ARTICHOKE SOUFFLÉ
Two ounces butter, 1¹⁄₂ ozs. flour, ¹⁄₂ pint milk, 2 eggs, ¹⁄₂ pint sieved artichokes, 1 dessertspoonful grated cheese, lemon-juice, salt, pepper, nutmeg, curry powder.
Method.—Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour gradually; when a smooth paste is formed, pour in the milk by degrees, stirring quickly all the time with a wooden spoon to prevent lumps forming, and continue the stirring until a perfectly smooth, thick sauce is made. Remove the saucepan from the fire and add the yolks of the eggs, beating one into the sauce before adding the other; then stir in the cheese (preferably Parmesan), a squeeze of lemon-juice, and season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a small saltspoonful of curry powder. Have ready some well-boiled Jerusalem artichokes which have been passed through a sieve, add a liberal half pint to the soufflé mixture, and then stir in lightly the whites of the eggs, whisked to the stiffest froth which can be obtained, and pour at once into a buttered china soufflé mould. Smooth the surface of the soufflé and pour a tablespoonful of warm butter over it and sprinkle it with dried breadcrumbs, which have been pounded and sieved, and bake at once in rather a quick oven for half an hour. Serve the soufflé with Brussels sprouts prepared as follows: Cook the sprouts in plenty of boiling water, seasoned with salt and two or three lumps of sugar, add a little piece of soda to improve the colour, and leave the cover off so that the steam may escape. Directly they are tender, turn the sprouts into a colander and then drain them on a cloth and put them into a hot pipkin. Melt half an ounce of butter in a small saucepan, add salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a dust (each) of castor sugar and curry powder and a teaspoonful of lemon-juice; pour the butter over the sprouts and leave them in the oven for a minute or two before sending them to the table.
BAKED BEANS WITH SPINACH AND EGGS
Some red haricot beans, a small onion, a few pieces of celery, tomato sauce (recipe, [page 106]), spinach, eggs (allowing one for each person), butter, seasoning.
Method.—Soak the beans over night, wash them and put them into a saucepan of cold, salted water; as soon as it has boiled rapidly pour off the water and fill up the saucepan with boiling water, adding the onion, celery, and salt, pepper and nutmeg, and let the beans boil gently until the skins will break easily. Then turn them into a colander and remove the skins; melt an ounce or two of butter (a liberal quantity should be allowed) in an earthenware pipkin; put in the beans, pour the tomato sauce over them, cover closely (tying a piece of greased paper over the top if the lid does not fit well) and stand the pipkin in a pan of hot water in a moderately hot oven for five hours, replenishing the water when necessary and adding a little more sauce if it is required. Butter as many china egg poachers as are needed and break a new-laid egg into each, scatter a little salt and pepper over the top and place the poachers in a shallow pan of boiling water in the oven and let the eggs cook until they are sufficiently set to turn out. Make a border of carefully prepared spinach on a hot dish, place the eggs at intervals on it, and fill the middle with the baked beans; a little powdered parsley sprinkled over the eggs will add to the dainty appearance of the dish. The water in which the beans are cooked should be saved as it would be a good foundation for various vegetable soups or sauces.
BAKED EGGS WITH SPAGHETTI
As many eggs as are required for a dish, chopped parsley, lemon-thyme, minced shallot, breadcrumbs, seasoning, 3 or 4 tomatoes, 3 ozs. spaghetti, butter, 2 ozs. mild, grated cheese, watercress.
Method.—Butter as many china ramekin cases as there are eggs; mix some chopped parsley, a very little lemon-thyme and a small quantity of shallot with some fine white breadcrumbs; season with salt, pepper, and a little curry powder, and sprinkle the mixture thickly over the inside of the cases. Break one egg at a time into a coffee cup, and turn it carefully into one of the ramekins; pour a teaspoonful of warm butter over the top and cover with the remains of the herb mixture and bake at once in a hot oven until the whites of the eggs are set. Have ready the tomatoes cut in half and fried; turn the eggs from the cups and put one on each piece of tomato and arrange them round a hot dish with spaghetti, prepared as follows, in the middle and garnish with watercress. Cook the spaghetti in boiling, salted water until it is tender, then drain it well and put it into a saucepan containing two ounces of warm butter; season it with salt and black pepper, and scatter in the cheese (preferably Parmesan) by degrees while turning the spaghetti lightly and quickly with a fork, and serve at once.