Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/270

 KITCHEN AND COOKERY 248 or slightly under-cooked. After they are fried scrape the ends of the bones quite clean and put a little cutlet frill on each. Arrange them in a half circle on a hot dish and garnish them with some preserved peas' or mixed vegetables, which have first been heated in butter. Or, if preferred, arrange the cutlets on a bed of mashed potatoes or spinach, and pour some tomato or brown sauce round. RAMAKINS OF CHICKEN Required : Half a pound of cooked chicken free from bone. Half an ounce of flour. One ounce of butter. Half a pint of white stock or milk. Two tablespoonfuls of cream. Half a teaspoonful of lemon-juice. • Salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Cut the chicken into small dice about a quarter of an inch square, using only white meat. Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour smoothly, add the stock or milk, and stir the sauce over the fire until it boils well. Let it cool slightly, then add the chicken, cream, seasoning, and lemon juice; add only a very few grains of nutmeg. Have ready some small ra- makin cases, either those made of china, paper, or electro- plate. Pile some of the mixture neat- ly up in each, and sprinkle a little chopped parsley or truffle over each, just to give a speck of colour. Serve at once. N.B. — If more convenient, leave out cream. Veal is ex- cellent treated in the same way. FISH SOUFFLE Required : Half a pound of white fish, such as whiting. A dozen oysters. Two ounces of flour. One ounce of butter. Toree eggs. Quarter of a pint of cream. Q uarter of a pint of oyster liquor. Salt and pepper. Put the oysters in a saucepan with their liquor, and let them heat very gently until they plump up. Then beard them, after- wards cut each in four. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, and stir over the fire until both are well mixed together ; then add a quarter of a pint of the oyster liquor, and stir until the sauce thickens and the flour is cooked. Remove all skin and bone from the fish ; put the flesh in a mortar with the sauce, pound them well together, add the eggs one by one, mixing each well in. Season the mixture carefully with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Rub it through a sieve, then stir in the oysters, and, lastly, add the cream, after whipping it. Have ready a well-buttered mould, pour in the mixture, cover the top with a piece of buttered paper, and steam it gently for half an hour, or till set firmly. Turn it carefully on to a hot dish, pour over and round it a rich white sauce, flavoured with fish stock made from the bones and trimmings of the fish. Decorate the souffle with a neat border of prawns or shrimps, and the edge of the dish with alternate prawns or shrimps and fleurons — that is, small crescent-shapes of baked puff pastry! Some simple design cut out of truffle gives a very pleasing finish to the dish, but may be omitted if preferred. FILLETS OF BEEF A LA MODERNE Bequired : Two pounds of fillet of beef. Two firm tomatoes. Slices of bread half an inch thick. Quarter of a pint of brown sauce. A mushroom for each fillet. Salt and pepper. Wipe the meat with a damp cloth, then cut it into rounds about the size of the top of a claret glass and half an inch thick. Save the trim- mings ; they can be utilised for some other dish. Heat the gridiron ; either brush it over with a little melted dripping or rub it with a piece of suet. Lay on the fillets ; grill them either over or in front of a clear, sharp fire for eight or ten minutes, turning them once or twice. While they are cooking, cut the tomatoes into as many slices as there are fillets, and stalk and look over as many small mushrooms. Lay the tomatoes and mushrooms on a buttered tin, and cook them in the oven until they are just tender. Stamp out some neat rounds of bread the size of a fillet, and fry them a golden brown in hot fat. Drain them on paper, and arrange them on a hot dish ; lay a fillet of beef on each, then a mushroom, and, lastly, a slice of tomato. Arrange the crotjtons of bread so that each overlaps the one behind. Sprinkle each with a little salt and pepper, and serve with the sauce heated and poured round. If possible, brush each fillet with a little warmed glaze to improve the appearance. CUTLETS EN PAPILI OTES Required : Four or more neck chops of mutton. Two slices of ham for each chop. Salt and pepper. Chopped parsley. A little wc^rmed butter. Fish souffle