THE HOME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15521, 31 January 1914, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE HOME.

TOMATO KEOIPES.

Tomatoes ala Chasseur Procure about l|lb of ripe tomatoes, blanch them for a few seconds in boiling water, then remove the skins, and cut the tomatoes into slices. Heat up in a stewpan loz of good cooking butter, and fry in it two peeled and finely chopped shallots, -.vita two slices of streaky

bacon cut into fine strips; the shallots must be a pale fawn colour, not brown. Put in the tomatoes, season them with salt and pepper and a pinch of castor sugar. Stir over the fire for a few minutes, then sprinkle over a dessertspoonful of flour, stir again, and add gradually a gill of stock; allow to simmer for about ten minutes; cover the pan, and keep hot fill required. Meanwhile peel and stem jib of small, fresh cup mushrooms, cut them into thin shreds or slices crossways, and toss them in a frying pan with a little best olive oil previously heated over a quick fire. Season with salt and pepper. Make a border with the mushrooms on a round dish, put the peppered tomato stew in the centre, sprinkle a little chopped parsley over the tomatoes, and serve hot. Tomato Risotto.— Pick over, then wash in cold water and drain about 4oz of best rice; blanch—i.e., bring it to the boilthen drain again. Melt in a pan, preferably an earthenware casserole, loz of butter, put in the rice, and stir over the fire for a few minutes, then add six ripe tomatoes, previously peeled by dipping in hot water, and cut into slices or shreds. Season with salt and pepper, and stir over the fire till thoroughly hot, then add gradually a pint of good stock. Boil up. and let cook very gently from thirty-five to forty-five minutes. Last of all, add loz of grated Gruyere or Parmesan* cheese. Dish up and serve hot. Note.— pinch of saffron can be added if liked; this is considered by many an improvement. .

Tomato Pudding Scald and peel about eight medium-sized ripe tomatoes, then cut them into slices, not too thinly, and remove some of the pulp. Have ready a buttered pudding basin or plain mould, and line it with breadcrumbs, then with fienly cut slices of streaky bacon, then place in the tomatoes in layers, alternately with breadcrumbs and a little finely. shredded bacon or chopped beef suet. Sprinkle over some finely chopped parsley or other savoury herbs, season each layer with salt and pepper and a little grated nutmeg, and sprinkle over rather less than loz of warm butter. When the basin or mould is nearly full cover it with a piece of bread dipped in oil or warm butter. Tie a buttered cloth over the mould, and steam or boil the pudding for about two hours. Turn out on a hot dish, pour a little tomato sauce round the base of the pudding, and serve not. Baked Tomatoes and Rice.—Proceed as directed in the recipe for tomato risotto, and when the tomatoes and rice are sufficiently cooked place into a buttered, fireproof, earthernware, or china baking dish. Sprinkle over some breadcrumbs and a little oiled butter, as well as a little grated cheese, and bake in a fairly hot oven for about twenty minutes, or put the dish under the grill or salamander sufficiently long to brown the surface. Then place on another dish covered with a folded napkin, and serve hot. SIMPLY-MADE SWEETS. Honeycomb Toffee.—lilb sugar, £ pint of water, £lb of glucose, loz of carbonate of soda. Put the water, sugar, and glucose into a fair-sized saucepan and boil until it turns the i palest lemon (almost imperceptible, it I should be so faint). Take off immediately and lightly stir in the carbonate of soda well crushed; stir lightly, it will much increase in size and froth up. When well risen, turn at once on to a thiclky buttered large meat dish. Do not shake or touch it or it will sink and collapse. When set and cold, cut into pieces with a knife. Turkish Delight.—lib of sugar, $ pint of water, eight sheets of gelatine, one level teaspoonful of arrowroot (or • cornflour). Soak the gelatine in the water for half an hour, add the sugar, dissolve over the fire and bring to boiling point. Boil for five minutes, stirring all the time. Blend the arrowroot with a little cold water and strain in. Boil one minute longer. Take off and keep stirring. When a little cool, add some hazels or pistachio nuts blanched, and flavour well with rose-water. Pour half into a wet plate, colour the rest with carmine and set in second plate.; When firm, turn out, roll in crushed icinjr sugar and cut into blocks. Assafiey Toffee Put into a delicatelyclean pan lib of brown sugar with 4oz ot butter and one tablespoonful of water; bring this all to the boil, then add a dessertspoonful of essence of vanilla and a gill of cream. Boil till on dropping a little into water it will stiffen, then colour it delicately with a drop or two of liquid carmine; let it boil for just two minutes longer, then lift it off the fire, and let it go off the boil before pouring off on to oiled tin», and cut up when nearly cold. Cocoanut Cream Ice.— to the ball 31b of castor sugar and a pint of water with half a teaspoonful of cream of tartar, then lift the pan from the fire at once, and rub some of the sugar against the sides of the pan till it whitens; now mix it into the rest till it is all creamy white, when you stir in the grated white flesh of a large cocoanut; mix it well together, then pour it into an oiled tin, and leave it till quite stiff and hard. Boil a second amount precisely in the same way. colouring it a soft pink with a few drops of carmine; then run a thick layer of this over the white slab, and when this has also set hard, and is thoroughly cold, cut it through into bars with a sharp knife. Or if you have a thermometer, try the following : Boil one gill of water and lib of granulated sugar to 240 degrees, stir in a peeled and grated cocoanut, and cook for ten minutes; then add the stifflywhipped whites of two eggs, and cook a ' few minutes longer. Pour between bars I on a buttered slab, and cut in half whei i cold. f LITTLE CAKES. ' Banbury Cakes. —Ingredients for th< 1 mixture : Jib of currants, lib of mixec • peel, 4oz of butter, one teaspoonful o: ! cinnamon, 2oz spice. Method : Beat th< 1 butter to a cream, add the peel finelj chopped, the currants cleaned and stalked Mix in the spices until all are thorough!} blended. Take some puff or rich shor paste and roll it out quite thin. Cut intc oblong shapes. Brush round the edge o one piece with the white of an egg, an< spread a liberal quantity of the mixtun on it. Place another piece of paste 01 top, pressing it at the edges, so that th egg will join them. When all art read; for the oven, place your cakes on a bale ing tin, and brush them over with th remainder of the egg whipped up wit! some white sugar. Bake in a fairly ho oven for 15 to 20 minuntes. Oatcakes.Rub 2oz of clarified drip ping into Jib of oatmeal with a small tea spoonful of baking powder and a pinch c salt; make it all into a smooth, stiff dnug with cold water, roll it out fairly thin cut it into triangles, and bake on a ho greased girdle, turning it once in the cook ing; or bake on a buttered baking til in a very hot oven for a few minutes. Swiss Cakes Ingredients: Jib buttei one egg, one teaspoonful of sugar, Jl flour, little milk and baking powdei Method : Rub the butter into the floui then rub the egg into it, and add suga and baking powder. Make it all into paste with the milk. Roll out three time with a rolling pin, cut into diamon shaped pieces, and bake. Brighton Bocks.—lngredients: Jib «. flour. 1 Jib of sugar, Jib of butter, Jib < currants, 2oz of candied peel, one tea spoonful of baking powder, three eggt Method : Mix the flour and baking pow der well together, add the currants an peel, put aside; beat the butter to a cream add the sugar, beat again, add the eggs well beaten, and beat well again, then, ad the other ingredients, drop in rough heap with a fork into well-greased patty pans and bake. These rocks are delicious.

HOUSEHOLD HINTS. To prevent iron mould : Before using copper, well rub with a clean paraffin rag. Be always sure to fill the copper quite full of water. When finished, never let the soapy water remain in with the idea of using for cleaning purposes, as this is almost sure to cause iron mould. A capital idea is to empty copper before the fire is quite out. This enables it to become absolutely dry, therefore leaving no possible chance for iron mould.

Another remedy for ink stains : Well rub any ink stains in linen with a ripe tomato cut in half, and the stains will quite disappear in the wash. This remedy also proved satisfactory in removing ink from dark cloth, the article beirg sponged i with cold rain water after tomato was applied. To remove egg stains: When table linen is stained with egg, it should be soaked in cold water before being sent to the laundry. The stains come out quite easily if treated in this way, but hot water sets them and makes them doubly hard to remove. A cork inside a bottle: To remove a cork that has fallen into a bottle, tie a button that will easily go through the neck of the bottle to a stout piece of twine, and drop it inside. Turn the receptacle upside down, being careful to allow the cork to enter the neck in front of the button. A pull of the cord will then extract it, or bring it sufficiently near the surface to be removed with the aid of a corkscrew. Household wisdom: Wear a sewing apron when ironing, having in it a big pocket holding thread, needles, thimble, buttons, hooks, and eyes, etc. When waiting for the irons to heat, any missing buttons, etc., may be replaced or slight tears repaired, thus reducing the regular mending. A pudding hint: When making a plain suet pudding or roly-poly put it in an ordinary straight 31b jam jar. Well grease the jar and cover with a saucer, and steam. The pudding will be fountf more satisfactory than if boiled in a cloth. When making coffee : Those who wish to obtain a really good cup of coffee will find it an excellent plan to place the coffee into a saucer and put it into a fairly hot oven for about three minutes before making. This brings out the fla vour.

Mice object to campnor, which ? if put in places frequented by them, will drive them away completely. Try using soapy water for making starch. It is said that the linen will be given a gloss by this means, and that the irons will not stick. To re-polish a black marble clock: Clean with cold water and soap. Then rub dry with a flannel, and polish with white v&x applied with a piece of flannel. Here is a very good way to clean decanters. Take small pieces of blotting-paper and roll them up. Put them into the decanter, and nearly fill with water. Shake well and empty, refill with cold water, and the glass will be beautifully clear. Vinegar is also very good for removing stains in glass bottles and decanters.

Cleaning chased silver : Brush it thoroughly with whiting, then wash with a little turpentine and soap, afterwards using a little powder polish with a good chamois leather, and it will look equal to new.

The enamel bath: To clean an enamel bath, take one tablespoonful of dry salt. moisten with spirits of turpentine, and nib this well in the bath— should be quite dry—then wipe it over with a clean cloth.