Traditional Fare

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 72, 18 December 1928, Page 49 (Supplement)

Traditional Fare

for the Yuletide Season

i As turkey, plum-pudding, and mince- - pies are the only essentials for a real English Christmas dinner, the embellishments to these dishes can be different from what they have been In past years without making the feast less Christmas-like. A new stuffing can be tried for the turkey, and a fresh sauce, also, with a different gravy is not impossible. The potatoes can be ■. cooked in a novel way, and for the second vegetable there is a wide choice available. There are many kinds of sauces which can be served with the plum-pudding, and as for the mincepies, if made with puff pastry in other years, try them with a light, short crust this time. Here are a few ideas: — Walnut Stuffing. Over two breakfastcupfuls of fine white breadcrumbs pour rather less than a breakfastcupful of melted butter and mix well together. Then stir in half a cupful of chopped stoned raisons (not the seedless kind), add salt and pepper to taste, with rather less than half a tablespoonful of powdered sage, and, lastly, stir in half a breakfastcupful of finely chopped walnuts. Mix all thoroughly together and put into the breast of the uncooked turkey. Celery Sauce. Well wash and scrape away all discoloured parts from the celery. Then chop it rather finely and cook in boiling salted water, to which a few drops of lemon juice have been added, till tender. After draining and rubbing through a sieve, stir one and a-half breakfastcupfuls of this puree into half a pint of fairly thick, well-sea-soned, white sauce, put into a warm tureen and serve vith the turkey. Hard Sherry Sauce. Cream half a pound of the best fresh butter and gradually add castor sugar till sweet enough and sherry (drop by drop) till well flavoured. Arrange in a rough, pile on a glass dish, sprinkle with “hundreds and thousands," and keep in a cool place till required to serve with the hot plum-pudding. A Christmas Cake for Children. Rich Christmas cake is not appreciated by everybody, and where there are children it is wiser to make a plainer variety. If it is iced and .daintily decorated it will be equally pleasing to the eye and at the same time move suited to a child’s digestion. Here is a recipe for a simple Christmas cake. Half a pound of flour. Half a pound of currants. Half a pound of butter. Half a pound of candied peel. Half a. pound of castor sugar. Half a grated nutmeg. Four eggs. A dozen blanched and chopped almonds. The juice and rind of a lemon. Beat the butter to a cream and add the eggs one by one, beating well. Then add all the other Ingredients, beat well, and turn the mixture into a wellgreased paper-lined tin, and bake in a fairly quick oven for about an hour and a-half. Almond paste is not difficult to make. Use three ounces of icing sugar, add six ounces of ground almonds and three ounces of castor sugar. Mix to the consistency of taste with one newlaid egg. Glace icing is very quickly made and delicious. Pour four ounces of icing sugar, five teaspoonfuls of -water, and a teaspoonful of lemon juice into a lined saucepan and mix until it is smooth. Stir it over the fire until it is warm, not hot, then pour it over the cake. Reviera Delight. To make Riviera Delight: Melt a packet of orange jelly in half pint of water, add 1 pint cherry syrup, and when cool fold in half pint whipped eream and 1 cup chopped cherries. Pour into a border mould, and pour the remainder of the tin of cherries into the centre and pile up with whipped cream. Sprinkle lightly with minced candied cherries. Using Cherries. Bake bananas with cherries, basting them with the syrup; flavour with lemon juice, thicken slightly with cornflour, cool, and use for open tarts;

stone and make into fritters; serve with baked custard, rice, and any cornflour shape; arrange round a lemon blancmange. Pineapple. Serve with Ice-cream; pour pineapple syrup over chopped grapefruit for fruit cocktail; thin grated horseradish with grated pineapple for cold mat relish; creamed butte and grated pineapple make good sandwich filling; layer of lightly jammed sponge cake, then grated pineapple with little syrup, topped by whipped cream, makes a good Sunday sweet. A German Sauce. For a quiet little dinner at home, where the note is to be a distinguished simplicity, one is often apt to go wrong with the sweet course. Jellies and trifles are not quite in fie picture, pies and tarts may be too heavy, and it is uot every cook who can be trusted to produce a souffle at precisely the right moment. Perhaps nothing is more appreciated by the rather sophisticated guest than one of the simplest of milk puddings, made as for the nursery and

without eggs, . but accompanied by something special in the way of a sauce. This delicious German sauce (equally good with suet or Christmas puddings) has the further advantage that it can be prepared before dinner and kept warm. Dissolve a ounce of fine sugar in one gill of sherry or Madeira, warming in a saucepan but not letting the wine boil. When hot stir to it the well-beaten yolks of two fresh eggs, and whisk together over a gentle heat till well thickened and highly frothed. Without the help of cream, ground rice or semolina can be turned into a kingly dish. Home-Made Sweets Simple Recipes. Homemade sweets -are delicious and not expensive as compared with the prices one is asked to pay in the shops for really good makes. They are not difficult to make and there are many good recipes. The sweets can be packed in dainty boxes or any pretty jars that have been saved as being too good to throw away, and make quite attractive presents at Christmas-time. Marzipan. Half a pound of icing sugar, quarter of a pound of crushed almonds, the white of an egg, and a little ground

cinnamon, cocoa or ground chocolate according to taste. Beat the egg, and add the sugar and almonds. Roll into round balls, toss in the cinnamon, and dry very slowly in a moderate oven. Peppermint Creams. The whites of two eggs, as much icing sugar as will form a stiff paste, and a few drops of essence of pepperment. Mix well and roll out to a quarter of an inch. Cut in small mounds and spread on paper to set. They will be ready next day. Coffee Creams. Two and a halfcupfuls of sugar and a half a cupful of strong coffee. _ Boil these together for about four minutes, then cool, beating all the time. Roll the paste into balls and let them harden. Russian Toffee. One pound of brown sugar, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and two tablespoonfuls of syrup. Bring to the boil, add a tin of condensed milk, and boil all together for twenty minutes. Appetising Nut Recipes. Nuts are a valuable form of food, containing much protein. Apart from serving them at dessert, however, we seem to have few uses for nuts, but these five American recipes will show iu what tempting ways they can be used. Nut and Cheese Sandwiches. —Beat to a smooth paste equal quantities of grated cheese and finel. chopped nuts (any kind) and place between thin slices of brown bread and butter. Nut Rolls. —Thinly roll out some short pastry and cut pieces five inches by three. Spread lightly with sweet jelly, thickly sprinkle with finely chopped nuts and roll up. Brush with yolk of egg and bake in a hot oven till the pastry is cooked. Nut Salad.—Mix some chopped nuts with equal quantities of fresh pineapple (shredded) and minced apples. Squeeze over them a few drops of lemon juice and lightly coat with mayonaise dressing before serving. Nut Drop Cakes.—Roll jib. of chopped nuts till well crushed and stir intc them Mb. of powdered sugar and ioz. of flour. Add three stiffly beaten whites of eggs with i teaspoonful of vanilla essence, and drop a tablespoonful of the mixture on to a baking sheet covered with greased paper. Bake for 20 minutes in a medium oveu. Nut Jelly.—Dissolve a pint packet of lemon jelly with the required amount of hot water (adding sherry to flavour) and have ready a teacupful of finely chopped nuts. Pour a little of the jelly into a wetted mould, and when set sprinkle with chopped nuts; cover with more jelly, and repeat the layers of nuts and jelly till all are used. Leave to set, turn out to serve, and hand round separately a little thick unwhipped cream. Some New Recipes Oranges in Snoiv. Make a syrup of half a pint of water and half a pound of sugar. Pare and remove the pith from six oranges and put them in the syrup. Simmer gently till tender, keeping them whole. Lift out carefully with a fish-slice, and put in two ounces of tapioca. Let the tapioca cook until clear and soft in the syrup. Pour this in a glass dish and let it cool. Set the oranges in this, pour whipped cream on top, and sprinkle castor-sugar over. Apple Dressing for Fowl. One quart of finely chopped apples. Two tablespoonfuls of chopped onions. One tablespoonfnl of dripping. Four cups breadcrumbs. One egg, salt, pepper, little nutmeg, and parsley. Put the dripping and onion into a frying-pan, cook for a few minutes, and then add the apples. Cover the bread with cold water for a few minutes, remove and press out all water. Put into a pan, adding seasoning, beaten egg, and parsley. Mix well until cooked. Tanana Cream Ice. Six ripe bananas. One teacupful cream. One tablespoonful lemon juice. One and a-half pint custard. Pass the' bananas through a sieve. Prepare the custard and whip the