Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Have prepared a nice cream sauce. Put in a small saucepan half a tablespoonful of good butter, half a one of flour ; cook, stirring constantly, for three minutes. Pour in slowly, stirring meanwhile, half a pint of boiled milk, season with one salt-spoonful of salt and half a one of white pepper, and let it cook very slowly for eight minutes. Add half a pint of good, rich cream ; cook four minutes more ; remove from the fire, add half a tablespoonful of fresh butter divided in small lumps. When the butter is melted pour the sauce over the pain of cauliflower. Cauliflowers with Parmesan Cheese. — Choose three or four young, firm, white cauliflowers; cut off the stalks and the stems, making them flat, so that they will stand nicely in the dish. Cleanse them thoroughly and boil them until tender, but not sufficiently so to run any risk of their breaking. Dish them so as to make them look like one cauliflower, and powder them thickly with grated Parmesan cheese. Pour a good sauce over this. When it is firmly set add another layer of cheese; and strew over this some finely grated breadcrumbs. The sauce may be made thus : Rub a table-spoonful of flour into Yz oz. of sweet butter, mix it smooth over the fire, and add very gradually a breakfast-cupful of water, one pinch of salt, and a small pinch of pepper. Stir it constantly till it boils, then take it from the fire for a minute or two, and add slowly the 4*3 Celery a la Crème VEGETABLES Celery, Stewed yolk of an egg mixed with the juice of half a lemon and a teaspoonful of water. Stir until the whole is well mixed. Brown the cauliflower with a salamander or in a hot oven, pour a little sauce round, and serve hot, as a third-course dish. Time to boil the cauliflower, twelve to twenty minutes. Celery a la Creme, Stewed. — Wash very clean two heads of celery, trim them neatly, cutting off the outer stalks, the leaves, and the tops, and boil them in salt and water until nearly tender. Drain them and put them in a dish. Have ready in another saucepan a breakfast-cupful of good cream. Let it boil, with a piece of butter rolled in flour, till it is thick and smooth ; then pour it over the celery, grate a little nutmeg over the top, and serve. Time to boil the celery, from three-quarters of an hour to one hour and a half. Celery, Fried. — Cut stalks of celery into three or four inch lengths. Even if it is not well blanched it can be used for this purpose. Beat together one egg and a table-spoonful of cold water ; roll your celery first in this and then in fine crumbs ; sprinkle with a little salt and pepper; roll again in the egg, and fry in olive oil. Strew grated cheese over the stalks after taking them from the oil and before sending to table. Celery and Hazel-nuts. — Cut in round, thin slices I lb. of large hazelnuts ; cut in the same way four very crisp celery hearts. Mix with one salt - spoonful of table salt; dress them with a few white leaves of celery around, and serve all the hors-d'oeuvre on a silver platter. Celery, Pur6e of. — Wash thoroughly four heads of fresh white celery, cut them into small pieces, and put them in a stewpan, with an onion sliced, and % lb. of butter. Let them simmer very gently till tender, then add Y\ lb. of flour mixed smoothly