HOME INTERESTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3517, 9 August 1921, Page 50

HOME INTERESTS.

ONIONS IN GRAVY. Peel the onions. (Of course, you know that if you hold them over the hot stove while you do it they won’t make you cry.) Throw them into boiling salt and water, and cook them fast for five- minutes. Then drain them. Put them into a pan in which there is room for all of them to stand at the bottom. Pour in enough good brown gravy to come- half-way up their sides. Add plenty of pepper and salt. Cover the pan, and simmer gently till the- gravy is so much reduced that there i 3 only just enough of it to coat the sides of th.o onions. By this time they will be quite tender. Take themout carefully, arrange them in a hot dish, and pour over them the little drop of gravy that remains. It will be so thick that it will mask them completely. These onions make a very pretty decoration for a dish of mince, particularly if small ones are chosen. They also cat well with mashed potato, boiled rice, or any other vegetable that has not much taste. BREAST OF VEAL WITH GREEN PEAS. The dried pea-s in packets will do quite well for this, provided that they are 'prepared before-hand, according to their directions. Cut the veal into small pieces. Roll each piece in flour, pepper, and salt. Melt two tablespoonfuls cf dripping in a stewpan, and fry the- veal lightly in it. When all the pieces are browned add cne breakfastcupful of cold water and a small bunch of parsley. Cover th-e pan and let it cook gently for one hour and a-half after it has com© to the boil. It must simmer quite steadily, but not boil fast at all. Now put in the pea-s, taking care that there is enough liquid to cover them. When they are tender, arrange the meat in the middle of a- dish, make a border of pea-s round, and pour the gravy over all. Veal cooked in this way is always tender and delicious. JELLIED RABBIT. Cut up a nice tender young rabbit, and soak it in salt and water for one hour. Then put it into a stewpan with just enough water to cover it, pepper and salt to taste, two large onions, and a pinch of mixed herbs. Cover the pan and simmer very slowly indeed, till the flesh is so tender that it will leave the bones. Then take all the bones away carefully, and r-a ck away the moat, into a wetted mould, which has been d-ccor-ated with parsley or slices of hardboiled egg. Boil the gravy fast- for 10 minutes with the bones in it, and the cover T the pan. Then strain it over the meat. Put all away till quite cold. WHITE YEGETABLES. Peel four turnips, and cut them into little cubes. Wash a head of celery, and cut the eatable part into smallest possible pieces. Peel four or six large potatoes, and quarter them. Melt a tablespoonful of butter or dripping in a saucepan. Toss the celery and turnips in tile fat till they are well buttered all over, but not- browned. Then stir in a good teaspoonful of flout and half a pint of boding waiter. Stir till the sauce thickens. Then cover the pan and simmer for one hour. Now put in the potatoes, and simmer for one hour more. Just before serving stir in a little boiling milk and a good pinch of mixed spice. JIF.WILLED A 1 -MONDS. Blanch lib of sweet almonds by pouring boiling water on them and letting them stand for it few minutes; at the end of that time they will slip out of their skins quite easily. Dry them m iv clean cloth. Split them lengthwise, and put them in a flat tin on the fire oi in the oven, and turn it about frequently, so that the almonds may be well buttered all over. Leave them till they are quite crisp and brown. Then mix together salt and cayenne pepper oil a clean plate—one ©altspoonful of cayenne to each teaspoonful of salt. Drop tlie almonds into this, and rub them about in ii, so that they n.>*y pick up as much as possible. Store

them in an airtight tin. When wanted, j heat them lip in the oven for a few minutes, i so tiia c they may be quite crisp when eaten. FRIED CHEESE BISCUITS. You can serve them at tea, as a change from sandwiches; or, if you prefer, hand them at the end of lunch or dinner in place of fresh cheese and biscuits. Take .any bit of pastry which is left over from a tart. Roll out thinly, and sprinkle it well with grated cheese, pepper, salt, and mustard powder, not too much mustard). Fold it up, and roll it out twice. Then sprinkle it again, and roll it again twice, making as thin, at the end, as an English wafer biscuit. Cut it into rounds with a tiny fancy cutter. Have ready a pan of deep fat, heated till it stops bubbling and begins to give off a thin blue smoke. Put the biscuits into a frying basket, and plunge t-lieiu in. In a very few seconds they will puff up, just as baked pastry does, and will turn crisp and brown. Drain them well. Serve them on a folded napkin, with a decoration of parsley. You can make a good quantity at a time, if you like, and store them in a tin.