Little French dinners

Petites Cremes au Cafe (Coffee Custards). — Make a tumblerful of very strong coffee, sweetened to taste. When nearly cold add to it the yolks of six eggs, well beaten, and a gill of double cream. Mix thoroughly and then strain into china cases, and place them in a large shallow stewpan containing sufficient water to reach half-way up the cases. Let them steam for twenty minutes, when the custard ought to be quite firm. The water should boil when the cases are first put in, but should afterwards be only allowed to simmer slowly at the side of the stove. Put the cases on ice, serve as cold as possible, and hand round sponge fingers. MENU,— XXX, HUITRES A LA RUSSE. POTAGE D'ORGE A LA CREME. EGLEFIN; SAUCE HOLLANDAISE. BOUCHEES DE VERMICELLE. EPINARDS A LA COLBERT. PETITS CHOUX AU CHOCOLAT. Huitres a la Russe (Oysters with Caviare). — Spread some toasted croutons of bread with caviare, add a few drops of lemon-juice, and place an oyster on the top of each, then add a sprinkling of mignonette pepper and, if liked, a small quantity of cayenne. Serve cold. Potage d'Orge a la Creme (Pearl Barley Soup). — Chop an onion finely and toss it in two ounces of butter without letting it colour, then add three pints and a half of milk, a Little French Dinners. 85 carrot, a turnip, a piece of celery, a leek, a bunch of sweet herbs, two or three cloves, six whole peppers, and a small quantity of salt. Bring to the boil, then let the whole simmer for about three-quarters of an hour. Put half a pound of pearl barley in a saucepan, add just enough of the above liquid strained to cover the barley, and let it boil very gently, adding more of the milk stock when necessary, till the barley is quite reduced to a pulp. Pass all through a hair sieve, return it to the saucepan, dilute with more of the milk stock to make the puree of the right consistency, bring to the boil, season with white pepper and salt, and add, lastly, two or three spoonfuls of boiling cream. Serve with small croutons of fried bread. Eglefin ; Sauce Hollandaise (Boiled Haddock, Hollandaise sauce). — Boil a large fresh haddock in plenty of water, a carrot, an onion, whole pepper, salt, and a sprig of parsley ; let the fish simmer at the side of the stove for fifteen minutes, and, when done, dish it up on a napkin. For the sauce, in its most homely form, melt two ounces of butter in a saucepan, mix with it a dessertspoonful of flour, and, when cooked, add gradually a teacupful and a half of the boiling water in which the haddock has been cooked, and continue to stir until the sauce boils. Then take it from the fire and strain it on to the yolks of two or three eggs which have been beaten up with the juice of half a lemon, add pepper and salt to taste, and serve at once in a sauce boat. Bouchees de Vermicelle (Vermicelli Patties). — Boil two ounces of vermicelli in plenty of boiling salted water. When cooked — it will take about ten minutes — drain it well and put it into a saucepan in which has been melted an ounce of butter. Mix it well, then add threepenny-worth of hot cream, with pepper and salt to taste, and lastly an ounce of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Have ready some small open patties of puff -pastry — they can be made beforehand 86 Little French Dinners.