Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing-Dish Dainties Part 12

2 tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter.

1/3 a cup of flour.

Salt and paprica.

1 cup of milk.

Lobster coral.

1 tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter.

1 yolk of egg.

1 teaspoonful of lemon juice.

2 cups of lobster meat.

3 cups of aspic jelly.

_Method._--Make a white sauce of the b.u.t.ter, flour, seasonings and milk; add the coral and b.u.t.ter, after pounding until smooth in a mortar, also the yolk of egg, beaten and diluted with the lemon juice, and the lobster meat chopped rather coa.r.s.ely. When cold shape into cutlets, dust over with sifted coral, and insert a bit of feeler or claw into the small end of each. Pour a little aspic into a dish, and, when it sets, arrange the cutlets upon it a little distance apart; pour over each a few spoonfuls of aspic, and when set cover with more aspic. When cold and very firm cut out the cutlets, giving a border of aspic to each.

Marinate the flesh of the other lobster, cut into cubes, with French dressing; pile in a mound on a bed of lettuce leaves. Insert a tuft of leaves in the top, and arrange the cutlets against the mound. Garnish with feelers and claws. Serve mayonnaise or sauce tartare with the salad.

=Lobster Salad in Ring of Aspic.=

Set a ring mould in ice water. In the bottom of the mould arrange pitted olives or pim-olas an inch apart. Dip figures, cut from slices of royal custard, or from cooked carrot or turnip, into liquid aspic, and place them on the sides of the mould, to which they will adhere; dip large-sized capers (a larding-needle or skewer is of a.s.sistance in this work) in aspic and with them ornament the mould; then fill with aspic and set aside to become fixed. When ready to serve, dip the mould in hot water and invert on a serving-dish. Cut the meat from two two-pound lobsters into small cubes. Season with French dressing. Fill the open s.p.a.ce in the aspic with the salad; garnish the top with the feelers and delicate lettuce leaves, and arrange a wreath of lettuce leaves around the aspic. Stamp out rounds of bread; stamp again with the same cutter to form crescents, spread delicately with b.u.t.ter, and then with caviare seasoned with a few drops of lemon juice, and dispose symmetrically on the lettuce.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bluefish Salad.

(See page 75)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Litchi Nut and Orange Salad.

(See page 88)]

=Mousseline of Lobster as a Salad.=

Chill timbale moulds in ice water; dip thin slices of gherkins into half-set aspic, and arrange them symmetrically against the sides of the moulds, and brush over the decoration with aspic. Cut the claw meat of a two-pound lobster into small cubes; chop fine, and pound the remaining meat in a mortar; then add to it the liver and fat, and pa.s.s through a sieve. There should be about one cup. Simmer the sh.e.l.l in water to cover half an hour. Beat the yolks of three eggs, slightly, with one-fourth a teaspoonful of salt and a dash of paprica; add one cup of the lobster liquor very gradually, and cook over hot water as a boiled custard.

Remove from the fire and add one-fourth a package of gelatine, softened in one-fourth a cup of cold lobster liquor, or chicken stock; strain over the sifted lobster meat and stir occasionally over ice water; when it begins to set, add the lobster dice, and fold in carefully one cup of whipped cream. Turn the mixture into the decorated mould, and, when set, turn out on to lettuce leaves. Decorate with the head, feelers and claws of the lobster. Serve with French or mayonnaise dressing. French dressing is preferable with so rich a mixture.

=Anchovy Salad.=

INGREDIENTS.

8 salted anchovies, or 12 bottled anchovies.

4 hard-boiled eggs.

1 head of lettuce.

Juice of half a small lemon.

French or mayonnaise dressing, or Sauce tartare.

_Method._--If salt anchovies are to be used, soak them in cold water two hours, then drain, dry, and remove skin and bones; divide the flesh into small pieces and squeeze the lemon juice over them. When ready to serve, arrange the lettuce leaves upon a serving-dish, stalk ends at the centre, cut the eggs in slices, mix with the bits of anchovies, and arrange upon the lettuce. Pour a French or mayonnaise dressing made with onion juice, or a sauce tartare, over the salad.

=Salad of Lettuce, Bamboo Sprouts, and Shrimps.=

Marinate a cup of shrimps, broken in small pieces, with three tablespoonfuls of oil, one tablespoonful of lemon juice, a dash of salt and pepper. Select the tender bamboo sprouts in a can, and cut them into small pieces of the shape desired. When ready to serve, dress these with salt, pepper, oil, and lemon juice. Use three measures of oil to one of acid. Begin with the oil. Continue mixing and adding oil, until each piece is glossy. Then add the acid. Mix the prepared sprouts and the drained shrimps, and turn them onto a bed of lettuce, cut in narrow shreds, and dressed with oil and acid. Decorate the salad with heart leaves of lettuce, whole shrimps, and hollow sections of bamboo, cut in thin slices.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Moulded Salmon Salad.

(See page 75)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Salad of Shrimps and Bamboo Sprouts.]

=Bluefish Salad (excellent).=

Separate the remnants of a baked bluefish into flakes, discarding skin and bones. Set aside, covered, until cold. About an hour before serving, sprinkle with salt and pepper and (for a generous pint of fish) the juice of a lemon. When ready to serve, dispose heart leaves of lettuce on the edge of a salad plate, and turn the fish into the centre, letting it come out over the stems of the lettuce leaves. Pour a boiled dressing over the top, and spread evenly (with a silver knife) over the fish. Put a tablespoonful of chopped pickled beet at the stems of each group of leaves, a ring of the beet near the top, and figures, cut from the beet, between.

=Moulded Salmon Salad.=

Use a pound of salmon, fresh-cooked or canned. Remove skin and bone, and pick the flesh fine with a silver fork. Mix half a teaspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of sugar, a teaspoonful of flour, half a teaspoonful of mustard, and a dash of paprica. Over these pour very gradually three-fourths a cup of hot milk and stir and cook over hot water ten minutes, then add one-fourth a cup of hot vinegar and two tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter creamed and mixed with the beaten yolks of two eggs; stir until the egg is set, then add one level tablespoonful of granulated gelatine, softened in one-fourth a cup of cold water, and strain over the salmon; mix thoroughly, and turn into a mould. When chilled serve with Cream Salad Dressing (page 27), to which half a cuc.u.mber, chopped fine and drained, has been added. Reserve a part of the dressing, omitting the cuc.u.mber, and use with slices of cuc.u.mber as a garnish. To prepare the cuc.u.mber, pare with a handy slicer and cut from it a section three-fourths an inch thick; pare this round and round very thin and roll loosely to form a cup. Dispose this on the top of the fish and fill with dressing. (Use a pastry bag and tube.) Cut the rest of the cuc.u.mber in thin slices.

VARIOUS COMPOUND SALADS.

Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with its necessaries.--_Motley._

Three several salads have I sacrificed, bedew'd with precious oil and vinegar.--_Beaumont and Fletcher._

=Sweetbread-and-Cuc.u.mber Salad.=

Arrange the leaves of a head of cabbage lettuce loosely upon a serving-dish, without destroying its shape. Have ready a pair of sweetbreads cooked in salted, acidulated water twenty minutes, and cooled and cut in small cubes and marinated; also the same quant.i.ty of cuc.u.mber cut in dice, chilled in ice water and dried upon a cloth. Drain the French dressing from the sweetbread and scatter the bits of sweetbread and cuc.u.mber through the lettuce. Press three-fourths a cup of firm jelly mayonnaise through a pastry bag with small tube, in little stars, here and there, throughout the lettuce, and serve at once.

=Sweetbread-and-Cuc.u.mber Salad, No. 2.=

Cook, marinate and drain the sweetbreads as before; mix with an equal quant.i.ty of cuc.u.mber cut in dice, and then with cream dressing. Line the inner side of lettuce nests with slices of radish, one overlapping another (do not remove the pink skin from the radish). Put in a spoonful of the salad and garnish each nest with a small radish cut to resemble a flower.

=Chicken Salad.=

Use two parts of cold cooked chicken to one part of celery. Marinate and drain the chicken, add the celery, and mix with mayonnaise or boiled dressing. Arrange the salad in nests of lettuce leaves and put a pim-ola in the centre of each nest.

=Chicken Salad, No. 2.=

Prepare the salad as before; dispose in a mound on a bed of lettuce leaves and mask with mayonnaise. By the use of stoned olives, cut in halves, divide the surface into quarters. Fill two opposite sections with whites of eggs chopped fine, a third with capers or olives chopped fine, and the fourth with sifted yolks of eggs. Garnish with lettuce and curled celery.

=French Chicken Salad.=