IN THE KITCHEN

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 45, 16 November 1929, Page 22

IN THE KITCHEN

Cheese I’asti'y-— 2oz. of butter or margarine, -jib. of flour, 2oz. of Parmesan or any other dry and finely grated cheese, i saltspoouful of cayenne and the yolk of 1 egg. Rub the butter or margarine into the sifted flour with well washed and cooled finger tips, add the grated cheese aud the cayenne. Beat up the yolk of egg in water, using only just enough water to mix the ingredients to a rather stiff paste. Roll out lightly. This short pastry, unlike puff pastry, is not folded over aud rolled and the process repeated several times. It is rolled straight away' to the desired thickness, then, after cutting out the shapes, the trimmings are gathered up and rolled out again until the pastry is all used. If rolling pin or pastry bpard become sticky flour them lightly, but note Hint in pastrymaking the paste itself should not _ be floured. This pastry should feel springy to the touch ami when baked is very short. If you desire to make cheese straws, roll out a long narrow piece of pastry and trim it evenly. The width of the pastry should be the length of the straws which are generally made 31 to 4 inches long and not more than 4 of an inch wide, if as-much. Now lay the strip of pastry in a baking tin (it is not necessary- to grease it because there' is so much fat in the pastry, neither is it necessary -to flour it) and with a sharp knife cut the paste into.strips, dividing each one a little distance’from the other. This is necessary because the paste spreads a little as it bakes and if the straws have to bo separated after cooking it is difficult to avoid breaking them. The straws may be piled up in the dish, or rings of pastry cut and baked, and four to six straws according to size slipped through each ring. As this, pastry keeps well ’ in an airtight tin the rounds which remain when the rings are cut should be pricked and baked ready for use on some other occasion, or they and the trimmings used to fill some small tin moulds. When filling the moulds do not stretch the pastry at the edge or it will shrink away in cooking and look untidy. Fit the paste firmly into the mould and let the edge come a trifle beyond the edge of the tin. Dint it with a fork to make a neat border, prick the bottom of the case, fill with rice or crusts or tapioca (this is to prevent the pastry from rising), and bake for about 5 minutes, turn out the contents and finish baking. The oven should be moderate, but the pastry should be watched, especially when baking rings, which brown very quickly. The filling for pastry cases should . be kept in a tin, as it may be used over and over again. Whenever pastry is being made the wise cook will make a dish of straws which are used either as a savoury or to serve with thick or clear soups, or some biscuits or cases. To vary the savouries a very little anchovy "essence may be added instead of, or as well as, the cheese and a drop or two of carmine mixed in produces a pale pink pastry. Sometimes this tinted pastry is mixed with milk instead of egg, the colouring being added to the milkf and allowance must be made for the colour becoming paler in cooking. Never, however, should a.ny food be too strongly coloured. Cheese Farandoles.—Cheese pastry, •} pint of white sauce, about 2oz. of grated cheese, salt and pepper. Make the pastry and stamp out two rounds for each person. Then stamp out a small round from one-half of the pieces so that, rings are formed. Place the ring ou one of the rounds and bake. Fill with the following mixture; Mix together the grated cheese and white sauce, and flavour with salt and pepper. Cook and stir until

of a rich, thick, creamy consistency, and pour a little into each cheese pastry case. Serve very hot.