HOME INTERESTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2106, 5 July 1894, Page 47

HOME INTERESTS.

Delectable Salads.

Chicken Salad. — Take the meat of the fowl, and trim it by taking the skin off and cutting it in dice or slices, as most convenient. Then put it on a dish, and splash it with the juice of naif a lemon ; sprinkle a little salt over, and if you have it, a pinch of celery salt too ; grate just a hint of nutmeg, and mix with a good pinch of cayenne and a suspicion of white sugar, with about a saltspoonful of the rind of the lemon grated ; distribute this mixture over, and then add either a 1 ttle fresh tarragon in shreds — say, enough to fill a saltspoon — or use a teaspoonful of tarragon vinegar ; cover up, and leave while you pile up the salad proper. Take a good-sized dish, and put in the centre either a couple of lettuces pulled to pieces, not cut, or oae lettuce and a head* of endive in sprigs, and ab^ut enough sliced cucumb-r to fill a gill measure. Pour some of the dressing over — this is detailed below — then pile the chicken meit on. I forgot to mention that the seasoning given is enough for about half a pound, but you may be as liberal in the matter of the meat as circumstances permit, so that you are equally generous with the seasoning. Now go over with more dressing; and this should cot be stinted. Some scraps of onion or shallot, in the smallest shreds, will give such a zest, supposing there is no rooted dislike to their flavour. Now for the finishing touches. Have a couple of eggs boiled hard, and shelled, and cut in slices, and some beetroot boiled and sliced, the thinner the better ; the latter should be seasoned at the last moment with vinegar and pepper and a dash of salt, and remember a hint of sugar should the vegetable not be quite up to the mark. Drain well, and put a ring round the green, reserving the eggs for the outer border ; or arrange a little tuft of cress or aheap of shredded celery-be-tween the beetroot slices, if you please, and then embed the yolks of eggs in, leaving the whites to be chopped up and put about the dish where they will be most effective; that is, near tho green or red, not in contact with the celery. It is astonishing how many salads, and other dishes too, are marred in appearance by inattention to such commonplace details as I am de* scribing. There ! Now there is nothing to do but eat it, and the result will be generally-ex-pressed wonder that no one thought of some such seasoning before. Let me remind you that in place of beetroot, some ripe tomatoes are excellent ; or some shredded tomatoes may with advantage be used in the salad ; the principle is the thing to grasp— viz., piquancy is to be the key-note of this dish. The dressing will be found just as good with rabbit or veal as with chicken, and if you have a supply of it in the larder and exercise your ingenuity wonderful are the dishes you will sen I to table, no matter how scanty the Rupply of meat ; and I know of nothing more likely to remove the stigma that in some houses is attached to cold vegetables of every sort ; indeed it is not unlikely that you will get some " left overs " on purpose to demonstrate your skill in their transformation ; for want of a better name, them, here is the

Piquant Dressing. — I must again assume this time tbat you aro in possestion of a mortar. Put in it, supposing that you wish for about half a pint of dressing, a tablespoonful of cooked ham that has been chopped, then pound it with the yolk of a hard-boiled egg, and odd the yolk of a raw one a little at a time, pounding constantly. Tiring work to do we'l singlehanded, but think of the exercise aud the benefits derivable ! Take a bottle of good salad oil — it cannot be too good — and add it drop by droo ; this, you must know, is all-important ; and when about a gill and a-half has been added, stop. The mixture should be quite thick Now thin it down with vinegar, both plain and flavoured, or use some lemon or lime juice in place of some of it ; anything from clear lightcoloured pickles comes in handy, and we all know how the surplus vinegar does accumulate ; about a teaspoonf ul of onion juice i ' a feature of this dressing, and this you get by slicing and pounding the onion, or by chopping and wringing in a cloth. The Spanish are to be preferred in every respect to those of our own country. Then you will give a final seasoning of cayonno, salt— some of it celery, please— white pepper, and a little grated lemon peel and some French mustard. The latter is not to be foond in every house_ ; then the best English must bo used as a substitute ; but on occasions like the present don't take it from the cruet, but mix a little fresh with some of your vinegar or lemon juice. A teaspoonful of tomato conserve, should you chance to have a bottle going, is a first rate addition ; the veriest suspicion of anchovy essence is worth a host of other seasonings ; I almost fear to name it, le*t the novice may suppose that the mixture sbould ta«te of anchovy. That would ruin it Tho result is something that shall pet those not in tbe secret wondering " whatever is tbe delicious flavour in the dressing?" Experienced cooUs will see tho drift of my remarks. It often happens— does it not ?—? — though there is not the least reason why it should, that the root of a tongue gets left over and a portion of it wasted. Try a bit of it in place cf the ham, or in addition. I gave the above in its entirety to an acquaintance, who took tho trouble to pound up the inferior bits of the fowl in the same mariner, with particularly good results. Another uses curry paste and omits the mustard ; and this is successful and in no way interferes with toe preliminary dressing of the r hicken.

Boiied Beef Salad. — This is famous, but the m»at must be tender, and should be only slightly salted. A piece of brisket or flat ribs is as good as or better than any other part. I may remind you that tongue — even the despised root— will come as a dainty dish in the same guise. Take some thin slices and set them as'de covered, then chop up any remains and mix with some tomatoes in dice, celery salt, and pepper, which ought to be black, and a little grated horse-radish ; do not omit a squeeze of lemou juice and a pinch of white sugar, for they will bring out the flavour of the tomatoes and the horse-radish. Then add mustard-and-cress, or watercress, or lettuce — any or all ; . you see 1 am here leaving the proportions to you Mix a hard-boiled egg yolk in tho bowl with a dash of mustard and a gill of oil— these are the proportions ; the quantity is regulated by the s'ze of the salad — and then thin with a little good walnut or mushroom ketchup and a spoonful of hot sauce, and vinegar to suit the palate ; ordinary good brown vinegar will do. Toss the whole, and lay the slices of meat on the top, with a little horse-radish here and there, and a few sprigs of green, and send the cruebto table with it. This is the sort of snack for days that are so tryiDg — we all kuow them, when people say it is too hot to eat, aud they feel as if they can touch nothing ; but, strange to say, it is one that seems quite as acceptable on -a cold day ; and when tomatoes are not availab'e beetroot comes in just as well— some say better. Should there be any horse-radish sauca left over from a joint it may be used, fome in the dressing aDd some over the top sices of beef. Some hard eggs make a more substautial dish of it ; or, for increased piquaucy, a sma I" quantity of hot chutney should be borue in miud.