Culinary jottings

A fish that can be easily dressed in fillets may be treated as a porafret or sole. One that is large and firm enough to be sliced can be cooked as the seer. Long trout-shaped fish may be served as mullet, and can be baked whole, or roasted a la broche. Bony fish are best prepared in the form of puree : — boiled, passed through the sieve, and sent up as a souffle, or a creme. The beckti of Calcutta seems specially adapted to treatment as codfish ; at the same time it may be cooked in almost every way laid down for seer fish. The hilsa, again, approaches very closely if it does not surpass the mackerel, and may be dressed similarly. Those who may try to Use this book in England should remember that ordinary eggs in India are far smaller than- those at home. I calculate that five Indian eggs equal three English. Again : the cream so often propounded in my recipes is not nearly as thick and rich as English cream : the use thereforeof cream may be tempered with discretion. WYVERN MENU NO. 1. For a party of eight Consomme aux quenelles. Seer aux concombres. Creme de volaille truffee. Orenadins de bceuf a la Beamaise. Selle de mouton aux haricots verts. Galantines de cailles, sauce tartare. Epinards a la creme. Pain d^ f raises. " Pudding" glace aux abricots. Fromage, hors d'oeuvres. Dessert. 1. — Our first step must be the making of a bright, clear, consomme according to the directions u?nelleB ^^""^ ^'^^ ^^^^^ ^^ P^^® ^^' *° ^^^our which in this instance we must not forget a little dried basil, (which should go in with the vegetables) and a table-spoonful of Madeira to finish with. We can make the quenelles of fish, game, chicken, or of tinned lobster if we like. Let us choose prawn quenelles, and proceed as follows : — Pound a dozen and a half wellcleaned prawns with half their bulk of crumb of bread, soaked in stock ; work in with the paste two whole raw eggs, and season it with a pinch of salt, a dusting of white, or Nepaul pepper, and a tea-spoonful of anchovy sance : when thoroughly blended, and of the right consistency, form your tiny olive-shaped quenelles between two tea-spoons, poach them for about fire minutes in boiling stock or water, drain them, and add them to the soup at the last moment. Quenelles used as garnish for soups should be lighter and more delicate than ordinary quenelles. Various shapes may be obtained by pressing the mixture into the poaching pan through a paper funnel. 2. — This is a dish of neatly trimmed slices of seer, plainly stewed in a clear broth made Seer uith cucum- £j,q^ chicken bones and the fish trimbers . -r» • mmgs. Put into the broth with tho fish a few slices of can-ot, and onion, a table-spoonful of dried sweet herbs, and a glass of chablis : simmer gently, and when done, drain the fish, and strain the gravy. Thicken the latter with butter and flour, and add to it some previously cooked fillets of cucumber about an inch long, and half an inch thick, and the pieces of fish : heat altogether, till the stew steams freely, and serve. For directions for preparing the cucumber, see page 156.