Method.—Partly cook the chicory in boiling water, drain it well; cut it into small pieces and put it into a buttered stewpan. Season with salt, pepper, a dust of castor sugar, and a sprinkle of dry grated cheese and cover it with half the white sauce, then put on the lid of the pan and let it cook in a slow oven for about an hour, or rather longer. On taking it from the oven stir the chicory and the remaining sauce into a basin containing three stiffly whisked eggs; turn the mixture into a buttered soufflé mould; place the latter in a stewpan of boiling water, in the oven, for half an hour or until the contents are set. Let the mould stand on the kitchen table for two minutes before turning out the chicory, and serve it surrounded by macaroni prepared as follows: Break the macaroni into small pieces and cook in boiling salted water until it is tender; drain well and put it into a hot pipkin containing some warm butter; season it with salt, pepper, and nutmeg; cover it with the brown sauce and put it into the oven for a quarter of an hour. Sea-kale or celery may be prepared in the same way as the chicory.
COLD CURRY SHAPE
Three ounces each of Brazil nuts and pine kernels, 3 ozs. sieved brown bread, ¹⁄₂ gill milk, 1¹⁄₂ ozs. butter, ¹⁄₂ oz. chopped onion, salt, pepper, nutmeg, ¹⁄₂ pint curry sauce (see [page 104]), 1 tablespoonful tomato catsup, 1 gill aspic jelly, 3 ozs. boiled rice, aspic jelly and parsley for garnishing.
Method.—Wash the pine kernels two or three times in boiling water and remove any which are not good, and pass them with the Brazil nuts (from which every particle of brown skin must be removed) once through a mincer. Melt one ounce of butter in a small stewpan, add the onion and nuts, and let them cook gently for ten minutes, stirring them sufficiently often to prevent them from becoming more than a pale golden colour. Put the bread into a saucepan with the milk and remaining half ounce of butter, season well with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and stir it over the fire until a smooth, thick paste is formed. When the nuts are ready add the bread paste to them and then stir the curry sauce in gradually; cover the pan and let the curry simmer by the side of the stove for a quarter of an hour. Then pour in the tomato catsup and a gill of nicely flavoured aspic jelly (which is still liquid), and when these are thoroughly blended with the curry put it aside to cool. Butter a plain china mould (1 pint size) and cover it thickly and evenly with the boiled rice (which should be cold), and before the curry is quite cold put it into the mould, pressing it down well, but taking care not to displace the rice, and when the mould is full put it into a cold place until the following day. Turn the curry from the mould and cover the top with chopped aspic jelly sprinkled with finely minced parsley, and surround it with little heaps of chopped jelly.
CORNETS WITH CELERY CREAM
Some light puff paste, 4 ozs. celery, cooked and sieved, ¹⁄₄ pint thick white sauce, made with half cream and half milk stock, 2 hard-boiled eggs (coarsely chopped), 1 raw egg, minced parsley, Parmesan, seasoning.
Method.—Mix the celery, sauce, and eggs in a basin, ascertain if more seasoning is required, and place the basin on the stove in a stewpan of hot water. Roll out the paste thinly, cut it into rounds of a suitable size, and wrap it neatly round some buttered cornet-moulds; moisten the edges of the paste and join them, then brush the paste over with beaten egg and bake at once in a well-heated oven. When done, slip the cornets off the moulds and fill them with the prepared celery; scatter a little grated Parmesan and parsley, mixed together, over the filling, and serve with as little delay as possible, garnished with fried parsley. Salsify, asparagus, or peas can be served in the same way.
CUCUMBER FILLED WITH NUT FORCEMEAT
One and a half ounces of onion (peeled), 1¹⁄₂ oz. butter, 3 ozs. pine kernels, 2 mushrooms, 1 oz. crumb from a milk loaf, ¹⁄₂ gill milk, 1 egg, seasoning, 1 large cucumber, soup vegetables for braising, brown vegetable stock, brown sauce.
Method.—Wash the pine kernels thoroughly in boiling water, changing it two or three times, then pass them through a nut-mill, or mincer; boil the onion for six minutes; drain it and chop it very finely; cleanse, peel, and mince the mushrooms. Melt one ounce of butter in an omelet (or sauté) pan, and fry the kernels, onion, and mushrooms together for ten minutes, stirring constantly. Melt half an ounce of butter in the milk; add the breadcrumb and cook gently until it is reduced to a paste, then mix it with the fried ingredients and pound all together in a mortar until thoroughly blended and very light; season with salt, pepper, and a little powdered mace, and after pounding an egg into the forcemeat pass it through a wire sieve. Peel the cucumber carefully, so that not a piece of skin is left (as this would give a bitter taste), and cut it through the middle with a sharp knife; remove the seeds with a large apple-corer and partly cook the cucumber in boiling, salted water, to which an atom of soda has been added. Then drain it very thoroughly on a soft cloth and fill the hollow space in the middle with the prepared forcemeat; put the pieces together neatly, wrap the cucumber in buttered muslin, securing it with narrow tape at the ends and in the middle, and place it in a stewpan which has been buttered and prepared with a layer of sliced soup vegetables; fry over a gentle heat for six minutes, then add two and a half gills of vegetable stock; cover the pan closely and braise the cucumber in the oven until it is tender. When done remove the muslin and serve the cucumber with chopped parsley sprinkled over it and surrounded by brown sauce flavoured with sherry.