ANOTHER RECEIPT FOR MANDRAM.
Take three or four cucumbers, so young as not to require paring; score the ends well, that when they are sliced they may fall into small bits; add plenty of young onions, cut fine, the juice of half a lemon, a glass of sherry or Madeira, and a dessertspoonful of chili vinegar.
DRESSED CUCUMBERS.
(Author’s Receipt.)
Cut into lengths of an inch or rather more, one or two freshly gathered cucumbers, take off the rind, and then pare them round and round into thin ribbons, until the watery part is reached:—this is to be thrown aside. When all are done, sprinkle them with cayenne and fine salt, and leave them to drain a little; then arrange them lightly in a clean dish, and sauce them with very fine oil, well mixed with chili vinegar, or with equal parts of chili and of common vinegar.
Cucumbers, 2 or 3; salt, 1 to 2 saltspoonsful; little cayenne; oil, 6 to 8 tablespoonsful; chili vinegar, or equal parts of this and common vinegar, 2 to 4 tablespoonsful.
Obs.—When the flavour of eschalots is much liked, a teaspoonful or more of the vinegar in which they have been steeped or pickled may be added to this dish.
STEWED CUCUMBERS.
(English mode.)
Pare, and split into quarters, four or five full-grown but still young cucumbers; take out the seeds and cut each part in two; sprinkle them with white pepper or cayenne; flour and fry them lightly in a little butter, lift them from the pan, drain them on a sieve, then lay them into as much good brown gravy as will nearly cover them, and stew them gently from twenty-five to thirty minutes, or until they are quite tender. Should the gravy require to be thickened or flavoured, dish the cucumbers and keep them hot while a little flour and butter, or any other of the usual ingredients, is stirred into it. Some persons like a small portion of lemon-juice, or of chili vinegar added to the sauce; cucumber vinegar might be substituted for these with very good effect, as the vegetable loses much of its fine and peculiar flavour when cooked.