LA BONNE CUISINE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 125, 28 May 1932, Page 4 (Supplement)

LA BONNE CUISINE.

SOME FISH SAVOURIES.

HOW TO COOK SPINACH.

(I?Y A FREN _ CU CHEF.)

Spinach has had a long and honourable career in the annals of cookery. It is a veritable mine of body-building, bodyregulating and repair. It is rich in many minerals, and carries considerable rough, age or fibre, which justifies its French name, "balai de l'estomac," besides being alkaline in reaction when burned in the body. To-day I propose to give a few tasty spinach recipes:— Spinach With Poached Eggs on French Toast. Three pounds spinach, 4 tablespoonfuls butter, 1 tablcspoonful flour, 1 cup cream, 8 eggs, 8 slices toast, 1 teaspoon of salt. Cook the spinach. Add the water, and when it melts stir in the flour and the salt. Stir until it thickens, and add tie cream gradually, stirring until it comee to the boiling point. In the meantime poach tho eggs, and make the bread into French toast. Serve the spinach on the toast, and top each serving with one of the poached eggs. The Italians, on the other hand, have many methods of preparing and serving spinach, the simplest of which is a sort of cream spinach, known as "al burro." The spinach is cooked with butter, pepper and salt, and finished with flour and milk. Spinach "Al Burro." Two pounds spinach (cleaned and put through the food chopper), 4 tablespoonfuls of butter, 1 teaspoonful salt, oneeighth teaspoonful pepper, 2 tablespoonfuls flour, 1 cup rich milk or cream. Melt the butter, add the spinach and seasonings. Cook until the spinach is tender. Stir in the flour, and when the mixture bubbles add the milk and stir until it thickens. This is served with a garnish of sippets of fried bread. The Italians sometimes flavour their spinach with sweet majoram, allspice, sugar and grated lemon peel, and make up into croquettes, into puddings, pancakes and souffles. Spinach Croquettes. One tablespoonful butter, 1 cup cooked spinach, 1 onion finely minced, quarter cup bacon, cooked, finely minced, 1 eg«, 2 tablespoonfuls grated cheese, 1 tablespoonful flour, 1 teaspoonful salt, i Put all the ingredients in a saucepan over the fire. Stir until well mixed and stiff. Spread on a plate to cooL Make into small croquettes rolled in egg, then in crumbs, and fry in deep fat to a golden brown. When the French make spinach croquettes they mix spinach either with mashed potatoes or fresh breadcrumbs. This makes a croquette of more delicate flavour than one composed of spinach alone. Spinach Souffle.

One cup cooked spinach (put through the food chopper), 1 egg yolk, grating of lemon rind, 1 tablespoonful lemon juice, dash nutmeg, half a teaspoonful salt, 3 egg whites, 1 egg yolk.

Put the spinach in a saucepan, stir in the egg yolk, lemon juice and rind, and other seasonings. Cool. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Partly fill buttered custard cups, and bake in a hot oven for .15 to 30 minutes, according to the size. Serve at once or the souffles will fall. This may be cooked In a ring mould and filled with creamed mushrooms. Spinach is a favourite vegetable with the French. They, like the Italians, use nutmeg, but usually the spinach is boiled, drained and seasoned with butter, salt, peppercorns, either with or without the addition of flour or milk, as in the case of the Italian al burro. They sometimes use veal stock or rich gravy, instead of the milk as a cooking medium. Spinach with Asparagus Tip* Cook spinach and season with butter, pepper, salt and a little lemon juice. Mould in custard cups. Turn out on plates, and arrange a few hot asparagus tips on each plate. Serve with melted butter and toast points. Spinach with Stuffed Eggs. Season well-cooked spinach, as above. Stuff eggs with sardine paste. Arrange a small, liat serving of spinach on a plate garnish with two halves of stuffed egge and a baby beet, or stuffed olives cat in slices. Spinach Sandwich. Put 1J cups well-seasoned spinach, 2 tablespoonfuls anchovy paste, 2 teaspoonfuls lemon juice and a teaspoonful capers through the food choppere. Moisten with mayonnaise, if necessary. Serve on thin slices of brown bread, and make into sandwiches. Salmon Timbalea. Ingredients: One tin salmon —or fresh) if it can be procured, four eggs, two cupfuls milk, quarter cupful butter, salt, half a cupful cooked mushrooms, one cupful breadcrumbs.

Chop salmon, after removing bones. Cook the breadcrumbs in milk. Remove from the fire and add butter and salt. When cool add the fish pressed through a strainer, beat, add the eggs well beaten and place this mixture in greased timbale moulds. Place in slow oven and cook for three-quarters of an hour Serve with Hollandaise, or tomato sauce. Baked Stuffed Fish. A whole fish (31b to 51b), one teaspoon ful salt, melted butter or oil. Stuffing: Two cupfuls of soft, dry breadcrumbs, four tablespoonfula melted butter, half teaspoonful salt, half teaspoonful onion juice, one teaspoonful minced parsley. The fish should be kept whole, with the head and tail left on. Scale the fish, remove entrails, and rinse with salte.l water. Dry. Put stuffing into the fiM and sew up the slit made in the cleaning Brush with melted butter or oil, put ' ; in a baking dish lined with vegetables, and bake 15 minutes in a hot oven. Increase temperature to moderate and continue baking, allowing J. 5 minutes to W pound. Serve on a heated platter. (< :l! uish with parsley or watercress, and sw tions of lemon. Creamed Shrimps in Rice-ring. Two cupfuls cooked shrimps, foil' tahlcspoonfuls butter, two cupfuls niiU salt, three cupfuls cooked rice, one four tablespoonfuls flour. Moisten the rice with a little milk (two tablespoonfuls), mix in the slightly beat™ egg, turn into a well-greased rinu mouid and bake until sot. Hake a \v)nt<' sauce of the butter, flour and milk, ad< shrimps. When thoroughly heated seasoning, and serve in centre of _tlie rice-ring, which has been turned out into a platter. To prepare the shrimps simmer 20 minutes in boiling Halted water, witsn and drain. Remove the shell carefully. also the black line that runs the lengt- 1 ' of the body.