Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Spanish Onions («e Onions, Spanish). Spanish Onions, To Pickle.— Choose moderate-sized and perfectly sound _ Spanish onions. Skin them, and cut them into thin slices, put them in layers into wide-mouthed bottles, and sprinkle upon each layer a little salt and cayenne. When the jar is almost full, pour cold vinegar into it to cover the onions, tie bladder over the mouth of the bottles, and store the pickle in a cool, dry place. If liked, the jar may be filled with alternate layers of sliced onion and sliced boiled beetroot, and then three or four drops of cochineal may be added to the vinegar, to improve the look of the pickle. For another mode of pickling Spanish onions, see Onions, Spanish, Pickled. Time, the pickle may be used in three or four weeks. Probable cost, onions, Id. or Ud. each. Spanish Pudding. — Cut half a dozen penny sponge cakes into thin slices lengthwise. Butter a pie-dish rather thickly, sift powdered sugar on the butter, and line the inside of the dish evenly and neatly with the slices. Press them with the hand to keep them in position. Afterwards fill the dish with alternate layers of sliced sponge cake and apricot jam, and pour into it as much sherry or marsala as the cakes will absorb. Beat four eggs briskly, pour them over the cakes, and bake the pudding in a slow oven. When it is set, take it out, let it cool, and turn it out carefully. Have ready the whites of the eggs beaten to a firm froth, pile them on the pudding, and sprinkle a little powdered sugar with the froth. Put it in the oven to set the egg, and serve the pudding with custard-sauce poured round it. Time to bake the pudding, from fifteen to twenty minutes. Probable cost, exclusive of the wine, Is. 6d. Sufficient for half a dozen persons. Spanish Puffs.— Put half a pint of water or milk into a saucepan with a quarter of a pound of butter, a pinch of salt, a little sugar, and as much grated nutmeg or lemon-peel as will flavour the liquor pleasantly. Stii' it till it boils, mix in gradually and smoothly four table-spoonfuls of flour, and beat the mixture over the fire for about three minutes. Take it off the fire, and stir in, one at a time, the yolks of six and the whites of four eggs. Let the batter cool, form it into small balls the size of a walnut, and fry these in plenty of boiling fat till they burst. Whilst they are being fried, move them carefully about, that they may be equally cooked. Drain them, dust powdered sugar upon them, dish them on a napkin, and serve immediately. Send some wine-sauce to table with them. ' If liked, puffs thus made can be flavoured with a tea-spoonful of powdered ginger, and may be thus converted into ginger puffs. Spanish Rice. — Boil half a pound of rice as for curry, then toss it lightly over a slow fire with a spoonful of salad-oil till it is a bright-yellow colour. Unless great care is taken the rice will burn. Free two large ripe tomatoes from the seeds and juice, and afterwards stir them in with the rice, add a seasoning of black pepper and grated Parmesan, and serve the rice piled on a hot dish. Garnish the rice with thin slices of ham, German sausage, or dried and smoked fish. If ripe tomatoes cannot be procured, a table-spoonful of tomato sauce may be used instead.