HINTS FOR THE HOUSEWIFE

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 136, 5 March 1927, Page 18

HINTS FOR THE HOUSEWIFE

Peach Recipes. No other fruit, according to some cooks, unless it be apples, is possible of so many preparations as the peach. When peaches are in season, no housewife need ever wonder what to give her family for dessert. She has only’ to “say it with peaches,” in one way’ or another, and their response to this expression will be most hearty.

Cinnamon blends well with the flavour of peaches, and a few drops of almond extract or bits of peach kernels themselves enhance its character. A Peach Betty, favourite of old-time housekeepers, made from alternate layers of sugared peaches, sprinkled with cinnamon and cubes of buttered bread, and baked to an entrancing brown, is always good. So are the other ways of combining bread with peaches. Peach Slump.—Stew peaches. Sweeten and add cinnamon. Butter enough rather thick half slices of bread to serve the number of your family. Lay these pieces of bread over the hot stewed peaches. Cover tightly and simmer slowlv for three or four minutes, until the bread is well steamed. Lay the half-slices on a serving dish and spread the peaches over them. Serve with cream, hard sauce, or each portion topped with ice cream. Salads. >

The salad’s popularity deserves all lhe energy and inventiveness we can bestow upon its concoction, especially at this time of year, when summerjaded appetites need new stimuli.

Peach Salad.—Pare and dice enough fresh, firm peaches to make three cups. Add a cup of chopped white celerv, a cup of lettuce cut in ribbons, a halfcup of salted pistachio nuts, shelled, and the inner skins removed. Stir in enough white mayonnaise to bind the salad. Serve in white lettuce leaves, dust with paprika, and serve macaroon and cream cheese sandwiches with the salad.

Cheese Salad.—Cream cheese is a reliable and good foundation for many a salad to be flavoured piquantly with chopped cucumber pickle, capers, minced green pepper, olives, tomato, catsups; or fruits, pickle or preserved. For a slightly sweetish cheese mixture, delicious for slicing on a bed of watercress sprinkled with French dressing, combine pickled peaches with cheese in the following proportionsAn Boz. package cream cheese, 2 pickled peaches, cut from stones, 2 teaspoons peach juice, 4 teaspoon salt. Have the peaches cut in fine nieces and cream all together. Turn into - refrigerator pan and let chill for one hour. This is also a good sandwich spread. Fujiyama Salad. —From its name.'you know this to be. a Japanese concoction. Pare a pint of hot, freshly-boiled potatoes in thin slices. Cover the potatoes with half a cup of sharp French dressing. Add the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs chopped fine, a small grated onion and a tablespoon of minced parsley and chives. Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and shake it about to mix the salad without breaking the potato slices. Have readv a pint of steamed mussels, shells, and beards removed, and add them to the salad with a little

bit of the liquor. Heap mountain fashion on a salad plate and top the peak with the whites of the eggs chopped line. Arrange spravs of parsley around the base of the mountain and serve at once. Serve about six plates. Easily Made Ices.

Water ices are more refreshing than cream ices on a hot day, and as so manv inexpensive freezers are obtainable "the ices can be made with little trouble and at a small cost. For the freezing mixture one part of freezing salt should be used to three parts of ice. Break the ice up small and pack the outer receptacle with it and the salt mixed together.

Water ices arc made with fruit syrup or puree, and a sugar syrup. To Make the Syrup.—To one pint of water allow £lb. of loaf sugar and the juice of half’ a lemon. Put the sugar and water itno a pan, stir over low heat until the sugai is melted, then bring to the boil and boil for ten minutes. Remove all scum. Add the lemon juice and strain through muslin, then leave until _ cold. Tins quantity should make I-} pints of syrup. The syrup mav be made and kept m well-corked bottles for use at any time. Marshmallow-Peach Ice Cream.—Prepare a rich boiled custard from three cups of rich milk, three egg yolks, one and a half cups of sugar and a,, few grains of salt. When thick ami smooth remove from the first, cool and fold in one teaspoonfill of vanilla extract and one cup of chilled double cream, whipped solid. Freeze slowly and when the mixture begins to congeal stir in half a pound of shredded fresh marshmallows and one cup of peach, pulp, well sugared. Continue to freeze until firm and smooth. Green Peas.

Green peas, when quite young, should not be boiled in a quantity of water as is necessary 'when they are older, but just covered with it, a sprig, of mint added, a little salt and sugar, and the peas allowed to simmer slowly with the lid off. the saucepan until they are nearly tender and the water almost evaporated. Then a good sized piece of butter should be added and the vegetable allowed to finish cooking. A little chopped parsley can be added before serving, if liked, but they are generally' preferred without it. Never’sliell peas long before they are to be cooked, or they become hard, and when thev are no longer quite young, serve them in the form of a puree or steam them in a “ jar with a tight-fitting lid, adding a very little water, a sprig of mint, salt, atid a little sugar. Make a “piquante” sauce to go with them sometimes. Lightly fry a small chopped onion in a little butter, add a pint of pease (hot), and dredge in a good dessertspoonful of flour. Add half a gill each of stock and vinegar, season with salt and pepper, and stir all carefully together for a few minutes, then serve. Heated up in parsley sauce, and turned into a vegetable dish and garnished with grilled tomatoes, they make an attractive and tasy dish, while plainly boiled they are a useful adjunct to curried rice or macaroni.