ANSWERS TO QUERIES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 31, 30 July 1892, Page 768

ANSWERS TO QUERIES.

• La Belle.’—l send with pleasure the following recipe for eclairs with chocolate icing :—Put about a pint of water on the fire in a nice saucepan, and add 2 tablespoonfuls of white sugar, a pinch of salt, and 2 oz. of fresh butter. When the water boils, stir in as much flour as will make a stiff paste, work it on the fire till it does not stick to the sides of the pan. Remove it from the fire, and stir in one by one, three well beaten eggs. When perfectly smooth, put the paste in a biscuit bag, and squeeze out in four-inch lengths on a baking tin. Bake in a slow oven till quite done, and when the eclairs are cold, slit each one at the side, and insert a little whipped cream, then glaze with chocolate icing and serve cold. For the icing, put into a saucepan half a pound of loaf sugar, 2 ounces of grated Vanilla chocolate, and a gill of water. Stir over the fire till the mixture is like thick cream. Add 20 drops of essence of Vanilla, oft’ the fire; cover the cakes with the icing, and put them for a few minutes in the oven to set.— Ella F. [Many thanks.] ‘ Miss Margot.’—Pot au feu should be made from the rump of beef, and the meat used should be perfectly fresh. Four or five pounds will be quite large enough a piece for you to buy. The meat must be tied up with tape into a nice shape. Some fresh meat bones must be placed in the pan the pot au feu is made in, and also a dessertspoonful of salt, and the meat must be placed on the bones, and six quarts of cold water poured into the pan. The water must be brought to the boil gently, and any scum which may rise t J the top should be <»refully removed. A little cold water added from time to tn'ilie will help the scum to rise. When it is quite clear the vegetables, consisting of two carrots, a turnip, two leeks, a little celery, one parsnip, four onions (in one three cloves must be placed), a good bunch of herbs, and about two dozen peppercorns, black and white mixed, must be added. The vegetables must only be added one at a time, so that the temperature of the soup is not lowered too suddenly. The soup must cook very gently for about six hours with the pan partly coveryi. The meat must be taken out of the soup and the tape removed, and in France some of the vegetables which were cooked with it, after having been cut in neat pieces, would be served round the dish. The soup should be a pale amber-colour if it has been properly cooked, and only requires the fat removed and a little salt added before being served, and the crust of a French roll cut in pieces about the size of a shilling, and baked until crisp, can be served in it or handed. Very few cooks use enough vegetables when making soup. Of course, in the hot weather in summer, vegetables will make the stock become sour quickly, but I don’t think that is the reason always that they are omitted. ‘ La Tosca.’—l do not know if the following method of cooking a cauliflower will suit you. I have taken it from an English recipe. You can have the cauliflower either dressed whole or divided in pieces, whichever you prefer. If it is to be dressed whole, the green leaves should all be removed from it, but the stem should not be cut off; the outside skin of it must be cut off, and the cauliflower should be placed in a saucepan with plenty of cold water and a little salt in it. The pan containing it should be placed on the fire and brought quickly to the boil ; as soon as the water boils the cauliflower should be taken out of the pan and well rinsed with water; then it must be put into boiling water and cooked until tender. After this it must be drained, and can be cut in small pieces or only into quarters, and then must be arranged in the dish it is going to be served in, which should have been previously buttered, and about two tablespoonfuls of sauce placed in the dish also. The sauce is made by frying two ounces of butter and the same quantity of Hour together in a saucepan. In another pan put one pint of milk, with a blade of mace and an eschalot; let the milk boil for ten minutes, and then pour it on to the butter and flour, season the sauce with a little nutmeg, pepper and salt, and stir it over the fire until the sauce boils ; then add a quarter of a pound of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, anil a tablespoonful of Gruy6re or Cheddar cheese, also grated, two tablespoonfuls of cream, and a little cayenne pepper ; mix well, and then wring the sauce through the tammy cloth. The cauliflower must be entirely covered with this sauce, and to spread it you will find a palette knife the best thing to use, and it must be dipped into boiling water from time to time to prevent it from sticking.

Some browned crumbs must be sprinkled over the top of the sauce, and a little butter placed here and there on the crumbs.