Required: About two pounds of fillet of beef. A little glaze. One ounce of butter. Croutes of bread. Two bananas. One egg. A few breadcrumbs. Half a gill of Bearnaise or white sauce. A gill of Espagnole or brown sauce.

Cut the beef into neat rounds the size of the top of a claret-glass. The best way is to place a cutter of this size on the meat and then cut round it with a knife.

The fillets will then be all of one shape and size. Brush each over with a little melted butter, and grill them over a clear, sharp fire for about eight to ten minutes. They should be slightly underdone.

Have the pan of frying-fat on the fire. Stamp out some neat rounds of bread, one for each fillet, they should be about an eighth of an inch thick. Peel the bananas, cut each through lengthways, then divide each half in two or three pieces. Sprinkle each piece with a few drops of lemon-juice. Beat up the egg, brush the pieces of banana with some of it, and cover them with crumbs.

When a bluish smoke rises from the frying-fat, put in the bananas and fry them a golden brown; then fry the rounds of bread also. Drain all on kitchen paper. Put the rounds of fried bread in a circle on a hot dish, place a fillet of beef on each. Make the Bearnaise and brown sauces hot, put a small spoonful of the former on each fillet, on this put a few drops of brown sauce, pour the rest of the latter round the dish, and arrange the fried banana in the centre of the fillets.

Fried smelts A. Ullvett

N.B. - This dish need not be at all extravagant, for the cuttings from the fillets can be used for rissoles, scallops, patties, etc.