Banquets of the nations

of finer semolina is thrown on, then a little more water as before, and more fine flour, the manipulator all the time rolling it over the bottom of the pan with the palms of the hands, so that each original grain grows into a minute ball the size of No. 4 shot. The whole is then sifted in a coarse sieve to remove the larger particles, which are rubbed in the hands to break them up, and put back into the pan to be worked with the hands as before, while fine flour is sifted on. When ready, the grains are placed in a steamer over water, and steamed till all are separate, which can be ascertained by inspection. Put some salt into the bottom half of the steamer with an ounce or two of butter ; add sliced onions, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, coriander, allspice, turmeric, and saffron; pound or grind the spices together. Chopped parsley, marjoram, and green coriander to be added if in season. Next put in two fowls, each cut into eight pieces, and a pound of lean mutton cut into inch squares, and fry altogether for three minutes, then add enough water to submerge the meats, etc. Cover close, and put on a slow fire, after stirring well. When the water boils away add more, hot or cold. When the meat is tender and the stew boils, place the top half of the steamer on with the kesksoo in it. See that all the steam passes through the grains by securing the joint with dough or a cloth. Steam until quite soft, and, when ready to serve heap up in a dish (makhfiyah), working in sufficient butter, fresh or preserved, or both, to cover each grain without causing them to stick together or leaving melted butter in the bottom of the dish. The making of a good dish of kesksoo is a dash of good old smeen, which may be prepared at home by keeping unsalted butter till it becomes rancid and then boiling it down. In a separate pot put in some sliced onions, and simmer in gravy from the stew with a little butter, spices, a little saffron, and some raisins. Broad beans, when fresh, to be added to the stew, or any vegetable except potato, though not in large quantities. When the heap is ready, place the meat from the stew in a depression in the centre, and pile on the big vegetables first, with the onions, raisins, etc., on top. It may then be sprinkled with cinnamon, if fancied. Another way to serve kesksoo is to work it up with fresh butter only, and cover the heap with a thick layer of powdered sugar, cinnamon being plentifully sprinkled over all. Sfinges. (Sponge Fritters.) Knead one pound of flour into a stiff dough for half an hour with warm water and one ounce of leaven, keeping on till it bubbles ; then commence to thin down by adding warm water in small quantities and kneading well till it is reduced to a thick paste sufficiently stiff to remain in a long thread from the finger to the trough when a piece is pulled up with the hand. Leave it to ferment for a quarter of an hour, or more if necessary, till bubbles rise freely. It is then ready to fry. Take hold of a piece in the hand, and break off a ball the size of a hen's egg. Pierce this with the forefingers and thumbs of each hand, and, drawing it out into a ring, drop it into boiling oil, turning it over when one side is browned.