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mushrooms, cleaned as above, heat about 1 oz. of butter in a frying-pan and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Slice the mushrooms fairly thin and cook them at a moderate pace for a minute before adding salt, pepper, a scrap of nutmeg and a tablespoon or so of finely chopped parsley and shallot. Shake the pan so that the mushrooms do not stick. Stir in 3 or 4 tablespoons of thick cream. It will thicken naturally: 5 minutes’ cooking altogether is enough—when people complain that cultivated mushrooms are insipid, it is nearly always because they have been overcooked.

The dish goes well with steak, veal and chicken; with little triangles of fried bread it makes a good dish on its own; to go with sausages and bacon it is better without the final addition of cream. Enough for two.

CHAMPIGNONS FINES HERBES

MUSHROOMS WITH HERBS AND BUTTER

Cut lb. of small mushrooms, already cleaned in the usual way, into quarters. Cook them in butter with a little scrap of garlic; salt, pepper and nutmeg. When the juice is running, after 5 or 6 minutes’ cooking, take the pan from the fire and add about 1 oz. of parsley butter (page 116) to which you have added, if possible, a little chopped tarragon. Shake the pan over the flame but not directly on it, so that the butter spreads, melts and forms a little sauce without actually cooking.

A good vegetable to go with a steak or to serve by itself. Enough for two.

CHAMPIGNONS À LA BORDELAISE

MUSHROOMS STEWED IN OIL WITH PARSLEY AND GARLIC

The large flat mushrooms or the shaggy brown ones or, of course, the now rare field mushrooms, are best for this method.

Having cleaned and sliced them as usual, pour a little oil over them, with salt and pepper. Leave them to marinate for an hour or so. Drain them; sauté them in fresh oil in a small heavy pan. The preliminary marinading will prevent the mushrooms from catching on the bottom of the pan, which ordinarily they are apt to do in the first few moments of cooking, before they start giving out moisture. After 5 minutes’ gentle cooking, add, for lb. of mushrooms, 2 tablespoons of parsley chopped with a little garlic, or shallot if you prefer it, and 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs. When this mixture has absorbed the oil in the pan, the mushrooms are ready to serve. Enough for two.

LES CHANTERELLES

These lovely apricot-coloured fungi rarely reach the shops or markets in England as they do in France (where they are also called girolles) and, indeed, all over the Continent, but they grow quite commonly in the British Isles.

To prepare chanterelles for cooking, cut off and discard the muddy ends of the stalks and wash the chanterelles very thoroughly in plenty of cold running water, and then examine them carefully to see that there are no little pockets of grit left. If the chanterelles are large, slice them lengthways into strips. Cook them in a mixture of butter and oil, with a little salt, in a covered frying-pan for about 10 minutes, and then add either a sprinkling of parsley chopped with, if you like, a little piece of garlic, or else some thick fresh cream; in this case, shake the pan over the flame until the cream thickens.

CHANTERELLES MAÎTRE D’HÔTEL

CHANTERELLES WITH PARSLEY BUTTER

Cook the washed and sliced chanterelles in butter in a covered frying-pan, then add salt and a very little pepper. When they are tender, add a lump of parsley butter cut into little pieces and, if possible, a tablespoon or two of good clear chicken or veal stock. Shake the pan until the butter has melted and, with the stock, formed a little sauce. This is, perhaps, the best way of serving chanterelles.

CHOU FARÇI AUX MARRONS

CABBAGE STUFFED WITH CHESTNUTS

A warming winter dish of Alsatian origin.

The ingredients are a white cabbage, lb. of chestnuts, 6 oz. of salt pork or bacon bought in the piece, to pint of clear stock.

Blanch the cabbage in boiling salted water for 10 minutes, and drain it carefully. Shell and skin the chestnuts as described on page 263 ( lb. looks rather a small amount but they swell a good deal in the cooking)