Fifty dinners

A MILD, uncoloured stock should be prepared, such as that jotted down for the puree of shrimps (Menu xviii.), and one small cucumber will suffice for the puree. Slightly thicken the former as in the case alluded to, and then wash and cut up the cucumber skin and all. Put this into a stewpan and cover with the stock, boil and simmer till the pieces are soft, then pass all through the sieve, and heat up again, completing the composition with a dessert-spoonful of cream, the yolk of an egg, or a quarter of an ounce of butter. A garnish of separately cooked half-inch dice of cucumber may be added, the process being this : — Cut up as many dice as you think sufficient, put a ten-inch stewpan on the fire, three parts filled with water, season this with salt, put half an ounce of fresh butter into it, and bring it to the boil ; now put in the dice, and watch them, draining them as soon as they are tender. This soup can be made with milk instead of stock. in which case four ounces of onion finely shred should be boiled with the cucumber. Choose a small brill and cook it in the manner explained in Menu xi., for John Dory, keeping the fillets hot and serving them as soon as 2. Brill with possible with this sauce. Put three-quarters Provencale „ r i . sauce. of ounce of butter into a stewpan over a low fire, melt it, and stir in the same weight of finely minced onion, fry gently for five minutes, and mix with it three-quarters of an ounce of flour, moisten with half a pint of the fish broth and a gill of chablis or sauterne, putting in with it a tablespoonful of French tomato conserve, or a four-ounce tomato cut up, a bouquet garni, and seasoning, bring to the boil, then simmer for fifteen minutes, take off the fire, pick out the bouquet, and pass the rest through a hair sieve ; heat up again and serve with the fish, part of it being used to mask the fillets. Four sheeps’ tongues will make a nice dish : — Soak the tongues, as soon as they are delivered, in cold „ water for an hour and a half : next take 3. RagotU . . ’ of sheeps' ^ stewpan, put into it an ounce of butter, tongues melt this over a moderate fire and then ivtih peas. , 1 , . , , . add three ounces each of onion, turnip, and carrot, an ounce of celery, and half one of parsley similarly cut ; fry till the vegetables begin to take colour when an ounce of meat glaze should be put in with a seasoning of salt and pepper. As soon as the glaze has melted lay the tongues on the bed of vegetables, moisten with sufficient broth to cover them, close the pan, and cook them very gently without per- J^OAST QUAILS. mitting them to boil. When they are tender, which will probably be in an hour and a half, remove the pan, take out the tongues, brush off any vegetable that may adhere to them, peel off their skins, and lay them on a dish with a weight above them. Let them get cold.