HOME COOKING

Press, Volume C, Issue 29671, 15 November 1961, Page 3

HOME COOKING

RECIPES and KITCHENCRAFT

Start A "Cook's Holiday' Book Of Recipes

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ELIZABETH!

Without a little forethough, holiday time can mean for the mother of the household a busier time than usual at stove or sink and often with fewer facilities for cooking. This year, start a holiday book. Make a note of recipes which require little or no cooking yet still have a festive holiday air.

Here is one to start the book: Confetti Tart, which is quick, delicious and as gay as a summery day.

Confetti Tart Ingredients:

1 packet ginger biscuits 4oz butter 4 pint cream 1 tin sweetened condensed milk Grated rind of 2 lemons. Juice of 3 lemons 2 taolespoons chopped cherries 2 tablespoons roughly crumbled walnuts 2 taolespoons chopped preserved ginger Two or three green cherries or a piece of angelica.

Method: Crush ginger biscuits and mix with melted butter. Press out to line bottom and .sides of a large pie plate and stand in a cool place or chiU until firm. Whisk cream and take out about two tablespoons full for decoration. Fold in slowly the condensed milk and finely grated lemon rind. Then gently add juice of three lemons, stirring until smooth and thick. Turn into the chilled shell Chop cherries, and ginger, and crumble walnuts. Combine all and sprinkle over the top of the tart. Decorate with remaining whipped cream and small pieces of red and green cherry. Chill until required.

Paw-Paw Jam Paw-paw is often available, either in the large melon-like variety from overseas, or the small mountain pawpaw which is grown tn some parts of New Zealand. These are ripe now and if you have some, remember they make both a delicious desert and Jam. Filled with rather large black seeds, the small ones are best merely scooped out and eaten with honey or sugar, seeds and all, in the way one eats a passionfruit, and not merely the flesh eaten with the seeds discarded as in the large variety. In the same way, the whole fruit, . seeds and all, is cut up to make a delightful jam which looks unusual with its tapioca-sized black seeds adding a deliciously nutty flavour as well.

Before the holiday season it is very well worthwhile to make a supply of lemon curd, for it is a strong line of defence in catering. It can be used as a quick cake filling, an attractive touch on a cream topping, a filling for small tartlets, as a sponge roll spread, an individual touch on an open-faced apple tart to provide both glaze and change of flavour.

Lemon curd is also useful for a pie or trifle filling, a sundae-dress for ice cream or the finishing touch for a meringue layer. These and a hundred more magic touches come like a genie out of the lemon curd bottle. Here are two recipes—one without eggs at all, and one using three eggs. Lemon Curd (Without Eggs) Ingredients: (To make about If jars)

6 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk 6 tablespoons icing sugar 6 tablespoons melted butter Juice and grated rind of two lemons Method: Whisk icing sugar into milk until smooth, then whisk in melted butter. When smoothly blended, add lemon juice and finely gated rind. Makes a delicious curd, pale and thick. Traditional Lemon Honey Ingredients: Boz sugar 2oz butter Grated rind and juice of 2 lemons 3 eggs Method: Combine ingredients with well-beaten eggs in top of double boiler and cook until thick but do not allow to boil. Turn into jara and seal when quite cold.

Summer Pudding Another delicious sweet for inclusion in your holiday book is the classic Summer Pudding which is so simple that unless you have tasted it, it is hard to imagine that it could be as nice as it is. The raspberries, mentioned here, make st a party affair, but this sweet may be made with any small fruits you have available.

Red or black currants, strawberries, boylsenberries or loganberries, blackberries or even cherries or gooseberries are all nice. Some of those will need prior cooking, some will not. Here the raspberries are merely warmed until the sugar melts. And the only other ingredient? Stale bread.

Whipped cream, ice cream or custard should accompany it Ingredients: 11b raspberries 4oz sugar Sliced stale white bread.

N.B.—lf using fresh raspberries, 2 tablespoons water; if frozen or tinned, none. Method: Remove crusts from thin slices of stale bread and line a pudding basin, overlapping the edges of the slices to make a complete coverage. If using fresh raspberries, melt sugar in two tablespoons water and add the raspberries. If using frozen, merely add sugar and heat together gently until the sugar is dissolved. Pour some into the lined basin, add a layer of bread, then more raspberries. Cover the top with bread. Place a saucer or plate which will sink into the bowl on top with a weight on it Chill with the weight on overnight. Turn out and decorate with whipped cream. Serves 4.

Raspberry Meringue Ingredients: 1 tin raspberries 2 tablespoons cornflour Sugar 2 egg whites 4 ozs castor sugar. Method: Strain the juice from the raspberries and mix some of it with the cornflour. Put the rest on to boil When boiling add the blended cornflour, stirring well, then reboil and sweeten to taste. Add Hie raspberries, reserving a few for decoration. Pour into a shallow heatproof dish. Whisk egg whites till stiff, then beat in 2 ozs sugar. Fold in the remaining sugar and spread the meringue over the cooled fruit. Bake in a very slow oven for about 14 hours till the meringue is crisp. Cool and decorate. Fresh raspberries or any other berry fruit in season may be used.

Cheese, Pineapple Whip

When luncheon or dinner guests are expected and one pair of hands is preparing the meal, something put ready ahead of time as opening number is a great help. Chilled Cheese and Pineapple Whip is delicious, easy and has the charm of something new. Ingredients: (For eight to 10 servings.) 1 small tin pineapple pieces 1 tablespoon butter 2 tablespoons flour 2 egg yolks 3oz grated cheese 1 cup milk 4 teaspoon mustard 1 teaspoon Worcester sauce 4 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons whipped cream 2 egg whites

Method: Melt a good tablespoon butter and blend in two tablespoons flour. Stir in milk slowly, stirring until thick and smooth and boiling. Add grated cheese, sauce, mustard and salt and beat through two egg yolks, when the cheese is melted. Allow to cool. Whisk egg whites and cream separately and fold both through the cheese mixture. Drain pineapple, cut the pieces a little smaller and divide them out into indiviual serving glasses. Top each with the cheese whip and chill. Slice stuffed olives across and take a small nick out of the green part of each slice. Arrange on the centre of the whip, with a small piece of parsley stalk to the round side of the olive and a very tiny parsley leaf.

Salmon Patty Calces

These salmon cakes are designed to be eaten cold, and more delicious little trifles to take to a picnic or star with salad for a cold luncheon would be hard to find. They are unusual in that breadcrumbs are used in their preparation, which is the secret of their lightness and success. Make them really tiny and they will also make cocktail party snacks. So make a note of these for holiday time.

Ingredients: 1 small tin salmon 3 eggs 1 cup soft white breadcrumbs Mixed herbs and 2 tablespoons chopped parsley Salt and pepper.

Method: Flake the salmon and remove all bone and any black skin. Beat three eggs thoroughly and stir in the salmon. Add fine breadcrumbs, chopped parsley and a little thyme or mixed herbs. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Heat a little fat, not too deep, in a pan and drop in spoonfuMs of the mixture. Fry until brown on both sides. Lift out and drain on absorbent paper until cold. Serve on a bed of sliced cucumber with salad to accompany them.

Garnished Pork Chops

One of our most helpful allies when we have guests for dinner are pork chops for it is so easy to pre _e them ahead and pan-cook them in the oven in a host of different delicious ways. There is no last minute flutter of cooking or serving.

Surround them With glazed apple quarters, sage and onion, stuffed tomatoes, buttered pineapple slices, small mounds of green peas and diced carrot, and duchesse potatoes piped round in a border.

The effect is colourful, attractive and appetising. Ingredients: 6 pork chops 1 large green pepper 2oz almonds 2 onions A little flour 14 cups milk Salt and pepper 1 large tin pineapple rings Butter . 6 large firm tomatoes 1 packet sage and onion stuffing* 'brabout 2 cups home-madO stuffing • . f Cooking apples and sugar 3 large carrots 1 large packet green peas Potatoes r Butter, milk and 1 egg

Method: Wipe pork chops and place in baking dish. Remove seeds from pepper and out the shell into thin rings. Sprinkle over the chops. Blanch and finely shred almonds and sprinkle over. Peel and slice onions and separate into rings. Dip in milk, then in flour and scatter over. Pour remaining milk over, dust with salt and pepper and bake about one hour in a moderately hot oven.

Cook potatoes, drain and mash smooth with butter, milk and egg. Beat until creamy, then pipe in a niching round a very large platter. Scoop centres from tomatoes. and fill with seasoning; bake until tender. Drain pineapple and place the slices on a sponge roll tin dotted with butter. Bake until heated through and lightly browned or toast a few minutes under a grill and keep hot. Cook apple quarters in syrup until tender and clear. Arrange prepared fruit and vegetables round the platter and place in a low oven until required, lift the pork chops into the centre . and serve immediately.

Bits of Shell.—To remove bits of shell or a drop of yolk from egg white, use half a broken eggshell to lift out the unwanted bit

Parsley and Chives.—lf you dislike gardening but enjoy savouries, compromise and grow two plants—one of chives and one of parsley. For flavour and garnishing they are the most useful of all kitchen garden herbs for sandwiches and savoury dishes. Now is the time to plant chives and parsley. They will go on growing for years.