Little French dinners

Cailles Roties (Roast Quails). — Tie a thin slice of fat bacon over the breast of each quail, and roast them at a clear fire for fifteen minutes, basting them frequently. Lastly sprinkle freely with salt and serve each quail on a well-buttered crouton of toast. Little French Dinners. 59 Salade Barbe de Capucin (Endive Salad). — Take a particular sort of endive, called in French barbe de capucin, and after having carefully picked and broken it into convenient pieces, place them in a salad bowl, previously rubbed with a shallot. Add a dressing of oil and vinegar in the proportion of three to one, mixed with a little English or French mustard, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix the salad well, sprinkle on the surface some finely chopped Tarragon, and send to table at once. Gateau a la Tartarie (Rhubarb Gateau). — Take the weight of three eggs in sugar and flour. Put the sugar in a saucepan, barely cover it with water, and boil it to a syrup. In the meantime break three eggs into a basin, which place inside another half full of boiling water, and begin to whisk the eggs gently, then add the sugar directly it has boiled, and go on whisking till the mixture becomes lighter in colour and of the consistency of thick cream. Now mix in the flour very lightly, add a few drops of essence of vanilla, and bake in a plain border mould, previously buttered, in a moderate oven. The mould must only be three-parts filled, but if the cake by chance runs over the sides of the mould it must be trimmed evenly after it is turned out. When the sponge cake is quite cold, glaze all the outside with apricot jam, which has been slightly warmed and passed through a sieve. Then blanch some pistachio nuts, chop them up rather finely, and take half their quantity of white crystallized sugar. Colour half of the sugar a deep pink with cochineal, and when thoroughly dry mix all well together, and sprinkle the whole over the outside of the sponge cake. Next take a pound or more of forced rhubarb, and after having wiped it, cut it in pieces about two inches long. Boil a pint of water and three-quarters of a pound of sugar to a syrup in a large shallow stewpan. Add a teaspoonful of lemon-juice and a few drops of cochineal, and then put in as much of the rhubarb as can be laid at 60 Little French Dinners. the bottom of the saucepan. Let it simmer very gently indeed at the side of the fire, and as the rhubarb becomes sufficiently tender — it must not be over done — lift the pieces out carefully on to a dish. They should not take more than ten minutes, and great care must be taken to keep the lengths whole. Proceed in the same manner with the rest of the rhubarb, and when all has been done leave it to get cold, and place it carefully, free from all juice or syrup, piled up in the centre of the sponge cake prepared as above. Strain the syrup in the saucepan, and boil it till it is somewhat reduced. When cold pour it round the outside of the gateau just before sending it to table. MENU.— XXL CONSOMME AU TAPIOCA. CABILLAUD A LA BECHAMEL. POULET SAUTE A L'ESTRAGON. POUSSES DE NAVETS AUX (EUFS POCHES. CREME A LA RUSSE.