RECIPES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3720, 4 January 1913, Page 9

RECIPES.

COTTAGE CHEESE. This can be made with little trouble. Put sour milk in a pan and set at back of stove until curds and whey are separated; pour cold water on the whole through a fine strainer; the curds will remain; rub in a little cream and salt butter, then press into ball shapes with the hand. These are delicious served with salads and fancy dishes. * * * MOSCOW MINCE. Take the remains of any cold meat, add to it any remains of cold bacon or ham, and cut up into very small pieces. Add pepper and salt to taste, a little finely chopped onion and parsley with a tablespoonful of vinegar. Fry all together in a little dripping, and serve on squares of buttered toast. * * * ORANGE CREAM. Take one pint of milk and add to it one tablespoonful each of cornflour and ordinary floui'i Work this together cold, then stir pver the fire till it boils, and add the yolks of two well-beaten eggs. 'Flavor with a little orange flower water. Bake a good crust in a piedish, and put in the custard; bake steadily so that it does not boil. Make a meringue of the whites of the eggs, flavor with a teaspoonful of orange extract, place it on the custard, and bake it a delicate brown. It may be served hot or cold. * * • APPLE GINGER. This is a delicious preserve. Pare and cut two pounds of apples into slices, throw them into cold water to preserve their color. Put two pounds of lump sugar and one pint of water into a preserving pan. When it boils ; add half an ounce of essence of ginger, drain the apples out of the

water, and put them into the boiling syrup and boil until tender and transparent, but not broken too much. Pour into jars, allow ,to cool, tie down, and store till required. •% * •* ONION DUMPLINGS. Chop very finely a quarter of a pound of suet and a quarter of a pound of onions, add half a pound of flour, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix all together with a little milk, make into small balls, and boil for half an hour in any stock' available. These dumplings are excellent with stewed rabbit, and can be boiled with the rabbit if desired. LETTUCE AND PEAS. ATTRACTIVE DISHES EASILY MADE AT HOME.

The’lettuce is so entirely associated in our ideas with the salad, that there is probably not a household in the kingdom wherein a cooked lettuce has ever been served. But if we may accept as gospel John Evelyn’s panegyric upon the lettuce, it deserves to find a place upon our tables in every form of service. “In fevers,” he says, “it allays heat, bridles cholera, extinguishes thirst, excites appetite, kindly nourishes, and, above all, represses vapours, conciliates sleep, and mitigates pain, besides the effect it has upon the morals, I temperance, and charity.” There are i various recipe; extant for the dressing for lettu'-e stuffed with veal force-meat and other meaty combinations, hut as a ontribution towards a. “morality” in:! cing diet, the following recipe for lettuce as a dressed vegetable offers an attractive beginning:— Clean four or five lettuces thoroughly, removing the stalk, but retaining all the sound rreen leaves as well as the heart. Boil for ten or fifteen minutes in pk nty of salted water, strain off the v iter, chop lightly, and place them in a stewpan with a pint of white sauce. Season with salt, pepper, and quarter of a nutmeg grated. Si xer gently until well cooked, and white hot, but not boiling, stir among the lettuces the wellbojiten yolks of two eggs. GREEN PEAS. Green peas, young and tender, are, after asparagus, the garden’s most gracious gift at- this season. They come when the grass lamb and the ducklings are just ready for table, and the admirable combination has made them always associated in jdea. But peas are in themselves a highly nutritious article of diet, containing both starch and sugar in addition to a large proportion of nitrogenous or body building material. Hence, they might with advantage be more frequently served as a separate dish, as is the custom in France. Obviously, however, some other mode of preparation than plain boiling would bo necessary to make an attractive dish, and the following recipes offer suggestions that might be followed with ease in any household. GREE-, PEAS FRENCH STYLE. Melt ail ounce of fresh butter in a saucepan or casserole; when melted,' add a quart of peas, shake them over the heat for a minute or two, and pour in as much boiling water or stock as will just cover them, add a teaspoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper, the heart of a lettuce, and a sprig of parsley. Let them simmer gently over a slow fire until the peas are quite tender; remove the pan from the fire, take out the onions and parsley, and thicken the sauce with the well-beaten eggs. It must not boil when or after the eggs are added. Serve the peas in the casserole, or on a hot dish with the sauce poured over them.

PEAS WITH CREAM. Boil the peas in water with a little salt, strain off the water, add an ounce of butter, \ and put the pan at the side of the fire so that it may melt gradually. Shake the pan to mix 'it thoroughly, add half a pint of cream; simmer, shake, and serve. In buying peas, it is well to make sure, if possible, that they are fresh gathered. Cook them as soon as they are shelled, as after shelling they soon lose their color and sweetness, and on that account never, for the sake of saving a little trouble, buy your peas ready shelled. Dr. Kitchener says, do not let more than half an hour elapse between the shelling and the boiling.

, SOME SUMMER SALADS. Few dishes are more refreshing for the summer luncheon than a- wellmade salad, 6but, unfortunately, it is rarely seen in perfection here. On the Continent, however, it is different; m France the salad is a veritable triumph of culinary skill, whilst the Spaniards are famous for their salads. Great care is required, in the compounding of such a dish; the wellknown Spanish * saying has it that four people are necessary to make a good salad, viz., a spendthrift with oil, a miser with vinegar, a counsellor with salt, and a madman to stir it up. Several rules are essential to success in salad-making.. It should be made 'just before it is wanted, in order that it may eat crisp and fresh. The dressing must be poured gently under the salad, not over it. The herbs and vegetables must be washed thoroughly, and any that are diseased or worm-eaten thrown out.

SUMMER SALAD. •Cut three lettuces into small pieces with a silver knife, or, better still, shred them with the fingers, leaving out the stalks; thinly slice some radishes, and a fair-sized piece of cucumber, and arrange it all in a bowl with some mustard and cress. Then gently pour under the whole a dressing made something like this: Mix a tablesoponful of made mustard with a little pepper and salt; add four tablespoonfuls of salad oil, drop by drop, and the same or more of vinegar. Mix together slowly and carefully.

A MIXED NUT SALAD. A novel and delicious salad is made of various kinds of nuts. Take equal quantities of almonds, walnuts, brazil nuts, peanuts, and pine kernels, chop and mix therff; then pare some eating apples, and cut them into small cubes or slices; shred some celery, and mix the whole together, adding to it. a generous allowance of mayonnaise dressing. A silver knife should be used in cutting both nuts and fruit.

TOMATO SALAD. This is a very simple and refreshing salad. To make it slice some small ripp tomatoes very thinly and remove the seeds. Then place slices’in a bowl which has been rubbed over with garlic or onion, and pour in d dressing of oil and vinegar.