COOK

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28162, 28 December 1956, Page 2

COOK

with Elizabeth Delicious And Decorative

At this time of year a great many of us have party-giving in view and though for most of the year practical necessity makes us interested in recipes which are quick and easy, or economical, now what we want is a suggestion for that dinner-party which is drawing close. It must be delicious and decorative, it must be reasonably easy to prepare by someone working single-handed with a dozen or two other party details to see to, and it most definitely must be something capable of being prepared ahead so that we do not need to wipe the oven-heat off our brow and the harassed look out of our eyes with the corner of an apron as the door-bell rings. Many people fall back on a cold meal to solve the problem, but that is not so easy as a hot meal since salads must be prepared on the day of the party. A hot meal can be all prepared ahead of time with only warming to think of. This Vo]-au-vent of Chicken and Mushrooms is very simple, and it is capable of wide adjustment, too, in the contents and the manner of serving it. If you want to reduce the cost a little, omit the bacon and mushrooms; if you want to make it spin out round a crowd, add more sauce and vegetables; if you don’t want to bother with vol-au-vent cases, bake ordinary puff pastry in decorative shapes and dot them over the dish of chicken on the point of serving. Vol-au-vent of Chicken and Mushrooms. 1 boiling fowl, 1 tin mushrooms, 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, (toz bacon, 4oz butter, 4oz flour, 1 pint milk, 1 pint chicken stock, 1 packet cooked frozen peas, 1 cup diced cooked carrot. 11b puff pastry. Eoil the fowl until tender in water to which has been added one whole onion and a teaspoon of mixed herbs and a seasoning of salt and pepper. Cut the bacon into pieces and roll into tight little rolls. Cook slowly in the oven but do not brown. Make a thick sauce by blending 4oz flour into 4oz butter over gentle heat, then adding milk and stock. Cut every bit of meat from the chicken and cut into fairly small pieces. Add fowl, mushrooms, half the bacon rolls, cooked carrots and peas to the sauce. Season to taste and stir through the chopped parsley. Turn into casserole dishes and when required for use cover and heat thoroughly through in the oven.

For the shell, roll the pastry to f-inch thickness and cut into a large circle. About inches in from the edge run a knife halfway down through the pastry in a neat circle. Bake in a hot oven until puffed and browned. Lift out the lid, scoop out any soft pas+ry and when required for use heat in the oven, then spoon the mixture in. Run some extra filling round the dish and garnish with parsley, the bacon rolls and the pastry lid cut into small wedges

Amy Isabel Cakes

Small orange cakes are popular with most persons, so these Amy Isabel cakes get away to a flying start. But they are orange cakes with a difference, for the cake itself is plain; the orange lies in a surprise, real fruit centre. Quantities given here make two dozen little cakes which need only a dusting of icing sugar to send them to the table the most unusual and delicious little cakes you have tasted for a long time. Amy Isabel Cakes: 4oz butter, 4oz sugar, 2 eggs, 4oz flour, 4c z cornflour, 1 rounded teaspoon baking powder, | teaspoon salt, 1 small tin mandarin oranges. Cream 4oz butter, add 4oz sugar and beat together. Beat in two eggs, one at a time. Sift in 4oz each of flour and cornflour, a good rounded teaspoon of baking powder and half a teaspoon of salt. Blend all together thoroughly.

Butter and lightly flour muffin tins. Take rounded teaspoonful lots of the cake mixture and roll lightly into balls in flour. With floury hands press each ball into a flat disc about one-third of an inch thick. Place two small segments of tinned mandarin

oranges on each and close the cake over completely. Drop into muffin tins rough side down and bake at regulo 5 or 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool and dust lightly with icing sugar.