Part 6 (2/2)

SPINACH IN A MOLD WITH MUSHROOMS

Boil the spinach for a few moments, drain, squeeze out the water, then pound it well, and pa.s.s it through a fine colander. Put it into a saucepan with a lump of b.u.t.ter and a few drops of lemon juice. Let it boil for a few moments, then turn it into a dish and allow it to cool.

When cold mix with it the beaten-up yolks of two eggs. Put them into a b.u.t.tered mold, leaving an empty s.p.a.ce in the middle. Bake in a slow oven for about an hour. When cooked turn it out onto a dish, and fill up the empty s.p.a.ce with mushrooms, which you have prepared as follows: Wash and clean a sufficient quant.i.ty of mushrooms and put them into a saucepan with a good-sized lump of b.u.t.ter, a little flour, salt, and pepper. Cook over a brisk fire for ten minutes. Moisten well with chicken broth or stock, and add some roux made as follows: Put one tablespoon of flour and one of b.u.t.ter into a saucepan, and cook until the flour has lost all raw taste. Then add stock or milk as desired, slowly--one cup for every tablespoon of b.u.t.ter or flour--and stir until smooth. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon on the mushrooms, put them with their sauce into the spinach, and serve.

FLAN OF VEGETABLES

Wash, chop up fine, and boil several vegetables, a potato, some spinach, a carrot, and a small beet, etc., then boil them again in a saucepan with some stock; then add a half a cup of cream or milk, stir well together, take them off the stove, and let them cool. When cool add the yolks of two eggs, some grated cheese, and the whites of the eggs beaten up. Put the vegetables into a mold which has been well b.u.t.tered and lined with bread crumbs, and cook in the oven.

LETTUCE IN THE OVEN

Take several young lettuces, wash them and remove their wilted leaves, tie the tops together, and lay the lettuces side by side in a baking-pan and pour in one and one-half inches of stock. Cover the pan, and put it in a moderate oven for one-half an hour, adding stock when necessary. Place a fork under the middle of each lettuce, raise and drain, and lay them doubled up on a hot dish. Season the gravy in the pan with b.u.t.ter, salt, and pepper, thicken with one beaten egg, and pour it over the lettuce. Serve hot.

CUc.u.mBERS ”ALLA TOSCANA”

Peel and blanch three or four cuc.u.mbers in boiling salted water for five minutes. Drain and cut them into pieces one inch thick and put them into a frying-pan with one ounce of b.u.t.ter, a little flour, and one-half pint of veal broth, stir well, and add some salt and pepper.

Reduce for about fifteen minutes, stirring until it boils, add one teaspoon of chopped parsley, one-half a teaspoon of grated nutmeg, one-half a cup of cream, and the beaten-up yolks of two eggs. Put on the fire again for three or four minutes. Do not let boil, and serve hot.

CAULIFLOWER ”IN STUFATO”

Remove the outer leaves and clean a fine cauliflower. Cut it into several pieces and wash them well with cold water, put them into a pot of boiling salted water, and cook quickly for twenty or thirty minutes, until they are quite tender. Take them out without breaking, and place them on pieces of b.u.t.tered toast, then put some b.u.t.ter in a frying-pan, add a little flour mixed with some stock, stir well until it boils, then add several finely chopped mushrooms, and cook a little more. Take it off the fire, and add the yolks of two eggs which have been well beaten, salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, and the juice of one lemon. Pour this sauce over and round the cauliflower, and serve. The sauce must not be boiled after adding the eggs.

CELERY FRIED

Cut off the green leaves, and cut the stalks of the celery in pieces about an inch long. Wash them and then put them into boiling water for fifteen minutes. Then dry on a napkin. Beat up an egg with a little stock, or hot water, add salt and pepper, dip the celery in, then roll it in bread crumbs, and fry in boiling lard.

CELERY WITH TOMATO SAUCE

Cut off the green leaves, clean and wash the celery stalks, and then throw them into boiling water and boil fast for twenty minutes.

Drain, dry well, put them on a dish, and pour a pint of tomato sauce, or tomato paste diluted with hot water, over them.

TOMATOES ”ALLA PIEMONTESE”

Take four rather unripe tomatoes of about the same size, put them into boiling water and boil for a few minutes. Cut off the stem part, and take out some of the inside with as many seeds as you can. Fill them with boiled rice and some mushrooms chopped up small. Pour over them the yolks of two eggs, place them in the oven to color; serve hot.

TOMATOES ”ALLA SPAGNUOLA”

Take three or four large ripe tomatoes and boil them. Lay them on a sieve to drain until wanted, and then pa.s.s them through a fine hair sieve. Put them in a stew-pan and stir until all the liquid is evaporated. Then add a small piece of b.u.t.ter and three or four raw eggs, stirring them quickly with the tomatoes. When the eggs are cooked, turn all out into a dish and serve hot.

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