BEANS (FRENCH) WITH EGG FRITTERS
One pound French beans (preferably the stringless variety), 2 ozs. butter, 1 tablespoonful minced parsley, a few leaves of tarragon (minced), ¹⁄₂ teaspoonful finely-minced shallot, 1 tablespoonful lemon-juice, salt, pepper, nutmeg, castor sugar, eggs, frying batter.
Method.—Boil the French beans, leaving them whole; if neither stringless nor sufficiently young for the strings not to be noticeable, remove the latter and cut the beans into large diamond-shaped pieces. Directly they are tender drain them thoroughly, finishing them on a soft cloth, and put them into a hot dish; have rather more than one and a half ounces of the butter hot in a saucepan, with a tablespoonful of parsley, the shallot, tarragon, lemon-juice, and seasoning; pour the mixture over the beans and serve them accompanied by egg fritters made thus: Butter as many china egg-poachers as are required and scatter over them a little chopped parsley, salt, and pepper, then carefully break an egg into each and poach them until firm in a sauté (or other suitable) pan, containing sufficient boiling water to rather more than half cover the china cases. When the eggs are ready, put them aside to get cold, then turn them from the cases, dip them into a thick batter, and fry in deep, boiling fat until the fritters are a golden colour; dish them neatly and garnish with watercress.