Quick-To-Prepare Meals

Southland Times, Issue 23828, 27 May 1939, Page 17

Quick-To-Prepare Meals

A meal in 15 minutes is a problem that everyone comes up against some time—and it is almost an every-day problem for bachelor girls whose business ties preclude any complicated catering. QUICK TOMATO SOUP Take Jib tomatoes, lib onions, salt, pepper, pinch of sugar, grated cheese, dripping, 11 pints boiling water. Peel and cut up the onions and fry in the dripping for a few minutes. Plunge the tomatoes into boiling water and after a moment or two remove them and peel. Slice, add to the onions, and cook for a little while. Then add boiling water and seasoning, simmer till everything is tender, put through a sieve, and serve very hot. Serve plain or with grated cheese. BACON AND EGG PIE Take 2 hard-boiled eggs, |oz butter, loz flour, a few slices streaky bacon, milk, potatoes. Cover the bottom of a pie-dish with the streaky bacon. Add the slices of hard-boiled egg. Make a white sauce by frying the butter and flour together (taking care not to let it get brown) and stirring in the milk, making a thick, smooth mixture. Pour into the

pie-dish and cover with mashed potatoes. Bake in a hot oven for about fifteen minutes. SWEET SOUFFLE OMELET Add a little castor sugar to the mixture and proceed as above, but omit the parsley and use less salt. Any jam or small fruits, such as chopped apricots, bananas, and fresh raspberries, mav be folded in. FRIED BANANAS AND BACON Take 1 banana, 2 thin slices bacon, toast. Peel the banana and cut into slices. Take some thinly-cut bacon and fry in a pan until crisp. Put to one side and fry the slices of banana in the bacon fat. Serve very hot on pieces of crisp, dry toast. This dish may be served on a bed of plain boiled rice or puree potatoes. SCALLOPS OF FISH Take about 6oz of any left-over fish, 4oz breadcrumbs, pepper, salt, loz butter or margarine, 1 good tablespoonful flour, 2 tablespoonfuls milk. Melt the butter in a pan, gradually mixing in the flour and milk. Stilwell until the mixture thickens. Then flake the fish into a basin, addins the

breadcrumbs and salt and pepper to taste. Grease two scallop shells and put half the mixture of fish in each. Then pour over the sauce. Sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs and bake in the oven until brown from five' to 10 minutes. BERKSHIRE EGGS Take 2 eggs, 1 small onion, steaky bacon, a few dabs of butter, salt, pepper, thyme and sage. Butter a flat casserole dish, sprinkle with the finely-cut onion, and break in the eggs. Chop some rashers of cold streaky boiled bacon over the eggs and add little dabs of butter. Season with pepper and salt, a little chopped thyme, arid sage. Cover over, and put into a hot oven for about 10 minutes or until eggs are set. MINUTE STEAK Take Jib chuck-steak, salad oil, seasoning, green butter. Cut the steak into slices about the thickness of a plate. Place them on a board and beat well with a rolling-pin. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, brush over with salad oil, and grill. Serve with or without green butter, made by mixing some chopped parsley into a i little butter, with salt and pepper to taste. Put a nut of this on each slice when serving. Garnish with watercress and serve at once.