National viands à la mode

Well wash and skin the eels, and cut them up into two-inch pieces. Slice some onions, a little green ginger, some red chillies, and two beads of garlic. Arrange on a skewer alternately a piece of eel, and then onion, ginger, garlic, and chilli, till the skewers are full. Have ready an onion minced, finely fried in plenty of butter. Sprinkle the skewers over with ground mixed spice, and fry in the onion and butter with about two dozen cloves, four leaves of tarragon, three bay leaves, the seeds of twelve cardamoms, with salt to taste. When the fish is cooked take out the skewers, dish them tastefully, and pour into the frying-pan a teacupful of fish stock. Kataif Kataif is a kind of sweet dough cake or pastry. Take some kataif and place it on a tin ; sprinkle some chopped walnuts, sugar, and spice on it ; then on the top of that place a second layer of walnuts, &c., and then a third one of kataif Each layer of kataif should be about half an inch thick. Next place it in the oven and bake till it becomes a light golden colour. When cooked cut it into squares, sprinkle a little caster sugar over it, and serve hot. Kebab Cut some mutton (the leg part is best) into pieces the size of walnuts ; pass them on to a skewer with a bay leaf and a piece of onion between each piece of meat, and roast before the fire. When cooked draw out the skewer and serve very hot. Keihma Squeeze the water out of a vegetable marrow, grate it small, grate some new cheese ; add eggs and a small quantity of fried onions and pistachio nuts ; make this into a paste, and beat it up well together. Then take some slices of vegetable marrow or fruit of the egg plant ; spread the paste upon them rather thickly, having first put a little butter on the slices. Bake in a slow oven for half an hour. Keinfte Pound meat and suet in a mortar with onions half boiled, parsley, eggs, pepper, salt, and a little water. Make this into small balls ; throw flour over them and fry them. Ouson Kebab Take some fillet of beef — say, about two pounds — and cut into dice-shaped portions; season with salt and pepper, then run them on to a small skewer alternately with a slice of sheep's tail fat and a bay leaf Roast them in front of the fire, and when done dish up at once. Pasta alia Turca Pound eight ounces of blanched almonds to a fine paste, and to this add one pound of sifted flour, half a pound of butter, three-quarters of a pound of caster sugar, and a teaspoonfulof powdered saffron. Mix these all thoroughly, and put in as many eggs as will make the paste soft. Butter a TURKISH «5 baking tin, spread it evenly with the paste. Mark it on the surface with fancy cake cutters. Bake in a gentle oven, and when done divide according to the marks. Pilaf Take a breakfast cupful of Patna rice and fry it in butter (a tablespoonful) ; take also two or three tomatoes cut up in pieces, put a little salt on them, and let all boil till the water is absorbed and the rice is tender ; then draw the saucepan to the side of the fire, place a cloth on the rice, and let it stand for twenty minutes. Serve hot. Tailli Kataif (Dubois)