One pound artichokes, 4 hard-boiled eggs, ³⁄₄ pint white sauce, 2 oz. macaroni, grated cheese, 1 oz. butter, tomato sauce, 1 raw yolk, lemon-juice.
Method.—Cook the artichokes until they are just tender and cut them into rather thick slices. Then cut as many hard-boiled eggs as are required for the dish (allow one for each person and one over) also into slices, and heat the artichokes and eggs in the white sauce, which should be nicely flavoured and mixed with the raw yolk, beaten up with a teaspoonful of lemon-juice or tarragon vinegar. Place the saucepan containing the fricassee on the stove in a larger pan of boiling water to prevent the sauce from curdling, and stir occasionally. Drain the macaroni, as soon as it has been boiled until it is quite tender, and put it back into the saucepan in which it was cooked, with an ounce of butter, a tablespoonful of tomato sauce and season with salt and pepper. When it is thoroughly coated with the butter and sauce, sprinkle in a large tablespoonful of grated cheese (preferably Parmesan), then make a neat border with it on a hot dish and fill the middle with the fricassee. If a more economical sauce is preferred the yolk of egg and lemon-juice can be omitted.
ARTICHOKE FRITTERS
Jerusalem artichokes, batter, fat, grated cheese.
Method.—Peel the artichokes and put them into a saucepan containing plenty of boiling, salted water, and let them boil for twenty minutes. Then drain them on a soft cloth and cut them, on a floured board, into moderately thick slices; have ready prepared a light, thick batter, and also a pan of deep, boiling fat; dip the pieces of artichoke into the batter and drop them into the fat and let them cook until they are a golden brown. Serve the fritters piled upon a hot dish with a little grated Parmesan (or Cheddar) cheese scattered over them.
ARTICHOKES AU GRATIN
Jerusalem artichokes, white sauce, grated cheese, butter, dried breadcrumbs.
Method.—Peel some artichokes and with a vegetable cutter shape them into little balls (the size of a large marble) and cook them in salted water until they begin to get tender, then drain them at once and put them into a saucepan containing some warm butter (dairy or nut butter may be used), which has been seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a few drops of lemon-juice; cover the pan and let them simmer for about ten minutes. Prepare a thick white sauce (see recipe on [page 106]) and add a tablespoonful of mild, grated cheese to each half pint; pour a small quantity of the sauce over a buttered gratin dish and arrange the artichokes in it, then cover them with the remainder of the sauce; pour the remains of the butter in which the artichokes were cooked over the top and scatter over it a moderately thick layer of finely sifted, dried bread-crumbs mixed with half the quantity of grated cheese, and bake in a quick oven until evenly browned. If the flavour of onion is not objected to, a small, well-boiled Spanish onion passed through a sieve and added to the sauce is an improvement to the dish.
ARTICHOKES (JAPANESE) À LA MORNAY
One pound of artichokes, ³⁄₄ pint white sauce, 1 tablespoonful cream, 1 oz. grated Gruyère, 1 oz. grated Parmesan cheese, ¹⁄₂ lb. short paste, vegetable stock.