Fricassee of Rabbit. Boil a fine wild rabbit in a quart of stock or water, with a quarter of a pound of streaked bacon, two onions, a sprig of thyme and marjoram, a pinch of salt and pepper. When tender, take out the rabbit and bacon, cut up the former into neat joints, reserve all the best for the fricassee, put back the head, neck, and all unsightly pieces into the liquor, let it boil until reduced to a pint, then strain it off and take off every particle of fat. When this is done, again allow the gravy to reduce to half a pint, then put in the joints of rabbit, with a sprig of parsley, thyme, and marjoram, and let it simmer for half an hour; take or strain out the herbs, add a pinch of grated nutmeg and lemon peel, and thicken the gravy, either with a cupful of cream or milk with a dessertspoonful of corn flour; if milk is used, stir in an ounce of fresh butter. Cut up the bacon boiled with the rabbit into very thin neat slices, let it get hot in the fricassee without boiling, arrange neatly on the dish, and serve with the rabbit. Alexandra Lemon Pudding. Brush over a pint pudding-basin or mould with dissolved butter, and line it with the crumb of a French roll, cut into thin slices, and thickly spread with lemon paste (see page 27). Make a liquid custard of half a pint of new milk and two eggs, sweeten, and grate a little lemon peel into it, fill up the basin with it, and place a layer of roll on the top, cover with a paper cap, and set it in a. stewpan with sufficient boiling water to reach halfway up the basin. Let it stand closely covered at a heat just below boiling point for an hour. The excellence of the pudding depends very much on the care with which this direction is observed. If the pudding be allowed to boil, the custard will mix with the bread and it will be tough, if, on the contrary, the water be not kept just below boiling point, the custard will not set and the pudding will be watery. If preferred, sponge finger biscuits, two ounces, may be substituted for bread, but when they are used only one egg is required for the custard. When the pudding is turned out of the mould, pour the following sauce round the base :-A teaspoonful of cornflour, one of flour; mix with a tablespoonful of cold water. Dissolve about six lumps of sugar in a quarter of a pint of boiling water, and pour over the flour. Let it just boil, then stir in a small pat of butter, a few drops of lemon flavouring, and the juice of half a lemon. If lemons are scarce a pinch of citric acid may be substituted. Castle Cream. Make half a pint of milk or cream into custard, with the yolks of two or three eggs, in the same manner as for strawberry soufflé, sweeten and flavour with brandy or curaçoa and a little lemon peel. Soak a quarter of an ounce of gelatine in three tablespoonfuls of milk, let it boil until dissolved in the vessel in which the custard was made, and when both are nearly cold mix well together. Have ready two ounces of dried glacé cherries and any other nice dried fruit you may have cut small, an ounce of ratifias and a sponge cake cut into squares, all soaked in brandy or curaçoa, the fruit for an hour or two, the cakes for a few minutes. Arrange some of the cherries at the bottom of a pretty mould, then put a little custard, then cakes, cherries, &c., and so repeat until the mould is full. This must be made the day before it is wanted. It is a delicious sweet, and very easily turned out of the mould. When on its dish, pour round the base a little fruitsyrup; cherry or raspberry is best, but if you have none, dissolve a little currant-jelly in an equal quantity of water. This cream is very delicious flavoured with vanilla, but when used the fruit and cakes must be soaked in cherry-brandy or brandy, not curaçoa. |