CUCUMBER STUFFED
Half a pint milk, 1 small onion, a few pieces of parsley, a thin strip of lemon-peel, 1 oz. flour, 1 oz. butter, 1 dessertspoonful grated cheese, 1 teaspoonful tomato catsup, 1 dessertspoonful ground sweet almonds, 2 ozs. large straight macaroni, some chopped parsley, 1 medium-sized cucumber, seasoning.
Method.—Peel the cucumber, taking care to remove every particle of green skin, and cut it into pieces of about two inches thick and cook until tender in boiling, salted water to which a tiny piece of soda has been added; directly it is ready (it must not be left in the water after it is done), drain the pieces and carefully remove the seeds. Have ready some macaroni prepared according to the instructions given below, and quickly fill the cucumber cases with it; place in the oven to re-heat the cases and serve surrounded by thick tomato sauce (see [page 106]). Boil the macaroni thoroughly (keeping it boiling steadily from the time it goes into the saucepan until it is done), drain it on a soft cloth and cut it on a board into pieces of about a quarter of an inch thick. Put the milk into a saucepan, when the macaroni is put on to boil, with the onion, lemon-peel, parsley, almonds, and some salt and pepper, and let it boil up and then simmer gently for half an hour. Melt the butter in another saucepan, mix the flour smoothly with it, and add the flavoured milk (after straining it) by degrees and stir until the sauce is perfectly smooth and thick; add the macaroni, catsup, and cheese and it will be ready to use; scatter a little chopped parsley over the surface of the macaroni.
CUCUMBER WITH POULETTE SAUCE
One or two cucumbers (according to the size), 1 oz. butter, ¹⁄₂ pint white sauce, 1 raw yolk of egg, 1 tablespoonful cream, 2 or 3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped parsley, lemon, seasoning, pastry case.
Method.—Peel the cucumber and parboil it in salted water, then drain it and cut it into moderately small pieces and put it into a saucepan containing an ounce of butter, which has been flavoured with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a dust of castor sugar, and let it simmer for ten minutes, then add the sauce and continue the simmering for about a quarter of an hour, when the cucumber should be quite tender. Beat the yolk of egg with a tablespoonful of cream and stir it into the sauce, add a squeeze of lemon-juice, and when the egg has thickened (take care the sauce does not boil after it is added), pour the cucumber into a round pastry case (which should be hot) and garnish round the edge with quarters of hard-boiled egg (hot) and sprinkle the parsley over the cucumber.
DEVILLED NUT FILLETS
Some nut forcemeat as for nut cutlets (see [page 75]), ¹⁄₂ gill thick brown sauce, 1 dessertspoonful chutney paste, 1 teaspoonful Worcester sauce, ¹⁄₂ teaspoonful French mustard, 1 teaspoonful curry paste, ¹⁄₂ teaspoonful Chili vinegar, butter, flour, seasoning.
Method.—Make the forcemeat into little round fillets and dust them with flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Mix the brown sauce, which should be just warm, with the chutney, Worcester sauce, French mustard, curry paste, and Chili vinegar; then mask the fillets with it and place them on a buttered gratin dish; pour a few drops of warm butter over each, and cook them in a quick oven for fifteen minutes. Serve the fillets on the same dish in which they were cooked with a mound of potato chips in the middle.