COOKING LORE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24205, 25 January 1940, Page 16

COOKING LORE

There is no reason why we should limit ourselves to one or two ways of cooking vegetables. Most of them can be delicious, cooked in ever so many ways. And the few that are at their best when cooked by one certain method can be varied by different sauces or other finishing touches. There is the odd trick here and there that will help keep potatoes from being homely. If you are going to bake them choose one that bakes well. Some kinds of potatoes never will grow mealy in the oven, however we may try to make them so. If you have fallen in line with the fashion of eatinu the skins of baked potatoes, vou will be delighted to know of a simple way to keep the skins tender. Brush them over with a little fat or oil as you put them in the oven or in the early part of the baking period. Put over a little more, if you need to, while they are baking, and you will have tender skins that cut easily and none of the hardness that so often characterises baked-potato skins. Some vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots and beets, are so superior when they are steamed that it seems strange we do not take advantage more often of this method of cooking them. Usually it takes half again as long to steam a vegetable as it does to boil it, but it is a simple matter to get them on cooking a bit earlier. One precaution: Do not allow condensed steam to keep falling down over the vegetables in the steamer; this continual washing takes away some of their deliciousness and makes them watery. One way of preventing this is to have a fairly heavy circular piece of cloth between the steamer and the cover. Make it an inch or so wider than the top of the kettle, draw it quite tight over the top, letting the extra width hang over the outside of the steamer. The cover must fit tightly enough to hold the cloth in place, or better still, a draw string may be run around the edge of the cloth so it may be tied in place over the rim of the cover. The cloth catches and holds a good deal of the steam as it condenses.