66 MORE POT-POURRI 



receipts are very inadequate, and depend almost entirely 

 for success on cooking the fish the very moment it is 

 taken out of the water. In France, fish that cannot be 

 cooked immediately is always marinaded. (See 'Dainty 

 Dishes.') Mrs. Roundell entirely does away with the 

 terrible superstition that has always haunted my imagi- 

 nation as a fact, that eels have to be skinned alive as 

 lobsters are boiled alive. She is silent on the subject of 

 lobsters, but with regard to eels she distinctly says : 

 'Kill them first, and skin them afterwards.' 



Endive (French receipt). Boil the leaves in lots 

 of salt and water, just as if you were doing spinach or 

 cabbage. When tender, pour the whole thing on to a 

 large sieve, and as soon as the hot water has drained 

 away put the sieve under a tap and let cold water run 

 en it for some minutes. This applies to the boiling of 

 all green vegetables cabbages, sorrel, cauliflowers, 

 cos -lettuce, cabbage -lettuce, etc. After the cold water, 

 put the endive on a chopping -board, or, if required to 

 be quite smooth as a purte, rub it through a fine hair 

 sieve. In both these cases return it to the fire, after 

 having first put, in a china saucepan, a pat of butter to 

 dissolve with one spoonful of fine flour. Do not put the 

 vegetable in before the butter and flour are well amalga- 

 mated. When this is achieved, stir the vegetable well 

 up with the butter and flour, and let it simmer for 

 another fifteen minutes. Add a little cream or milk 

 quite at the last moment, just to make it soft and pretty. 

 It must not be thicker than a thin purfo. 



Endive (in the German way). Cut up the endive 

 quite coarsely, wash it in lots of cold water, and throw 

 it, very wet, into an earthenware pot in which a large 

 piece of butter has been dissolved; no salt nor anything 

 else. Put the lid on, and simmer gently for three or four 

 hours. Add salt the last minute, and no flour at all. 



