Banquets of the nations

Take some pieces of cucumber nearly two inches long. Cut out little pieces from the green skin to give a striped appearance. Boil these pieces in salt and water for five minutes. Take up and remove the seed part. Fill up with the following : — Two tablespoonfuls of crumbs, two tablespoonfuls of cheese, one small shallot or onion cooked and chopped, salt, pepper, mustard, and the yolk of an egg to bind. Pile the mixture rather high, stand these in a pan with boiling water and milk (in which an onion and some spices have been cooked) to come half way up, and simmer until tender. Decorate tops with parsley and serve with potatoes saute. 665 Potatoes Saute. Take three pounds of new potatoes, scrape and cut in quarters, or, if old, cut out round pieces rather larger than a marble. If small, just clean and scrape them. Put them into a pot with plenty of cold water, and when through the boil take them out and dry with a cloth. Then put them in a pan in which you have heated three ounces of butter, and toss over the fire for about twenty minutes till nicely browned all over, and at the last moment dust well with fine salt. Pudding Helene. Mince very fine half a pound of Brazil nuts (grated nuts, will do) which have been freed of skin. Cook this in half a pint of milk, cream two tablespoonfuls of sugar and three ounces of butter, beat up the yolks of six eggs, and add to the creamed sugar and butter. When the milk is off the boil stir in the eggs, half a pint of cream, the butter and sugar, two tablespoonfuls of cake crumbs, and two teaspoonfuls of essence of vanilla, also add the whites of three eggs whipped to a stiff froth. Pour all into a pudding dish, and bake for half an hour. Whip the whites of the other three eggs to a stiff froth with three tablespoonfuls of castor sugar and a little vanilla. Just before the pudding is cooked, spread this mixture on the top and brown in the oven. Serve with cream or cherry sauce. Cherry Sauce. Put into a pan two handfuls of sour cherries without stones or stalks, add four or five tablespoonfuls of pow- dered sugar, a glass of claret, and two inches of cinnamon, and the juice of half a lemon. Boil the liquid vigorously for half a minute, then thicken it with two or three tablespoonfuls of potato flour diluted with cold water. Help the colour with a few drops of cochineal. This may be served with ice-moulds or puddings. Bavarian Cream. Put half an ounce of Irish moss (steeped in two waters) into a basin with one teacupful of milk, and soak for two hours. Put one and a half pints of cream into a basin and whip well until there is only half a pint left, the remainder being in a stiff froth. Pound one pint blanched sweet almonds in a mortar, mix in the unwhipped cream, add three eggs beaten up with one teaspoonful sugar. Put the whole into a saucepan and stir over the fire until the preparation commences to thicken, add the Irish moss, remove the pan from the fire ; pass the whole through a sieve into a basin, and add quarter teaspoonful essence of almonds. Whisk well until the mixture thickens, then add the whipped cream, whisk again and pour it into the moulds, packed in ice. When it is set and firm, turn it out on a dish, accompanied with whipped cream or cold rum sauce poured over it.