—Take three quarters of a quart can of fine, French flageolet beans, parboil them in boiling and lightly salted water for one and a half minutes, then drain them on a colander, and place them immediately in a saucepan on the hot stove with an ounce of good butter; season with a teaspoonful of salt, and shuffle lightly with a wooden spoon while cooking for three minutes, and when serving, add half a teaspoonful of finely chopped parsley. Dress them on a hot dish, and serve.
1366. Eggs à la Post.
—Wash and scrape neatly one good-sized, sound carrot, then, with a vegetable-scoop, scoop out twelve round pieces; place them in a sautoire with one gill of white broth ([No. 99]), and a teaspoonful of good butter. Cook them on the hot range for twenty minutes.
Place twelve fine, sound, roasted, and shelled Italian chestnuts into the sautoire with the carrots, let come to a boil. Remove all the skin from two uncooked sausages. Make twelve equal balls out of it, place on a tin plate, and bake in the hot oven four minutes. Remove, and add them to the carrots and chestnuts. Season with a light pinch of salt and the third of a saltspoonful of red pepper; add one gill of Madeira sauce ([No. 185]). Cook for two minutes longer. Have a silver dish sufficiently large to contain twelve eggs so that they do not touch one another. Place in the centre of the dish half a pint of hot purée of chestnuts ([No. 131]), then arrange twelve fried eggs over the purée prepared the same as in [No. 412]. Carefully and equally divide in clusters around the dish, the carrots, chestnuts, and sausage balls, then pour the sauce around the eggs with a spoon, but none over the eggs. Place on top of each egg one thin slice of truffle cut with a tube. Place in the hot oven to heat for one minute. Take from out the oven, and serve.
1367. Oysters Fried à la Arthur Sullivan.
—Carefully open thirty large, fine, fresh box-oysters; place them in a saucepan with their own juice, season with the third of a saltspoonful of red pepper, adding half a medium-sized fine, sound lemon, cut into thin slices, one sprig of thyme, a small bay-leaf, and a branch of well-washed parsley. Place on the hot range, and heat up very fast without boiling, for which, on a very brisk fire, it should be done in one minute and a quarter; then place the whole in an earthen bowl to cool.
Beat up one raw egg in a bowl with one gill of cold milk, seasoned with a light pinch of pepper and a light pinch of salt; steep the oysters in this, one by one, then lightly roll them in cracker-dust; give them a nice even shape in the palm of the hand, and lay them on a dish. Heat up thoroughly in a frying-pan on the hot range one gill of clarified butter and half a gill of olive oil (it must be very hot before placing in the oysters), and fry them for one minute on each side. Remove them with a skimmer, dress on a hot dish with a folded napkin, and serve with the following sauce separately:
Strain the juice of the oysters into a saucepan, and reduce it to one half on the hot range, with half a saltspoonful of red pepper, adding also the juice of half a sound lemon and a gill of sauce Espagnole ([No. 151]). Cook for three minutes, add a teaspoonful of chopped chives, pour it into a sauce-bowl, and send to the table.
1368. Lobster Salad à la Boardman.
—Split lengthwise two very fine medium-sized, freshly boiled, and cooled lobsters, pick all the meat out from the shells, as well as from the cracked claws, suppress both intestines and pouch. Cut the meat into very small, equal, square pieces, and place them in a salad-bowl. Finely chop up, as fine as hashed potatoes, three hard-boiled eggs; add them to the lobster. Peel and chop, also very fine, two small, sound shallots, and add to the lobster, with one and a half teaspoonfuls of very fine freshly chopped chives and one and a half teaspoonfuls of finely chopped parsley. Chop also, very fine, one root of thoroughly pared and well-cleaned sound celery (using nothing but the perfect white), add it to the lobster. Season with a light tablespoonful and a half of salt, a teaspoonful and a half of fresh, finely crushed white pepper, half a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, a tablespoonful and a half of olive oil, two tablespoonfuls of very good white vinegar. Mix well, then add three tablespoonfuls of freshly made mayonnaise sauce ([No. 206]). Gently but thoroughly mix the whole well together; wipe neatly the edges of the salad-bowl with a napkin. Plant right in the centre a branch of parsley-greens, and send to the table.