Culinary jottings

Riz à l'Italienne : — Melt an ounce of butter at the bottom of a sauce-pan which ought to have been previously well rubbed with a piece of garlic ; shred an onion the size of a racquet ball very finely and fry it in the butter ; stir into this, when of a golden yellow colour, two breakfast-cupfuls of well boiled rice ; work it vigorously with a wooden spoon while an assistant shakes into the pan a couple of heaped up table-spoonfuls of grated Parmesan or Gruyere ; garnish the dish with strips of anchovies, and serve it piled upon a flat dish. Riz à la bonne femme : — As the foregoing, but stirring into the mixture some finely rasped ham, or corned beef, and garnishing with curls of crisply fried bacon. Riz à l'Indienne : — Commence as laid down for riz a V Italienne using plenty of good butter. Omit the tomato pulp, and instead of the grated cheese, stir in a table-spoonful of well made cuny powder, and garnish with prawns that have been tossed in butter with a pinch of saffron. Riz au chou : — Boil some rice as for the above, and keep it ready in a dish. Cut up the heart of a tender cabbage (a 'savoy' or 'sugar-loaf' for instance). Melt a couple of ounces of butter in a roomy stew-pan, cast into it a finely sliced Bombay onion, and two cloves of garlic minced as small as possible : let the onion turn yellow, and then put in the shred cabbage, stir it about for three minutes with the butter and onions, and then pour over it enough broth or consomme to keep it from burning : stew gently now until the cabbage is cooked, then add the rice which should be vigorously stirred about for five minutes with the cabbage. The dish is now ready. Turn it out upon a flat dish, and smother it with grated cheese. A slice of nice bacon may, with advantage, be cooked with the cabbage ; it should be cut into dice, and put in with the butter and onion. For an ordinary head of cabbage, three breakfast-cupfuls of rice will be found enough. Riz à la Turque : — In this, and in the following cases, the rice is not wholly boiled beforehand. Put into a saucepan six coffee-cupfuls of broth or consomme into which sufficient tomato pulp has been stirred to slightly thicken it, flavour this with salt and black pepper to taste, and set the sauce-pan on the fire. As soon as the liquid boils, cast into it three coffee-cupfuls of well cleansed raw rice. Reduce the heat, and let the rice stew gently in the tomato-flavoured gravy. As the rice cooks it will absorb the liquid : watch it narrowly, and as soon as it has sucked up the whole of it, stir into it an ounce of fresh butter. Just before serving, a dust of nutmeg should be added, and some raisins carefully picked and cleaned may be thrown in as a garnish.