of horse-radish. This makes a pretty dish and can be varied by using
capers or chopped gherkins instead of horse-radish. It is a great saving
to cut meat, bread, etc., in squares instead of rounds.
[Une amie au convent.]
IMITATION CUTLETS
A dish that I have done for those who like curry flavoring is the
following. Take any cold cooked vegetables, and cutting them in small
pieces, roll them in a thick white sauce which you have strongly flavored
with curry. Put it aside to get firm. If you are in a hurry you can bind
with the yolk of an egg in the flour and make a thick batter in that way.
Form into cutlets and fry as you would a real cutlet. The same thing can
be done with macaroni or spaghetti that is already cooked, with cold fish
or anything that is insipid to the taste.
[Une amie au convent.]
KIDNEYS WITH MADEIRA
Use either sheep or pigs' kidneys. Cut them longways, so as to be able to
take out the threads from the inside of them. Put some butter on to fry
over a brisk fire and when it is browned, but not burnt, put in the
kidneys for three or four minutes. Take them out and keep them hot for a
minute while you add to the butter they were cooked in a soupspoonful of
Madeira wine, a good dust of chopped parsley, a little cayenne pepper and
salt. Mix it well, and if too thick add a little gravy. Pour the sauce
over the kidneys and finish with a powdering of chopped parsley. Fried
potatoes are eaten with this dish.
[Mme. Vanderbelle Genotte.]
PIGS' TROTTERS IN BLANQUETTE
Any part of pork or veal is good done in this way. Take your pieces of
meat and fry them in butter till they are a good golden brown color. Put
them in a pan, covering them with water, and adding a sliced onion, a bay
leaf, a whole carrot, a leek, pepper, salt,--let it all simmer gently
over a slow fire till the meat is cooked but not boiled. Take the pieces
from the liquor and pass it through a sieve. Mix a little rice flour in a
cup of cold water, stirring well. Drop in the juice of half a lemon and
the beaten yolk of an egg, which stir round quickly. Put in the meat
again for a moment and serve it with boiled potatoes.
LOIN OF MUTTON IN THE POT
Put in an earthenware pot three shallots, finely minced; take a bit of
garlic, cut it close and rub it round the side of the pot; put in as well
a lump of butter, pepper and salt, and some rather fat gravy. Divide the
loin and put six chops in to simmer for three quarters of an hour on a
moderate fire, covering the pot with the lid. Before you serve it, stir
in a little lemon juice and stir up the sauce. To be served with
Cauliflower a la Aerschot as follows: Cut your cauliflower into medium
pieces, seeing that it is very clean, while you have some salted water
boiling up. Put in the pieces, boil till tender, then drain them on
a sieve. Put leaves and trimming of the vegetable into the pot to simmer
and serve as basis for a vegetable soup. Make a good white sauce, adding
the yolk of an egg, and flavoring it with nutmeg. Put the vegetable on a
dish and pour over the sauce, letting it stand for a few moments by the
fire before it is eaten.
[Madame Herman Noppen.]
OX TONGUE WITH SPINACH AND WHITE SAUCE
Boil the tongue in salted water till the outer skin will peel off. Take
this off, then put the tongue back in the liquor to simmer while you
prepare the same. Take a piece of butter the size of an egg, melt it and
mix it with two dessertspoonfuls of ground rice, add some of the liquor,
pepper, and salt, stir well, so that it makes a good cream; drop in the
yolks of two eggs, always stirring, and a little lemon juice. Serve the
tongue whole with this sauce poured over it and spinach done in the
following way: Wash the spinach in running water till every bit of grit
has gone. Put some water on to boil, salt it well, and throw in the
spinach which you have freed from mid-rib and stalk. The water must be
boiling and the fire brisk. When tender, pass the spinach through the
sieve, then put a bit of butter into an enameled saucepan, then the
spinach, which heat for six minutes, add a little pepper. Serve it with
the tongue, and you can garnish as well with little croutons of bread
fried in butter.
[Madame Herman Noppen.]
VEAL FRITTERS
If you have only a little piece of veal or other cold meat, you can make
a very presentable dish in the following way: Cut a thin slice of meat
and spread on each side of it a layer of mashed potatoes to which you
have added some tomato sauce. Beat up an egg and dip the slices and
potato into it, lay them in fine breadcrumbs and fry them till a good
golden color in plenty of fat. Send them to table under a hot cover.
[Pour la Patrie.]
STEWED BEEF
If you are obliged to make a hot dish in a hurry and have only a piece of
inferior meat, there is no better way of using it than by dressing it in
the Brabant way, which is rather expensive. Clean and cook some
mushrooms, and when fried lightly, add them and their liquor to your
beef, cut up in small pieces, but not minced. Add pepper, salt, a dust of
spices, or an onion with three or four cloves in it, and a half bottle of
good red wine. Stew all together for at least twenty minutes, take out
the onion and cloves, and serve in the dish it was cooked in which should
be an earthenware pot.
[Pour la Patrie.]
A MUTTON SALAD
Cut some slices of cold mutton or lamb, removing every bit of fat and
skin that you can, unless that destroys the firmness of the slice.
Prepare a salad of lettuce, and if you cannot give a mayonnaise sauce,
add to the lettuce plenty of sliced cucumber, for that keeps the mutton
moist. Put the salad on each slice and roll the meat over as tightly as
you can. Lay the rolls closely together in a dish and sprinkle a very
little salad dressing over them. This way of doing meat is very useful
for taking to picnics, or for taking on a long journey.
[Pour la Patrie.]
SAUSAGE PATTIES
Half a pound of sausage meat of any kind that you like. Make some rounds
of paste, lay the meat on half of each round and fold over. Steam for
quarter of an hour, or stew in plenty of gravy.
[Pour la Patrie.]
SAUSAGE AND POTATOES
Roll some cooked sausage meat in mashed potatoes, making a roll for each
person. Brush the potatoes over with milk and put them to bake till
nicely browned. Decorate with gherkins on each roll of butter.
[Pour la Patrie.]
RAGOUT OF COLD MEAT
Take any cold meat that you have, free it from fat and skin and cut it in
rounds like a five-franc piece. If you have some lean bacon or ham, a
little of that should be added. I should tell you first of all to put
some rice on to boil in boiling water. Make a sauce of flour and butter
in a pan, adding gravy if you happen to have it, but failing that, use
water and vinegar in equal parts to thin it; season with pepper and salt
and a small spoonful of anchovy sauce. When the sauce is heating, put in
the meat and cover the pan, let it all heat for twelve minutes and then
place meat and sauce in the middle of a dish. By this time the rice may
be tender. Drain it well and put it as a border to the stew.
[Aimee.]
A QUICKLY MADE STEW
Put a piece of butter in a stewpan, with an onion cut in pieces, a few
cloves, salt and pepper, a tablespoonful of shredded parsley, and if you
have it some good gravy or meat juice and water. Throw into the sauce
some cold meat, preferably underdone, and after it has simmered for
fifteen minutes take a cut onion and rub with it the bottom of the dish
that you are going to use. Take a good glass of red wine, such as
Burgundy and mix it with the yolk of an egg, stir this into the stew and
serve up in a couple of minutes.
[Madame Groubet.]
GRENADINES OF VEAL
Take a fireproof dish, and after sprinkling it with breadcrumbs put in it
a layer of roast veal in slices, a layer of mashed potatoes, a layer of
veal kidney, partly cooked, and cut into pieces and lastly a layer of
potato. Cover the whole with a bechamel sauce into which you have stirred
some grated cheese; put it to bake in the oven. Then make a brown sauce
with any veal or kidney gravy that you have, and cook some mushrooms in
it with pepper and salt; the sauce is to be served with the grenadine.
HOCHE POT
Slice an onion and fry it in butter till it is brown; add pieces of pork
and of mutton freed from fat and skin; cover them with water and throw
into it any kinds of vegetables that you may have; but particularly
sliced carrots and turnips and green cabbages; put it in the oven to
cook. In another saucepan boil some white haricot beans, salt, and
pepper, until they are tender, when they must be added to the stew with a
small quantity of the liquor that they have been boiled in.
PIGEON AND CABBAGE ROLLS
Take two pigeons, two cabbages, four slices of fried bacon, an ounce of
butter, a large wineglassful of sherry, and some gravy. Truss your
pigeons and cook them in butter for ten minutes in a fireproof dish. Then
take them out, cut them into neat pieces. Meanwhile have the cabbages
boiled in salted water. Drain them. Cut them in small pieces and roll
some up in each slice of bacon; lay the pigeons on top, pouring over them
the liquor they were cooked in and half the wine. Put all in the oven for
ten minutes--pour in the rest of the wine and leave for another ten
minutes before serving. If you have stock to add to this it is an
improvement, or put half a teaspoonful of meat extract to half a pint of
water.
[Une refugiee.]
REMAINS OF SAUSAGE
If you have a few inches of a big sausage cut it into as thick slices as
you can--fry them and lay them in a circle on a dish with a poached egg
on each. Little dinner breads are good when soaked in milk, stuffed with
sausage meat, and fried. It can be used to stuff cucumber, or eggplants,
but you should then crumble up the meat and bind it with the yolk of a
raw egg.
[Mme. Georgette.]
SHOULDER OF LAMB A LA BEIGE
Braise your shoulder of lamb; that is, put it in a closely covered
stewpan, in a good brown sauce or gravy with the vegetables, to be served
with it. It is the lid being closed that makes the meat take some flavor
from the vegetables. To do it in the Belgian way, take some good white
turnips, wash them and scrape them, put small ones in whole, large ones
cut in half. Take some small cabbages, trim off without leaves, cut them
in half, remove the stalk, make a hollow in the center and fill it with
forcemeat of any kind; but sausage meat is good. Place the stuffed
cabbages round the meat to cook gently at the same time.
[Madame Vershagen.]
FILLET OF BEEF A LA BRABANCONNE
Take a whole fillet of beef, trim it neatly and set it in a braising pan
to cook very slowly in some good brown sauce to which you have added a
pint of stock. Put in neatly shaped carrots and turnips and some balls
made of mashed potato already fried. Keep hot in two sauceboats a puree
of Brussels sprouts and a puree of onions. These are prepared by cooking
the vegetables in water, then chopping fine, and rubbing through a sieve
with cream, or with a little good milk, pepper, and salt. To serve the
fillet, lay it on a dish with the carrots and turnip, potato cakes round;
pour over it the rest of the brown sauce from the pan; then add in heaps
the onion puree and the sprouts puree.
[Madame Vershagen.]
STEWED BEEF
An inferior part of beef may be made to taste excellent if it is braised;
that is, simmered with the cover on slowly, in company with onions
(already fried) and well washed pieces of carrots and whole turnips. Put
on also some small cabbages cut in halves, and if you can give it, a
glass of good red wine.
[Une refugiee.]
BEEF AND APRICOTS
Stew your beef, say three pounds of steak, in some gravy, adding to a
pint of liquor a level teaspoonful of white sugar. Throw in a handful of
the dried apricots, but be sure you wash them well first. This dish is
generally accompanied by leeks, first blanched for a few moments, and
then put in the stew. Flavor with salt, pepper, and the rind of half a
lemon which remove before you serve the stew. For English taste the sugar
could be omitted.
[Seulette.]
FOR AN INVALID
This must be begun at least three hours before it will be required. Take
two ounces of pearl barley, wash it well, and put it in cold water enough
to cover it, for an hour. Take a pound of good steak, shred it in small
pieces, and put it in an enameled saucepan with a quart of cold water and
a sprinkle of salt. Strain the water from the barley and add this last to
the meat, and let it simmer for two hours. Then strain off the liquor and
pound the meat and barley in a mortar, rub it through a sieve; when it is
a smooth puree put it back into the pan with its liquor and a gill of
cream. Let it simmer again for a moment and serve it in a cup with a lid
to it.
[Madame A. F.]
INVALIDS' EGGS
Cut out some rounds of bread a good deal larger than a poached egg would
be. While these are frying, make a puree of Brussels sprouts. Boil them
till tender, squeeze in a cloth. Rub them through a sieve and make into a
very thick puree with cream, pepper and salt. Poach a fresh egg for each
crouton, and slip it on, very quickly, put some of the green puree round,
and serve under a hot cover.
A SWEET FOR THE CHILDREN
If you have some little breads over, cut each one in four, soak the
pieces in milk sweetened and flavored with vanilla, for three hours. When
they are well soaked roll them for a moment in grated and dried
breadcrumbs, and dip them for a moment in boiling fat, just as you would
do croquettes. Sift some white sugar over them and serve very hot.
[Madame M.]
QUINCE CUSTARD
When you have quince preserves by you this is a quickly prepared dish.
Make a good custard with a pint of rich milk, four eggs and a little
essence of almonds and two ounces of powdered sugar. Put your quince
preserve at the bottom of a fireproof circular dish and fill up with
custard. Put it to bake for half or hour or till set. When set add some
more quince (heated) on the top with some chopped almonds and serve hot.
The same dish can be done with apples, which should be stewed, flavored
with the rind of a half lemon, and passed through a sieve. Apple puree is
put on the top in the same way, and it is decorated with some thin lemon
peel cut into stars.
[Chef reconnaissant.]
YELLOW PLUMS AND RICE
Put half a pound of rice in hot milk till it has absorbed all it can and
is tender. Beat lightly the yolks of three eggs, beating in a lump of
fresh butter the size of a pullet's egg; add powdered sugar and the
whites of the eggs well beaten. Put the rice into this mixture and place
all in a mold. Cook it gently for twenty-five minutes. Meanwhile take
some very perfect yellow plums, skin and stone them and heat them in half
a bottle of light white wine that you have seasoned with a little spice.
Turn out the rice, put the yellow plums on the top and pour round the
sauce, strained through muslin. Very good cold.
BRABANT PANCAKE
Butter first of all your pancakes, and you should have proper pancake
saucers fit to go to table. Heat half a pint of sweetened milk and melt a
quarter of a pound of salt butter with it. When well melted pour it into
a basin and sprinkle in nearly three ounces of flour. Beat up the yolks
of three large or four small eggs and incorporate them, then add the
whites well beaten. Put a spoonful or two on each saucer and set to bake
in the oven for ten minutes and when done place each saucer on a plate
with a good lump of apricot jam on each. If you have no pancake saucers,
put the apricot preserve on one half of each pancake and fold it up.
[Jean O.]
DELICIOUS SAUCE FOR PUDDINGS
To a large wineglassful (say a glass for champagne wine) of new Madeira
add the yolks only of two eggs. Put in a very clean enamel saucepan over
the fire and stir in powdered sugar to your taste. Whisk it over the fire
till it froths, but do not allow it even to simmer. Use for Genoese cakes
and puddings.
[Madame Groubet.]
FRUIT JELLIES
Jellies that are very well flavored can be made with fresh fruit,
raspberries, strawberries, apricots, or even rhubarb, using the
proportions of one ounce of gelatine (in cold weather) to every pound of
fruit puree. In hot weather use a little less gelatine. As the fruit
generally gives a bad color, you must use cochineal for the red jellies
and a little green coloring for gooseberry jellies. The gelatine is of
course melted in the fruit puree and all turned into a mold. You can make
your own green coloring in this way. Pick a pound of spinach, throwing
away the stalks and midrib. Put it on in a pan with a little salt and
keep the cover down. Let it boil for twelve minutes. Then put a fine
sieve over a basin and pour the spinach water through it. Strain the
spinach water once or twice through muslin; it will be a good color and
will keep some time. Orange and lemon jellies are much more wholesome
when made at home than those made from bought powders. To the juice of
every six oranges you should add the juice of one lemon, and you will
procure twice as much juice from the fruit if, just before you squeeze
it, you let it soak in hot water for three or four minutes.
[Pour la Patrie.]
STRAWBERRY FANCY
Take a slice or two of plain sponge cake and cut out rounds two inches
across. Then whip up in a basin the whites only of four eggs, coloring
them with the thinner part of strawberry jam. As a rule this jam is not
red enough, and you must add a little cochineal. Put the pink mixture in
high piles on the cakes.
[Pour la Patrie.]
PINK RICE
This sweet is liked by children who are tired of rice pudding. Boil your
rice and when tender mix in with it the juice of a boiled beetroot to
which some sugar has been added. Turn it into a mold and when cold remove
it and serve it with a spoonful of raspberry preserve on the top or with
some red plums round it.
[Pour la Patrie.]
MILITARY PRUNES
Take some of the best French preserved prunes, and remove the stones.
Soak them in orange curacoa for as long a time as you have at your
disposal. Then replace each stone by a blanched almond, and place the
prunes in small crystal dishes.
[Pour la Patrie.]
MADELINE CHERRIES
Take some Madeleine cakes and scoop them out to form baskets. Fill these
with stoned cherries both white and black that you have soaked in a good
liqueur--cherry brandy is the best but you may use maraschino. Place two
long strips of angelica across the top and where these intersect a very
fine stoned cherry.
[Pour la Patrie.]
STRAWBERRY TARTLETS
It often happens that you have among the strawberries a quantity that are
not quite good enough to be sent to table as dessert, and yet not enough
to make jam of. Put these strawberries on to heat, with some brown sugar,
and use them to fill small pastry tartlets. Pastry cases can be bought
for very little at the confectioner's. Cover the top of the tartlet when
the strawberry conserve is cold with whipped cream.
[Pour la Patrie.]
MADEIRA EGGS OR OEUFS A LA GRAND'MERE
Break the yolk of an egg in a basin and be sure that it is very fresh;
beat it up, adding a little powdered sugar, and then, drop by drop,
enough of the best Madeira to give it a strong flavor. This makes a nice
sweet served in glass cups and it is besides very good for sore throats.
[Pour la Patrie.]
BUTTERFLIES
You will get at the confectioner's small round cakes that are smooth on
the top; they are plain, and are about two and one-half inches across.
Take one and cut it in halves, separating the top from the bottom. Cut
the top pieces right across; you have now two half moons. Put some honey
along the one straight edge of each half moon and stick it by that on the
lower piece of cake, a little to one side. Do the same with the second
half moon, so that they both stick up, not unlike wings. Fill the space
between with a thick mixture of chopped almonds rolled in honey, and
place two strips of angelica poking forward to suggest antennae. A good
nougat will answer instead of the honey.
[Pour la Patrie.]
CHERRY AND STRAWBERRY COMPOTE
Take half a pint of rich cream and mix with it a small glassful of
Madeira wine or of good brandy. Pick over some fine cherries and
strawberries, stoning the cherries, and taking out the little center
piece of each strawberry that is attached to the stalk. Lay your fruit in
a shallow dish and cover it with the liquor and serve with the long
sponge biscuits known as "langues de chat" (Savoy fingers).
[Amitie aux Anglais.]
CHOCOLATE CUSTARD
To make a nice sweet in a few minutes can be easily managed if you follow
this recipe. Make a custard of rich milk and yolks of eggs, sweeten it
with sugar, flavored with vanilla, and if you have a little cream add
that also. Then grate down some of the best chocolate, as finely as you
can, rub it through coarse muslin so that it is a fine powder. Stir this
with your custard, always stirring one way so that no bubbles of air get
in. When you have got a thick consistency like rich cream, pour the
mixture into paper or china cases, sprinkle over the tops with chopped
almonds. There is no cooking required.
GOOSEBERRY CREAM WITHOUT CREAM
Take your gooseberries and wash them well, cut off the stalk and the
black tip of each. Stew them with sugar till they are tender, just
covered in water. Do not let them burn. If you have not time to attend to
that put them in the oven in a shallow dish sprinkled with brown sugar.
When tender rub them through a fine sieve at least twice. Flavor with a
few drops of lemon juice, and add sugar if required. Then beat up a fresh
egg in milk and add as much arrowroot or cornflour as will lie flat in a
salt spoon. Mix the custard with the gooseberries, pass it through the
sieve once more and serve it in a crystal bowl.
[Mdlle. B-M.]
CHOCOLATE PUDDINGS
Make some Genoese cake mixture as you would for a light cake, and pour it
into greased molds like cups. You can take the weight of one egg in dried
flour, butter, and rather less of sugar. Beat the butter and sugar
together to a cream, sprinkle in the flour, stirring all the time, a
pinch of salt, and then the beaten egg. When your little cakes are baked,
turn them out of the molds and when cool turn them upside down and remove
the inside, leaving a deep hole and a thin crust all round. Fill up this
hole with the custard and chocolate as above, and let it grow firm. Then
turn the cases right way up and pour over the top a sweet cherry sauce.
You may require the yolks of two eggs to make the custard firm.
[Mdlle. B-M.]
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