LUNCH DISHES

Vichyssois (48)
Hard-boiled eggs au gratin (42)
Veal liver à la Soubise (49)
Potatoes à la dauphine (50)
Roast pork fillet
Galette de ménage (51)

DINNER DISHES

Parmentier soup (16)
Omelette à la bordelaise (52)
Hake à l'espagnole (37)
Cauliflower bread (21),
Chicken in jelly (53)
Rum baba (39)

48. Vichyssois.
A little cooked carrots, two eggs, three anchovies, a little parsley or chervil, mustard.
Finely chop the carrots, mix them with the mustard, form small sausages with them and put them in a bowl, hard-boil the eggs, chop the white and the yolk separately, finely chop the parsley or chervil, make a crown with the egg yolk around the carrots, then one with the white and one with the parsley. Cut the anchovies into very thin fillets and place them on top of the carrots.

49. Calf's liver à la Soubise.
Take slices of liver one centimeter thick, brown them on both sides. Remove them and keep warm. On the other hand, cut large onions into thin slices, one kilo for 500 grams of liver.
Put these onions in the pan where you cooked the liver. Cover tightly and simmer for an hour and a half. Stir often with the spoon; the onions should melt and not brown. Halfway through cooking, add a glass of Bordeaux white wine or, failing that, stock. Ten minutes before serving, put the liver back with the onions which should be reduced almost to a puree, uncover the pan, reduce the sauce if there is any, sprinkle with finely chopped parsley, drizzle with lemon juice and serve. Beef liver can be prepared in the same way; the dish is a little less delicate, but is cheaper.

50. Potatoes à la dauphine.
Cook four large potatoes in salted water; once cooked, pass them through a sieve. Put in a saucepan the size of an egg of butter, with half a glass of water, and bring to the boil. Stir in 50 grams of flour briskly, stirring with a wooden spoon.
Work like this for three minutes on the heat. Add four eggs one after the other, always mixing, then the mashed potatoes. Season with salt, pepper, 50 grams of grated Gruyere cheese. Take this dough with a spoon in small parts the size of a walnut and drop into the hot frying. They should not be seized and they double in volume. Stir with the skimmer and serve hot, when the balls are a beautiful golden color.

51. Household galette.
Take 250 grams of flour, pass it through a fine sieve, and make a hole in the middle in which you will put 10 grams of salt, 80 grams of butter and a very fresh egg; add two deciliters of water and soak everything.
Work the dough well, then let it rest for forty minutes. After this first work, add a good quarter of butter, work the dough and make it do four turns as you do for puff pastry. Let it rest for another ten minutes, then roll out the dough with the rolling pin until it is a good finger thick. Spread it on the baking sheet or tart pan and brush it with egg white. Let it rest for a quarter of an hour. After this last time, put the cake in the hot oven and cook.

52. Omelette à la bordelaise.
Four eggs, two shallots, 80 grams of mushrooms, a tablespoon of chopped parsley, three tablespoons of milk, 80 grams of butter, salt, pepper.
Chop the shallots and brown them in a pan in 30 grams of butter for six to eight minutes.
Clean the mushrooms without peeling them. Wash them and pat them dry. Chop them and squeeze them in a cloth to extract the water. Chop the parsley. Add the mushrooms and sauté for two minutes with the shallots.
Break the eggs into a deep plate. Add salt and pepper, the milk, 10 grams of butter and the chopped parsley. Put the rest of the butter in the pan with the shallots. Beat the eggs with an iron fork until they are frothy; throw them into the pan and move the iron fork around, pricking the eggs in a circular motion, from the edge of the pan towards the centre. After half a minute of cooking, tilt the pan so that the omelette browns, for barely half a minute, towards the centre only.
Lift the pan with your left hand and give the tail a sharp blow with your right hand, to slide the omelette to that side. Fold the side of the omelette that has slipped towards the middle.
Give the tail a second blow to slide the omelette again. Fold the side opposite the tail over the side already folded. Slide the omelette onto a plate, turning it over, and serve.

53. Chicken in jelly.
A very fine chicken weighing about three pounds, 600 grams of beef shank or shank, 600 grams of veal shank, 100 grams of bacon rind, a calf's foot, six carrots, three onions, a bouquet garni, three deciliters of dry white wine, two liters of water, 20 grams of salt, two egg whites, a Madeira glass of Madeira wine, half a lemon.
Line the bottom of a saucepan with the rind, the fat touching the bottom. Cut the onions and carrots into rounds, spread them on the rind. Add the beef, veal and poultry giblets.
Cover and sweat over low heat for a quarter of an hour. Add the white wine, water and salt. Bring to the boil and skim.
Add the bouquet garni and the previously blanched calf's foot. Cover and simmer over low heat for six hours. Boiling should only occur at one point.
Strain the juice and clarify it by putting it in a saucepan with two egg whites and the shells, Madeira wine, peppercorns, the juice of half a lemon. Boil for five minutes and pass through a damp cloth. Roast the chicken and cut it up so as to separate the flesh from the bones. Remove the skin. Pour liquid jelly into a mold and mask the entire surface. To do this, work on ice. Arrange the chicken breasts at the bottom of the mold, then the other pieces, the nicest ones on the sides. Pour jelly over the pieces, so as to fill the mold, and put on ice.
Note. If the chicken is not tender, cook it at the same time as the beef and veal shank. Allow only an hour and a half of cooking and remove it to continue cooking the other meats.

THE FIREPLACE CRICKET.

A LITTLE OF EVERYTHING

Peel six oranges and put the zest in half a liter of good brandy. Let it infuse for fifteen days. After this time, add to this mixture two liters of white wine in which you have dissolved 500 grams of sugar. Filter and let it rest for a week. The wine gains with age…

In a liter of good white wine, put eighteen chamomile flowers and twenty pieces of sugar, let it infuse for a month and filter. Excellent after meals for lazy stomachs.

Make an ordinary tart crust, but salt it instead of sweetening it. Garnish this crust with rice previously cooked in water or lightly salted broth; Place a few pieces of butter on top and cover with a very thick and well-seasoned tomato sauce. Bake in the oven like a regular pie. Very nourishing.

Boil turnips with your potatoes, one turnip for two potatoes, and make your mash by crushing everything together with milk and butter. Put in the oven as usual, and you will see how tasty your mash will be.

Incorporate the egg yolks well with the sugar. Work this preparation for ten minutes; add a flavoring, according to taste; gradually add the flour and the egg whites beaten into snow. Mix and put in the oven in a pie dish. When the cake is golden brown on top, turn it over and brown the underside.

Boil eggs, split them in two, remove the yolk and crush very finely. On the other hand, boil watercress that you chop and mix with a mayonnaise sauce. Garnish your egg whites with this stuffing and sprinkle with the crushed yolks.

Hors d'oeuvres.
Boil eggs, split them in two, remove the yolks. Peel shrimp and garnish the whites that you arrange in a crown in a dish. Cover this dish with a mayonnaise sauce and sprinkle it with the egg yolks that you have crushed well. The shrimp can be replaced by anchovies or mussels.