SOME USEFUL RECIPES.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2543, 22 June 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

SOME USEFUL RECIPES.

COCOANUT CONES. Whisk three eggs till quite light, then add gradually lOoz of sifted sugar and 6oz of grated cocoanut; line some baking tins with white paper, and drop spoonfuls of the mixture in a cone shape on this, and bake in a rather cool oven until delicately coloured. It is easier to force the mixture out on to the paper with a forcing pipe with a wide pipe instead of a spoon. A very delicate form of this sweet is made by using the whites of the egg only, beating them to a meringue with the sifted sugar, flavouring it with a few drops of essence of vanilla or lemon (a broad rose or orange flower water is used), then stirring into it quickly the grated nut, finishing off as before, and letting it crisp, but not colour, iu the oven. SIMNEL CAKE. Simnel cake is a North of England dainty. In the north country it is usually oaten on Mid-Lent or Mothering Sunday, as it is called from the old inediteval custom of treating this as a break in the severity of the Lenten fast, and so making it a holiday on which young people and servants wont to visit their parents, or in some oases the parish or mother church, hence the name. It should be kept for at least a month or two, and preferably three or four. Wash and dry -jib of currants, pick .jib sultanas, atone jib Valentia raisins, and mince roughly 4oz candied peel. Beat 6oz of butter to a cream with 6oz sugar, and mix it all with four wellbeaten eggs, working them well together. Mix in jib sifted flour, half a toaspoonful of baking powder, one teaspoontul of mixed spice, one toaspoonful of ground cinnamon, half a toaspoonful of ground ginger, and, lastly, the fruit, &o. Then add, if necessary (this depends a great deal on the eggs), half a gill of milk. The dough should be springy and easily stirred. Lino the cake mould with several folds of buttered paper, pour in the mixture, smooth it over on the top, and sprinkle this first with a little water, then with sugar and sweetmeats, and bake it for an hour and a-half, protecting it both above and below from burning.

POTATO PIE. An economical and savoury dish. Boil till nearly done 21b of potatoes ; cut them in quarters, and place them in a good-sized pie-dish. Soak for about fifteen minutes one ounce of tapioca and sprinkle over the potatoes; then lay over the potatoes 4oz of onion, out up fine; cover with bread crumbs ; then pour over all ft teaspoontul of olive oil in a toacupful of hot water. Sweet herbs, sage, or any flavouring may be added as desired. This pie may bo made with an ordinary crust. MACARONI CHEESE. Sufficient for six people : —jib of macaroni (in sticks), jib of cheese, 1 pint of milk, loz butter, popper, salt. Method: —Put jib of macaroni (in sticks), into a double saucepan, and cover with boiling water, adding a little salt to keep it from sticking together. Let simmer for half an hour, pour off water, and put on 1 pint of cold milk, let this simmer half an hour; take jib nice American cheese, and chop up very finely (do not grate, or it will not taste so much of the cheese when done). Butter well a white pie-dish, and put in the bottom a layer of macaroni (which will bo soft, having been simmered in the milk), then a layer of cheese, and a little pepper and salt, and so on, till your dish is full; then pour on the top the remainder of the milk the macaroni may not have soaked up, put some little pieces of butter on top, and put in a moderate oven to brown nicely. This will take about twenty minutes or half an hour, according to the heat of the oven. This is a very convenient dish as well os a very economical one, as it can be made in the morning while attending to other cooking, and then put in the oven at night, if needed for supper, covered with an old plate for about three-quarters of an hour, when it gets well heated, and no one would know but what it was made in the evening.