Practical household cookery

Slice two large onions into rings, and fry them in a sauté-pan with half a gill of olive-oil, till of a nice lightbrown colour; then add the pieces of a tender chicken, cut as for stewed chicken and risotto; season with salt and pepper, a few sprigs of parsley, a bay-leaf, and a crushed clove of garlic. Fry these on a brisk fire to a nice brown colour, for about twenty minutes. Meanwhile stew for five minutes in a stewpan half a pound of fresh mushrooms and four shalots chopped fine, together with a tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Moisten the whole with a tablespoonful of salad-oil and a gill of Madeira wine; then add a gill each of either Espagnole sauce or good broth and Tomato sauce, and boil it. When the pieces of chicken have simmered for twenty minutes, take them out with a fork and put in the stewpan with the sauce. Simmer together with the lid on for seven or eight minutes ; dish up the chicken in the usual way ; pour the sauce over, and serve. 609. STEWED CHICKEN A L'AFRICAINE. Cut up a chicken as for stewed chicken and risotto; cut also half a pound of raw ham or gammon in slices three inches long by about two wide ; melt two ounces of clarified butter in a stewpan ; add the pieces of chicken and ham, together with a small " bouquet garni " composed of parsley, thyme, bay-leaf, and a clove of garlic ; season with a small pinch of cayenne, and fry it over a good fire till the pieces of chicken have acquired a nice golden colour; drain off the fat; moisten with three parts of a pint of good white stock (veal broth), a gill of French white wine, a small piece of glaze, half a teaspoonful of curry paste, and half a pound of fresh mushrooms properly cleaned and cut in small pieces ; let the contents boil for about fifteen minutes with the pan partly covered ; after which, draw the stewpan away from the fire ; remove the ** bouquet garni;" add half an ounce of butter and the juice of half a lemon ; dish up the pieces of chicken alternately with the slices of ham ; pour the sauce over ; decorate the base of the dish with fried croutons, and serve. 610. CURRIED r;HICKEN. Cut up a chicken as in the foregoing ; shred and fry an onion in a stewpan with an ounce of butter for about three minutes ; add the pieces of chicken and continue the frying till they are slightly coloured all over ; sprinkle two tablespoonfuls of flour ; season with salt and pepper ; stir over the fire for three minutes longer, and moisten with a pint of good stock and half a tablespoonful of curry paste. Simmer it for about twenty minutes with the pan half covered ; pour the contents of the stewpan into a colander over a basin ; clean the stewpan ; rub the sauce through a tammy or hair-sieve into the stewpan again. Take up from the colander each piece of chicken, clean and return them to the stewpan with the sauce, and warm them up without boiling. Meanwhile have some rice cooked as for curried rabbit. When the sauce is all but boiling dish up the pieces of chicken ; pour the sauce over, and serve with the boiled rice apart. 611. STEWED CHICKEN AND MUSSELS. Cut up the chicken in small joints as in the foregoing, fry these in a sauté-pan all round to a nice golden colour with two ounces of clarified butter, and season with salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg; moisten with a pint of veal stock or Espagnole sauce; simmer it for about twenty minutes ; after which, skim off the fat, add two quarts of mussels (No. 306) previously cooked for the purpose ; let it simmer for a few minutes ; squeeze in the juice of half a lemon; toss the contents, and dish up the pieces of chicken in the usual way; pour the sauce over; garnish round with the mussels and half a dozen croutons fried in butter, and serve. Note, — Oysters may be substituted for mussels. 612. STEWED CHICKEN A LA SICILIENNE.