VENETIAN FRITTERS.
(Very good.)
Wash and drain three ounces of whole rice, put it into a full pint of cold milk, and bring it very slowly to boil; stir it often, and let it simmer gently until it is quite thick and dry. When about three parts done, add to it two ounces of pounded sugar, and one of fresh butter, a grain of salt, and the grated rind of half a small lemon. Let it cool in the saucepan, and when only just warm, mix with it thoroughly three ounces of currants, four of apples chopped fine, a teaspoonful of flour, and three large or four small well-beaten eggs. Drop the mixture in small fritters, fry them in butter from five to seven minutes, and let them become quite firm on one side before they are turned: do this with a slice. Drain them as they are taken up, and sift white sugar over them after they are dished.
Whole rice, 3 oz.; milk, 1 pint; sugar, 2 oz.; butter, 1 oz.; grated rind of 1/2 lemon; currants, 3 oz.; minced apples, 4 oz.; flour, 1 teaspoonful; a little salt; eggs, 3 large, or 4 small: 5 to 7 minutes.
RHUBARB FRITTERS.
The rhubarb for these should be of a good sort, quickly grown, and tender. Pare, cut it into equal lengths, and throw it into the French batter of page [130]; with a fork lift the stalks separately, and put them into a pan of boiling lard or butter: in from five to six minutes they will be done. Drain them well and dish them on a napkin, or pile them high without one, and strew sifted sugar plentifully over them. They should be of a very light brown, and quite dry and crisp. The young stalks look well when left the length of the dish in which they are served, and only slightly encrusted with the batter, through which they should be merely drawn.
5 to 6 minutes.
APPLE, PEACH, APRICOT, OR ORANGE FRITTERS.
Pare and core without dividing the apples, slice them in rounds the full size of the fruit, dip them into the same batter as that directed for the preceding fritters, fry them a pale brown, and let them be very dry. Serve them heaped high upon a folded napkin, and strew sifted sugar over them. After having stripped the outer rind from the oranges, remove carefully the white inner skin, and in slicing them take out the pips; then dip them into the batter and proceed as for the apple fritters. The peaches and apricots should be merely skinned, halved, and stoned before they are drawn through the batter, unless they should not be fully ripe, when they must first be stewed tender in a thin syrup.
8 to 12 minutes