Little French dinners

Longe d'agneau rôtie (Roast loin of lamb). — Choose a lean loin of lamb, remove all unnecessary fat and roast the joint at a fairly brisk fire, basting it frequently the whole time. Just before it is done, sprinkle it with salt and serve with its own gravy (thoroughly freed from fat), mint sauce in a boat, and potatoes cooked as follows : Fommes de terre Marquises (Potato Marquises). — Cut up some potatoes and boil them in salted water. Pass them through a wire sieve, season them with salt and pepper, a grate of nutmeg, some chopped parsley and the least bit of chopped thyme, moisten the whole with a little good gravy and shape into corks. Dip each into an egg well beaten and fry a light brown in three ounces of butter previously melted in a saute pan. Haricots verts au riz tomate (French beans with tomato rice). — Boil some rice carefully so as to get every grain separate, then toss it in a little butter and moisten. F 2 68 Little French Dinners. with, a sufficient quantity of tomato sauce, adding the yolks of one or two eggs and Parmesan cheese according to taste. Make a border of this rice in a dish and pile up in the centre some French, beans plainly boiled and tossed in a little butter with pepper and salt. CEufs a 1'Anglaise (Stuffed Eggs). — Boil some eggs quite hard. When cold, remove the shells, cut them in halves and take out the yolks. Pass these latter through a sieve and add to them a little butter, some anchovy sauce, a few drops of tarragon vinegar, some chopped tarragon and pepper and salt to taste. Mix all thoroughly into a paste and fill up the halves of egg with it. Sprinkle a little very finely chopped beetroot on the surface and keep in the cool till the time of serving. POTAGE PARISIEN. ANGTTILLE EN MATELOTE. PETITES TIMBALES A LA MILAN AISE. ALOYAU i LA BROCHE. SOUFFLE AU CITRON. Fotage Parisian (Parisian Soup). — Boil in stock equal parts of rice and vermicelli. When done, drain and put them into some well-flavoured consomme. Then add a dozen sorrel leaves, out Julienne-fashion, let the soup boil up twice, just to cook the sorrel, and serve. Little French Dinners. 69 Angnille en Matelote (Matelote of Eels). — Skin and cleanse two good-sized eels and cut them into three inch lengths. Rub a saucepan slightly with garlic, melt in it two ounces of butter, and add a dozen and a half small button onions, peeled and blanched ; toss them about till they are of a golden colour, then put in the pieces of eel with some parsley, thyme, bayleaf, cloves, whole pepper and salt, and add sufficient stock and claret in equal quantities to well-cover the fish. Bring the whole to the boil and cook over a brisk fire for about twenty minutes ; when the pieces of eel are quite tender, strain off nearly all the liquor into a small clean saucepan and finish cooking the onions in it, taking care to keep the fish hot in the meantime. Then take out the onions, free the liquor from all fat, and thicken it with some arrowroot ; bring to the boil, add the juice of half a lemon, a teaspoonful of mushroom catsup, half an ounce of anchovy butter, some colouring and more pepper and salt if necessary. Add the onions to the sauce with an equal quantity of button mushrooms, which have been previously wanned through in their own liquor.