The "Queen" cookery books: Entrees

Sauce Portugaise. — Put into a pan the grated rind of a nice lemon, five or six roughly crushed black peppercorns, five or six cloves, a bay leaf, a spray of thyme, and, if liked, a tiny blade of mace ; dilute this with one-third of a pint of sherry or marsala, and simmer for ten minutes over a slow fire. Then add to this half a pint of well reduced brown sauce, a gill of strong stock or glaze, and bring it to the boil gently, skimming it well, and allowing it to reduce a little. Sieve it, and. leave in the bain-marie till wanted, when a pat of maitre d’hotel butter may be dissolved in it ; or, failing this, a little plain butter, a squeeze of lemon juice, and some very finely minced parsley. Excellent with braised fillet of beef or boeuf au gratin. Sauce Tomate. — Stalk and halve 31b. of good, wellcoloured tomatoes, and place them in a largish saucepan with a bouquet of herbs, a small teaspoonful of salt, half a one of pepper, and a full gill of water ; bring this gently to the boil, and simmer slowly for forty minutes, stirring it constantly and gently with a very clean, or new, wooden spoon, to prevent its catching ; then rub it all through a wire sieve, and mix it with one-third of a pint of thin brown sauce, and let it cook together for fifteen or twenty minutes longer, stirring it constantly. If too thick, add a little more thin sauce ; if too thin, boil up sharply to reduce it. This sauce may be made with canned tomatoes simply pulped through a sieve and cooked for twenty minutes with the brown sauce. A drop or two of carmine is permissible in this case, as the great beauty of this sauce is its rich colour, and for this canned tomatoes are not always sufficient. This will be found rather thicker than the ordinary tomato sauce, but in France it is almost invariably served as a sort of puree, like the puree Soubise, there used instead of our onion sauce. It should taste very strongly of tomato, and, therefore, brown sauce is better with it than the highly spiced and flavoured espagnole, which would almost overpower the proper tomato taste. This tomato sauce is often mixed-with Portugaise and other sauces for use with braised and broiled beef ; and, when cold, is mixed with mayonnaise sauce in equal parts, adding a dash of lemon juice or tarragon vinegar, when it becomes Sauce Tomate a la mayonnaise ; or with equal parts of tartare sauce, with the addition of a little chopped green tarragon and a few drops of tarragon vinegar, when it is known as Sauce Maximilien. The derivatives from espagnole sauce are many, and include most of the more delicate and expensive brown sauces of the French cuisine. Sauce Bigarade. — Peel thinly a Seville or bitter orange (bigarade), shred it into julienne strips, and blanch it for three or four minutes in boiling water ; stir together half a pint of good espagnole with a gill of glaze or strong stock made from game bones, reduce, by sharp boiling, a full third, then stir in the blanched and shred orange peel and the strained juice of two Seville oranges, with a good dash of cayenne. This sauce is usually served with wild duck, and in that case the broken-up carcase of the bird is used for the glaze. This sauce can also be made with plain brown sauce, adding to this, however, a little essence of anchovy.