THE HOME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13390, 19 January 1907, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE HOME.

THE TABLE

VEGETABLE COOKERY

Most people enjoy salads during the summer months. You have your ingredients to hand in these despised cold cooked vegetables, and by various combinations of vegetables an almost endless variety of salads mav bo obtained.

For instance, peas and potato, French beans and lettuce, beetroot and potato, mixed cooked vegetables, etc., all make palatable salads.

All that is required is to cut them up neatly, arrange them daintily in a dish or salad"bowl, and serve them accompanied by some good salad dressing or mayonnaise sauce.

Or, again, if a salad is not required, many kinds of vegetables re-heat admirably. They may either"be reheated in a saucepan with a generous lump of —peas, kidney and French beans, are excellent done mis way --or steamed or put in a dish in the oven and heated slowly through. It is a thoughtless and careless cook who would condemn them to the dustbin or pig-pail.

BROAD UKAXS A LA VICTORIA. Required : Two pounds of broad beans, • half a pint of stock, the yolk of one egg, a-quarter of a pint of cream, salt and pepper. Shell the beans, wash them, and put them in a pan of fast-boiling salted water. Let them boil quickly for ten minutes, then drain off the water. Next add to them the stock, and let them boil gently until tender: they will probably take from ten to fifteen minutes. Strain the stock into a basin and keep the beans hot. Heat up theyolk of the. egg, strain it into the (ream. mixing them well together. Put it in a saucepan with the stock; stir it over the tire for three or four minutes until the sauce has thickened. It must be allowed to get quite hot, but it must not reach actual boiling point, or it will curdle. Put the beans in a hot dish, and pour the sauce over, then serve it at once. MUSHROOMS A LA BORDELAISE. Required: Half a pound of medium-sized mushrooms, two tablespoonfuls of salad oil, three tablespoonfuls of melted butter, on© teaspoonful of chopped parsley, half a teaspoonful of chopped shallot, the juice of a lemon, salt and pepper. Choose mushrooms as much of one size as possible; stalk and peel them. Put them on a dish : sprinkle with the salad oil, salt and pepper, and leave them in this for one hour, turning them occasionally. Then put the butter in a saucepan with chopped parsley, shallot, mushrooms and lemon-juice. Stir this over the tire for ten minutes. Arrange the mushrooms in « hot dish, and pour the : butter, etc.. over. Serve as hot as pis- j sible. j STUFFED TOMATOES A I.A VICTORIA. Required; Six even-sized tomatoes, one lettuce, a little cress, an inch or two of j cucumber or beetroot, four tablespoonfuls i of salad oil, two small tablespoonfuls oi j vinegar, six olives, one and a-halt minces of i fresh butter, one and a-half ounces of an- j chovies. With a sharp-pointed knife ■•- j move the top of each tomato, then carefully scoop out the inside, taking care not j to let the knife cut through the side of the ; tomatoes. Wash and prepare the salad. Tear the lettuce and cress into small pieces, and cut the cucumber or beetroot into very j small dice. Mix the _.lad together, sprinkle j it with the oil and vinegar, salt and pepper; | then fill each tomato with the salad. Next J pound the anchovies and butter together in | a mortar, adding, if necessary, to make it j •a good colour, a few drops of essence of an- 1 ehovy. Now rub the mixture through a sieve*. Remove the stones from the olives . and fill in the cavity with a piece' of the . anchovy butter; then place an olive in the centre of each tomato. Arrange the toma- 1 toes ou a dish nestling among some leaves of I lettuce or sprigs of watercress. j CUCUMBER A LA CREME. Required : One large cucumber, one. ounce j of butter, one gill of cream, salt and pepper, j castor sugar and nutmeg to taste, one tea- 1 spoonful of chopped parsley. Peel the encumber and cut in half lengthways. Put it I in a pan of boiling salted water, and let it boil for 15 minutes, then drain off the water, j Melt the butter in a stewpan, add the cream . and the cucumber, and let it simmer gently, | stirring it all the tint?. Season it carefully j with salt, pepper, ca-stor sugar, and grated nutmeg. Put it in a hot dish, and sprinkle | the chopped parsley over it. FRENCH BEANS A LA MAITRE D'HOTEL. Required: About one pound of French | beans, a tiny piece of soda, two ounces of I butter, half a lemon, salt and pepper, one J teaspoonful of chopped parsley. Remove 1 all stringy pieces from the beans, then shred them finely with a sharp knife. Have ready a pan three parts lull of boiling J water: add to it a teaspoonful of salt and j the soda. When it is fast boiling throw in the beans, and let them cook quickly, with | the lid off the pan. until they are tender; they will probably take ten minutes. When j the* beans begin to sink to the bottom of j the pan it is a. sign they are done. Drain 1 them well in a colander. Melt the butter in a saucepan, put back the beans, add the juice of the half lemon, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss these gently about in the pan. Avoid as much as possible using j a spoon, as it would mash up the beans and so spoil their appearance. Sprinkle in the finely-chopped parsley, and serve the beans ! in a hot dish. 1 PEAS A LA CALAIS. Required: One and a-half pints of shelled peas, one ounce of butter, two ounces of grated cheese, one gill of milk, two tablespoonfuls of cream, salt and pepper. Shell the peas; then cook them until tender m boiling water, with a sprig of mint, a. lump of sugar, and a little salt. When they are i tender drain them well. Put the milk and butter in a saucepan and bring them to the boil, then stir in the cheese over the. tire until it is melted. Now add the cream and peas and a. seasoning of salt and pepper. Serve them in a hot dish, with some neat croutons of bread arranged as a border round. VEGETABLE MARROW OR CUCUMBER AU GRATIS. Required: One marrow or two cucumbers, ouo ounce of butter, two teaspoonfuls of chopped parsley, one teaspoonful of chopped onion, a gill of brown or white sauce, browned crumbs, salt and pepper. Peel and slice the marrow, and remove the seeds. Thickly butter a fire-proof dish or a piedish. Sprinkle over the inside some parsley and onion. Next put in a layer of crumbs, then some slices of marrow, next some seasoning, then more crumbs, and so on until the. dish is full; then pour in the sauce. This is not absolutely necessary, though, if you have any at hand it is ;i great improvement to the, dish. Sprinkle oven the top some browned crumbs, and bake it in a moderate oven until the marrow is tender; Then serve it iu the dish in which it was cooked. SALAD. HOW IT SHOULD BE MIXED. TWO large potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve. Smoothness and softness to the salad give; Of mordant mustard add a single spoon, Distrust the condiment that bites too soon: But deem it not. Thou man of herbs, a, fault i To add a double Quantity of salt. Four times the spoon with oil of Lucca j crown, And twice with vinegar procured from town. Some flavour needs it, .and your poet hog*, The pounded yellow of two well-boiled epsrs, Let onion's atoms lurk within the bowl. And, scarce suspected, animate the whole. I And, lastly, in the flavoured compound toss A magic spoonful of anchovy sauce. Oh! great and glorious and herbaceous treat. i 'Twould tempt the dying anchorite to eat. Rack to the world he'd turn his weary soul. And plunge his lingers in the salad bowl. HOUSEHOLD HINTS. If a piece of soda is mixed with the blacklead when cleaning a grate it will remove all grease. To remove unpleasant smells from a sick room sprinkle a few drops of vinegar or can de Cologne on a hot shovel. iiub tarnished silver with a. little wood alcohol and powdered whiting with a soft cloth, and then polish with another soft, dry cloth, and the silver will appear equal to new. To polish finger-nails get some tiuctuie of myrrh, and with a. piece of chamois-lea-ther, on which you have sprinkled a few drops, polish the nails, finishing off with a dry polish. {