Crème Frite aux Raisins Flambée
To make the sauce, drain the juice from 2 cans of white grapes. Put the grapes in the top of a doe boiler or a chafing dish over hot water. Cook the juice in a saucepan until it is reduced to half its original quantity. Add an equal amount of apricot sauce (page 60). If the sauce is thin, the mixture may be thickened just a little with arrowroot mixed with a very little cold water. When this is added, boil the sauce for a minute or two longer. Add 2 ounces of prunelle liqueur, pour the sauce over the grapes in the chafing dish, and keep hot until ready to serve, Just before serving, heat 4 ounces of kirsch and pour it over the grapes. Ignite the sauce and serve it flaming with:
Crème Frite (Fried Cream)
Mix together 4 tablespoons sugar, 5 tablespoons flour, and a pinch of salt. Add 1 egg and 1 egg yolk, mixing thoroughly. Then add a second egg and egg yolk, mixing thoroughly, and finally a third egg and a yolk. The mixture should be worked with a spoon until well combined and very smooth.
Meanwhile, scald 2 cups milk with a piece of vanilla bean (see November, 1951). Remove the bean and pour the hot milk slowly into the egg mixture, stirring briskly with a wire whip. Add 1 tablespoon butter and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring vigorously all the time. Pour the cream into a buttered shallow pan in a layer ¾ inch thick. Chill thoroughly.
Turn the pan upside down on a lightly floured board and turn out the thickened cream. Cut it in 1 ½-inch squares or other decorative shapes. Dust each piece with Hour and dip it in beaten egg and then in fine fresh bread crumbs. Fry the squares in deep hot far or oil (370° F.) until golden-brown. Drain thoroughly on absorbent paper and serve hot, with the flaming grape sauce poured over them.
I taught many young Britons the tricks of my chef's trade (not the trick 1 taught my friend Robert Tudge, however! ) but I also learned much from them during the years I was at the London Ritz. Not the least of my debt to England is the plum pudding. In my early years in New York we made a thousand pounds of plum pudding every season. They were served in the dining room during the holidays, of course, and many were purchased by guests to send as Christmas gifts. Then, too, every chef received a Christmas gift of a turkey, a bottle of liquor, and a plum pudding—and in those days there were about one hundred chefs. Plum puddings like this oneazed on Christmas dinner tes in this country for many years, and for many more years in England It may be made many weeks before it is needed and stored in a cool, dry place. To reheat it, put the bowl in a kettle, add water to the halfway mark, and bring the water to a boil. Cook for an hour or so to heat it thoroughly.
Christmas Plum Pudding
Mix together 2 cups finely chopped beef kidney suet, 5 ounces each of Malaga raisins, sultana raisins, and currants, 3 ounces of finely chopped mixed lemon peel and citron, 2 ounces of chopped, blanched almonds, ¾ cup each of fine dry bread crumbs and flour, 1 teaspoon mixed ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace with a very little clove, 3 eggs, beaten, 1 cup brown sugar, and ½ teaspoon salt. Add the grated rind and juice of 1 lemon. Mix all together well and moisten with 6 ounces each of ale and stout and 3 ounces each of rum and brandy.
Fill a well-buttered bowl three fourths full and tie a heavy muslin cloth securely over the top. Place the bowl on a rack in a large kettle with boiling water about halfway to the top of the bowl. The water should not be high enough to boil over and into the bowl. Or pur the bowl in a steamer. Cook for 3 hours. Cool the pudding before storing it.
When ready to serve, reheat the plum pudding in the kettle of water or steamer for about 1 hour. Remove the muslin from the top, invert the pudding on a serving dish, and sprinkle it with sugar. Then pour 2 or 3 ounces of warm rum or brandy over it and ignite. Serve flaming, with sabayon, vanilla, or hard sauce (see below). This pudding will serve twelve, but it may also be cooked in smaller bowls.
The favorite sauces for the entremets chauds are the versatile fruit sauces, vanilla sauce, hard sauce, and sauce sabayon (see below).
Fruit Sauce
Add a little lemon juice to 2 cups of any fruit juice and stir in sugar to taste. Bring the juice to a boil, stir in 2 tea-spoons cornstarch mixed with a little cold fruit juice, and cook, stirring, until the sauce is clear and thickened.
Apricot Sauce
Wash ½ pound of dried apricots, cover them with 2 cups water, and soak for several hours. Bring to a boil and simmer until the apricots are soft. Rub the fruit and water together through a sieve and add ½ cup sugar to the puree. Cook until the sugar is dissolved. stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Thin to the desired consistency with hot water.
Vanilla Sauce
Scald 1 cup each milk and cream with a 1-inch piece of vanilla bean or add ½ teaspoon vanilla extract. Beat 4 egg yolks with ½ cup sugar and combine with the hot milk and cream, stirring with a whisk. Cook in the top of a doe boiler, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and coats the spoon. Strain through a fine sieve and let it cool. For a thicker saute, add 1 teaspoon flour to the egg-yolk mixture. For a lighter, richer sauce, add ½ tup cream, whipped.
Hard Sauce
Cream ½ cup sweet butter until light. Gradually beat in 1 ½ cups confectioners' sugar and 2 tablespoons brandy, rum, or liqueur. Chill before serving.
Sauce Sabayon
Whip 2/5 cup sugar with 4 egg yolks until very light in color and stir in 1 cup white wine. Place this in the top of a doe boiler over cold water and cook, stirring constantly, just until the water in the bottom reaches the boiling point. The mixture should be very creamy. Add a little rum or kirsch to taste. Serve hot. Port, Madeira, or Marsala may be used instead of white wine.
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