New Traditions In Modern Cooking

Press, Volume C, Issue 29509, 10 May 1961, Page 3

New Traditions In Modern Cooking

By

"ELIZABETH”

There is a very narrow margin between dishes which are hallowed by tradition and dishes which are unimaginative and hackneyed. It is interesting to remember that inflexible culinary laws such as roast beef with horseradish, lamb with mint sauce, mutton with red currant jelly, pork with apple sauce, came into being because those ingredients were available in England many years ago, whereas a host of wonderful ingredients we have today, were not then known. From these, we build our own traditions.

Spiced Tree Tomatoes I wonder, for instance, if tree tomatoes had been grown in mediaeval England, whether lamb with apked tree tomatoes would have been traditional team mates. This is certainly a delicious combination. Ingredients: 11b tree tomatoes i cup water J cup sugar 1 cup vinegar 4 cloves J teaspoon mixed spice i teaspoon ground ginger Method: Place tree tomatoes in a bowl and pour boiling water over to cover. Steep a few minutes, then drain and peel. leaving whole. Place in a saucepan with sugar, vinegar, water, cloves and spices and bring to the boiL Reduce heat and simmer very gently until the fruit is tender. Allow to stand in their liquid to cool. When fruit is used, reserve liquid and use for subsequent boilings of fresh fruit Serve hot or cold with roast lamb. ★ Lemon Sauce. Lemon sauce for puddings is quickly made with this recipe. Put a teaspoon of arrowroot in a pan with 2oz of sugar and slowly pour on half a pint of water over low heat. Cook and stir gently till the mixture boils. Add the grated rhind and the juice of a lemon. Bring to boil again and serve.

Onion Dumplings Onions seem to have a knack of warming up a cold night, making them a welcome addition to meals at this time of the year. Here whole onions, with a surprise meat stuffing, are baked inside shortcrust dumplings for a good hot family dinner. Use package soups for a shortcut savoury sauce to serve with the dumplings. Mushroom or cream of chicken adds a savoury and delicious flavour combination. Ingredients: Shortcrust 12oz flour fioz dripping or lard and butter mixed 1 teaspoon salt Cold water Filling 4 kidneys Salt and pepper, 1 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon flour i teaspoon mustard 8 onions Method: Peel onions and bring to the boil in salted water. Cook for 10 minutes. Drain (reserving liquid and onion cut from the centres for soup). Cut onions open and scoop out some of the centres. Melt 1 tablespoon butter, blend in 1 tablespoon flour and half a teaspoon of mustard. Cut kidneys in halves, removing the cores. Spread some of the mustard mixture on each and fold over. Place in the centre of an onion half and place the other half over to enclose it after dusting lightly with salt and pepper. Rub dripping or lard and butter into flour sifted with salt. Cut in just sufficient cold water to bind. Roll out fairly thin and cut out eight rounds. Place a filled onion on each and enclose. Place rough side down on a baking tray and bake in a moderately hot oven (375 degrees) about one hour. ★ Luting.— This is the name for a strip of pastry used to seal a pastry cover on a pie. It is used on fruit or game pies.

Bacon And Apricots A piece of boiling bacon stored away in the refrigerator is the best insurance 1 know against emergencies. It will turn into a delectable meal in any one of a hundred different ways so that unexpected guests are just no trouble at all. Time does not always allow for a whole large piece to be boiled or roasted, in which case cut it into half-inch thick pieces and cook it with a tin of apricots for a delicious dinner. Ingredients: Half-inch thick slices of bacon 1 cup stock or water 1 cup vinegar 2 tablespoons brown sugar 2 tablespoons cornflour 2 teaspoons soy sauce 1 teaspoon Worcester sauce J cup apricot juice Tinned apricots Method: Cut bacon into thick slices, cut off the rind and some of the fat if too much. Soak in luke warm water for half an hour. Drain, and place in an ovenware dish, wide enough to take the slices without piling on top of each other but merely overlapping neatly. Mix vinegar, sugar, apricot juice, soy and Worcester sauces and half a cup of water or stock. Bring to the boil. Mix cornflour with additional stock or water and stir in, cooking until smooth and boiling. Pour over the bacon and bake in a moderate oven for threequarters of an hour. Lift from the oven and arrange drained apricot halves, round side up, round the dish. Spoon some of the sauce over and return to the oven for a further 15 minutes. ★ Beef, Gherkin Macaroni When grey skies seem to take all the colour out of cold meat meals we face once more the housewife's old familiar puzzle corner—how to make a virtue out of necessity, or a glamour meal from a dreary-look-ing and totally inadequate piece of left over meat. Quite a thin tired looking piece of cold beef comes to glowing appetite appeal if partnered with gherkins and tomato soup this way. Ingredients: Jib macaroni i large tin tomato soup 10-12 large green pickled gherkins Salt and pepper Cold beef 4oz grated cheese 1 packet potato straws or 2 tablespoons fine brown breadcrumbs Method: Drop macaroni pieces into plenty of rapidly boiling salted water. Cook rapidly until tender, then drain and rinse under cold running water. Turn into large overware dish and add contents of 1 large tin tomato soup, cold meat cut into dices and halved gherkins Sprinkle with grated cheese and arrange potato straws or breadcrumbs round the edge. Bake in a moderate oven until the cheese is melted and browned and the dish is bubbling. Small cooked onions, sliced cooked carrots or peas may be added if desired. This makes a large and substantial meal with very little expenditure.