The Rocky Mountain Cook Book : For High Altitude Cooking. Caroline Trask Norton
that has been prepared as for broiling on a thick hardwood board; hold it down with a few tacks. Season it with salt and pepper and cover with buttered crumbs. Shape hot mashed potato through a pastry bag and tube, in the form of roses around the fish, brush over with the yolk of egg that has been slightly beaten. Cook in a hot oven for twenty-five minutes.
CASSEROLE OF FISH.
Line a mould or baking dish with seasoned mashed potato, first buttering it well. Fill up the mould with any kind of highly seasoned creamed fish, or fish that has been mixed with tomato sauce. Cover the top over with an inch layer of mashed potato, brush over with a beaten yolk of egg. Bake in a hot oven for fifteen minutes.
CREAMED FISH SERVED IN MASHED POTATO CASE.
Line a baking dish with mashed potato. Cover with the beaten yolk of egg. Set in a hot oven to brown, then serve in it any kind of creamed fish. A good luncheon dish. Creamed meats are also good served in this way.
CREAMED SALT FISH.
Cook the salt fish in boiling water until tender, changing the water once. Pick in small pieces and mix with a white sauce. Serve on toast or on a platter garnished with broiled sweet or white potatoes.
SALT FISH BALLS.
1 cup raw salt fish.
2 cups potatoes.
1 egg.
Little pepper.
Pick the fish in small pieces, free from bones. Pare the potatoes, cut in quarters. Cook the potatoes and fish together in boiling water until tender. Drain off the water and mash until very light; add the pepper and when a little cool, the egg, well beaten. Drop from a tablespoon into smooking hot fat. Fry until brown. Cook only three or four at a time, as too many cool the fat. Drain on soft paper. Serve with a white sauce. It is better not to form the mixture into shapes, as it makes them heavy.
SALMON FISH BALLS.
Mix one-half cup of salmon with one cup of mashed potato. Season and add one egg. Shape in little flat cakes. Cover with melted butter and broil, or fry in salt pork fat. Brown on one side and then the other. The salt pork gives a very nice flavor.
PETITE FISH BALLS.
Shape any kind of fish ball mixture in balls the size of a good-sized marble. Fry in a basket in deep fat. Drain on soft paper. Serve with tartare, tomato or white sauce.
TIMBLE OF COOKED FISH.
One cup of chopped cooked fish. One tablespoonful of fine bread crumbs soaked for one-half hour in half cup of milk. One teaspoonful of grated onion. One whole egg and one yolk. Salt and pepper. Two tablespoonfuls of cream.
Mix all ingredients. Add eggs last well beaten. Turn in one large mold or in small ones. Cook in a pan of hot water until firm. Do not let water boil. Cook on top of stove or in the oven. Remove from mold and surround with white sauce. Pieces of asparagus tips may be added to the sauce.
SHELL FISH.
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OYSTERS RAW.
Oysters to be served raw should be very fresh, and should not be served at all from the first of May to September, as their flavor is not as good and they are not so healthful. For serving raw, the small oysters should be used. Look them over carefully to see that there are no pieces of shells. Leave them on the deep half of the shell and arrange regularly around the plate, giving six to each person. Have a little ice in the center of the plate, chipped fine. Place on the ice a little parsley or watercress and a quarter of a lemon on that. Serve with them paprica or tobasco sauce, horseradish, thin slices of brown bread buttered or crackers.
OYSTERS COOKED IN THE SHELL.
These are very delicious and should be served as soon as ready. They make a very palatable dish for Sunday night supper.
Wash the shells clean, put them in a pan with the round side down to hold the juice, and cook in a hot oven until the shells break open. Remove the upper shell. Season to taste when served.
Clams are delicious cooked in this way, in their own juices.
OYSTERS SERVED IN ICE.
Have fresh, small oysters that have been well picked over. Make a cavity in a smooth block of ice with a hot brick, or pail or can of hot water. Place the ice on a platter with colored tissue paper under it if you want the color effect. Surround it with parsley or watercress and quarters of lemon, then place in the oysters.
Oyster Cocktail is very nice served in this way.
Individual cakes of ice can be made in the same way.
FRIED OYSTERS.
Select large oysters for frying. Pick them over carefully to see that none of the shell adheres. Put them in a strainer and let the cold water run through them just to rinse them. Drain well, season finely rolled cracker crumbs with salt and pepper, dip the oysters in the crumbs, then into egg, which has just been beaten slightly, to mix it, and has two tablespoonfuls of water added to it, then into the crumbs again. Put five or six at a time in the frying basket and plunge in the smoking hot fat. Cook until a golden brown. These should not be fried until time to serve. Pickles, horseradish, chow-chow, tartare sauce or celery salad can be served with them, either as a garnish or separately. Fried oysters may be prepared some time before cooking.
BROILED OYSTERS.
Prepare the oysters as for fried. Dry them well. Dip them in melted butter, rub a fine wire broiler with butter or salt pork, place them on the broiler over hot coals and cook until the juice flows. Place them on rounds or squares of toast, three or four on each piece. Pour a little melted butter over them, season with pepper. Serve any kind of pickles with them.
OYSTER COCKTAIL.
1 pint of small oysters. cleaned and thoroughly chilled.
1 tablespoonful horseradish.
5 tablespoonfuls lemon Juice.
1 tablespoonful vinegar.
3 tablespoonfuls Worcestershire sauce.
3 tablespoonfuls catsup.
1 teaspoonful tobasco sauce.
1 teaspoonful salt, or more if needed.
Serve in cocktail glasses or in lemon cups, or tomato cups, on a bed of green, or cups shaped from tomato or celery jelly.
PANNED OYSTERS.
Put a tablespoonful of butter into a hot sauce pan, then add the oysters that have been well picked over and cleaned. Let them cook until the edges curl, then place them on pieces of toast or hot crackers that have been moistened with the liquor. Season with butter, salt and pepper.
CREAMED OYSTERS.
Cook one pint of oysters in their own liquor until plump and their edges curl. Drain off the liquor. Make a sauce by melting two tablespoonfuls of butter and stirring into it two tablespoonfuls of flour, one-fourth teaspoonful of salt (or more if needed), a little pepper or paprica. Stir slowly into this one-half cup of oyster liquor to one-half cup of cream or milk. Cook ten minutes and add the oysters. Let them reheat in the sauce for five minutes. Serve on toast or in patty shells, timbale cases or bread boxes.