COOKING HINTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 248, 18 October 1924, Page 22

COOKING HINTS.

Bread Soup. Cut into squares half a pound of bread, colour them a light brown in a frying pan with an ounce of butter, I moisten with three pints of water, add !a pinch of salt. Let it boil 30 minutes, j Beat the soup with an egg whisk to reduce the brrad to a puree, add the I yolks of two eggs and a glass of milk, ! a pincli of nutmeg, and one ounce of fresh butter. ileiit well and keep hot, ihut not boiling, and stir till quite smooth. Apricot Rice. One small tin apricots, half-tin lemon 'jelly, or two leaves of gelatine and a jfew drops of lemon juice, one dessertspoonful white susar, one cup rice, halfjpint milk, half-gill cream. Put the I apricots in a stewpan, and add the sugar. |Btir until hot through. Remove and ipass through n hair sieve. Put the ■ rice to boil in the milk, with enough water added to cover it by one inch. I Boil until very Boft. Drain'well. Melt the jelly or gelatine in a little of tho apricot juice, brought to boiling point. I When quite liquid, stir into the apricot pulp. Adil the few drops of lemon, and stir all into the rife. Ilea]) in a plate, and allow to become cold before serving. Just before dishing up, whip half-gill cream with the white of one egg. and I three drops vanilla essence. When ! fairly stiff, add one toaspoonful caster sugar. Pile on the top of the apricot rice, and decorate with small pieces of sliced apri-ot. This sweet, can be made of any tinned or fresh fruit, and is exceptional);. , good if made of pineapple. Rhubarb Sponge. Two poilii'ls rhubarb, half-pound sugar, I a little water, gelatine, carmine, and I four whites of eg:;*. Wash the rhubarb, 1 but do not peel it. Put it into a saucepan with just enough water to moisten jit. Stew until tender, and then drain on a sieve, pressing out the juice. Measure the juice, and allow gelatine in the proportion of one and a-quarter ounces to the pint. Add the sugar to the juice, and leave it to melt. Dissolve the gelatine in a small saucepan I with a vrry little water, and strain it I into the rhubarb juice. Leave to cool. Then beat up the whites of eggs in a basin. When stiff, add the rhubarb mixture gradually, and continue beating until all is light' and fluffy. Add a few drops of carmine to make the sponge a pretty pink colour, and serve in a glass or oliina bowl, or piled up in a dish, fiarnish with ratafias or other small fancy biscuits. French Dish. Two carrots, two turnips, two parsnips, one tin or bottle of green peas, two onions, one sour apple, quarterpound good dripping, half-pint good gravy, salt, pepper. Dice all the roots and the apple, making them just the size of the peas. They take ages to do, and may very well be got ready the day before. In the early afternoon, melt the butter in a stewpan, and fry all these little dice lightly in it. Add gravy, salt, and pepper. Cover the pan, and stew gently two hours. Add the peas, well drained, and a lump of sugar. Stew again till service time comes. Spinach in Brown Butter. Prepare about two pounds of fresh spinach. Boil in a largo saucepan halffull of water, to which has been added a good pinch of salt and a. tiny piece of washing soda. Boil with the lid off, drain, and pour over it a little cold water. Press well to extract all the moisture, chop finely. Put a quarterpound of butter into a frying pan, let it get. hot (hut not very brown), add the chopped spinach. Stir all together briskly, add a little salt, and a pinch of nutmeg if desired. Serve very hot. To Use Fish. 1 Fish pio a la Russe is very tasty, and makes a good luncheon or supper dish. For a pie to serve four or five persons, the following ingredients will be required: lib cooked fish, two cup fills boiled rice, half-pint white sauce, two hard-cooked eggs, seasoning and flavouring. Remove all skin and bone from the fish, and break it into flakes. Make a good white sauce, flavour it with chopped capers, and a little anchovy essence, and season rather highly with pepper and salt. Cut the eggs in slices, and have the rice well boiled and dry, as for curry. Then grease a piedish or fireproof dish, and put in first a layer of fish, then some rice, and moisten with the sauce. Lay some of the sliced, pgg on the top, and repeat these layers until all the ingredients aro used. Sprinkle the top with a few breadcrumbs, place over a few small pieces of butter, and bake in a moderate oven, until thoroughly hot and brown.

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

To Dry-Clean Kid. ! Use a soft indiarubbcr to remove j surface dirt, then powder with a mixture of equal parts of pipe-clay, fuller's enrth and powdered alum. Making a Shoe Pad. There is nothing like a velvet pad for giving the final polish to shoe cleaning 1 operations. A piece of velvet about 9 by 5 inches is large enough. It should be seamed around on the wrong side, then turned and stuffed with the revellings from an old woollen storking. A loop for hanging up, completes the pad which may easily be slipped into a new velvet cover when it becomes soiled. A black pad for dark shoes, and a light velvet for tan, is preferable. j Home Made Peel. Don't throw away lemon or orange peel. Scrape the white part out, then cut into thin slices. Get an air-tight glass jar, put in layer of sugar, then layer of cut peel. Another layer of sugar, then peel, and bo on till jar is frill. It does not matter if you cannot fill jar at once. As you Rot the peel you ; can go on adding, as it does not hurt to , stand: in fact, the longer it stands tlie ' better. Then, again, it can be used in a j few days if wanted. The last layer must be sugar and the jar air-tight. It is! excellent for puddings, cakes, and I i prefer it to the kind sold at the grocers. Jumpers, coats, and other fairly big garments of artificial silk, need careful i washing, as the silk catches and pulls into loops so easily if it is at all roughly handled. Knead in lather and rinse well, as for ordinary silk. Squeeze out all the water you can, lifting the garment in a heap in both hands to do so, and then spread out in its correct shape on a clean towel. If possible, partially dry out of doors. Curve the sleeves round, also any panels, sash or other loose parts of frock or jumper. Rearrange the garment from time to time, as the folds dry and crumple. Finish off on the wrong side with a rery moderate • iron, j