KITCHEN CORNER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 14 May 1938, Page 11

KITCHEN CORNER

WARMING PUDDINGS COLD WEATHER FARE With the arrival of the cold weather, the pudding problem arises, and often the busy mother has no time to think ( out new ideas. Suet puddings provide , extra warmth which the body requires, . and when well made these puddings ( are delicious, owing to the variety to . choose from, but if badly made they . are unappetising and difficult to digest. , The secret of an easily digested , pudding depends largely in the cook- , ing. A steamed pudding is usually much lighter than a boiled one. The suet must be finely shredded, otherwise it is not easily absorbed by the flour or breadcrumbs during the cooking. and consequently the pudding will i be rich and greasy. If finely shredded.* the fat cannot be detected either by sight or taste. Syrup Pudding Take 6oz flour. 3oz suet, 1 egg, 6oz golden syrup, 1 heaped teaspoon baking powder, 2 tablespoons milk. Mix the flour and suet. Heat the golden syrup, and mix in gradually, then add milk, beaten egg and baking powder. Put in a basin. Steam for two hours. Roly-Poly fake lib suet, Jib flour, any preserve, 1 level teaspoon baking powder, a pinch of salt. Chop the suet finely and mix with flour and baking powder. Add water and make into a moderately stiff paste. Roll out to about one-third i inch thick. Spread jam or breadcrumbs 1 and treacle to within an inch of the edge. Roll up and press the edges together. Place, not too tightly, in a cloth dipped in boiling water and floured. Tie both ends and put a few big stitches in the middle. Boil for two hours. Date Pudding Take lib dates, 3oz flour, 2oz breadcrumbs, 2 tablespoons milk, 2 eggs, lib suet, 2oz sugar, a pinch of salt, 1 level teaspoon baking powder. Prepare and cut up the dates. Chop the suet finely j and mix the dry ingredients. Beat the ( eggs, add milk, and mix all together. ; Turn into a buttered basin and steam ■ for two hours. Gingerbread Pudding Take 2oz flour, 3oz brown sugar, £ cup treacle, pinch of salt, 1 gill milk, loz chopped preserved ginger, 6oz breadcrumbs, 1 egg, 3oz shredded suet, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon ground ginger. Mix the crumbs, suet, flour and sugar in a basin. Stir in the ginger, baking powder and salt. Dissolve the treacle in the milk in a saucepan. Beat and add the egg. Mix with the dry ingredients. Pour into a buttered mould, cover with buttered paper, and steam for three hours. Serve with j hot custard sauce, flavoured with almond or vanilla essence. This serves four people.

SELECTED RECIPES

Canary Salad Take £ cupful minced celery, 1 cupful grated raw carrot, £ cupful diced raw apple, 1 tablespoonful minced onion, £ cupful diced beetroot, lettuce, French dressing. Mix the carrot, celery, apple, onion, and beetroot together. Moisten with French dressing. Arrange in a glass bowl lined with lettuce leaves. Chartreuse of Salmon Take lib tin sockeye salmon, 1 teaspoon onion juice, 1 cup rice, 3 cups i milk or stock, £ cup butter, salt and pepper. Parboil the rice for five minutes, drain off the water, add the salt and milk, and let it steam until tender. Cream the butter with the onion juice, and lightly stir this into the rice. Fill the centre with cooked, or tinned salmon flaked and seasoned with salt, pepper and lemon juice, cover it with rice, and let it stand in the steamer for half an hour. Garnish with parsley.

Boiled Beef with Dumplings Well wash a small joint of silverside of beef, to remove the salt, then put it in lukewarm water to cover, and bring to the boil. Simmer gently, allowing 20 minutes to the pound and 20 minutes over. Prepare two carrots, two turnips, and an onion, cut them into neat pieces, and put in with the I meat. Make some suet pastry and form j into small dumplings. Add these about 15 to 20 minutes before dishing up. j Serve on a hot dish with the vegetables, and dumplings around, and send a I little of the liquor to table with them j in a tureen. Sausage Cakes Mix Boz of sausage meat with 8oz; of well-mashed potato, and form into | cakes. Brush over with beaten egg, j and roll in browned breadcrumbs. Fry j jin hot fat, browning each side nicely, j j then drain and serve very hot. Dale Loaf Soak overnight 1 cup stoned dates in 1 cup hot water and 1 teaspoonful baking soda. Beat together 2 cup sugar, 1 egg and 1 tablespoonful melted butter. Add 2 cups flour and the soaked dates. Bake in a moderate oven about 1£ hours. This loaf will keep moist for a long time. Brown Cake One cup sugar, £ cup milk, 2 tablespoonsful golden syrup. 1 cups flour. 2 tablespoonsful cocoa, 2 teaspoonsful cinnamon, k£ teaspoonsful soda dissolved in a little milk, lib butter. Warm syrup, milk and butter in a saucepan and pour into well sifted, dry ingredients, adding soda last. Bake in a moderate oven 2 hour and ice with following mixture: Caramel Icing: One and a half cups sugar, £ cup milk, 1 tablespoonful but-

ter, vanilla essence. Boil for 7 minutes and beat until creamy. Spread very quickly. Savoury Potatoes Peel the potatoes and cut into fairly thick slices. Put into a stewpan with one or two thinly sliced onions. Sprinkle with pepper and salt and add a little bacon fat or dripping. Half cover the potatoes with milk or milk and water, cover closely and cook until the potatoes are quite tender and most of the liquid has evaporated. A little grated cheese can be added to the milk, if liked. A little chopped parsley aLso makes a pleasant change. Bullock's Heart (stuffed and roasted) Soak a heart for two or three hour* | in warfn water, then trim, remove all I blood, and dry thoroughly. Stuff the inside with veal forcemeat or sage-and-onion stuffing, and secure carefully, i Cover with greased paper, put in a pan ' with plenty of dripping, and bake in a hot oven for two hours, basting frequently. Just before serving, remove the paper, baste, and froth up the heart with a little flour, then place on a hot dish and serve with about hall a pint of good thickened gravy around it, and red currant jelly separately. Ragout of Rabbit Joint a rabbit, remove the head and neck bones, and use them to make stock. Wipe the joints and roll in flour. Fry two sliced onions in the hot fat, then take out and fry the rabbit, adding more fat if needed. Put the onions and rabbit in a pan, sprinkle with pepper, ! salt, grated lemon rind, and allspice. Pour in enough stock to cover the rabbit, add a tablespoonful of tomato , sauce, cover, and stew very gently for an hour and a half, or until tender. Dish on a hot dish, slightly thicken 1 the gravy, strain over, an<y serve. Savoury Tripe Put lib of dressed tripe in cold water ' and bring it to the boil, then throw ' away the water and scrape the meat 1 free of any fat. Cut into neat squares, l put in a saucepan with three large r sliced onions and some water, season to : , taste with salt. Simmer very gently ■! (about two hours is the usual time). 1 About 15 minutes before serving mix loz of flour smoothly with half a pint of milk, and stir in. Season with pepper and simmer for ten minutes, and ! last of all add loz of butter. ■ Gingerbread" Without Eggs * Quarter pound butter, 2 breakfast--1 cups flour, 1 teacup milk, peel and sultanas. 1 heaped teaspoon soda, 1 tea- ■ cup sugar, 1 teacup golden syrup, I ■ dessertspoon spice, 2 dessertspoons ■ cinnamon or spice. Cream butter and' i sugar; dissolve soda in the milk. Mix - and bake in a shallow cake tin in a , moderate oven.

HOUSEHOLD HINTS

THINGS USEFUL TO KNOW Less labour will be required to keep the kitchen range bright if it is given a coat of wax polish after cleaning. There will be no fumes from oil stoves if a teaspoonful of common salt is added to the paraffin, and the wick never allowed to burn itself out. Sponge indelible pencil marks with methylated spirit, in which the colour dissolves. Eau de Cologne may be used for small marks.

When cooking, keep a spring clothes peg in your overall pocket. By clipping this to hot handles of saucepan lids, burnt fingers will be prevented. SWEETMAKING CORNER ORANGE CANDY Put one pound of granulated sugar into a saucepan with half a teacupful of cold water, and leave over slow heat until the sugar has quite dissolved. Now let the mixture boil, and continue to cook it until a little tried in cold water becomes firm at once. Have ready two tablespoonsful of finely chopped candied orange peel, one tablespoonful of finely chopped nuts, a tablespoonful of cream, and some orange flower water. Remove the pan from the fire and stir the contents with the wooden spoon until they begin to candy. Sprinkle in the nuts, peel, cream, and a teaspoonful of orange flower water. Beat well until the mixture is a thick mass, and then place little heaps to dry on greaseproof paper and leave till set and cold.