Part 3

Boil some lentils as in previous recipe, flavour in the same way, mix with them one tea-cup of bread crumbs, form into cutlets, fry in butter a nice colour. Dish neatly, and pour over them a tomato sauce, as per recipe No. 15.

3. Plain Dhàl.

Boil some lentils plain, put them aside, now cut up an onion, two beads of garlic, and fry in three ounces of butter with twenty-four cloves a pale yellow, then put in your lentils, and two bay-leaves. Let it simmer gently for about one hour; the lentils must not be thick; salt to taste. Serve with a separate dish of plain boiled rice, and slices of lemon, to squeeze over it.

4. Lentil Currie.

Boil some lentils plain, put them aside. Now cut up an onion, two beads of garlic, and two bay-leaves; fry in three ounces of butter with twenty-four cloves a nice brown, then add one tablespoon of the best currie powder, stir, and then put in your lentils; let them simmer gently for one hour; add salt to taste, and a small cup of tomato pulp. Serve with a separate dish of plain boiled rice.

5. Haricot Bean Pie.

Boil one pint of haricot beans till quite soft, put a mite of soda in the water to soften it, when quite done drain and set aside.

Cut up an onion into rings, chop up two beads of garlic; fry these in three ounces of butter with twenty-four cloves a nice golden colour. Now add one teaspoon of the best currie powder, and one cup of tomato pulp. Mix well, then add Nepaul pepper and salt to taste, a few drops of tarragon vinegar; put in your beans, and mix well. Turn out in a pie dish, and let them cool. Cover with a nice homely short crust, and bake a nice golden brown. This pie is nutritious, and really nice.

6. Haricot Bean Stew.

Boil one pint of beans till quite soft, drain, and set them aside. Make a thorough tasty brown sauce, as Nos. 16 or 18 in recipes given; pour it over the beans, warm all thoroughly through, and serve decorated with sippets of fried bread and slices of lemon.

7. Haricot Bean Currie.

Boil the beans as in previous recipe; cut up an onion and two beads of garlic; fry in three ounces of butter with twenty-four cloves a nice brown. Add one tablespoon of best currie powder, one cup of tomato pulp, a stick of cinnamon, a blade of mace, the peel of half a lemon grated, salt to taste; put in your beans, and let them simmer very gently for half an hour, taking great care they do not burn. Serve with a separate dish of rice.

8. Haricot Bean Pudding.

Get one pint of dried green haricots, boil till quite soft; mash them up thoroughly with a fork. Add three ounces of butter, pepper and salt to taste, one teaspoon of chopped parsley, one teaspoon of chopped onion; mix well. Add a well-beaten egg; well butter a plain mould; put the mixture in and steam for one hour. Turn out on to a dish, paper and decorate with parsley and small sliced tomatoes.

9. Plain Boiled Rice.

In boiling rice as it should be done, observe the following directions, and success is bound to follow:--(1) Use the best rice only. (2) Do not be afraid of plenty of water, four quarts to one pound. (3) Put in the rice as the water comes to the boil, having put in a good teaspoon of salt before you add the rice. (4) Watch carefully the _moment_ the rice is soft, drain _at once_ and set before the fire to steam for about half an hour or more; by this means your rice will be grain from grain separate, and look most appetising. These remarks apply to the cooking of rice in every form, when it is required dry, and to eat with savouries.

10. Yellow Rice.

Never throw away the water in which kedgrees or yellow rice have been boiled. They make delicious soups on meat days, with the addition of a little Armour's Beef Extract, as the stock is already flavoured and thickened; or it will make a delicious mullagatawny soup with the addition of currie powder, and made according to recipe No. 9 (Soups), without the herrings, and using the liquor instead. This applies equally to the water in which haricot beans and peas have been boiled. It always makes good stock for soup.

Boil in the water you put on for your rice one large onion whole, three beads of garlic whole, twenty-four cloves, the seeds of twelve cardamoms, three bay-leaves, two sticks of cinnamon, two blades of mace, and a pennyworth of saffron, one heaped up teaspoon of salt. Let these come to the boil, and then add one pound of the best rice. Watch carefully. Taste it from time to time. The moment the rice is soft drain at once, and set before the fire to steam. Before serving remove the onion, garlic, bay-leaves, cinnamon, and mace, but _not_ the cloves and cardamoms. Decorate with onions fried crisp and brown, sultanas fried, and almonds blanched and fried. This is very nice.

11. Kedgree.

Put on some water with all the flavourings of the previous recipe, omit the saffron. When it comes to the boil add half a pound of pink lentils that have been well washed. When these change colour and get yellow, which will take about five minutes, add half a pound of best rice; stir well, and watch carefully. The moment the rice is done enough drain at once, and set before the fire to steam. Remove the spices, etc., as before, and decorate in the same way.

12. Another Kedgree.

Do some rice as yellow rice recipe. Add to it some flaked smoked haddock, and one teaspoon of herbs as for veal stuffing, and two ounces of butter. Mix well loosely with a fork. Serve hot, and decorate with hard-boiled eggs cut in quarters, and onions fried crisp and brown.

13. Another Kedgree.

The same as No. 11. Add to it four hard-boiled eggs chopped fine, two ounces of butter. Mix well lightly with a fork, and serve, decorated in the usual way with fried onions brown and crisp and fried almonds.

14. Tomato Rice.

Cut up an onion into thin rings, chop two beads of garlic, also two bay-leaves; fry this in three ounces of butter with twenty-four cloves a nice pale yellow. Now add one cup of tomato pulp, salt and Nepaul pepper to taste, a few drops of tarragon vinegar. Stir well; let it simmer for about twenty minutes; strain, and pour the sauce over some cold rice you may have by you; cover up, and warm thoroughly through. Serve decorated with bright West Indian pickles.

15. Cheese Pillau.

Boil some rice, with all the flavouring as for "yellow rice." Remove the spices, etc. Add two ounces of butter and three ounces of grated Parmesan cheese, Nepaul pepper and salt to taste. Mix all lightly with a fork. Dish garnished with watercress.

16. Rice Savoury.

Any cold rice you may have by you may do for this dish. Well beat up two eggs with a little milk; mix with one small onion chopped, one small bead of garlic, one teaspoon of chopped parsley, one teaspoon mixed of lemon thyme, tarragon and chervil, Nepaul pepper and salt to taste. Mix all well together. Put it into a plain mould well buttered; put it in the oven till well set. Turn out on to a paper. Garnish with tufts of parsley and small red tomatoes.

N.B.--Rice can be cooked any colour, by simply adding a harmless vegetable colouring to the water in which it is boiled, and thus it looks very pretty served with stewed fruits, etc., as it makes the simplest thing look appetising and nice. Any cook with very little ingenuity could turn out any number of pretty and tasty dishes of rice alone; it has the advantage of being nutritious and digestible, and is about the most economical thing there is in the market.

17. Macaroni Savoury.

Boil as much macaroni as you require, in salt and water. When tender, drain, and put it aside.

Cut up an onion into very thin rings, chop two beads of garlic small, fry in three ounces of butter with twenty-four cloves a pale yellow, then add one cup of tomato pulp; stir well; the grated rind of half a lemon, Nepaul pepper and salt to taste, a few drops of tarragon vinegar; pour over the macaroni, and warm thoroughly through. This is a delicious and most digestible dish. Garnish with watercress in bunches round the dish, and serve.

18. Macaroni Cheese.

Boil some macaroni plain. Put it in a well-buttered pie dish thus--a layer of macaroni, a layer of grated Parmesan cheese, a sprinkling of mustard and salt, till the dish is full on the top, sprinkle the cheese. Beat up three eggs well in one pint of milk, pour it over the macaroni, and well cover it. Put a few dabs of butter over it here and there, and put it in the oven, and bake a bright golden brown. Serve, decorated with a nice frill round the dish.

19. Curried Macaroni.

Boil some macaroni. Put it aside. Cut up an onion into thin rings, chop up two beads of garlic, fry in three ounces of butter with twenty-four cloves a delicate brown. Now add one tablespoon of best currie powder, one cup of tomato pulp, the grated rind of half a lemon, and the strained juice of half a lemon, salt to taste. Pour the sauce over the macaroni, and serve thoroughly hot.

20. Macaroni Savoury.

Boil some macaroni, cut it into short lengths of about two inches long, well beat up three eggs. Mix with them one teaspoon of chopped onion, one teaspoon of herbs as for veal stuffing, one teaspoon of chopped parsley, Nepaul pepper and salt to taste. Mix it thoroughly with one cup of milk, and stir it well into the macaroni. Pour it into a pie dish, put a few dabs of butter over the top here and there, and bake a nice brown.

N.B.--Vermicelli answers all the same purpose as macaroni. Some like it better and think it more delicate; both are cheap and nutritious, and both are capable of manipulation in a great many ways.

_VEGETABLES IN VARIOUS WAYS._

1. Potato Baskets.

Get some nice long kidney potatoes, peel them very thin, cut them in half, then cut off a small piece at each end, so that the potato will stand like a cup, scoop out the inside neatly, leaving a thin wall of potato. Make it nice and smooth outside and in. Fry these in a bath of boiling fat a nice golden brown. Now take them out and stand them up like cups, fill each one with a farce of fish, or lentils, or mushrooms as desired, and sprinkle over the top some chopped parsley. This is a novel and pretty dish.

2. Potato Balls.

Boil some potatoes, pass them through a sieve. Mix with them some butter, pepper and salt, form into good sized balls with the hand, put them on a buttered tin, brush over them a well beaten egg, and put them in the oven till they are a nice brown colour.

3. Mashed Potatoes.

Mash some potatoes with butter, pepper and salt. Now well grease a plain pudding mould, fill your potatoes into it to get moulded, warm one minute, and turn out on to a dish, brush it over with well beaten egg, and then well sprinkle with fine bread crumbs, put on little dabs of butter all over it, and bake in the oven a bright golden colour. Garnish with parsley.

4. Potato Snow.

Boil some potatoes, mash them with butter, pepper and salt, pass them through a wire sieve in the dish in which they are to be served. They must not be disturbed afterwards, as the light look would be gone, and so the dish get spoiled.

5. Potato Rings.

Well wash and thinly peel some nice large potatoes, cut them in slices, then take a nice cutter and stamp them out quite round, and then a smaller cutter to stamp out the centre so as to form a ring. Fry these rings a golden brown in a bath of fat, drain them in a sieve. Serve neatly dished and garnished with parsley. The centres need not be wasted, but fried for another dish.

6. Potato Pie.

Parboil some potatoes, slice them, put them in a pie dish thus--a layer of potatoes, then sliced onions and tomatoes, a few cloves, pepper and salt, and a spoonful of water, and so on till the dish is full. Cover with a light crust, and bake a golden brown, ornament with a frill round the dish, and serve.

7. Mixed Vegetable Pie.

Parboil some potatoes, carrots, turnips, some green cabbage, cauliflower. Cut the former into nice slices, the cauliflower into nice bunches, so, too, the cabbage. Now put them in a pie dish thus--a layer of the vegetable mixture, then some sliced onions and tomatoes and a few cloves and a spoonful of water, pepper and salt to taste; fill up the dish thus. Cover with a nice light crust and bake a golden brown; ornament as before.

8. Stewed Onions White.

Parboil some onions (Spanish), put them aside. Have ready some white butter sauce, as recipe No. 1, and put your onions into it, and finish cooking them in the sauce. Serve with a sprinkling of pepper and salt over them.

9. Stewed Onions Brown.

Parboil some onions as before. Have ready a good brown sauce, as recipe No. 14, put your onions in, and let them finish cooking in the sauce. If liked, a sprinkling of chopped parsley may be put over the onions before serving.

10. Farced Cucumbers Stewed.

Parboil some small cucumbers, scoop out the inside with care, taking care the outsides are not injured. Stuff these with a lentil farce, as recipe No. 1 for lentil moulds. Have ready some good brown sauce as recipe No. 14, and finish cooking your cucumbers in it. Dish neatly, and pour the sauce round.

11. Cucumbers on Toast.

Boil some cucumbers (small ones) till tender. Lay them neatly on pieces of toast, pour over them a white butter sauce, as recipe No. 1. Sprinkle over with pepper and salt, and serve hot.

12. Stewed Vegetable Marrow.

Get some small marrows, peel them, scoop out the inside carefully, stuff them with a farce thus--boil some onions, mash them with a fork. Add one cup of fine bread crumbs, some chopped sage to taste, two ounces of butter, pepper and salt. Mix well, and stuff the marrows. Now steam the marrows till nearly done. Have ready some good brown sauce, as recipe No. 14, finish cooking your marrows in that. Dish neatly, and pour the sauce round them. A separate boat of apple sauce to eat with them is liked by some.

13. Marrows on Toast.

Peel and cut into quarters some nice young marrows. Put the pieces into a jar with some butter, pepper and salt. Cover the jar close, and put it into the oven. Let the marrows cook in their own steam. When done place them on nicely cut pieces of buttered toast; sprinkle over them pepper and salt. These are really delicious.

14. Stewed Cabbage Stalks.

Get good thick stalks; cut away all the outside, till you come to the tender part inside; cut these into two-inch lengths. Parboil them in a little salt and water, and then finish cooking them, in either a white sauce as No. 1 recipe, or brown as No. 14 recipe. Either way they are truly delicious, and by far the best part of the cabbage in flavour and goodness.

15. Spinach with Eggs.

Well pick and wash some spinach; put it in a pan with only the water that is in the leaves; let it boil till quite tender. Mash it with a fork with a little butter, pepper and salt. Put some on pieces of neatly cut buttered toast, then on each piece lay a well poached egg. Sprinkle over with pepper and salt, and serve.

16. Spinach Indian Way.

Wash and cook some spinach as before. Put it aside. Cut up an onion into rings, and fry in two ounces of butter a pale yellow. Put in your spinach; stir well: add Nepaul pepper and salt to taste. This may be eaten on toast, or with plain boiled rice.

17. Farced Parsnips.

Parboil some nice young parsnips. Scoop out the inside, and stuff with a farce of fish made thus--boil a salt haddock, remove all skin and bone, pound the flesh in a mortar. Add one teaspoon of herbs as for veal stuffing, Nepaul pepper to taste, a small cup of bread crumbs, some butter and a teaspoon of chopped onions; bind the whole with well beaten eggs, and stuff your parsnips. Now finish cooking by steaming them. Serve neatly on a dish, and pour over them either a brown sauce as No. 14, or white as No. 1, whichever is liked best.

18. Farced Carrots.

Parboil some nice sized carrots. Scoop out the inside, and stuff with a farce as for lentil moulds, recipe No. 1. Finish cooking by steaming them, and then pour over a tomato sauce, as recipe No. 15, and serve.

19. Vegetable Stew.

Cut up an onion into rings, chop two beads of garlic, and fry in three ounces of butter with twenty-four cloves; let it get a nice golden colour. Now add sliced potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips, and pour over all one pint of water, two tablespoons of mushroom ketchup, salt and Nepaul pepper to taste. Cook till the vegetables are quite tender, and serve.

This is quite as nice as Irish stew with meat in it.

20. Farced Tomatoes.

Scoop out the middle of the tomato with great care. Put into it a farce made thus--one small cup of bread crumbs, one teaspoon of herbs as for veal stuffing, two ounces of butter, pepper and salt to taste; bind with the yolk of one or two well beaten eggs. Stuff your tomatoes, put a little dab of butter on the top of each, sprinkle with pepper and salt, and bake in the oven till soft. Dish neatly; sprinkle over them some chopped green parsley. These may be served on pieces of fried bread. They are very nice served thus.

21. Mushroom and Olive Stew.

Make a nice brown sauce as recipe No. 14. Add to it some turned olives, and some nice button mushrooms. Garnish the dish with fried sippets of bread and chopped green parsley.

22. Mushrooms on Toast.

Well pick and clean some mushrooms, fry in about four ounces of butter, with pepper and salt to taste. Cook till the mushrooms get quite black. Serve on neatly cut pieces of toast; heap them one on the other, and garnish with tufts of parsley.

23. Celery Stew.

Cut up some nice tender stalks of celery into three-inch pieces, parboil in milk, then put it into a sauce as recipe No. 1, and finish cooking thus--add the grated rind of half a lemon, the grate of a nutmeg, Nepaul pepper and salt to taste. Lay this on nicely trimmed slices of toast, and serve. The celery may be stewed in a brown sauce, as per recipe No. 14, instead of the white; it is nice either way.

24. Sea-Kale Stew.

Serve the same as celery, or plain boil, and pour over a good white butter sauce, in which a little cream has been mixed, to make it extra rich.

25. Stewed Green Peas.

Shell your peas, and put them into a jar. Add two ounces of butter, a little pepper and salt, and one saltspoon of sugar; cover close, and put into the oven to cook in their own steam. When quite done, turn out into a dish, pour over them a good brown sauce, as No. 14, add a teaspoon of chopped green mint, and serve.

26. Stewed French Beans.

Get some tender French beans, cut them in two or three pieces each across, _not_ lengthways, cook the same as peas in a jar, omitting the sugar. Turn out on a dish, and pour over them a brown parsley sauce, as recipe No. 18.

27. French Beans on Toast.

Get some very young French beans, put them in whole in a jar, with butter, pepper and salt, and a mite of soda to preserve the colour. Cook them as in previous recipe. Turn them out when done, and lay on neatly cut slices of well buttered toast. Sprinkle over with pepper and salt, and serve very hot.

28. Stewed Broad Beans.

Well boil some broad beans in salt and water; take off the skins, and pour over the beans a parsley and butter sauce, as recipe No. 3. These may be served on toast, and thus make a substantial dish, and very nice.

29. Jerusalem Artichokes on Toast.

Peel very carefully and trim nicely; throw them into cold water as you peel them, or they will get discoloured. Boil in salt and water till quite soft; drain; mash them with a fork till quite smooth, with butter, pepper and salt. Put the artichokes thickly on nicely cut pieces of buttered toast, and sprinkle with pepper and salt, and serve. This is simply delicious, though simple.

30. Egg Plant Savoury.

Cut up some egg plants into quarters; put them into a jar, with butter, pepper and salt; cover close, and put in the oven. When done, take them out, mash them smooth with a fork. Add two hard-boiled eggs chopped fine, and a few bread crumbs, fill the mixture with little scallop shells, brush over the top of each with well beaten egg, sprinkle on some fine bread crumbs, put a little dab of butter on each, and just put in the oven to brown. Serve them in the shells, neatly dished.

_SALADS IN VARIOUS WAYS._

These are very little understood in this country. Almost any vegetable cold can be made into a most appetising salad. By this means you have really delicious dishes, and there is no waste of cold vegetables or fish. I will give a few which, though known, are very seldom used, and I want to impress the fact in the minds of my readers that salads are healthy and economical, and generally liked by young and old, and the very little trouble they take in preparation is well repaid by the result.

1. Potato Salad.

Mash up any cold potatoes you may have, mix them with any cold fish. Add a tablespoon of best olive oil, some caper vinegar, and a few chopped capers, one teaspoon of chopped onions, one bead of garlic chopped very small, the grated rind of a small lemon, the juice of half a lemon strained, salt and Nepaul pepper to taste; mix thoroughly. Serve it in a glass dish neatly piled up, smooth with a fork. Sprinkle over the whole some chopped hard-boiled egg, and arrange pretty West Indian pickles over it for decoration.

2. Plain Potato Salad.

Cut up any cold potatoes in slices, mix with them a teaspoon of chopped onion, a teaspoon of chopped parsley, and pour over it equal quantities of best olive oil and vinegar that has been well mixed with a little pepper and salt.

3. Mixed Vegetable Salad.

Cold carrots, turnips, potatoes, green peas, French beans, beet-root, celery, cauliflower, etc. Cut the carrots, turnips, potatoes, etc., with a nice fancy vegetable cutter; mix in the green peas, the French beans cut up in two or three pieces each, the cauliflower in neat little branches. Mix with them a teaspoon of chopped onion, a teaspoon of chopped parsley; mix equal quantities of vinegar and best olive oil, with pepper and salt to taste; toss all lightly up together. Ornament with lettuce and watercress in bunches.

N.B.--German lentils, green peas, French beans, broad beans, all make a good salad by themselves with equal quantities of oil and vinegar, and pepper and salt. No cold vegetable is out of place.

Every one more or less knows how to make salads from lettuce, endive, watercress, radishes, mustard and cress, etc., etc.; so it would be useless to enter into that in this little book. I will, however, give directions for a few simple salad sauces that I find generally approved of.

4. Salad Sauce No. 1.

Boil some eggs hard, two or three will be enough, take out the yolks, bruise them with the back of a spoon quite smooth, add a teaspoon of made mustard. Mix well, then add two tablespoons of olive oil, a little at a time, till well mixed, then two tablespoons of vinegar, stirring all the while. Lastly, a few drops of tarragon vinegar, a few drops of garlic vinegar, a salt spoon of castor sugar, and salt to taste. Some like a spoonful of anchovy sauce added; this is, of course, a matter of taste.

5. Sauce No. 2.

Break in the yolks of three eggs into a basin, stir with a wooden spoon, with two tablespoons of olive oil, but a drop at a time only till the egg gets thick; then mix in two tablespoons of vinegar gradually, a few drops of tarragon, a few drops of garlic, a spoonful of made mustard, and, lastly, two tablespoons of cream, but this must be mixed with great care so that it does not curdle. Salt to taste.

6. Sauce No. 3.

One potato passed through a sieve, the hard-boiled yolk of one egg rubbed smooth, two tablespoons of olive oil, two tablespoons of vinegar, a few drops of tarragon vinegar, a few drops of garlic vinegar, and a few drops of Chili vinegar; mix all well and smoothly. Add salt to taste.

N.B.--All salads should have a dash of onion and garlic, but very judiciously mixed. The difference in the flavour of the salads is very great.

Green salads may be mixed with lobsters, anchovies, sardines, and any kind of cold fish.

_PUDDINGS AND SWEETS._