Boston Cooking-School cook book

ly teaspoon paprika Cook onion in butter until yellow. Add flour. Pour on tomato gradually. Add 1 tablespoon sherry to liver and add to sauce with salt and paprika. Add lobster meat. Heat and add remaining sherry. Serves 4 to 6. LIVE LOBSTER EN BROCHETTE Split a live lobster, remove meat from tail and large claws, cut in pieces, and arrange on skewers, alternating pieces with small slices of bacon. Fry in deep fat and drain. Cook liver of lobster with 1 tablespoon butter 3 minutes, season highly with mustard and cayenne, and serve with lobster. Serves 2 to 4. LOBSTER A LA MUISSET 2 live lobsters (1½ pounds each) 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon finely chopped 14 cups’ Brown Stock shallot (p. 144) 3 tablespoons chopped carrot ‘24 cup stewed and strained 6 tablespoons butter tomatoes 2 sprigs thyme 3 tablespoons cooking sherry Vy bay leaf Finely chopped chives 2 red peppers from pepper sauce Cut lobsters in pieces for serving, remove intestinal vein and lady, and crack large claws. Cook shallot and carrot in 2 tablespoons butter 10 minutes, stirring constantly that carrots may not burn. Add thyme, bay leaf, peppers, salt, stock, tomatoes, and sherry. Add lobster. Cook 15 minutes. Remove lobster to serving dish. Thicken sauce with flour and remaining butter cooked together. Pour sauce over lobster and sprinkle with finely chopped chives. OYSTERS Oysters are obtainable all the year, but are in season from September to May. During the summer months they are flabby and of poor flavor, although when fresh they are perfectly wholesome. Mussels, eaten in England and other parts of Europe, are similar to oysters, though of inferior quality. To Open Oysters. Put a thin flat knife under the back end of the right valve and push forward until it cuts the strong muscle which holds the shells together. As soon as this is done, the right valve may be raised and separated from the left. To Clean Oysters. Put oysters in a strainer placed over a bowl. Pour over oysters cold water, allowing 14 cup water to each quart oysters. This is to loosen bits of shell. Carefully pick over oysters, taking each one separately in the fingers, to remove any particles of shell which adhere to tough muscle. Water used in cleaning may be used in place of or with oyster liquor. To Parboil Oysters. Put cleaned oysters in saucepan with water and liquor drained from them. Heat and cook only until oysters are plump and edges begin to curl. Drain and add water, if necessary, to make up amount of oyster liquor called for in recipe. Strain through cheesecloth to remove scum. OYSTER STEW (p. 160) ROASTED OYSTERS Oysters for roasting should be bought in the shell. Wash thoroughly, scrubbing with a brush. Put in dripping pan, deep side of shell down, and cook in hot oven until shells part. Open, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve in deep halves of the shells. OYSTERS, CASINO Open oysters carefully to retain juice. Remove upper shell, leaving oysters in deeper half. Sprinkle each with few drops of lemon juice and a bit of finely minced green pepper. Season with salt and pepper and on each put a half-inch square of bacon or 3 small bits. Set in pan of coarse salt and bake in hot oven (450° F.) or under broiler until bacon crisps. BROILED OR SAUTEED OYSTERS 1 pint selected oysters V4 cup melted butter 24 cup seasoned cracker crumbs Clean oysters and dry between towels. Lift with silver fork by the tough muscle and dip in butter, then in cracker crumbs which have been seasoned with salt and pepper. Place in buttered wire broiler and broil until juices flow, turning while broiling. Or, put 2 tablespoons butter in hot frying pan, add oysters, brown on 1 side, then turn and brown on the other. Serve with Maitre d’Hotel Butter (p. 204), if desired. Serves 4. OYSTERS WITH BACON