The "Queen" cookery books: Entrees

her to use up her scraps of all sorts in a dainty manner. The above is the regular vol-au-vent, to which oysters, prawns, truffles, mushrooms, foie gras, &c., may be added ad lib., but the culinary purist would call this, from its white sauce, a vol-auvent Toulouse, a financiere ragout being strictly, served in a light brown sauce. Needless to say, small patties and cases may be filled in exactly the same way, and take their name from their filling ; as for example, petits vol-au-vent aux huitres, when the cases are filled up with a rich and rather thick oyster sauce ; aux crevettes, and de homara a, la creme, when creamy shrimp or lobster sauce is used ; or p. v. a la Montglas (minced chicken, tongue, truffle, &c., tossed in white or brown sauce) ; a la Milanaise (the filling consisting of shredded ham, chicken, truffles, macaroni, &c., tossed in white sauce strongly flavoured with grated Parmesan cheese) ; p. v. a la royale (filled with minced foie gras, chicken, sweetbreads, mushrooms, &c., tossed in creamy bechamel sauce coloured with lobster butter) ; p. v. a la Valenciennes (filled with minced chicken, lobster, mushrooms, artichoke bottoms, and rice, all tossed in veloute rather strongly flavoured with curry butter) ; p. v. a la Barras (the filling consisting of turned olives cooked and heated in a bigarade sauce, with tiny fillets of cooked wild duck, or, indeed, duck of any kind) ; p. v. a la Lucullus (for this have some tiny quenelles poached in the usual way, and made from the creme mixture given in the chapter on souffles, &c., some cubes of foie gras, and three or four raw truffles cooked either in champagne or TIMBALES, VOL-AU-VENT, PATTIES, &c. 91 Rhine wine, and then shced into julienne strips ; put a spoonful of rather thick Champagne sauce into each patty, and On this place the quenelles and the foie gras, then the truffle julienne, and lastly a plover’s egg, being careful to have everything very hot) ; finally, there are petits vol-au-vent a la menagere, when the cases are filled with a hot mince of any roast meat, heated in a good wine-flavoured sauce, a small poached egg being placed on the top just at the last instead of a cover, but this more properly belongs to the rechauffes. Groustade a la Ghampenoise. — Prepare a bread croustade as described above, and keep it hot. Meantime prepare a ragout as follows : Three-parts cook a good slice of ham, then take it up and cut it into little dice ; now return it to the pan with a cooked carrot, some mushrooms, and two truffles cut to match; toss these all in a little fresh butter, moistening it now and again with clear stock and a glass of champagne ; let it reduce till fairly thick, then remove all fat, and stir into it the breast of a cold roast fowl, two well washed anchovies, some blanched gherkins and some parsley, all minced small, and let it heat without actually boiling, seasoning it to taste with salt, white pepper, and lemon juice ; then pour it all into the crouton, garnishing the latter with little rolls of fried ham, and if at hand, some tiny chicken quenelles. If liked, sweetbread or pate de foie gras may be sliced down and added to this ragout, which is an excellent way of using up otherwise unproducible scraps left over from a dinner party. Like many other dishes of the