COOKERY.

Waipa Post, Volume VII, Issue 326, 26 June 1914, Page 3

COOKERY.

Hashed Vegetables. —Cut in small pieces vegetables that have been previously boiled with meat. Use half a cupful of cabbage, one cupful and a half of potato, half a cupful of beet, half cupful of turnip, a quarter of a cupful of carrot, one small onion, salt and pepper to taste. Put one tablespoonful of beef dripping or butter in a frying-pan, and when hot add the hash and cook slowly until warm through.

Black Cap Pudding. —Half pound flour, two eggs, three-quarters pint milk, four ounces currants, a pinch of salt. Method: Sift the flour into a basin, add the salt, beat up the egg, and stir gradually into the flour, adding the milk by degrees, and work .into a batter. Butter one large or two small pudding basins. Sprinkle in tho currants and pour in the prepared butter. Cover the basins with buttered paper, and steam for one hour.

Plain Apple Pudding.— Six ounces of fine breadcrumbs, six ounces of sugar, three ounces of suet finely shredded; peel and core' six ounces of apples, and two ounces of candied peel cut in small pieces, half a saltspoonful of grated nutmeg, two large or three small eggs; grease a mould well' with butter, and sprinkle with castor sugar. Put the pudding into a mould and cover with greased paper, and steam for an hour, and a quarter.

Cream Cheese. —Rush cream cheeses are made of cream and milk, twice as much of the former being used as tlfc latter. Both must he warmed, sweetened with a little sugar, and mixed with a little rennet. The cream and milk should be placed near the fire, and when the curd has formed laid on straw or rushes sewn together and stretched over a wide-meshed sieve. A cover of straw or" rushes should be laid on the top, the whey draining through the interstices of the lower ones. It as well to place a weight on the top, half a pound being sufficient for the purpose.

Sheep’s Head Pie. —Take a sheep’s head, a piece of steak, three eggs, pepper, salt, and a little mace. First wash the sheep’s head, soak, it well, and then parboil it. When cold, take all the meat from the bones and arrange it in a piedish. Add the piece of steak cut small, three havdboiled eggs sliced, and the seasonings. Add a little of the liquor iii which the head has been boiled, cover with a good piecrust, and bake slowly, after the pastry has cooked, for two hours. This may be served hot or cold, as preferred, and the bones are a welcome addition to the stock-pot.

'Stewed Kidneys. —Six sheeps’ kidneys, 3 ounces of streaky bacon, one ounce of butter or dripping, three teaspoonsful of chopped onion, three teaspoonsful of flour, salt and pepper, three-quarters of a pint of stock,'sauce or ketchup. Cut each kidney in half lengthways, remove the skin and core. Cut the bacon into meat dice. Melt the butter or dripping, add to it tho flour, kidney, bacon, and onion, and fry them a light brown. Then add tho stock, and a careful seasoning of salt and pepper. Let the kidneys stew very gently for half an hour. Serve in a hot dish garnished with sippets of toast or fried bread. This can be entirely prepared overnight, and only needs reheating.

Vegetable Soups. —Wash, pare, ana boil three common sized potatoes. Cook one tablespoonfnl each of chopped onion and celery, with one pint of milk, in the double boiler. When soft, drain and mash the potatoes, add the milk, and rub all through a strainer. Put on to boil again, and season with one teaspoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of celery salt, one saltspoonful of white pepper, and a few grains of cayenne, Melt one tablespoonful of butter in a small saucepan, add one tablespoonful of flour—less if the potatoes are large or very mealy—and when well mixed stir it into the boiling soup. Cook five minutes and serve very hot. In all other vegetable soups the water in which the vegetable is cooked may be used as the foundation of the soup, and so the seasoning may be cooked with the vegetables, then sifted and thickened; or, where the vegetable needs but slight cooking, as in tomato soup, the thickening and all may be put together, and strained, when done, directly into tho tureen.

Boiling Fish. —Thoroughly cleanse \he fish and rub it with vinegar or lemon-juice. This whitens the fish and makes it firm. Add salt and a little vinegar to the water in which the fish is boiled. The water must be boiling, and just sufficient to cover the fish. Allow tho water to boil for three minutes after the fish is put in, and then only simmer very gently until the fish is cooked. Overboiled fish is tasteless and unappetising. Underdone fish is not fit for human food. The time allowed for the cooking of fish is ton minutes to every pound, and ten minutes over. Common sense must bo • brought to bear with regard to the thickness of the fish, when a fork or skewer should be used to test tho ' fish, for as soon as the flesh parts easily from the bone it is ready. Dislii the fish at once; never allow it to remain soaking in tho water after it is ready, or it will become “woolly.” If there is not a fish-kettle at hand, tho fish should be placed on a dish arid tied in a cloth. The stock, if not too salt, should be used in the making of the sauces.;