KITCHEN CORNER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 13 June 1936, Page 10

KITCHEN CORNER

SOUPS FOR COLD DAYS Most housewives regard soup as almost a necessity on the winter menu, especially at mid-day when the children come home cold from school. Try some of these recipes this winter, they are all tried and tested. Potatoes and Leeks Potato soup is delicious if well made but the addition of a few leeks makes it better still. Put a piece of butter in a saucepan and cook in it, with the cover on, four leeks and four potatoes cut in pieces. When they have fried a little without browning, add enough water to make the soup the consistency you want, cook till the vegetables can be passed through a sieve, then season well and, if you like, add at the last a tablespoonful of cream. It should be thickish-thin, and some cubes of fried toast should be handed with it. Kidney Soup I Take 4oz kidney, tablespoonful chopped parsley, two onions, tablespoonful pearly . barley, two carrots, tablespoonful lentils, tablespoonful fine tapioca, about one quart of stock and water. Wash the kidney in warm water, dry it in flour, fry in dripping till brown, put in saucepan and • stew 1J hours if vegetables have been grated, or two hours if cut in slices. This is much improved if a small' ham bone or a few bacon rinds are allowed to stew with it. Just before serving add a pint of milk, and if desired a thickening of flour. A Vegetable Soup ; One. pint water in which vegetables have been cooked, one pint milk, two onions thickly sliced, two > potatoes sliced, a tiny bouquet of herbs. Boil till the vegetables soften, then rub through a sieve. Return to the pan. and thicken slightly by adding a litte flour mixed to a paste with butter, boil up, season to taste. Give a grating of cheese and a little chopped parsley with each helping. Pumpkin Soup A large slice pumpkin, two large potatoes, two leeks, two tablespoons cream or hall'-tablespoon butter, two pints of water. Put pumpkin, potatoes leeks in saucepan, and cold water, pepper and salt to taste. Cook until tender, pass through wire sieve, return to fire to heat, and just I before serving take off fire and add to j cream or butter. If liked fried crouItons may be served with the soup.

Pea Soup This is a really well-flavoured pea soup. Boil for 10 minutes three mod-erate-sized carrots, two turnips, two onions and a head of celery. (All vegetables to be prepared and cut small). Put them into a saucepan with lib of dried peas which have been soaked overnight. Add two cloves, 3oz of butter and three pints of boiling water also seasoning of salt and pepper. Cook till the peas are soft, then pass through a wire sive, removing the cloves. Boil up the soup, add more seasoning if required, and serve with slice of toast. If the soup seems too thick for some tastes, add stock or water. Oyster Toast Take 12 oysters, 1 tablespoonful of butter, 2 tablespoorisfuls of breadcrumbs, half a cupful of milk, 2 tablespoonfuls of cream and some rounds of buttered toast. Melt butter in a pan, stir in the breadcrumbs, then add the milk and stir till the mixture boils. Whip the cream and stir in lightly. Beard oysters and divide each into halves and add to the sauce. Cut the crusts off the toasted bread, heap the mixture on and put into the oven for a few minutes to heat thoroughly.' Garnish with sprigs of parsley. Chocolate Biscuits Quarter pound butter, Jib cornflour, lb sugar, Alb flour, 1 dessertspoon golden syrup, 1 teaspoonful soda. Beat butter and sugar to a cream, add golden syrup, then milk. Mix cocoa, cornflour and flour together, and then add to mixture. Cut into rounds and bake in a moderate oven. When cold put two together with icing flavoured with vanilla. Queen Cakes Two eggs, 2 dessertspoons butter, 1 cup flour, a CU P sugar, 1 level teaspoon baking powder, a few drops of essence of lemon, a few sultanas, a little milk if required. Cream, butter and sugar; sift flour and baking powder. Beat eggs with a pinch of butter and sugar (a little at a time), salt, add eggs and flour alternately to butter and sugar (a little at a time), add fruit and essence and mix to a thick cream. Half-fill paper cases or greased and floured patty-tins, and bake about i 5 minutes in fair oven—not too hot, as these, cakes easily burn. This original and well-tested recipe makes,, nice, rich cakes. Eggless Date Pudding One cup flour, one cup chopped dates, haif-cup suet, half-cup sugar, half-cup milk, one teaspoon ground cinnamon, one teaspoon grated nutmeg, one teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (dissolved in the milk), one apple (peeled and grated), one banana (sliced thinly). Sieve flour and spices add finely chopped suit, and rub well in, then sugar, dates, apple, and banana, and mix thoroughly with the milk. Place in a floured cloth and boil for two and a half hours. Serve with cream, or with rich, custard sauce. Anna’s Pudding One cup flour, one cup boiling milk, one teaspoon baking soda, 4oz currants, 4oz raisins, 2 table-spoons sugar, one tablespoon butter or good dripping, one tablespoon vinegar, nutmeg, and lemon essence to taste. Put soda and vinegar in a basin, pour boiling milk over them, then add sugar, butter, and rest of ingredients. Steam for two hours. Serve with sauce or custard.

Oatmeal Nut Scones 4oz fine oatmeal, 9oz flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 Joz shelled walnuts, 2Joz butter, ljoz castor sugar, milk. Sift flour, oatmeal and baking powder into a basin. Rub in butter. Chop walnuts, add them, also the sugar. Mix well, then stir in sufficient milk to make a soft dough. Roll out, stamp into rounds, glaze with milk, and bake on a greased slide. HOUSEHOLD HINTS THINGS USEFUL TO KNOW Dents in tables or other furniture can be removed by placing pads of blotting paper, slightly damped, over the dents ( and pressing them with a hot iron. If you are in a hurry grate onions on an ordinary carrot grater. They will then cook in half the time. Don’t waste sour milk. For making scones it is better than fresh milk. To prevent cakes from becoming stale, put a thick slice of bread in the tin in which they are kept and renew it every third day. Brick dust applied with a cloth to linen blinds will clean them and make them look like new. Dissolve some washing soda in boiling water —lib of soda to a gallon of water—and pour over the coal. When this has dried the coal will burn more slowly.