Culinary jottings

Here is a super-excellent idea of the " G. C.'s" : — Split each oyster open, almost as wide, comparatively speaking, as you do a kidney, and insert therein a little of the following composition : — toss on the fire in butter, with pepper, salt and a spoonful of rich brown sauce, a dessertspoonful each of minced mushroom, shallot, and truffle ; thicken this with the yolks of two eggs, give it the juice of a lime, and let it get cold. After putting a small allowance of this in each oyster, shut the sides together, dip it in the batter, and fry immediately. I have already indicated the vegetables which make good fritters, and here repeat my high opinion of that method of treating them, FRITTERS. 201 Try this : — -pound a dish of boiled prawns in a mortar with some butter, and weak gravy ; when quite worked to a -puree, incorporate it with the batter, and drop the mixture by dessert-spoonfuls at a time, into your friture-pan : let the fritters cook till they turn a rich golden colour, and are as crisp as biscuits, then drain, and serve them on a napkin, with crisply fried parsley. If you omit the prawn piiree, and simply fry spoonfuls of the plain batter, you will have beignets, or (as Ramasamy hath it) " pan-cake fritters," which may be either sent up as a savoury entremets, to be eaten with butter, pepper, and salt ; or as a sweet one, when they must be dusted over with powdered sugar, and sprinkled with lime juice. In the latter case, a spoonful of brandy or liqueur shaken over the fritters improves their general effect. All fruit fritters can be cooked in the batter I have described. Peaches, apricots, pears, and apples make delicious fritters, the pine-apple is equally amenable to the friture-pan ; whilst oranges and our lowly plantain are not to be despised. For the four former fruits we must look to the tin ; those that come to us from America are specially to be recommended. Pine-apples, when in season, can be procured in the market ; if out of season, the American tinned slices are capital substitutes. Oranges can be used in their season, and the plantain is a perennial friend. Whatever fruit be chosen, llet it be set en marinade in liqueur, brandy, or rum. Delicate fruits require liqueur, the pine-apple is better associated with rum, the plantain and orange are thankful for either rum or brandy. A wineglass is enough. The fruit, sliced, and prepared for the "beignet," should be laid in a soup-plate, dusted over with sugar, and sprinkled with the brandy, or liqueur. After an hour, the slices should be turned over, basted again, and this should be repeated during the afternoon, until they are required by the cook, The brandy or liqueur you use for the marinade should be mixed in the batter. Orange quarters and slices of ripe plantain may be used raw, but the slices of pine-apple must be stewed till tender. I cannot do better than wind up this chapter with a recipe for beignets soufflés : —