Cauliflower Soup, without Meat.
1 fine cauliflower; 2 tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in 1 of flour; 1 onion; bunch of parsley; 2 blades of mace; 2 quarts of water; 2 cups of milk; pepper and salt; a pinch of soda in the milk.
Cut the cauliflower into bunches, reserving about a cupful of small clusters to put whole into the soup. Chop the rest, also the onion and herbs, and put on in the water, with the mace. Cook an hour, and rub through a colander. Return the purée, thus obtained, to the pot, and season with pepper and salt. As it boils, stir in the whole clusters, previously boiled tender in hot, salted water, and left to cool. When the soup is again hot, put in the floured butter; stir until this has thickened; pour into the tureen, and add the boiling milk. Pass sliced lemon and cream crackers with it.
Fillets of Halibut, with Potatoes.
3 lbs. of halibut, cut into strips three inches long, one wide, and three-quarters of an inch thick; 3 tablespoonfuls of butter; pepper; salt; 1 teaspoonful of anchovy paste; a pinch of cayenne; a little boiling water; juice of a lemon.
Lay the slices of fish in salt and water for half an hour. Wipe them dry. Have ready the butter in a saucepan, with pepper and salt. When it is hot, put in the pieces of fish, and cook gently, without browning, until tender.
Meanwhile, cut some potatoes round with your “gouge,” or, if you have none, into neat squares; parboil and drain them, and simmer ten minutes in enough hot milk to cover them; then stir in a lump of butter; season with pepper and salt. Cook five minutes; drain the liquid into another saucepan, and keep the potatoes hot. Lay the fish in order upon a hot dish, the potatoes around it, and set over hot water, while you thicken the milk in which the potatoes were boiled (never omitting the pinch of soda), with a little flour. Boil up, add the butter used for cooking the fish, and the anchovy sauce. Squeeze a small lemon over the fish, and pour on the hot sauce.
Beef’s Tongue with Green Peas.
Parboil a corned tongue. Take it from the water, trim off the root and pare away the skin. Put into a broad saucepan with a cup of yesterday’s soup, half a minced onion, a teaspoonful of sugar, a little parsley and pepper. Cover, and cook slowly one hour, or until tender. Slice round, and lay upon a hot dish. Heap each slice with a great spoonful of green peas boiled in hot salted water, drained well, and seasoned with butter, salt, and pepper. Strain the gravy, add a little of the water in which the tongue was boiled, a small spoonful of made mustard—French mustard if you have it—the juice of half a lemon, and thicken with browned flour. Boil up and serve in a boat.
Green Corn Pudding.
See Friday of First Week in August.
Raw Cucumbers.
Pare, lay in ice-water one hour; slice, and pile upon pounded ice in a glass dish, passing the condiments with them.
Melons, Peaches, and Pears.
Serve the melons upon flat dishes; the peaches and pears in fruit-salvers or in fancy baskets, with green leaves and flowers disposed tastefully among them. All would be the more refreshing for having lain in the ice-box or refrigerator awhile.