RECIPES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XXIV, 12 June 1897, Page 750

RECIPES.

Mousse de Pot,let.—Scrape a pound of raw chicken free from all skin and sinew, then pound it till smooth. Now mix with it half a pint of rich creamy Bechamel sauce, season it with a dust of coralline pepper and a pinch of salt, and mix it with the raw yolk of one egg. Put the mixture into a well-buttered mould, filling it up well, and place the mould in a baking dish on a fold of paper, and pour round it sufficient boiling water to cover an inch or two of the mould ; lay a buttered paper over it all, and let it poach in the oven, or at the side of the stove for thirty-five or forty minutes ; then dish with rich veloute sauce over and round it, and garnish with any delicate vegetables, such as green peas, asparagus points, etc. For the Bechamel, take zoz of white roux, and dilute it with rather more than a gill of white stock made from, the bones of the chicken, and when this is thoroughly blended, season to taste, and add a gill of either new milk or single cream ; let it boil up and use. A little thick cream may, if liked, be added to this sauce, which should be rich, or whipped cream nicely seasoned may be used instead of Bechamel altogether, according to how rich you wish your dish to be.

Breakfast Dish.—A delicious breakfast dish is fried bananas. This really requires one of the new silver chafing dishes, which (an American invention, of course) is used for preparing dainties in sight of the guests on the table. This is how the bananas are treated. Choose the fruit not over ripe, slice it lengthwise ; melt a little butter in the dish, and when bubbling put in the bananas. Fry until of a delicate brown colour. Serve either with or without bacon.

A New Sweet. —When small pieces of pie crust are left from making pie, instead of forming them into tarts, as is usually done, secure some round hard-wood sticks about four inches long, and, after the pieces of crust are rolled out thin, cut them into narrow strips with a jaggered iron, flour the sticks and roll the strips around them, letting one edge overlap the other. Place these on a tin and put in a hot oven to bake. When the crust has got partly cool slide the stick out. When serving fill the spaces with jelly, whipped cream or a marmalade, and the family will be delighted with a new dish. Washing Lemons.— ’ Please put these lemons into a dish of water and let them stay there ten or fifteen minutes before you use them,’ said a lady to the new housemaid, who was getting ready to make lemon pies. The girl looked somewhat surprised, and the lady continued : 'ldo not suppose that many people stop to think about it, but the outside of a lemon is anything but clean. If you will look at it, you will see some tiny black spots like scales all over it. These are the eggs of an insect, and if the lemon is not washed they are likely to become an ingredient of whatever dish the lemon is used for. For years I have made the practice of cleaning all the lemons I use with a small scrub-brush kept for the purpose, then dropping them into a dish of water to remain for five or ten minutes before using. It is a little trouble, but I am very fond of having things clean, especially the things I am expected to eat.’