MEALS “JUST FOR TWO.”

Waikato Times, Volume 110, Issue 18392, 28 July 1931, Page 5

MEALS “JUST FOR TWO.”

economical dishes. EASILY PREPARED. Cooking “just for two’’ is not easy. T irnnw when I first started catering . I used to find It more dlffleuU than when I lived at home in p matrimonial days and often "‘ as faced t with catering for a family of ten. is easiest of all to cater * nd cool V f °‘ six, because most menus and recipes are planned for .six persons withi normal appetites. But, remembering when running your eye over cookery recipes that they are planned for six, let us see what we can do to please “just two” says a correspondent. First of all, we stock up In smad cooking utensils. 'Choose a Ismail frying pan. It’s a waste of heat and fat to use large pans, and also impossible to make a sauce for two in a two quart pan as perfect as you can make it in a smaller pan. With such a varied selection of individual cooking utensils, as well as dishes, as we have to-day It is really easier for us to cook “just for two” than it was for our mothers. They had none of the individual casseroles, fireproof egg and fish dishes, pie dishes, soup bowls, and pudding basins that are a joy to every modern housewife. To them fruit sets and sundae glasses were also unknown.

In preparing food for two, avoid roasts as much as possible, for a roast for 'two would have to' he cut

SO small that there would be nothing left to cook as a rule. When a roast you 'must have, selectl a piece of shoulder of lamb in preference to a leg of lamb. Now try some of the following simple recipes. Irish Stow. Take 14lb lamb, two onions, two diced carrots, three potatoes, two tablespoons flour, pepper and salt. Cut the meat into cubes. Put in saucepan. Cover with about three cups boiling water, and cook slowly until meat begins to be tender. Add sliced onions, potatoes cut into cubes, and carrots. Simmer until all'are tender. Season with salt and pepper. Stir In flour mixed to a smooth paste with a little water. Serve with dumplings. Ham Casserole. Take one slice ham of a fair.thickness, mustard and ginger, three medium-sized potatoes, onions, pepper, and salt. Soak -ham in fresh, cold water for ono hour. Pare and slice the potatoes thinly. Put a layer In buttered baking dish. Cover with a layer of onions, Season with a little salt and pepper. Halve slice of ham and put ono half In dish. Leave the fat on the meat, Sprinkle lightly with mustard and ground ginger. Add another layer of potatoes and onions and season, and cover with another slice of ham. Cover and bake for ii hours in a moderate oven. Fig Pudding. Take Jib figs, four tablespoons sugar, two tablespoons butter, one egg, flour, one teaspoon baking powder, ono chopped apple, milk. Wash figs and cook till tender. Add two tablespoons sugar when half cooked. Thero should he half _ a cup juice when figs are done. Drain off syrup and chop. Add chopped apple. Cream butter and two tablespoons sugar. SI ft in a little flour. Mix In the yolk of egg well beaten. Mix and sift one cup flour and baking powder. Add alternatively to butter and sugar mixture with one-third cup milk. Mix well together, and stir in chopped figs and apples. Pour into a pudding dish, set In a pan of hot water, and bake in a moderate oven for ono hour. Serve with tho following sauce: Cream two tablespoons butter. Sift In half cup powdered sugar and beat until creamy. When ready to serve, add juice strained from hgs and left-over white of egg, beaten till stiff, and dry with a whisk. Coconut Tapioca. Take one-third cup pearl tapioca, , one egg, milk, half cup sugar, half , teaspoon vanilla, pinch salt, two table- [ spoons desiccated coconut. Soak tapioca In milk overnight. Add sugar and yolk of egg well beaten [ with pinch of salt. Add vanilla. Turn into a buttered pudding dish and bake ' in slow oven for half an hour. Add , two tablespoons sugar and desiccated [ coconut to stiffly beaten egg white. and spread over pudding. Put back ' in oven till top is nicely browned. Serve warm. If you use the “minute” tapioca it requires no soaking. i Roast Roll of Lamb. Take 21b shoulder of lamb, half cup t cracker crumbs, quarter cup soft slate a bread crumbs, quarter teaspoon salt, 1 half teaspoon pepper, one tablespoon 6 butter, two slices bacon. . Have the bone removed from the

shoulder of lamb. Gut through one side to make a flat piece. Mix together cracked crumbs, bread crumbs, and pepper and salt. Stir in butter and Just enough water to .moisten. Spread mixture over the meat. Roll and lie. Put in roaster, dredge with flour, and sprinkle with pepper and salt. Put bacon on top and roast in a hot oven until flour browns, when add quarter cup boiling water, cover olosely, and roast again for one hour.