SOME GOOD FANCY DISHES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1248, 30 January 1896, Page 15

SOME GOOD FANCY DISHES.

A PRETTY DISH OF ORANGES. Ingredients : Six large oranges, Jib of loaf sugar, i pint of water, \ pint of cream, 2 tablespoonfuls of any kind of liqueur, sugar to taste. Put the sugar and water into a saucepan and boil them until the sugar becomes bnttler, which may be ascertained by takin* up a small quantity in a spoon and dipping it in cold water ; if the sugar is sufficiently boiled it will easily snap. P ee l the oranges remove as much of the white pith as possible and divide them into nice-sized slices without breaking the thin white skin which surround, on" JKS S lP ' Pla s 6 the P ieces of orange on small skewers, dip them into the hot sugar, and arrange them in layers round a plain mould, which should be Well oiled with purejalad oil. The sides of the mould should be lined with the orances and ihl centre left open for the cream £ e 'the suSr carefully out on a dish, and fill the centre with whipped cream, flavoured with any susar SwseteEe <i with pounded and nice dah SL? the sugar , Tjme ' ten mmutea to boil

A CENTRE "SUPPER DISH FOR CHRISTMAS. Place in a' trifle dish eight or ten small sponge cakes (putting a layer" of raspberry or strawberry jam between each), one dozen macaroons and ratafias. Ponr over them half a-piut of sherry or sweet wine, mixed with three tablespoonfuls of brandy. Over the cakes put 2oz sweet almonds blanched and cut in fine shreds, and some preserved fruits cut small, also the grated rind of a lemon. Whip a pint of good cream with 2oz. powdered sugar and a little lemon juice, flavour with essence of yauilla and heap the Cream lightly over the trifle, which should stand as high as possible. Ornament with pieces of red-currant jelly and crystallised cherries or harlequin comfits. JELLY TARTLETS.

Make Rome nice puff pastry, and cut it into four-inch squares, fold the four corners of each towards the centre, not pressing down flat or allowing them.to meet. These cases are intended to be filled with jelly or jam just before serving, and if you wish them to keep their shape, place a dessertspoonful of uncooked rice in the centre of each square, put into a sharp oven, and bake for ten akinntes. When cold shake out the rice and ornament the pastry with a little sugar icing. Keep your pastry and preserve separately, and fill the cases just before you require them. Icing : Beat the white of one egg ■to a stiff froth, then add four ounces of castor ■or icing sugar, and thejuice of a small lemon, Or a few drops of rosewater. Beat the mixture till it hangs about the fork in flakes, then garnish your paste, dipping the knife ia cold water occasionally. Stand the tarts in the oven with the door open, or before the fire, and remove as soon as the sugar begins to harden. This icing should never be put on pastry and cakes before they are cold, or jt will not harden. MADEIRA CUSTARD. Dißclve half an ounce of gelatine-powder In a gill of milk, slice half a dozen good, sound bananas in another gill of milk, and simmer for ten minutes ; pass through a sieve, add the gelatine—which must be qaite dissolved—and the juice of half a lemon, with a little of the grated peel: sweeten to taste with castor sugar, and stand till a little cooled. Whip half a pint of thick cream, add it to the banana-juice, and beat up a (little. Wet a mould, scatter chopped pis-tfachio-nuts over it, pour in the cream, and set till cold. A HEDGEHOG. Blanch two pounds of almonds with a little orange-water ; beat them in a mortar. When made into a stiff paste, add twelve eggs, omitting the whites of five ; also a pint of sweetened cream and a half-pound of sweetened butter, set over a slow fire, and stir constantly till stiff enough to make into the form of a hedgehog. Insert for bristles ithe halves of blanched almonds. Set in a dish, and surround with calvesfoot jelly, made clear and good: This is a handsome centrepiece for a supper-table. HIDDEN MOUNTAIN. Beat the whites and yolks of six eggs separately, then mix them together, and well beat again, adding a few very thin slices of citron, quarter of a pint of cream, and sufficient castor sugar to sweeten it nicely. When the mixture is well beaten, put it into a well-buttered pan, and fry the same as a pancake for about ten minutes, but should be three times the thicknefis of an ordinary ©ancake. When cold, cover it with some strawberry jam, and garnish with slices of «citron and variegated holly-leaves. FAIRY BUTTER. Take the yolks of four eggs, boiled hard, four ounces of butfeer, two ounces of white sugar (sifted), a tableepoonful of rose-water. Beat them all to a paste. Into a nice glass dish put a few finger-biscuita, pour a little overthera ; next rub your paste through a fine cullender into the middle of your dish; pour round, it a little custard. Ornament with froth cream and pink sugar. trifle; Ingredients: Sis penny sponge cakes, quarter of a jiound ci ratafia biscuits, quarter of a pound of macaroons, six tablespoonfuls of strawberry or raspberry jam, ono pi it of rich custard flavoured with vanilla, one gill of creao:, two, ounces of angelica. Cut the cakes into small pieces and arrange them lightly with the. biscuits in a deep glass dish, placing the jam in small quantities in 'amongst the cakes. Pour the boiled custard warm (not hot) •gradually over the cakes and jam soan-aneed to thoroughly saturate them. About an hour serving whip the cream to a stiff £rotb, and pile it high on the dish to give it a rocky appearance, and ornament with thin strips f»f angelica standing in the cream, and small comfits and crystallised fruits atrswn over it. This is a favourite dish at children's parties.