4. English asparagus, which is somewhat delicate in quality, but

inclined to be small. During the season there are, besides, several other kinds of asparagus imported from Spain or France, which, though not equal to the four kinds above mentioned, may nevertheless be used for soups or garnishes instead of asparagus-heads or sprew. Asparagus should be had as fresh as possible; it should be cleaned with care, quickly washed, tied into faggots, and cooked in plenty of salted water. Certain kinds, the flavour of which is somewhat bitter, should be transferred to other water as soon as cooked, with the view of reducing their bitterness. Asparagus is dished on special silver drainers, or on napkins. 2039—ASPERGES A LA FLAMANDE According to Flemish custom, asparagus is served with one hot, hard-boiled half-egg, and one oz. of melted butter per person. The egg-yolk is crushed, seasoned, and finished with the butter by the consumers themselves. This accompaniment may also be prepared beforehand and served in a sauceboat. 2040—ASPERGES AU GRATIN Dish the asparagus in rows, and coat the heads of each row with a little Mornay sauce. When all are dished, two-thirds cover the bunch with a band of buttered paper, and coat the uncovered portion with Mornay sauce. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan; glaze quickly at the salamander, remove the paper, and serve at once. 2041—ASPERGES A LA MILANAISE Having thoroughly drained the asparagus, set it on a long, buttered dish sprinkled with grated Parmesan; arrange it in successive rows, each of which sprinkle in the region of the heads with grated Parmesan. When about to serve, cover the cheese-powdered parts copiously with nut-brown butter, and set to glaze slightly at the salamander. 2042—ASPERGES A LA POLONAISE Thoroughly drain the asparagus; set it on a long dish, in rows, and besprinkle the heads with hard-boiled egg-yolk and chopped parsley, mixed. When about to serve, cover the heads with nut-brown butter, combined with one oz. of very fresh and fine bread-crumbs per four oz. of butter. 2043—ASPARAGUS WITH VARIOUS SAUCES Butter sauce, Hollandaise, _Mousseline_, and Maltese sauces are the most usual adjuncts to asparagus. Béarnaise sauce without herbs is also served occasionally, likewise melted butter. When eaten cold, it may be served with oil and vinegar or a mayonnaise—more particularly a Chantilly mayonnaise, _i.e._, one to which beaten cream has been added. 2044—SPREW WITH BUTTER (Pointes d’Asperges) Sprew or green asparagus is chiefly used for garnishing or as a garnishing ingredient, but it may also be served as a vegetable with perfect propriety. Cut the heads into two-inch lengths, and put them together in faggots. Cut what remains of them into bits the size of peas. After having washed the latter, plunge them into boiling salted water, and cook them quickly, that they may keep green. This done, thoroughly drain them; let their moisture evaporate by tossing them over the fire; cohere them with butter, away from the fire, and dish them in a timbale with the faggots on top. They are usually served in small patty crusts, or in small tartlet crusts, with a few sprew tops on each small patty or tartlet. 2045—POINTES D’ASPERGES A LA CRÈME Prepare them, and cook them in salted water as above. Their cohesion with cream is in pursuance of the procedure common to other vegetables similarly prepared, and they are served like those of No. 2044. =Egg-Plant (Aubergines)= 2046—AUBERGINES A L’ÉGYPTIENNE Cut them into two lengthwise; trim them round the edges; _cisel_ the middle of each with the view of facilitating the cooking process, and cook them. Drain them; remove the pulp from their insides, and set the shells on a buttered _gratin_ dish. This done, chop up the withdrawn pulp; add thereto a little chopped onion cooked in oil, and the same quantity of very lean, chopped, and cooked mutton as there is egg-plant pulp. Fill the egg-plant shells with this preparation; sprinkle with a few drops of oil, and set in the oven for fifteen minutes. On withdrawing the dish from the oven, set on each egg-plant a few roundels of tomato, tossed in oil; sprinkle with chopped parsley, and serve. 2047—AUBERGINES AU GRATIN Fry the egg-plants as above; empty them, chop up their pulps, and add to it an equal weight of dry Duxelles (No. 223). Garnish the shells with this preparation, set them on a _gratin_ dish, sprinkle them with raspings and a few drops of oil, and cause the _gratin_ to form. Surround the egg-plants with a border of light half-glaze sauce when serving. 2048—AUBERGINES FRITES Cut the egg-plants into thin roundels; season and dredge them, and fry them in smoking oil. Dish them on a napkin, and serve immediately, that they may be eaten crisp. If they wait at all, they soften, and thereby lose quality. 2049—AUBERGINES A LA PROVENÇALE Proceed as for No. 2047, but replace the Duxelles by tomatoes tossed in oil and flavoured with a little garlic. Set the _gratin_ to form in the same way, and surround the egg-plants with a border of tomato sauce when taking them out of the oven. 2050—AUBERGINES SOUFFLÉES Cut some fine egg-plants into two; _cisel_ them, and fry them in the usual way; remove the pulp from their insides, and set the shells on a buttered _gratin_ dish. Finely chop the withdrawn pulp, and mix therewith an equal quantity of reduced Béchamel sauce, combined with grated Parmesan. Add some white of egg beaten to a stiff froth, allowing as much of it as for an ordinary _soufflé_. Garnish the egg-plant shells with this preparation, and cook in a moderate oven, as for ordinary _soufflé_. On withdrawing the dish from the oven, serve instantly. 2051—AUBERGINES A LA TURQUE Peel the egg-plants and cut them, each lengthwise, into six slices. Season, dredge, and fry these slices in oil; pair them off, and join them together by means of a very firm preparation of raw egg-yolks and grated, fresh cheese. When about to serve, dip them into batter, and fry them in smoking oil. Dish on a napkin with very green fried parsley. These stuffed slices of egg-plant may be treated _à l’anglaise_ instead of with batter. 2052—CARDOONS (Cardons) _Treatment and Cooking Process._—After having suppressed the green outside leaf-stalks, detach the white ones all round, and cut these into three-inch lengths. Peel these lengths, rub them with lemon, that they may not blacken, and throw them, one by one, into fresh acidulated water. Prepare the heart of the cardoon in the same way, after having withdrawn the fibrous parts, and cook the whole in a Blanc (No. 167), with one lb. of chopped veal fat, sprinkled over its surface, that the cardoon may be kept from blackening by exposure to the air. Cook gently for about one and one-half hours. 2053—CARDONS AU PARMESAN After having well drained the sections, build them into a pyramid in successive layers. Sprinkle each row with a few drops of good half-glaze sauce, and with grated Parmesan. Cover the whole with the same sauce; sprinkle with grated Parmesan, and set to glaze quickly. 2054—CARDONS A LA MORNAY Proceed exactly as above, but replace half-glaze sauce by Mornay sauce. Glaze quickly, and serve immediately. 2055—CARDONS A LA MILANAISE Proceed as for “Asperges à la Milanaise” (No. 2041). 2056—CARDONS WITH VARIOUS SAUCES They may be served either with gravy, or Half-glaze, Cream, Hollandaise, _Mousseline_, Italienne, or Bordelaise sauces. The sauce is either poured over them or served separately. If the sauce be poured over the cardoons, they are dished in a timbale; if the sauce be sent separately, they may be served on a silver drainer, like asparagus. 2057—CARDONS A LA MOELLE Dish the cardoons in a pyramid on a round dish; cover them with a marrow sauce (No. 45), and surround them with very small puff-paste patties garnished with poached marrow dice. Or dish the cardoons in a timbale, and set thereon the heart cut into roundels and arranged in a crown, with a slice of poached marrow on each roundel of heart. Cover the whole with marrow sauce. 2058—CŒUR DE CARDON AUX FINES HERBES Having cooked the heart of the cardoon, trim it all round so as to give it the cylindrical shape, and cut it laterally into roundels one-third inch thick. Roll these roundels in some pale, thin, buttered meat glaze, combined with chopped herbs. Prepared in this way, the heart of a cardoon constitutes an excellent garnish for Tournedos and _sautéd_ chickens. =Carrots (Carottes)= 2059—CAROTTES GLACÉES POUR GARNITURES New carrots are not parboiled; they are turned, whole, halved, or quartered, according to their size, and then trimmed. If old, they should be turned to the shape of elongated olives, and parboiled before being set to cook. Put the carrots in a saucepan with enough water to cover them well, one-half oz. of salt, one oz. of sugar, and two oz. of butter per pint of water. Cook until the water has almost entirely evaporated, so that the reduction may have the consistence of a syrup. _Sauté_ the carrots in this reduction, that they may be covered with a brilliant coat. Whatever be the ultimate purpose for which the carrots are intended, they should be prepared in this way. 2060—CAROTTES A LA CRÈME Prepare the carrots as above, and, when the moistening is reduced to the consistence of a syrup, cover them with boiling cream. Sufficiently reduce the latter, and dish in a timbale. 2061—CAROTTES A LA VICHY Slice the carrots, and, if they be old, parboil them. Treat them exactly after the manner of the “Glazed Carrots” of No. 2059; dish them in a timbale, and sprinkle them with chopped parsley. 2062—PURÉE DE CAROTTES Slice the carrots, and cook them in slightly-salted water, with sugar and butter, as for “Glazed Carrots,” and a quarter of their weight of rice. Drain them as soon as they are cooked; rub them through a fine sieve; transfer the purée to a sautépan, and dry it over a fierce fire, together with three oz. of butter per lb. of purée. Now add a sufficient quantity of either milk or consommé to give it the consistence of an ordinary purée. Dish in a timbale with triangular _croûtons_ of bread-crumbs, fried in butter at the last moment. This purée is very commonly served as a garnish with braised pieces of veal. 2063—FLAN AUX CAROTTES This is served either as a vegetable or a sweet. Line a flawn ring with good, short paste (No. 2358); coat the inside of the flawn with a round piece of paper, and fill it with rice or split peas. Bake it without letting it brown; remove the split peas or the rice, as also the paper, and garnish the flawn crust with a slightly sugared purée of carrots. Cover this purée with half-discs of carrot cooked as for No. 2059, and kept unbroken. Coat with the cooking-liquor of the carrots reduced to a syrup, and put the flawn in the oven for five minutes. 2064—CELERY (Céleri) Celery for braising should be non-fibrous, white, and very tender. Cut the sticks till they measure only eight inches from their roots; remove the green leaves all round; trim the root; wash with great care, parboil for one-quarter hour, and cool. This done, braise them after recipe No. 275. When they are cooked, cut each stick into three pieces, and double up each section before dishing and serving. 2065—VARIOUS PREPARATIONS OF CELERY The recipes given for cardoons may be applied to celery. On referring to the respective recipes, therefore, celery may be prepared:— _Au Parmesan_, _Sauce Mornay_, _à la Milanaise_, _Italienne_, _Hollandaise_, with gravy, &c. 2066—PURÉE DE CÉLERI Slice the celery; parboil it, and stew it, until it is quite cooked, in a little very fat consommé. Drain as soon as cooked; rub through a sieve, adding the while the cooking-liquor cleared of all grease; thicken the purée with about one quart of very white and firm potato purée; heat; add butter at the last moment, and dish in a timbale. 2067—PURÉE DE CÉLERI-RAVE (Celeriac) Peel the celeriac; cut it into sections, and cook it in salted water. Drain and rub it through tammy, adding plain-boiled, quartered potatoes the while in the proportion of one-third of the weight of the purée of celeriac. Put the purée in a sautépan; add to it three oz. of butter per lb.; dry it over a fierce fire, and bring it to its normal consistence by means of milk. When about to serve, add butter, away from the fire, and dish in a timbale. =Cèpes= Those _cèpes_ which are barely opened or not opened at all are not parboiled. Contrariwise, those which are open should be washed, parboiled, and stewed in butter, after having been well dried. 2068—CÈPES A LA BORDELAISE Collop the _cèpes_; season them with salt and pepper; put them into very hot oil, and toss them until they are thoroughly frizzled. Almost at the last moment add, per one-half lb. of _cèpes_, one oz. of _cèpe_ stalks, which should have been put aside and chopped up, one teaspoonful of chopped shallots, and a tablespoonful of bread-crumbs—the object of which is to absorb any excess of oil, once the _cèpes_ have been served. Toss the whole together for a few minutes; dish in a timbale, and complete with a few drops of lemon juice and some chopped parsley. 2069—CÈPES A LA CRÈME Collop the _cèpes_, and stew them in butter with a dessertspoonful of chopped onion per one-half lb. of _cèpes_; the onion should have been cooked in butter, without colouration. When they are stewed, drain them; cover them with boiling cream, and boil gently until the latter is completely reduced. At the last moment finish with a little thin cream, and dish in a timbale. 2070—CÈPES A LA PROVENÇALE Proceed as for No. 2068, but substitute for the shallots some chopped onion and a mite of crushed garlic. Dish in a timbale, and complete with a few drops of lemon juice and some chopped parsley. 2071—CÈPES A LA ROSSINI Proceed as for No. 2069, and add to the _cèpes_ one-third of their weight of thickly-sliced, raw truffles, stewed at the same time as the former. When about to serve, finish with a little pale melted meat glaze, and dish in a timbale. =Mushrooms (Champignons)= Cookery includes under this head only the white Parisian mushroom and the meadow mushroom, which is the kind so commonly used in England. The other kinds are always identified by special and proper terms. 2072—CHAMPIGNONS A LA CRÈME Proceed as described under No. 2069. 2073—CHAMPIGNONS SAUTÉS After having washed the mushrooms, dried, and _ciseled_ them, and seasoned them with salt and pepper, toss them with butter in a frying-pan over a fierce fire. Sprinkle them with chopped parsley at the last moment, and dish them in a timbale. 2074—CHAMPIGNONS GRILLÉS Take some large Parisian or meadow mushrooms. Carefully peel them; season them; smear them with oil, by means of a brush, and grill them gently. Set them on a round dish, and garnish their midst with well-softened, Maître-d’Hôtel butter. 2075—CHAMPIGNONS FARCIS Select some fine, medium-sized mushrooms; suppress their stalks; wash them, and dry them well. Set them on a dish; season them; sprinkle them with a few drops of oil; put them in the oven for five minutes, and garnish their midst with Duxelles (No. 224) shaped like a dome, and thickened or not with bread-crumbs. Sprinkle the surface with fine raspings and a few drops of oil or melted butter, and set the _gratin_ to form in a somewhat fierce oven. 2076—FLAN GRILLÉ AUX CHAMPIGNONS Line a buttered flawn-mould with good lining paste (No. 2358). Garnish it with very fresh and barely opened English mushrooms, tossed in butter with a little chopped onion, cohered with cream, and cooled. Moisten the edges of the flawn-mould, and deck it with criss-cross strips of short paste, as for a latticed apple-flawn. _Gild_ the lattice work; bake the flawn in a very hot oven, and serve it the moment it is withdrawn. 2077—TARTELETTES GRILLÉES AUX CHAMPIGNONS These tartlets constitute an excellent and beautiful garnish, more particularly for Tournedos and Noisettes. Proceed exactly as for No. 2076, but use tartlet moulds the size of which is determined by the dimensions of the piece or preparation which they are to accompany. 2078—TURNED AND GROOVED MUSHROOMS FOR GARNISHING Take some very fresh mushrooms; wash and drain them quickly. Suppress their stalks flush with their heads; turn or groove the latter with the point of a small knife, and throw them, one by one, into a boiling liquor prepared as follows:— For two lbs. of mushrooms, put one-sixth pint of water, one-third oz. of salt, two oz. of butter, and the juice of one and one-half lemons, in a saucepan. Boil; add the mushrooms, and cook for five minutes. Transfer to a bowl immediately, and cover with a piece of buttered paper. 2079—PURÉE DE CHAMPIGNONS Clean, wash, and dry two lbs. of mushrooms. Quickly peel them, and rub them through a sieve. Put this purée of raw mushrooms into a sautépan with two-thirds pint of reduced Béchamel sauce, and one-sixth pint of cream. Season with salt, white pepper, and nutmeg; reduce over an open fire for a few minutes, and finish, away from the fire, with three oz. of best butter. 2080—MORELS (Morilles) The Spring mushroom or Morel is the one most preferred by connoisseurs. There are two kinds of morels—the pale and the brown kind—both excellent, though some prefer the former to the latter, and vice versâ. In spite of what connoisseurs may say regarding the error of washing morels, I advocate the operation, and urge the reader to effect it carefully, and without omitting to open out the alveolate parts, so as to wash away any sand particles that may be lodged therein. _The Cooking of Morels._—If they be small, leave them whole; if large, halve or quarter them. After having properly drained them, put them in a saucepan with two oz. of butter, the juice of a lemon, and a pinch of salt and another of pepper per lb. of morels. Boil, and then stew for ten or twelve minutes. Never forget that the vegetable juices produced by the morels should be reduced and added to their accompanying sauce. 2081—MORILLES A LA CRÈME Proceed as for _Cèpes_ and Mushrooms with Cream. 2082—MORILLES FARCIES Select some large morels, and wash them well. Suppress their stems; chop them up, and prepare them like a Duxelles (No. 223). Add to this Duxelles half of its bulk of very smooth sausage-meat. Open the morels on one side; fill them with the prepared forcemeat, and set them on a buttered dish, opened side nethermost. Sprinkle with fine raspings, and use plenty of melted butter; cook for twenty minutes in a moderate oven, and serve the dish as it stands. 2083—MORILLES A LA POULETTE Cook them as described under No. 2080, and add them to a Poulette sauce (No. 101), together with their cooking-liquor reduced. Dish in a timbale, and sprinkle with a pinch of chopped parsley. 2084—MORILLES SAUTÉES After having thoroughly washed the morels, dry them well in a towel, and halve or quarter them according to their size. Season them with salt and pepper, and _sauté_ them with butter in an omelet-pan, over a sufficiently fierce fire, to avoid the exudation of their vegetable moisture. Dish them in a timbale; squeeze a few drops of lemon juice over them, and sprinkle them with chopped parsley. 2085—TOURTE DE MORILLES Cook the morels as explained under No. 2080, and drain them well. Reduce their cooking-liquor by a quarter, and add to it two tablespoonfuls of very thick cream and one oz. of butter per lb. of morels. Heat this sauce without boiling it, toss the morels in it, and set them in a _tourte_ crust, or merely in the centre of a crown of puff-paste, lying on a dish. Morels prepared in this way may also be served in a Vol-au-vent crust (No. 2390). 2086—MOUSSERONS, ORONGES, GIROLES These varieties of esculent fungi are not much liked in England. The best way to prepare them is to toss them quickly in butter. 2087—BRIONNE (Chow-chow) This excellent vegetable, which has only become known quite recently, is beginning to be appreciated by connoisseurs. It is in season from the end of October to the end of March—that is to say, at a time when cucumbers and vegetable marrows are over. It greatly resembles these last-named vegetables, and is prepared like them, while the recipes given for cardoons may also be applied to it. 2088—CHICORY, ENDIVE AND BELGIAN CHICORY (Chicorée Frisée, Escarole, Endive) Three kinds of chicory are used for cooking, viz:—