Hilda's diary of a Cape housekeeper

Break the fish in nice little pieces, mix well with onion, butter, seasoning, and some mashed potatoes. In the tomato season slices of raw tomato in between are very nice. Pack the fish in a dish with a spoonful of butter or dripping at the bottom, then mash the potatoes with a little butter, and pack on the top of the fish ; brush over with an egg before baking. A few hard-boiled eggs mixed with the fish would be a great improvement, and some of the gravy formed in the fish-dish. October 7. — Pastry. — One is always wanting pastry of different sorts, so I have been collecting good recipes for various kinds and writing them all together under P in my copy of Hilda's Where is it., so as to know where to find them at once. Here they are. Oct. SHORT CRUST. CHEESE-CAKES Short Crust. — The first is for short crust, and requires — I egg. 6 ozs. flour. 4 ozs. butter. I oz. sugar. I lemon. A little salt. You rub the flour, butter, salt and sugar well together. Break the yolk of the eggs in the mixture, add a large spoonful of cold water to the juice of the lemon, and beat all well together with a knife for a few minutes. Roll it out several times and set it to rest for a few moments. This is a very nice pastry for lemon cheese-cakes. You roll out the pastry very thin and line twelve patty-pans, and fill them with the following mixture. Lemon Cheese-cakes. — Put the yolk of an egg in a basin and stir it round with a wooden spoon for a few minutes, add 2 ozs. castor-sugar, and stir till light and creamy, then add the grated rind of a lemon and i tablespoonful of lemon-juice. Stir well and mix with half-an-ounce of fine biscuit-crumbs. Then stir in the stiffly- whipped white of the egg lightly. After filling the patty-pans with the mixture bake them in a quick oven for fifteen minutes. • Serve cold. An Old-fashioned Sweetmeat. — The same short crust will also do for the following old-fashioned sweetmeat. Have ready a mixture made of the following — 50 unblanched almonds minced through a mincingmachine. 1 oz. finely-shred citron preserve. 2 ozs. sifted sugar. ^ teaspoonful of finely-pounded cinnamon. Mix all .with the well-whisked white of an egg. Roll out PASTRY FOR PIES AND PUDDINGS Oct. the pastry thinly, and cut it in lengths of four inches by three. Put a teaspoonful of this mixture in each square of pastry and roll up as you would a roly-poly, and twist round to form a ring. Brush over with yolk of egg, and bake in a quick oven. Cup Paste. — “ Cup paste ” for fruit or meat pies, so called because of the measure used, is made as follows : — One large cup of flour and the same of milk, and one cup of butter (or half butter and half ox-marrow or lard). Mix the butter - with the flour dry, now ivith a knife beat up with the milk for a few minutes and spread over the pie-dish filled with fruit or meat, and bake very crisp and nice.