A guide to modern cookery

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 CREME 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’EGYPTIENNE 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 This done, chop up the withdrawn pulp; add thereto a little chopped onion cooked in oil, and the same quantity of very lean, chopped, and cooked mutton as there is egg-plant pulp.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 PROVENCALE 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 SOUFFLEES 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.