HINTS AND RECIPES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 178, 30 July 1932, Page 17 (Supplement)

HINTS AND RECIPES

SOMETHING TO INTEREST THE HOUSEWIFE Water in flower vases will keep much Fleeter if on© or two small pieces of charcoal are kept at the bottom of the fase. Well wash the charcoal in clear •rater every time the flowers and water in the vase are changed. A pinch of salt added to the milk when making custard improves the flavour. Also when making batter for pantakes or Yorkshire pudding, always add salt to the flour before it is wetted; this tends to prevent lumps. When frying left-over boiled potatoes dredge them with a little flour and pepper. They will brown much quicker and the flasipr will be considerably improved. If the edges of the pastry in a fruit pie are damped with milk instead of water the fruit juice is not so apt to boil over. To make ironwork proof against rust, heat it until it is almost red-hot, and then brush it over with linseed oil. Thia makes a varnish which, unlike ordinary paint or enamel, does not chip off. To make the most of a fowl, turn it oh its breast instead of its back when roasting. A mashed banana mixed with the white of an egg and beaten till stiff is an excellent substitute for whipped eream. Washing up articles that have been Used in cooking fish is rather disagreeable but if a piece of lemon peel i* put m the washing-up bowl, the smell is lessened, also it tends to make the water more soft. A length of flexible rubber hosepipe makes an excellent carpet-beater, and It is not so hard on the carpet as a cane ran ordinary beater. Scissors are most useful for cutting off surplus pastry when making pies, or for decorating tie edges of open tarts. Salt mixed with powdered chalk makes a good teeth-cleanser. Distempered walls which are stained with grease can be cleaned with a paste of Fuller’s earth and water. to Clean Sponges.

Use plenty of clean water and rinse the sponges thoroughly. Squeeze them tightly and soak in a pint of water to which the juice of a lemon hag been added. After soaking them for an hour rinse and dry, preferably out of doors. To Cook Peas.

Add a teaspoonful of castor sugar to the boiling water when you are cooking packet or dried peas. It will impart the delicious sweet flavour which freshly-gathered garden peas possess. Rubber Caps.

Bathing caps of rubber that have been stored during the winter should, before they are used again, be soaked in warm soapy water to which a little ammonia has been added. Then mb between the hands until quite pliable before attempting to stretch over the head. If stretched while they are dry and hard they are liable to split. The Value of Raisins.

- Raisins are highly recommended because of the amount of iron they contain. and they should appear on the menu more often than they do. To make raisin fritters, make an ordinary frying batter, add plenty of raisin? to it. Fry the usual way, drain, and sieve with powdered sugar. Tor Children.

Give your children fresh fruit instead of a substantial pudding occasionally. It is not expensive, and will do them good. Apples and oranges are excellent.

Recipes to Use When Gooseberries are in Season.

Gooseberry Charlotte.—Stew 11b. gooseberries in a gill of water, adding Jib. sugar, after having first “topped and tailed” them. Line a buttered piedish thickly with breadcrumbs, put in the stewed gooseberries, cover thickly with more breadcrumbs, pour over lloz. melter butter, and bake in a moderate even for about half an hour. Serve with custard.

Gooseberry Fool.—Stew about two pounds of gooseberries in a pint of water till tender, then press them through a sieve to remove the skins, add joz. butter and two tablespoonsfuls of sugar, and the yolks of two eggs well beaten. Pour into a dish. Whip the whites of the eggs with a little castor sugar and a few drops of vanilla, and heap on the top of the gooseberries. Serve very cold. Gooseberry Trifle.—Mix half a pint ef gooseberry puree made by stewing gooseberries in a little water, and then mashing with a wooden spoon with half a pint of custard, and pour it over some sliced sponge cakes previously soaked In two tablespoonsful of sherry. Cover whipped cream, sweetened and flavoured with vanilla and sprinkle with chopped nuts. Gooseberry Flan.—For the pastry: Four ounces of pastry flour, a pinch of •alt, three ounces of butter, the yolk of an egg, a dessertspoonful of castor sugar. For the filling: Half a pound of gooseberries, four ounces of sugar, half a pint of water, half a teaspoonful of cornflour. Mix the salt, flour and castor sugar together, rub in the butter lightly, then mix with the well-beaten egg-yolk and enough water to make a rather soft dough. Roll out on a floured board and use to line a deep sandwich tin. Prick it well and bake in a moderate oven. Leave until cold. Stew the gooseberries slowly until they are very tender, thicken the juice with the cornflour mixed with a little water just before the fruit is quite cooked, pour into the flan cases, and re-heat in Che oven, or serve cold. Gooseberries in Batter. —Grease a pudding-basin, and fill it with gooseberries that have been washed, dried, “topped and tailed.” Sprinkle liberally with sugar. Make a batter with slb. flour, I pint milk, and one egg. Pour this over the gooseberries and steam jt for an hour and a-half. Or this pudding can be baked in a pie-dish in the ©ven.