Kitchen Matters

This section is edited by Mrs. Alis J. Ashqar

Madam — We are in strawberry season, and I have chosen for you two recipes for cooling sweets that you can try and profit by.

Strawberry Ice Cream: (enough for eight or ten persons)

Ingredients — Cups
Strawberries — 2
(measured after the strawberries have been washed and cleaned)
Sugar — 1
Cream — 1
Milk — 1
Lemon juice — 1 tablespoon

Mash the strawberries with the sugar, and add to them the lemon juice, the milk, and the cream, after whipping it a little.

Put this mixture in the refrigerator tray and lower the temperature. When it freezes, turn it out into a bowl and beat it well, either with an electric beater or with a hand beater, until the mixture becomes smooth and light. Return it quickly to the tray or the refrigerator drawers, and let the degree of chilling be moderate.

Strawberry Mousse (for ten persons)
Ingredients — Cups
Strawberries — 2
Sugar — 1
Cream — 2
Lemon juice — 2 tablespoons
The whites of two eggs

Wash and clean the strawberries and mash them with the sugar. Heat over a gentle fire until the sugar melts; strain it and place it in the refrigerator to set. Then add the lemon juice to this mixture, along with the whipped cream. Beat the egg whites until they are stiff, and fold them in, stirring gently. Put this mixture in the refrigerator tray or in cups and small molds. There is no need to beat them after they freeze.

These look lovely if you decorate them with cream and a single strawberry.

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And two ways of preparing chicken

1 – If you wish to serve the chicken cold and boiled, choose a white hen well along in years. After you have cleaned it thoroughly, put the water in the cooking pot together with a small peeled onion and the necessary salt and allspice. Lower the chicken into the water before it boils, and then leave it until it is done, taking care to remove the froth — "skimming the scum," as the common speech has it — whenever it appears.

As for how the cold chicken is served: each chicken is cut into eight pieces, with the skin and bone removed. We arrange them over finely chopped lettuce on the dish prepared for serving, then we garnish the rim of the dish with pieces of tomato, then cucumber or green olives, then pieces of hard-boiled egg. It is served with mustard sauce — "moutarde."

2 – If, Madam, you wish to serve the chicken hot, there are likewise several ways; we shall again content ourselves with mentioning one of them, namely:

Braised chicken: The chicken is browned in ghee (after being washed well, of course). We shall have washed and chopped a small quantity of vegetables, such as onion and carrot (some use celery); then we put them all on the fire, and after turning them a little we add the water, the salt, and the spices; the pot is covered and left over a gentle fire until it is done, taking care to add a little water whenever the need arises. The chicken is lifted out of the pot and the vegetables are strained to make a sauce.

Then the rice is cooked in the usual way and poured into the dish, its surface adorned with a mixture of almonds and pine nuts fried in ghee; the pieces of chicken are then ranged neatly around it. A little of the strained sauce is poured over the chicken, and the rest is served in its own sauce boat. This dish is eaten hot.