Method.—Wash the potatoes thoroughly (they should be as nearly the same size as possible) and bake them in their skins, then cut a piece from the top of each and remove the inside, taking care not to break the skin. Pass the potato through a presser, or sieve, into a basin; add an ounce of butter, about a tablespoonful of cream (or milk), and season with celery salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a few drops of lemon-juice, and beat with a wooden spoon until it is very light and creamy. Carefully replace the potato in the skins, pressing it back against the sides with the handle of a small spoon, so as to leave the middle hollow; fill them according to the directions given below, then make a rose (by means of a forcer) with the mashed potato left over, sufficiently large to cover the hole; brush the rose over with warm butter and put the potatoes into a hot oven for ten or fifteen minutes. While the white sauce (which should be rather thicker than is usually required) is still hot, add the grated cheese (preferably Gruyère) and ascertain if any more seasoning is required, then a squeeze of lemon-juice and the eggs cut into slices, and fill the potatoes with the mixture. Serve with a salad composed of lettuce, beetroot, and celery.
EGGS AND RICE
Six ounces of rice, 1 pint highly-seasoned vegetable stock, 3 ozs. butter, 3 or 4 hard-boiled eggs, fried onion, chopped parsley, minced olives or pickled gherkin, seasoning, 1 tablespoonful tomato conserve.
Method.—Put the rice into cold salted water, bring it gradually to boiling point, and let it boil for ten minutes, then rinse it in cold water; drain it and put it into a saucepan containing a pint of colourless vegetable stock, and let it boil rapidly until the rice is cooked, stirring it occasionally. As soon as the grains are quite soft, turn the rice on to a sieve and let the stock drain from it. Melt two ounces of the butter in a stewpan, and add the rice, turning it gently with a fork over a moderate fire. When hot, season with salt, black pepper, and nutmeg, and pile upon a hot dish; arrange the halves of some eggs, prepared according to the recipe given below, at intervals round the rice, but not quite at the edge, and between them scatter some minced olives (or gherkins) which have been carefully heated in a little butter, and below them make a line with some minced fried onion, which has been dried, until crisp, in the oven. The top of the rice should be sprinkled either with chopped parsley or ground sweet almonds, which have been coloured a golden brown in the oven. The hard-boiled eggs should be cut in half, the yolks carefully removed and passed through a sieve (the whites should be kept hot over a saucepan of boiling water); a tablespoonful of butter should then be added which has been heated with a tablespoonful of tomato conserve (or sauce); the mixture must be seasoned with celery salt, pepper, and a little curry powder, and quickly and neatly put into the whites and moulded into pyramid form. The eggs should be placed in the oven for a few moments to ensure their being hot.
EGG RISSOLES
Two hard-boiled eggs, 1 oz. of crumb from a Hovis loaf, 1¹⁄₂ ozs. butter, ¹⁄₄ pint milk, a thick slice of onion, 2 teaspoonfuls ground nuts, 1 teaspoonful grated Gruyère, or some mild cheese, a few pieces of parsley, seasoning, 1 raw egg, breadcrumbs, spinach or mashed potato for border, tomato or celery, sauce.
Method.—Put one ounce of butter into a saucepan with the onion and fry gently for a few minutes, but without letting it become brown, then add the milk, a clove, one or two pieces of parsley, and some salt and pepper, and let the milk simmer very slowly for a quarter of an hour. Crumble the bread and stir it into the milk, and let it cook until it is quite soft and the milk is all absorbed, and either pass it through a sieve or turn it into a basin and beat it well so that the bread and onion are thoroughly mixed, but in this case the clove must be removed. Pass the hard-boiled eggs through a metal gravy-strainer, or sieve, and mix them with the prepared bread, then stir in the remaining half of an ounce of butter, the cheese, nuts, some salt, pepper, and nutmeg; turn the mixture on to a floured board, divide it into six portions, and roll them into little balls; dip them into beaten egg and cover them with fine, dried breadcrumbs, and after allowing a few minutes for the crumbs to harden, fry the rissoles in a bath of boiling fat until they are a deep golden colour. Serve them on a border of carefully-prepared spinach, and fill the middle with tomato or celery sauce.
FRENCH BEAN SALAD
Young French beans, as many hard-boiled eggs as required, tarragon and shallot vinegar, butter, seasoning, chopped parsley, 2 tablespoonfuls chopped pickled gherkin, salad oil, 1 raw yolk, 1 tablespoonful cream, watercress.
Method.—Boil the beans whole, they should be so small that only the ends require to be pinched off; when done, drain them on a cloth and let them get cold. Cut the eggs in half, remove the yolks, and pound them with the butter, allowing a quarter of an ounce for each egg; season them with celery salt, pepper, curry powder, and a few drops of tarragon vinegar; add a small quantity of chopped parsley and fill the whites with the mixture. Put the yolk of the raw egg into a basin; add some salt, pepper, and a dust of curry powder, and stir well with a spoon, then add some salad oil, drop by drop, while using a patent beater rapidly and steadily until the mixture is as thick as beaten butter; then stir in, by degrees, a teaspoonful of tarragon and a teaspoonful of shallot vinegar. When this is thoroughly mixed, add the cream, arrange the beans in the middle of a salad bowl and pour the sauce over them, then scatter the chopped gherkin over it and surround the beans with the eggs, putting a little bunch of watercress between, which has been lightly dressed with oil and vinegar. Peas can be served in the same way, or well-boiled butter or haricot beans; if either of the latter are used, chopped beetroot may be substituted for the pickled gherkin.