In the Kitchen

Ladies' Mirror, Volume V, Issue 2, 2 August 1926, Page 61

In the Kitchen

Two r Devonshire Dishes T X Talland Pie. This is a Devon- * * shire method of using up any remains of roast veal. Cut the meat into small pieces and fry them for a few minutes in butter with one or two chopped onions: remove from the fire and stir in two well-beaten eggs, adding salt, pepper, and some chopped parsley. Then line a pie dish with good flaky pastry and put a layer of the meat, and on top of it one or two rashers of bacon, well trimmed. Proceed like this until the dish is full, cover with pastry and bake as you would any meat pie. Fried Potato Cakes —You may use either potatoes which have been boiled the day before or some freshly boiled for the purpose, only they must be cold. Put a very small quantity of melted bacon fat into a frying pan, add the potatoes, put the pan on the fire and chop the potatoes adding salt and pepper. Press the

potatoes with a plate and form into a neat cake. Shake the pan continually, and when you see a thin blue smoke arising the potatoes are cooked and ready to be turned out on to the plate. They should be lightly and evenly browned. 'Baked Roly-Poly "C\n- the paste take 2oz. of self--1 raising Hour, pinch of salt, 2oz. of plain flour, water, 2oz. lard or good dripping. Sift the flour and rub lard or dripping well in, add salt and mix into a stiff dough with water. Roll out thinly on floured board and spread thinly with plum jam or jam to liking. Roll up like a roly-poly and place in pie-dish or pyrex. For the syrup lake one small cup of sugar, two tablespoons of butter, one cup of water. Put the water, butter and sugar into a saucepan, put on fire and, when it melts, pour over the roly; bake H hours in medium oven. This will be enough for five people. Serve with cream. -Artichoke Soup '"Pake 3 slices of bacon (lean) or ham, half bead of celery, 1 turnip. 1 union, 41b. artichokes, 3oz.

butter, 1 pint of boiling milk, salt and cayenne to taste, 2 lumps of sugar, 21 quarts of good white stock. Put bacon and vegetables, cut into thin slices, into a stewpan with the butter. Cook these for quarter of an hour, keeping them well stirred, but not allowing them to colour. Wash and peel the artichokes, cut them into thin slices, add them, with a pint of stock, to the other ingredients. When these have gently stewed to a pulp, put in the rest of stock. Stir well, adding the seasoning, and let it all simmer for five minutes, then strain through a strainer. Pour liquor back into stewpan and let it simmer five minutes; skim carefully, boil the pint of milk and stir it into the soup. Vickie Onions CMean the onions by removing the i outer skin and cutting the ends with a silver or plated knife (to

prevent discolouration). Drop the onions into salted water until the lot are ready. Bring to the boil 1 cup of milk to 2 or 3 cups of water, drop in the onions and leave for a few minutes until the liquid again reaches the boil. Take the onions out and wash in clear water to remove all traces of the milky mixture. Pack into bottles and pour over them hot vinegar in which 1 teaspoon of cloves, 1 teaspoon of peppercorns. 1 teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of sugar to each quart of vinegar has been brought to the boil. When the vinegar has cooled, cork the bottles and seal with bottling or paraffin wax. The onions are ready for use in a week and are delicious if kept six months. The milky liquid in which the onions have been blanched makes a good stock for cream soup or onion sauce, and the milk is therefore not wasted. Celery Vickie '""pake 2 quarts of finely-chopped -*• celery, 2 quarts of finely-shred-ded white cabbage, 3 quarts of the best eider vinegar. 4oz. of white mustard seed, 6 tablespoons of sugar, !

2 tablespoons of salt, 4oz. of tumeric and joz. of white ginger-root crushed in a mortar. Put these ingredients into a porcelain-lined pan and boil slowly till celery and cabbage are quite tender. Place in jars, allowing the vinegar to rise several inches above the cabbage. Cork and set away in a cool, dark, dry place. The vinegar should boil evenly and slowly. Cheese Souffle r I 'ake 4oz. butter, 2oz. flour, 4oz. -*■ grated cheese, 1 gill milk, 2 heaped tablespoon breadcrumbs, 3 eggs, salt, and cayenne pepper. Melt the butter, add the flour and season well. Add the milk, and bring slowly to the boil, stirring all the time. Remove from the fire, and stir in the cheese, breadcrumbs, and egg yolks. Leave to cool a little, then lightly fold in the very stiffly whipped whites of eggs. Pour into a well-buttered souffle or piedish and bake for about 25 minutes or until well risen and a delicate brown. Serve very quickly. For three or four persons. Rolled Reef TTalf pound buttock steak, cut very -*■ thin (about Ain. is sufficient), 4 hard-boiled eggs, Alb. mashed potatoes. seasoning, 2 rashers of very fat bacon. Par-boil the steak for 10 minutes. Set aside to become perfectly dry. When ready for use rub well with a little olive oil and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Shell the eggs and leave whole. On top of the breadcrumbs spread a thin layer of potatoes, well mashed and free from lumps. Set the eggs in the centre, end to end, extending lengthways of the steak. Lay a rasher of bacon over these, and roll the meat up so that the eggs are in the centre. Bind with string to keep it together. Lay small pieces of dripping. Bake in a slow oven for half an hour. Sprinkle with chopped parsley, and serve in in a shallow pan, and cover with an entree dish. Tzvo Tripe Dishes r I 'ripe is very nourishing as well '*• as cheap. Here arc two new ways of serving it: — ripe With Brazen Gravy. —Cut lib. of tripe into small pieces, roll in flour and fry in hot lard. Pour off part of the fat and with the remainder make a rich brown gravy to pour over the tripe. To do this dredge flour into pan. add salt and pepper to taste and stir till it boils, adding a little colouring if necessary. Serve with stewed tomatoes and baked or mashed potatoes. (The tripe must be first cooked before frying.) Lyonmise Tripe. —Take lb. of cooked tripe cut in small pieces, 2 of chopped oir.on, 1 tablespoon of tablespoons of butter. 1 tablespoon vinegar, salt and pepper. Put onion and butter in frying-pan. and when the onion turns yellow put in tripe and cook five minutes. Season with salt and pepper and vinegar and serve on toast.

Cooking Vegetables

A re there ways good and ways jTJL otherwise to cook vegetables? There most certainly are, and it is well to have the best ways in mind no matter what the season of the year. Vegetables, in the light of present day knowledge, are given a most important role in nutrition; and if they are to assume their full responsibility in building up an adequate dietary they must be properly prepared. Our remote ancestors took their vegetables raw and so were assured of obtaining all the nutritive content; but the palate and digestive system of modern man demand that the majority of vegetables be cooked. The problem is to retain the vitamins and minerals for which vegetables are especially valuable, to develop the best in flavour and texture, to soften the cellulose or woody fibre which all vegetables contain, and to cook the starch so that the digestion will not be overburdened.

Conserving Nutritive Value Save the liquid" is the first commandment in vegetable cooking. Certain vitamins, minerals, and flavouring substances arc soluble in water, and if they find their way into the sink with the liquid drained off after cooking, the best of the vegetable is gone. One can, of course, plan to utilise water in which vegetables have been cooked in soups and sauces, but it is really less of a problem to plan the cooking so there will be no excess of liquid. A vegetable can always be cooked in its own juice, or with just a little water which is evaporated by the end of the cooking period. Special utensils, which are ideal for this purpose, are being provided by manufacturers to-day, but the method can be followed with any saucepan, provided sufficient care is taken to prevent scorching. Simply add enough boiling water to the vegetable to barely cover it. (Spinach and other tender greens need no water whatever beyond that which clings to the leaves after washing.) Look into the saucepan from time to time to be sure that there is sufficient liquid, and when the cooking is nearly completed remove the cover and allow the remaining liquid to evaporate until only a few spoonfuls are left. Serve this with the vegetable. Steaming is another method by which soluble substances may be conserved. In the case of vegetables which have a natural strong flavour, cabbage and onions in particular, it may be wise to consider the taste of the family, and cook the vegetables in a large amount of water (which is afterwards discarded) even though something of their nutritive value is sacrificed, then make up what nutriment is lost by serving larger portions of the vegetables.

It is best to have the water which is added to vegetables actually boiling and it should be kept boiling gently. Vegetables become water soaked in liquid under the boiling point, and if allowed to cook too violently they arc likely to become mushy.

The r Dangers Of OverCooking is one of the greatest insults which can be offered to vegetables. Too long cooking produces an unpleasant strong flavour, ruins the natural colour, and makes the vegetable soft and mushy. In cabbage it develops a gas which gives to that excellent vegetable the bad reputation it often bears. Because so much depends upon the state of maturity and the freshness of the vegetables, it is impossible to give a time-table for cooking. The rule is to cook a vegetable only until it is tender. Cabbage, cauliflower, and spinach arc palatable when they still retain a suggestion of their crispness. Green corn needs only to have the milk "set" ; but on the other hand, be sure that peas and beans arc not hard and raw in flavour.

Covering he Saucepan

Wien only a small amount of water is used the saucepan should be covered so that the vegetables not completely immersed in water will be cooked by the retained steam. Incidentally, less fuel is required to keep the contents of a covered saucepan boiling. The stronger flavoured vegetables, cooked in a large quantity of water, will be milder if the saucepan is uncovered, allowing volatile oils to escape. Seasoning tables T Vegetables arc adapted to use in * hundreds of different dishes, all interesting by way of variety, but it is hard to improve upon fresh garden produce, well cooked and simply seasoned with salt, pepper, or paprika, and a little butter, cream, or smooth white sauce. Add the salt when, the cooking is partially completed. In this way the cellulose is not toughened and yet time is allowed for the salt to penetrate the vegetable tissue. Steamed as well as boiled vegetables should have salt added during the cooking process. The Use Of Soda r S 'he addition of soda to vegetables while they are cooking helps soften the cellulose, and in green vegetables keeps the colour bright. However, its use is a doubtful practice because of the effect on the vitamins.

"Breakfast Qurry Ooil four eggs very hard, shell ■'"'them, and cut in halves. Place each half egg on a round of buttered toast larger than the egg and pour over them a thick white sauce flavoured with curry. For the sauce melt a good tablespoonful of butter with equal quantities of flour and curry powder. Cook without browning. Add a teacup of milk, a dessertspoonful of lemon juice, a little grated rind, pepper, salt and powder, teaspoonful grated onion. Stir well until the sauce boils, then cover and let it cook gently for ten minutes. A few drops of burnt sugar colouring may be added. Pour the sauce over the hot eggs and serve at once. z/i CNj?w Savoury '"pake Mb. grated cheese, 1 level * teaspoonful flour, i level teaspoonful salt, :! level teaspoonful pepper, 1 pint boiling milk, 1 tablespoonful butter. 2 eggs separated. i teaspoonful baking powder, 2 level tablespoonfuls bread crumbs. Put cheese into a bowl, add flour, salt, pepper, milk, butter, yolks of eggs slightly beaten, whites beaten with baking powder to a stiff froth, and bread crumbs. Mix gently and pour into a greased fireproof dish and bake in a moderate oven for 20 minutes. Serve hot. The quantities are sufficient for six persons. Suet Crust '"pake lib. Hour, lib. suet. ! tea- •* spoonful baking powder, cold water, i teaspoonful salt. Sieve the Hour. salt, and baking-powder toge-

ther into a basin. Shred the suet very finely, and mix it into the flour very thoroughly. Make a well in the centre, and make into a dough with cold water. It should be a smooth, soft dough, just stiff enough to roll out easily without sticking. An oldfashioned rule is that, when the paste is the right consistency, the basin should be quite clean, with no paste sticking to it. and this is a very good rule to follow. Turn on to a floured board and roll to the thickness required. This is suitable for fruit and meat puddings, roly-poly puddings, dumplings, etc. Hot Tot HPakc 31b. of neck of mutton (best -*• end), 3 sheep's kidneys, 4 onions. 31b. of potatoes, .i-pint of water, salt, pepper. Trim the mutton, removing all superfluous fat, cut off the ends of the long bones, and divide the mutton into chops. Place a layer of these at the bottom of a hot-pot dish or a casserole. Place a layer of sliced kidneys on the chops. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover with sliced onion and -'lb. of sliced potatoes. Continue these layers until the dish is full. Pour in water and cover the whole potatoes. Put the dish into a moderate oven ami bake for about 3i hours. When the potatoes are cooked through, but brown and crisp on the top, the hot-pot is ready. Pour in half a pint of hot gravy, pin a napkin round the dish, and serve at once. The cooking must be slow, or the gravy will dry up and the potatoes at the top burn and harden.