Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

Here is an Italian receipt for Risotto : — Take a sauce- pan that holds about a quart, cut up a fair-sized onion into very small pieces, let it brown to a good golden colour in some fresh butter. Add the rice, raw and well washed, and let it cook slowly, stirring well for about five minutes. Add the saffron (half a thimbleful, well pounded), pour in the stock by degrees as needed by the quantity of rice. When the rice is done, draw it to one side, and add some grated Parmesan cheese. Stir it gently and serve, sprinkling some Parmesan on the top. io8 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN A good breakfast or lunch dish is called ' Convent Eggs ' : — Boil four eggs for ten minutes. Put them in cold water. Peel, and slice thin, one onion. Put into a frying-pan 1 oz. of butter ; when melted, add the onion and fry white. Then add a teaspoonful of flour ; mix it well. Add about half a pint of milk, till it forms a nice white sauce, half a teaspoonful of salt, and a quarter ditto of pepper. When nicely done, add the eggs — cut into six pieces each, crossways. Toss them up ; when hot, serve on toast. Gascony Butter. — Take equal quantities of parsley (picked from the stalk and parboiled), of anchovies (washed, boned, and pounded), and of fresh butter. Mix the ingredients well together, and pass them through a hair-sieve. Make into pats or balls, ice them, and serve with hot dry toast. Here is an old Indian receipt for curry powder :— 1 Ib. of coriander seed, \ oz. of red chilli, 1 oz. of black pepper, 4 oz. of cummin seed, 3 oz. of fenniquick, 1 Ib. of turmeric, 1 oz. of dry ginger, and 1 oz. of poppy seed. For making curry, take 1^ Ib. of meat cut into dice (mutton is perhaps the best), 2 oz. of butter, 1 large onion (the size of a large potato) and a large apple, one dessertspoonful and a half of curry powder, and a tea- cupful of stock. First melt the butter ; then fry the onion and apple, cut small, till quite brown. Then add the curry powder ; then the meat, cut into small pieces, and fry it in the above till quite brown, turning the meat constantly to keep it from burning. Then put the whole into a saucepan, add the stock, and place it near the fire to simmer for 3f or 4 hours. If it gets too dry, add a little more stock. Mutton wants no butter added at the end, but chickens and rabbits do. To boil Patna Rice for Curry.— Put 3 quarts of spring water in a saucepan to boil, and add \ Ib. of rice. MAY 109 Let it boil as fast as possible, with the lid off. Keep skimming it all the time. When done (which means that it is soft, but with a little hardness left in the middle), strain it off onto a sieve, and then let cold water run on it till it becomes quite cold. Put it back into the saucepan without water, to get hot enough for table. It should take 1 hour to get hot ; it will be a bad colour if hurried. Curry of Ham Toast.— This receipt is useful to finish up an old ham : — 8 oz. of lean ham chopped very fine, 1 teaspoonful of Harvey and 1 of Worcester sauce, 1 teaspoonful of curry paste, a small piece of butter, a good tablespoonful of white sauce, and 2 tablespoonfuls of thick cream. All these should be mixed together and heated. Cut some rounds of toast, and serve very hot.