[76]. Rice Soup au Lait d'Amandes. Wash in cold water four ounces of rice, which boil for ten minutes, afterward put it in cold water, drain, then place it in a saucepan with three pints of milk, and boil very gently for forty-five minutes. Take four ounces of bitter-almonds with one of sweet, blanch them and pound them well, adding by degrees, as you pound, a glass of cold milk. Put through a sieve, add a pinch of salt and about a coffee-spoonful of sugar, and then with the rice and milk boil for a moment, and serve.
[77]. Bisque of Crawfish. Wash four dozen crawfish and put them in sufficient water to cover them, cut a carrot, an onion, and three cloves of garlic in slices, add two cloves, a few branches of parsley, a little salt, and a tablespoonful of vinegar, and boil for fifteen minutes. Drain them, and then pound them to a paste. Melt one ounce of butter in a saucepan, add two ounces of flour, which mix well with the butter. Then add the paste of crawfish, not quite a quart of cream, the same of consommé (stock), three quarters of a cupful of tomatoes, salt and pepper, and a little cayenne. Boil, and stir with a spoon, press through a sieve, and put back on the fire, with one ounce of butter; as soon as it boils up again, serve.
[78]. Bisque of Lobster. Take half a pound of boiled lobster from which you have removed the shell, and proceed as for the foregoing, adding half instead of three quarters of a cupful of tomatoes.
[79]. Bisque of Clams. Boil fifty clams in their juice for about five minutes, drain them, chop them fine, then pound them. Put in a saucepan on the fire four ounces of butter, with two ounces of flour, add your clams with their juice, two pinches of salt, one of pepper, one of cayenne, and two and a half pints of milk, stir constantly, and, just before beginning to boil, remove from the fire, strain, heat again over the fire, and serve.
Bisque of oysters is prepared in the same manner.
CHAPTER II.
SAUCES.
[80]. Spanish Sauce. Melt two ounces of butter in a saucepan, to which add two ounces of flour, and put on a gentle fire, stirring until colored a nice brown; then mix with the flour and butter a pint of consommé (stock, [Art. 1]), an ounce and a half of lean raw ham, a carrot, an onion, a piece of celery, two cloves, a pinch of salt and pepper, and stir until beginning to boil. Remove the saucepan to the back of the range, so as to simmer gently for an hour; skim off the grease carefully and strain.
[81]. Sauce Allemande. Melt two ounces of butter and mix thoroughly with it two ounces of flour on a gentle fire. Add immediately a pint of consommé (stock, [Art. 1]), a little salt and pepper, and stir until boiling. After boiling fifteen minutes, remove from the fire and skim the grease off carefully. When your sauce has ceased boiling, add the yolks of three eggs, well mixed in a little water, and stirred in quickly with an egg-beater, so as to make your sauce light.