Cookery for every household

Make a ragout of mushrooms as directed in Recipe 516, and fill it into small butter cases or cassolettes (see Recipe 2252). Place them in the oven to re-heat, and serve very hot, garnished with parsley. 2379. Mushroom Fritters (Beignets de Champignons) Mushrooms. Salt. Pepper. Chopped shallot. Salad oil. Lemon juice. Frying batter. Choose small round mushrooms, remove the stalks, peel them, and wash and dry them carefully. Then lay them on a plate, season them with pepper, salt, a little chopped parsley and chopped shallots or chives, and a sprinkling of salad oil and lemon juice. Allow the mushrooms to lie with the seasoning about \ hour, then dip them in frying batter (Recipe 1861), and fry them in boiling fat to a golden brown colour. Drain well, pile up on lace-edged paper, and garnish with parsley and a little cut lemon. 2380. Mushroom Toast (Croutes aux Champignons) 3 or 4 oz. mushrooms. 1 oz. butter. Salt. Pepper. Lemon juice. 1 table-sp. brown or tomato sauce. 1 yolk of egg. 1 table-sp. cream. 6 or 7 croutes of bread. Any trimmings of mushrooms will do for this. Trim and chop them rather coarsely, put them into a small saucepan with the butter and seasoning, cover over and cook slowly about 10 minutes. Then add the sauce, which must be thick and wellflavoured, and the yolk of egg or cream. Stir over the fire until thoroughly hot, then pile the mixture neatly on small croutes of fried bread or hot buttered toast, decorate with small sprigs of parsley and tiny pieces of cut lemon, and serve very hot. 2381. Mussels with Spinach 11 to 2 doz. mussels. 3 table-sps. breadcrumbs. 1 egg. 1 tea-sp.choppedparsley | lemon. Seasoning. A little butter. Cooked spinach. Prepare and cook the mussels as in Recipe 312, and drain them, reserving the liquor. Mix the bread-crumbs with the parsley, the grated rind of J lemon, pepper and salt. Select half a dozen of the best mussel shells, and wash and brush them without separating the halves. Brush over the insides with melted butter and sprinkle them with bread-crumbs, &c. Put 3 or 4 mussels into each. Mussels with Spinach squeeze over a little lemon juice, and then cover with more bread-crumbs. Now beat up the egg with a table-spoonful of the liquor from the mussels, strain and pour a little into each shell. Put small pieces of butter on the top, place the mussels on a tin, and bake them in a moderate oven until nicely browned. Have ready some nicely-prepared spinach, pile it in the centre of a hot dish, and arrange the mussels round. - Note. — The spinach may be omitted and the mussels simply served as they are, garnished with parsley and cut lemon. 2382. Bonnes Bouches of Oysters (Bonnes Bouches aux Huitres) 6 or 8 oysters. 3 table-sps. cooked haddock. 1 dessert-sp. butter. 1 yolk of egg. Seasoning 6 to 8 croutes of bread. Strips of gherkin or truffle.