UNUSUAL SALADS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21277, 2 September 1932, Page 3

UNUSUAL SALADS

ORIGINAL COMBINATIONS ATTRACTIVE SELECTIONS Varied ways of making fruit and vegetable salads are shown in the entries published below, which were received in the No. 7 contest. Mips Ross, Huia Road, Papatoetoe. Summer Fruit Salad. —Make up one package of strawberry jelly crystals according to the directions and pour into individual moulds (fairly wide ones with raised centre preferred),; put away to set. Prepare equal quantities of any fruits in season —strawberries, peaches, pears, apricots, apples, elc. Add a squeeze of lemon juice (sugar if liked) and turn the jelly on to salad plates. Arrange fruit in the hollow centre. Decorate with whipped cream and strawberries. Serve with a fruit salad dressing. Dressing for fruit salad: Half-cup cream whipped, two tablespoons lemon juice; sugar to taste.

Cooked Vegetable Salad.—Prepare a mould of tomato aspic. Simmer the tomato with three cloves, six peppercorns, one small onion, for 15 minutes. Rub through a sieve and add two tablespoons gelatine softened in a little cold water. Set either in a large mquld or small ones, and when firm turn on to a bed of lettuce leaves. In the hollow of the jelly put any cooked vegetables on hand—new potatoes (sliced), green peas, beetroot, cauliflower or beans. Any two or three of these make a satisfying combination. A garnish of hardboiled eggs and olives makes an attractive salad. Serve with mayonnaise. ' Mayonnaise.—One whole egg, one teaspoonful salt, one teaspoonful mustard, one quarter /teaspoonful pepper, one teaspoonful sugar, one cup cream, quarter cup lemon juice. Mix dry ingredients and add to the egg, beating well and gradually stir in cream and add lemon juice.

A Spring Salad.—Take nice cup-shaped lettuce leaves and arrange on individual plates. Combine one cup of shredded lettuce, half-cup tomato slices, ' half-cup chopped celery, two spring onions, little grated carrot and diced beetroot. Arrange daintily in lettuce cups and garnish with white of egg rings and grated carrot. A little finely-chopped mint and carrot tops are an improvement. Serve with the following salad dressing: —Yolks of two hard-boiled eggs mixed with half-teaspoon mustard, quarter-teaspoon pepper, halfteaspoon salt, one dessertspoon sugar. Mixwell and stir in half-cup cream (or Highlander milk) and add enough lemon juice to thicken dressing. For salads all fruit and vegetables must be fresh and kept as cool and crisp as possiblo till served. Miss A. K. Paterson, Queen Street, Thames: — Butter Beans and Cauliflower Salad (cooked vegetables). —Mix one cup of cooked butter beans with a little mayonnaise or cream, also soak a whole boiled cauliflower in the same dressing. Grate one small onion and mix with the beans, also one tablespoori£ul of grated cheese. Placn the dressed beans round the cauliflower in salad bowl and decorate with raw carrot, finely grated, and strips of beetroot. This is a very nourishing and delicious salad and a useful one, too, when lettuce are scarce. Simple Salad Dressing.—Take the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, bruise them in a basin, add a teaspoonful of mustard, one of sugar, a little salt and pepper, t\vo teaspoonfuls of vinegar, a little salad oil, two tablespoonfuls of cream or milk, and mix all together until it is the consistency of thick cream; If milk is used instead of cream it is a greit improvement to add a small piece of butter.

Cucumber and Tomato Jelly Salad (uncooked vegetables).—This delicious dish is suitable either for luncheon or supper. It can be made entirely of cucumber or tomatoes, whichever preferred. Make some lemon jelly by using one ounce of gelatine to one pint of water, and the strained juice of three lemons. Heat all together, making sure the gelatine is all dissolved, and stand aside to cool. Pare and cut some cucumber into dice-shaped pieces; peel and slice some small tomatoes. Rinse out some small moulds with cold water, pour in each a little of the lemon jelly, let it almost set, then put in a few pieces of cucumber and tomato. Fill up with jelly, and set in a cool place till firm. When required turn each jelly out of the mould and serve on lettuce leaves, garnished with chopped parsley.

Orange and Banana Salad. Four oranges, four bananas, half-pint of water, six ounces of loaf sugar, a little sherry (if liked). Boil the sugar and water together a few minutes until a nice syrup. Let cool a little. Peel and divide oranges, removing every scrap of pith, slip them into the hot syrup and let get quite cold. Cut the bananas into thin rings, strain oranges, and arrange the fruits in rows down a glass or silver dish. Add the wine (if used) and strain over the syrup and serve. A few strips of prange peel added to the sugar and water, or the flavour obtained by rubbing some of the lump sugar on the rinds before peeling, will give a much stronger " orangeness " to the syrup if required.