RECIPES FOR THE WEEK.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20233, 17 February 1934, Page 20 (Supplement)

RECIPES FOR THE WEEK.

Blending of Vegetables With Palatable Results. SOME TASTY DISHES. (By A FRENCH CHEF.) Vegetables are overlooked by many cooks, who expend all their te ’hnique on the preparation of the main course, the “bouillons” and “bisques,” the hot breads and desserts And when the vegetable is considered, it is given scant attention. For the most part, it is steamed or boiled with salt, and butter added. The simple methods are always good, but if one follows them exclusively it obscures the possibilities that these delicate flavours have to please the palate, which is always seeking for the surprise element in food. Vegetables have the virtue of combining with each other amicably, to an extent that would amaze those who ha\e not yet attempted combining them, except in the more common forms. Here are a few combined vegetable dishes which are extraordinarily palatable:— Spinach With Mushrooms. Put one tablespoonful butter into a saucepan, arid let it melt and get hot. Add to this six pounds of spinach that has been carefully washed. Let it cook for ten minutes. Lift the spinach with a fork from time to time to see that it does not burn. Put it through a sieve with a potato masher. Reduce the spinach juice to almost nothing by boiling, and add it to the spinach. In a saucepan put one tablespoonful of butter, r -oth it and two tablespoonfuls flour. Stir them together on the fire until they are smooth. Put in the spinach, stir it well with the flour or paste. Add salt, pepper, and a little nutmeg. Let it boil for a minute. Then set it aside to cool. Beat the whites of two eggs very stiff and add them to the spinach. Beat them very well together. Put the spinach into a well-buttered ring mould and set it in a pan of boiling water. Cover it and put in the oven. Cook for 30 minutes. This should be done just before serving. Unmould the spinach on a hot platter and fill the centre with hot cream or mushroom sauce. Mushroom Sauce. Wash lib of mushrooms. Cut off the stems and peel them. Put four ounces of butter in a bright saute pan or chaffing dish. Cover the dish and let the mushrooms, cook in the butter for 15 minutes, stirring them occasionally. Take the mushrooms out of the hot butter, and set them aside for the moment. Take three rounded tablespoonfuls of flour and stir it into the hot butter. Add pepper and salt, stir in slowly one cup of milk and one cup of cream. When the sauce is smooth, test it for flavour, and replace the mushrooms in it. Be sure there is no chance of them burning. To ensure this, put the chaffing dish on the water bath, or put the saute pan into a dish of hot water until ready to serve Baked Tomatoes and Nuts. Four cupfuls of fresh or tinned tomatoes, 1 cupful of fine stale bread crumbs, 1 cupful of nuts, finely cut, half-cupful melted butter, salt and pepper. Scald and peel and cut up fresh tomatoes, enough to make one quart, or take a quart tin of tomatoes. Cut the nut meats fine. Stir the melted butter through the cruipbs. Make layers of tomatoes, buttered crumbs and nuts in a casserole. Cover the top with crumbs. Add bits of butter to the top of the dish, and cook in the overt 20 minutes or until the tomatoes are cooked. Creamed Potatoes. Use the small potatoes which, when boiled and peeled, have a greenish cast. Other small potatoes will do if you cannot get these, but these are best. Boil them in their jackets, cool them, peel them and dice them into small cubes by hand, on a board, with a sharp knife. For one pint of cubes, melt in a saucepan, 2oz of butter. When it is nicely frothed, put the potatoes in. Pepper and salt them, stir them gently with a wooden spoon until the pepper and salt are well incorporated with them. As s.oon as they are hot, drop slowly into them rich cream. Be sure not to mash or break the potatoes, but add cream slowly as long as the potatoes will absorb it. Be sure never to let them get thin, and be careful not to burn them. When you see that the potatoes have absorbed all the cream they can, and while each little piece stands out from the others, take them from the stove. They will be done. Neither milk nor the thickened cream sauce can take the place of cream in this recipe, though milk is better than a sauce. Cream is expensive, but it makes the dish delicious. You may, if you please, sprinkle into the potatoes, finely chopped parsley which has been scalded.

YORKSHIRE PUDDING. Although Yorkshire pudding is known, far beyond its home county, not every housewife knows how it is made in Yorkshire. For this reason some may like to try an old-fashioned farmhouse recipe—one that is in constant use on the Yorkshire wolds. Yorkshire pudding, made in the right way, should always be light. It should rise high above the edges of the tin in which it is baked. If the pudding is 6olid and looks, when served, like squares of yellow putty, there has been a mistake somewhere. Many Yorkshire puddings are spoilt through too liberal use of flour; others because the oven is too cold. Always measure the flour carefully and allow one slightly heaped tablespoonful for each person who will be present at the meal. If eggs are plentiful and a specially nice pudding is wanted, allow one small egg per person. If, however, economy must be practised, use one large egg to every two tablespoonfuls of flour. Put the flour and a pinch of salt in a bowl and add the eggs, one by one, unbeaten. Mix with a wooden spoon and beat well. Now add milk (slowly, and stirring all the time to prevent lumps) till the batter is like a thick cream. Add a bare dessertspoonful of water for each egg—this will make the pudding much lighter than if milk alone is used—and allow it to stand for at least half an hour. Do not use any baking powder. Bake in a hot oven, in a wide, shallow tin in which just enough fat to cover the bottom has previously been melted and made hot. Place the tin in the upper part of th& oven, or wherever the greatest heat will come from above, and bake till a pale brown. A pudding for a family of four will usually take about 15 minutes. Cut in squares and serve immediately, either with gravy, before the meat—as they usually have it in Yorkshire —os with the meat, vegetables and gravy.