Part 14 (1/2)

Stewed Celery.

Wash and trim the celery into short lengths and allow to soak in vinegar and water for an hour or so before cooking. Drain, and parboil in water containing a little salt and lemon juice or vinegar for 10 minutes. Drain again, and stew for another 10 or 15 minutes in some good white stock. Do not throw away the water in which celery, cauliflower, peas, &c., are boiled. It can be added to the stock-pot. Meantime toast a slice of bread, dip it in this celery water, and lay on ashet cut in triangles. Lay the celery on this when cooked, make the stock in saucepan into a good sauce with flour and b.u.t.ter, and pour over.

Seakale

is rather scarce and expensive as a rule, but it is well to know how to cook it when occasion offers. It is a choice delicacy for an invalid or convalescent. Soak in salted cold water for a time, trim neatly and cook till tender--about half-an-hour in fast boiling water containing a little salt and lemon juice. Drain, and serve on toast with white sauce over.

Asparagus.

Wash well in cold water and sc.r.a.pe the stalks white. Tie in small bundles and stand in fast boiling salted water till the stalks are tender--about twenty minutes. Drain, and serve like celery.

Salsify,

or vegetable oyster, is another vegetable which would find great favour were it not so scarce and dear. Sc.r.a.pe the roots and throw into cold water. Cut in 2-inch pieces and simmer gently for an hour or till tender in stock with a slice of lemon, or in milk and water. Lift out the salsify and place on toast. Thicken the liquor with b.u.t.ter and flour and pour over.

All vegetables which are served with white sauce or melted b.u.t.ter can be acceptably served

Au Gratin,

and a dish of carrots, turnips, and the like served in this way is quite a delicacy. Young tender vegetables are of course always to be preferred, but even when rather old are better this way than any other. Cook till quite tender, but not in the least broken. Lay in a pie dish, cover with sauce, coat thickly with crumbs or cheese and crumbs. Dot over with b.u.t.ter, and bake a light brown.

Spinach.

Soak in cold water and rinse very well to remove all grit, &c. Trim away stalks and tough fibre at the back of the leaf. Shake the water well off, and put in dry saucepan with lid on, to cook for about 10 minutes. Drain, chop finely, and return to saucepan with some b.u.t.ter, salt and pepper, to get quite hot. Dish neatly in a flat, round, or oval shape, with poached eggs on top, and croutons of toast or fried bread round.

Cauliflower--Dutch Way.

(Mr VAN TROMP.)

Boil cauliflower in usual way, drain, and put in vegetable dish. Coat with this sauce:--Make a cream with 2 spoonfuls potato flour, add a little sugar, and stir over fire till it thickens.

SALADS.

”Cuc.u.mbers,--Peel the cuc.u.mber, slice it, pepper it, put vinegar to it, then throw it out of the window.”_--Dr Abernethy._

One does not need to be a vegetarian to appreciate salads, and many who find cooked vegetables difficult of digestion, will find that they can take them, with impunity, raw, but it is inadvisable to take raw and cooked fruit or vegetables at the same meal.

Raw Cabbage,

for example, digests in little over an hour, while cooked it takes 3 to 4-1/2 hours. Needless to say, only young, tender, freshly pulled cabbage can be used in this way. Shred finely, removing all stalks and stringy pieces, and cover with the usual salad dressing. This may now be had ready for use in the shape of