A guide to modern cookery

2195—PUREE DE POIS FRAIS, dite SAINT-GERMAIN Cook the peas with just enough boiling water to cover them, and season it with one-half oz. of salt, and one-sixth oz. of sugar per quart. Add a lettuce and a few parsley leaves (tied together). When the peas are cooked, drain them; and reduce their cooking-liquor while they are being rubbed through a - sieve. Work the purée with four oz. of fresh butter per quart, and finally add to it the cooking-liquor, reduced almost to a glaze. 2196—MOULDED PEASE PUREE FOR GARNISH Prepare the purée as above; but keep it a little creamier. Mix with it, per quart, two whole eggs and the yolks of three, beaten and strained through muslin. With this preparation, fill some dariole- or baba-moulds, according to the piece for which the timbales are intended, and poach them in a bain-marie for from twenty to twenty-five minutes. Remember to let them stand for five minutes before unmoulding them. N.B.—Timbales of haricot-beans, flageolets, or lentil purée, are prepared similarly. 2197—CAPSICUM OR PIMENTOS (Poivrons doux) The capsicums used in cookery are of various kinds: the Chilian and Cayenne kinds (Chili and Cayenne peppers) which have a strong, burning taste, are only used as condiments. The large or mild capsicums, green, red, or yellow, are used more particularly as garnishes. Although the difference in their colouration is accompanied by a difference of quality, they are not easily distinguished in this respect; and, although the large, red Spanish capsicums are the best, the other varieties may be treated in the same way as the former. Whatever be the kind of capsicums used, either grill or scald them in order to skin them, and clear them of their seeds. According to the purpose they are intended for, they are either cut up or left whole. UU 2198—PIMENTOS FARCIS For this purpose take some small, green, carrot-shaped capsicums. Remove their stems, after having skinned them ; empty them, and half-fill them with half-cooked, pilaff rice. Then set them in a sautépan, and carefully braise them with excellent stock. 2199—CAPSICUMS FOR GARNISHING For this purpose, the large red, Spanish capsicums are best. Braise them when they are peeled, and, when cooked, cut them up as the requirements may suggest. 2200—PUREE DE PIMENTOS Braise some large, red capsicums, with two-thirds of their weight of rice. When the whole is well cooked, rub it through a sieve, and add butter to the extent of two oz. per quart of the preparation. N.B.—This purée is particularly well suited to poached fowls and white meats, and it is well to keep it thin. 2201—POTATOES (Pommes de Terre) Ordinary potatoes are rarely of good quality in England, and they do not lend themselves as well as certain Continental varieties do to the various culinary uses to which this valuable tuber may be put. The very best kinds of potato are almost unknown in England, and the Dutch and Vitelotte potatoes have to be imported. 2202—POMMES DE TERRE A L’ANGLAISE Turn the potatoes to the shape of large garlic cloves, and cook them in salted water or steam. They accompany more especially boiled fish. The English method is to cook them without salt. 2203—POMMES DE TERRE ANNA Cut them to the shape of cylinders; slice these into thin roundels; wash them, and dry them in a piece of linen. Set these roundels in circles on the bottom of the mould proper to this potato preparation, or in a well-buttered thickbottomed sautépan; let them overlap one another, and let the lay of each circle be reversed. Season; spread a coat of butter upon the first layer, and proceed in the same way with a second layer. Make five or six layers in this way, seasoning and spreading butter over each. Cover the utensil; cook in a good oven for thirty minutes;