HOME INTERESTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3349, 22 May 1918, Page 58

HOME INTERESTS.

CRULLERS. Half a pound of flour, half a tcacupful of lard, half a cupful of, butter, one cupful of sugar, one and a-half toaspoonfuls of bakingpowder, three-quarters of a pint of milk, two eggs, half a teaspoonful of essence of cinnamon or nutmeg. Sieve the flour, sugar, and baking-powder together, rub in the lard and butler; add the beaten eggs, flavouring es-. sc-nce, and milk. Mix into a. smooth dough, just soft enough to handle easily. Roll out with tits rolling-pin on a well-floured board; out into strips about Jin square, twist into different shapes, and fry 'a light brown colour in plenty of hot lard. Dredge with sugar, and serve. DATE CAKE. One pound of flour, Jib of ground rice, lib chopped and stoned dates, Jib sugar, Jib lard- or butter, half-pint of milk, three leaspoonfuls of vinegar, one teaspoonful of carbonate of soda. Rub butter into flour and sugar, add the dates. Dissolve soda in milk, and add vinegar. Mix all together to a soft consistency. Bake one hour and a-half in a moderate oven. DEVILLED FISH SCALLOPS. These are really very t delicious. If you don't like things very highly flavoured, use less mustard and Worcester sauce. Required: One pound of any cooked fish, 6oz of raw rice, one tablespoonful of chopped chutney, one tablespoonful of Worcester eauee, two tablespoonfuls each of made mustard and chopped onion, two tablespoonfuls of warmed fat or any sort of salad oil, salt, cayenne. Wash and boil the rice in boiling salted water till it is quite soft, rather over than under boiled. Drain the rice dry, saving the water from it for vegetable slock. .Next mix the fish, freed from skin and bones, and divided into flakes, with the rice and other ingredients, mixing them thoroughly, and seasoning to taste with salt and cayenne. Well grease some natural or fireproof scallop-shells, fill them with a good heap of the mixture, and bake Ihem until lightly browned. Don't forget that if the mixture p.oems dry you should add more sauce, or milk, or vegetable stock, or something to make it nice and moist. If you haye no scallop-shells, use a piedish for the mixture. If oily fish is used, leave out%the warmed fat. NOVEL STEAK AND KIDNEY PUDDING. For those who do not like suet crust,* boil some macaroni till quite soft. Take a piedish .and cut the macaroni into lengths of the same length as the dish. Then take some steak cut into small pieces, and place in a jam-jar with a piece of bullock's kidney, also cut small. Put this jar in the oven, covering the beef and the kidneys with a little water, and a tiny pinch of herbs. Put a saucer on the top and cook until it xs nearly done. Now arrange a layer of macaroni, then a layer of beef and kidney in the piedish until it is quite filled, then give a good sprinkling of breadcrumbs. Bake for an hour in a hot oven. By cooking the meat first in the jam-jar you get it very t«aider. SAVOURY STEAK AND CELERY. Half a pound of beef steak, Joz of dripping, a little flour, nearly half a pint of stock or hot water, a dessertspoonful of sago, pepper and salt, one stick or more of fresh celery. If the steak is at all coarse, bang it well with a rolling-pin. Then cut it in strips and dip each in a little flour, to which salt and pepper have been added. Fry them in the fat, remove them, and add enough flour to make a smooth paste with the dripping in tho pan. Let this brown nicely, and then add the stock or water. Put back the meat, add tho sago, pepper and salt, and a stick of celery, cleaned, and cut into lin lengths. Bring the whole to boling point, skim, and let it simmer very slowly, for from two to two and a-half hours. Turn on to a hot dish and serve at once. The casserole is excellent to use for this stew, the celery giving a very delicious flavouring. THICK CARROT SOUP. No meat is needed for this soup. Make o. stock with ftlb haricot beans ■ boiled in a auart of water; then strain, and put the beans on one side for future use. Clean and slice thinly three or four good-sized carrots, and grate an extra carrot._ Put the sliced ones into your sausepan with a- little dripping or suet, one teaspoonful of sugar, and a seasoning of salt and pepper. Cook, with the lid on, for about 15 minutes; add the bean stock, a oprig of parsley, one small onion, .and, if obtainable, a bay leaf. Boil all very slowly for about .an hoiir, shako in n tablespoonful of rice, and again cook till this is tender. Add the grated carrot; again boil slowlv for about 15 minutes, and pass nil through a sieve, or serve as it is, first rom.r/ing the bay leaf and the parsley.