For a little home dinner.

Consomme aux ocufs poches.

Pomfrct au puree de grandes crevettes.

Filet de boeuf an puree d'oscille.

Pommes de terrc a I'Americaine.

Canard sauvage.

Charlotte de pommes.

Fromage, hors d'oeuvres.

Dessert.

1. - This is a very simple method of turning an ordinary-clear gravy soup into a recherche pot-age. The eggs (one for each person) must however be carefully poached, neither too lightly nor too hard, then trimmed neatly leaving as little margin of white as possible, and served with the soup. A few leaves of dried tarragon flavour the consomme very pleasantly, and grated Parmesan should be handed round on a separate plate. If you have no tarragon leaves, try a little of the vinegar.

Note this: - In order to make sure of not breaking the eggs in the tureen, - order your butler to heat the soup plates and place the poached eggs in them, before he serves the soup : he can then pour the soup over the eggs, instead of having to ladle them out of the soup, which is always an operation requiring much delicacy of touch, and a broken egg spoils the appearance of the consomme.

Clear soup with poached eggs.

2. - Boil the pomfret. The prawn sauce that I recommend is not the ordinary one composed of melted butter (sauce blanche) and lumps of prawn mixed with it. The composition I think very much nicer is a creamy puree of the shell-fish, a little thicker than ordinary mayonnaise sauce, made thus: - A dozen fair sized prawns, boiled, and cleaned, pounded to a paste in a mortar, flavoured with an anchovy, a little spice, pepper, and salt, and then worked with melted butter, flour, and a little broth, to the consistency I have mentioned. It should be served as hot as possible.

3. - I would stew the steak with a few nice vegetables, and dress the sorrel independently. Before you proceed to cook the steak, make some gravy with scraps and trimmings: it would be as well indeed to order a little extra meat for that purpose, when you have got this to your mind, strain it off and keep it handy. Now take a frying-pan, melt a piece of butter at the bottom of it, and shred an onion therein; lay the steak upon it, and turn it about until it is well browned on both sides; now lift it up and place it in your stew-pan, with the gravy and vegetables', to simmer gently till done, which you can test with a fork. It ought to be as tender as possible if you are only careful enough to prevent galloping, that is, fast cooking: the slow simmering process is the thing needful. The vegetables cooked with the steak may be strained from the gravy, and cut up into neat dice, to garnish the top of the steak: the gravy must be saved for the sorrel which you must cook as follows: -

Put two good handfuls of carefully picked sorrel in plenty of boiling water, with a little salt, and a pinch of soda, blanch for five minutes, drain, and chop the leaves small on a board. Melt two ounces of butter in a saucepan to which add a little flour, 'the sorrel, a tea-spoonful of sugar, and the steak gravy stirring vigorously to prevent the leaves catching at the bottom of the pan: - When the gravy and butter are thoroughly well absorbed, turn the sorrel out, stir in the yolks of three eggs beaten up in a little milk, and pour the puree round the steak, which should have been kept hot whilst the last stage was completed. The sorrel should, of course, be got ready beforehand.

Pomfret with prawn puree.

Beef steak with sorrel puree.

4. - This way of cooking potatoes will be found at page 132: - Boil the potatoes till nearly clone : slice them in thick slices, and heat them, a la fricassee, in nice white sauce made with milk previously flavoured with onion, spice, pepper and salt. The yolk of an egg, a large spoonful of curly parsley minced fine, and a pat of butter tho size of a rupee, should bestirred into the sauce-pan, off the fire, before serving. A few drops of lime juice are an improvement, and to those who think that they might not like the onion-flavoured milk, that of pounded almonds may be more pleasing.

5. - Order the duck to be roasted - not baked in the chatty oven, (which Ramasamy will certainly do if you do not take steps to prevent the sacrilege) and let it be nice and juicy, not dried up by over-dressing. I have known an ignorant Ramasamy stuff a wild duck like a tame-one ! need I do more than warn you that this is erroneous ? Having served the bird with all the gravy that was caught during the roasting on a very hot dish, what must we do for a sauce on the spot? This will be found a good one: -Score the breast of the bird in the direction you intend to slice it, and let the gravy run out bountifully; to that add a table-spoonful of port, burgundy, or fruity Madeira, (the first if possible) give that a dessert-spoonful of lime-juice and six drops of "tabasco" or a tea-spoonful of chilli vinegar; stir the gravy round with a spoon, and baste the breast of the duck liberally with it, then go on with your carving. If you have a little sauce-boat on a spirit lamp by your side (a beautiful modern invention) the gravy can be heated therein, on the spot admirably.

Potatoes in an American fashion.

Wild duck.

6. - An apple charlotte (practicable also with plantains) should be made in this easy way. Butter a small but deep pie-dish or plain mould : cut a thin piece of bread (to form the top of the charlotte) the size and shape of the top of the mould, butter it on both sides, and put it into the mould; now line the side of the mould with moderately thin strips of bread and butter, buttered on both sides: that is to say, cover both the inverted top and sides of the mould, making a case of bread and butter as it were. Within the case place layers of apples cut small, (or sliced ripe plantains) with apricot jam spread between each layer, some lime juice sprinkled over them all, and a good allowance of white sugar : when packed, cover the bottom of the mould with slices of bread and butter, the same as that used for the top and sides, and bake till the bread browns nicely. Use plenty of good butter please, and you will find this a simple but pleasant sweet dish: a sprinkling of any liqueur would, of course, add to the nice flavour of the fruit. Turn it out very carefully, and let cold custards accompany the charlotte.

Florican roti.

On account of its rarity in the Madras market, I have accidentally forgotten to include this, - the prince of game birds in Southern India, - among the various rots I have suggested in the menus. It should be treated like a pheasant. Pick, draw, singe, and truss the florican placing a Bombay onion, rolled in fat boiled bacon, inside its carcass. Tie a thin slice of bacon over the breast, and roast the bird over a moderate fire, basting it frequently with melted butter. A few minutes before the floriean is done, remove the slice of bacon, so as to let the breast take colour. Serve with plain gravy, fried crumbs, and bread sauce. Time, about thirty minutes. Proceed in the same way if you happen to have a wild pea-chick, a young jungle fowl, or a spur fowl.

Apple Charlotte.

Roast florican.

A most appropriate accompaniment to roast florican roast pheasant, guinea fowl, etc., are: -

Croustades de truffles a l'Espagnole-

Line as many little open tartlet pans as you have guests with some carefully made short-bread paste. An oval not much larger than the bowl of a table spoon is the shape best suited to the purpose. Butter them well first to keep them from burning, and preserve their hollow centres while baking them by a piece of stale bread, to be removed afterwards. Cut up some truffles in dice, using enough to yield a good dessert-spoonful per head. Warm the mince up gently in some rich Espagnole sauce flavoured with a dash of Madeira, and keep it en bain-marie. When wanted, fill the crisp Groustades with a spoonful each of the truffles and sauce, dish them en serviette, and send them round with the bird. Croustades de champignons, made in the same way but substituting mushrooms for truffles, may be served with roast game very effectively.