Part 8

Boil 4 or 5 sweet potatoes for half an hour or until cooked. Line a large baking dish with pie-crust, slice the potatoes lengthwise while still hot, and put a layer of them on the crust, and cover this with long strips of pastry. Sprinkle with sugar, dot with butter, and add a little nutmeg; then place another layer of potato, and another of pastry, and so on, until the dish is nearly filled. Pour on enough boiling water to almost fill the dish, and cover the top with pastry like any deep pie, cutting it here and there to let the steam escape. Bake for about twenty minutes, or until the crust is a little browned.

MARYLAND SWEET POTATOES

Peel 6 or 8 medium-sized sweet potatoes, quarter them lengthwise, and lay them in a large saucepan having rounded sides. Add to the potatoes 2 heaping tablespoons of butter, and 3 heaping tablespoons of granulated sugar, and 2 or 3 tablespoons of water, and stir until the sugar and butter are dissolved. Cover closely and let them cook for four or five minutes undisturbed, then stir again with a wooden spoon, being careful to see that the syrup is not sticking on the bottom, re-cover, and from now on let cook only a couple of moments at a time before again stirring. The water will of course soon cook away; let the potatoes cook rapidly in the hot syrup until they begin to soften, then put them where the fire is less hot, and let them cook slowly until done. The entire cooking should not take more than fifteen or twenty minutes, and the thick brown sauce should be thoroughly scraped from the saucepan and served over the sweet potatoes.

CANDIED SWEET POTATOES

Lay pared sweet potatoes cut in slices in a buttered baking dish with a cover. Sprinkle each layer with brown sugar, salt and pepper and cinnamon, and dot with bits of butter. Pour in 1/2 cup of boiling water for 1/2 dozen potatoes and baste while cooking. Cook moderately until tender, from half an hour to three quarters, depending on the heat of the oven. The cinnamon can be omitted if not liked.

GRIDDLED SWEET POTATOES

Cut cold boiled sweet potatoes in slices, lengthwise, and lay them on a buttered griddle; when browned on one side turn with a pancake turner and brown the other side. Sprinkle with salt and serve very hot.

FRIED SWEET POTATOES

Cut cold boiled sweet potatoes in half-inch squares and fry them in melted butter. Salt well, and stir with a knife, and let brown as much as possible without burning.

FRENCH-FRIED SWEET POTATOES

Cut cold boiled sweet potatoes in sixths, lengthwise, place in a frying basket, and fry for about five minutes, or until well browned. Drain and sprinkle with salt.

GLAZED SWEET POTATOES

Let sweet potatoes boil until nearly done, then drain and cool. When cold cut them in inch-thick slices, or into rounds with a patent cutter, mix them well with melted butter and sugar, using 2 tablespoons of sugar to each 1/2 cup of butter, and put them in a deep dish in a hot oven for ten minutes, or until well browned.

CREAMED SALSIFY (OYSTER PLANT)

Remove the tops from 2 bunches of salsify, scrape and cut to shape, and put in a bowl of cold water containing some lemon juice, to retain the whiteness. Drain and put in boiling water, using enough to cover it, and let cook about three quarters of an hour, salting the water during the last half-hour's boiling. Drain and serve with highly seasoned white sauce or parsley sauce made with the water in which the salsify cooked, with the addition of a little milk or cream.

ENGLISH SALSIFY

Boil salsify as directed above, drain, and serve with bread sauce, serving fine browned bread crumbs with the sauce.

SALSIFY IN COQUILLES

Boil the salsify as directed, and press through a sieve; then beat into it 1 tablespoon of butter, season highly, arrange in buttered coquilles or ramekins, sprinkle grated cheese over the top, and let brown in the oven.

ESCALLOPED SALSIFY

Boil salsify as directed, not letting it quite finish cooking; slice, and arrange in buttered baking dish, with layers of slightly browned crumbs dotted with butter, and sprinkled with pepper, salt, and paprika. Pour 1/2 cup of milk or cream over to dampen, then cover the top with crumbs, and bake about fifteen minutes. An egg can be beaten with the milk to make the dish richer if wanted.

MASHED BLACK SALSIFY (SCHWARZWURZEL)

Proceed as with ordinary salsify, except that it is best not to peel or cut this sort of salsify until after boiling. When boiled, peel, and mash the white part, using 1 tablespoon of cream to each cup of salsify, 1 teaspoon of butter, pepper, and salt. Arrange in individual dishes or cases with crumbs on top, and bake ten minutes to brown.

FRIED SALSIFY TARTARE

Use cold boiled salsify, cut in any shape desired, dip in egg and crumbs, and fry in hot fat until browned. Drain well, dredge with salt, and serve with sauce Tartare.

SPINACH

Spinach should be well picked over, leaf by leaf, and washed in several different waters, and changed to a different pan each time it is washed, that the sand may be left behind with each washing. Then put it in a large kettle, with a scant cup of water for a peck of spinach, and let it cook over a slow fire until tender; in this way its own juices will be extracted, and it will be more tasty than if cooked in water. It should be then drained and chopped extremely fine, or until as nearly a pulp as possible, and then mashed in a mortar or with a potato-masher. It is then ready to prepare in any way desired for the table.

Delicious spinach can be had canned, and if this is used it needs only to be very finely chopped and mashed, then seasoned, and prepared in any of the following ways.

GERMAN SPINACH

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a saucepan, and in it let simmer for ten minutes 1 good-sized onion that has been finely chopped, then add 4 cups of the boiled, chopped, and mashed spinach to it, and stir well together, and season thoroughly with salt and pepper; finish with 1/2 teaspoon of grated nutmeg, and 1 or 2 tablespoons of whipped cream, and pile high in a heated dish, covering the top with the chopped whites and riced yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs.

SPINACH WITH WHITE SAUCE

Prepare as in the above recipe, using, instead of the cream, 1/2 cup of highly seasoned white sauce, and at the last add the juice of 1 lemon or 1 tablespoon of reduced vinegar.

GERMAN SPINACH WITH RHUBARB

Another German way of preparing spinach is to cook rhubarb leaves or flowers (or both) with the spinach for the purée and to add chives. If canned spinach is used the rhubarb leaves should be cooked and chopped and added to the canned spinach before it is macerated.

ITALIAN SPINACH

Wash 1/2 peck spinach and cook twenty-five minutes without water. Drain, chop to a fine pulp, mash until smooth in a mortar, season with 1 tablespoon of butter, salt and pepper, and encircle with a garnish of well-scrambled eggs to which has been added 2 tablespoons of grated cheese.

NOVELTY SPINACH

Drain a can of spinach and chop it very fine, and then mash it until smooth. Put it in a saucepan with 1 tablespoon of chopped chives or grated onion, salt and pepper, and sprinkle the whole surface well with grated nutmeg. Hard boil 3 eggs, remove the yolks, and mix them thoroughly with the spinach. Chop the whites, and arrange the spinach on rounds of toast, placing 2 tablespoons on each piece, garnish with the whites of the eggs, and pour on each 2 tablespoons of cheese sauce. If the arrangement on toast is not desired, the cheese sauce can be mixed with the spinach before serving it.

SPINACH SOUFFLÉ

Take 2 cups of cooked chopped spinach, mash to a pulp, add 1 cup of white sauce and the whites of 2 eggs beaten very stiff, season well, and pile lightly in timbale cups; set these in a pan of water, and let bake in a moderate oven for fifteen minutes or less. Before serving sprinkle the top of each with riced yolk of hard-boiled egg.

BAKED SQUASH OR PUMPKIN

Cut a pumpkin or a squash in triangular or square pieces, about three inches across, scrape the seeds, etc., from each piece, and sprinkle with salt and pepper, and spread with butter. Set in a moderate oven and bake for half an hour or until browned. Serve garnished with sprigs of parsley. It should be eaten from the shell with additional butter.

CALIFORNIA SQUASH

Take a very young summer squash, which if it be young enough need not be pared, and cut it into small pieces. Fry half an onion in a tablespoon of butter, and when transparent and beginning to brown add the squash to it and season with salt and pepper. Let all cook together for ten minutes, and then add 1/4 of a cup of hot water, and let cook until the squash is quite tender.

STEWED TOMATOES

Empty 1 can of tomatoes into a double boiler, and put with them 1 cup of crumbled bread without crust, stir well together, season with pepper and salt, cover, and let cook slowly for half an hour, stirring from time to time. Just before serving add a piece of butter the size of a walnut. While the tomatoes will be ready to serve with half an hour's cooking, they are improved by cooking an hour, and are better still if warmed again after cooling.

ESCALLOPED TOMATOES

Drain the juice from 1 can of tomatoes. Butter a baking dish, and cover the bottom with the tomatoes; dot with butter, dredge with pepper and salt, and sprinkle generously with fine bread crumbs; arrange another layer of tomatoes, and crumbs, and so proceed until the dish is filled. Pour over all enough of the juice of the tomatoes to moisten well, and then finish the dish with a covering of crumbs. Bake for twenty minutes in a moderate oven.

BREADED TOMATOES

Slice large, solid tomatoes, dredge them on both sides with salt and pepper, and dip each slice in beaten egg, and then in fine bread or cracker crumbs. Arrange them in a frying basket, and plunge them in hot, deep fat for one or two minutes to brown. Drain, and garnish with sprays of parsley, or use as a garnish to other vegetables.

FRIED TOMATOES

Put 1 tablespoon of butter in a frying pan, and when melted lay in thickly sliced tomatoes which have been rolled in egg and crumbs; when browned on one side turn them with a pancake turner and brown the other side, seasoning with pepper and salt. Remove to the serving dish with a pancake turner, seasoning the first side cooked after they are turned onto the dish. A half a teaspoon of onion juice may be added to the butter in which they are cooking if desired. Serve plain or with white sauce.

DEVILLED TOMATOES

Cut in half and broil three or four nice solid tomatoes, and serve them with a sauce made as follows: Take the yolks of 4 hard-boiled eggs and crush them with a fork, add to them a scant teaspoon of dry mustard, 1 heaping saltspoon of salt, and several shakes of paprika, or a dash of cayenne pepper; mix these dry ingredients well together, and then add to them 5 tablespoons of melted butter, 2 tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice, and heat in a double boiler; when it begins to thicken remove from the fire and stir in 1 well-beaten egg. Chop the whites of the boiled eggs, and put with them 2 teaspoons of chopped parsley, and decorate the centre of each broiled tomato with this before serving.

CREAMED TOMATOES

Take solid, medium-sized tomatoes, and, having cut a circular piece out of the stem-end, scoop out most of the inside, and fill with parboiled celery cut in half-inch lengths, mixed with an equal quantity of canned peas, and dampened with white sauce; heap 1 teaspoon of peas on the top of each tomato, and bake for twenty minutes or more, and serve with highly seasoned white sauce poured over each.

BAKED TOMATOES WITH MUSHROOMS

Wash good solid tomatoes and carefully cut out the inside; dredge with pepper and salt and fill the tomato with sauté mushrooms, using either fresh or canned ones, chopped and fried in butter. Bake for about twenty minutes, or until heated through but not broken.

TOMATOES WITH NUT FORCE-MEAT

Slice the stem-end from 6 large, solid tomatoes, scoop out the inside, and fill with a force-meat made of one cup of crumbs, 1/2 cup of chopped nuts, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 saltspoon of pepper, 1 tablespoon of melted butter, 1/2 tablespoon of grated onion, and 1 egg. Replace the tops on the tomatoes and bake them for about twenty minutes, watching that the skins do not break, as they will do in a too hot oven.

TOMATOES STUFFED WITH EGG AND PEPPERS

Cut the inside from solid, large tomatoes, and refill with a mixture of equal parts of chopped hard-boiled eggs and chopped sweet green peppers (or use pimentos) well moistened with melted butter and onion juice, and seasoned with salt. Put in a baking dish, cover, and let bake for twenty minutes in a moderate oven.

BAKED TOMATOES WITH GREEN PEPPERS

Scoop out the inside from solid tomatoes, and refill with the tomato meat which has been cut out of the centre and chopped with sweet green peppers, using 1 teaspoon of peppers to each tomato, and 1 teaspoon of cracker crumbs or boiled rice; season with pepper and salt, and place 1/4 teaspoon of butter in each tomato before laying the top on; then bake in a moderate oven about twenty minutes.

TOMATOES FILLED WITH EGG

Select very large solid tomatoes, and with a small, sharp knife cut a round piece out of the stem-end, then cut out a large enough space from the inside to hold a small egg, and arrange in a shallow pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, add 1/2 teaspoon of grated onion, and set in a hot oven for five or six minutes. Remove, and break into each tomato the yolk of 1 egg and as much of the white as it will hold without running over the edge. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a little chopped parsley, and replace in the oven, letting them cook slowly fifteen minutes until the egg is set. Remove to individual plates for serving, taking care to not break the tomato. Garnish with cress or parsley.

Tomatoes may be stuffed in a great variety of ways,--with fillings of fried cucumber, tomato, and chopped onions, or bread dressing with sage, etc.

TOMATOES STUFFED WITH SPINACH

Cut an opening in the top of large, solid tomatoes, and scoop out some of the inside with a spoon, fill with "German spinach," and place in a hot oven for about twenty minutes; upon removing from the oven cover each with a slice of hard-boiled egg, or use the white rim filled with riced yolks. Serve alone or as a garnish for another vegetable.

TOMATOES STUFFED WITH MACARONI

Scoop the inside from 6 large, solid tomatoes and use it with 1 bay leaf and some melted butter to make a tomato sauce. Into this stir 1/2 cup of boiled macaroni (spaghetti or rice may also be used), and, after seasoning well with salt and pepper, fill the tomatoes with the macaroni, putting 1 teaspoon of grated cheese on the top of each. Bake in a moderate oven for about twenty minutes or less, and garnish with watercress or parsley.

AMERICAN RAREBIT

Put a little water and 1 large tablespoon of butter in a frying pan, and when melted add 1 large Spanish onion or 3 ordinary onions chopped fine, and let simmer slowly ten minutes. Strain the juice from a can of tomatoes, and put the tomatoes in a double boiler; when they are heated through scrape the onions into the tomatoes, and let them all cook together for half an hour; season highly with salt and pepper, and just before serving add 2 or 3 well-beaten eggs, and let stand for a few minutes until somewhat thickened; serve on toast. If the flavour of onions is liked, a larger quantity of chopped onion may be used; and to increase the quantity, 3 or 4 more eggs may be added to this rule without other changes. For chafing-dish prepare in advance to the point where the eggs are added, and add these after reheating in the chafing-dish.

TOMATOES AND ONION

Proceed as in the preceding recipe without adding the eggs.

TOMATOES CASINO

Select large, solid tomatoes, and without cutting them let them boil for fifteen minutes; then slip off the skins, halve them, and lay each piece, cut-side down, on a round of toast the same size as the tomato. Cover the top with warm Hollandaise, Bernaise, or Maître d'hôtel sauce, and in the centre lay a slice of truffle; garnish with watercress.

TOMATOES INDIENNE

Halve large, solid tomatoes, and arrange them in a shallow pan, cut-side up. Dredge with salt and pepper, and spread with curry powder and some onion juice. Put in the oven for ten minutes, or under the gas burners of the oven in a gas stove. Do not let the tomatoes soften, and serve at once to prevent this. Use alone or as a garnish to rice.

TOMATOES WITH EGGS

Strain 1 can of tomatoes and put them in a saucepan; stir well, and season with pepper and salt and 1 tablespoon of butter, and, after they have cooked fifteen or twenty minutes, stir in 3 or 4 well-beaten eggs and serve on toast after two or three minutes' further cooking.

CURRIED TOMATOES

Cut a thin slice from the stem-end of large, solid tomatoes, and scoop out some of the inside. Fill with boiled rice to which is added the tomato removed from the inside and a little curry powder (1/2 teaspoon to 1 cup of rice is a moderate amount). Season the mixture well with salt, replace the top, and bake fifteen minutes. The curry powder can be omitted from the filling and the tomatoes served with curry sauce if preferred.

SAVOURY TOMATOES

Cut in half rather large, solid tomatoes, allowing 2 halves for each person to be served, and set them, cut-side up, in a shallow tin; press capers into the spaces, then dredge heavily with celery salt, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and set under the flame of a gas oven until the tops are blackened. The flame should be hot so that this may happen as quickly as possible in order that the tomatoes may not become softened by the heat; to this end it is also necessary to leave the door of the broiling compartment open.

TOMATOES CREOLE

Cut in half, crosswise, 5 or 6 solid tomatoes, and set them, cut halves upwards, in a buttered pan. Chop 1 or 2 sweet green peppers, mix with them 1 teaspoon of chopped onion, and sprinkle this over the tomatoes; place a small piece of butter on each half, and sprinkle with salt and paprika. Let bake about twenty minutes, then remove to rounds of toast, or nests of boiled rice, and pour over them white sauce.

TOMATO LOAF

Strain the juice from 1 can of tomatoes through a sieve fine enough to stop all the seeds, and put in an enamelled saucepan to boil; season well with salt and pepper, and when it boils pour it onto enough gelatine dissolved in water to stiffen it. The amount of gelatine cannot be given, as the various vegetable gelatines, arrowroot, etc., vary in thickening power. Instructions as to the proper amount for each pint of liquid will come with every package. Set the jelly aside to cool, and arrange slices of hard-boiled egg on the bottom of custard cups or small plain moulds, and encircle these with slices of stuffed olive, pickled walnut, or truffles, or mushrooms. When the jelly is somewhat cooled, and so thick enough to hold down these garnishings when poured onto them, half fill the cups with it. Serve when set and ice-cold, turned out on lettuce leaves.

TOMATOES AND HOMINY

Take 2 cups of cold boiled hominy and 2 cups of boiled tomatoes, put them in a saucepan with 1 tablespoon of butter, season generously with salt and pepper, and serve in a deep dish when thoroughly heated through, or put into a buttered baking dish with crumbs on the top (and a little grated cheese if liked); brown before serving.

STEWED TURNIPS

Peel and wash turnips and cut them in eighths lengthwise, or in dice, and put them in boiling milk and water which covers them. Let them cook slowly for half an hour uncovered, then lift them out and place on a hot dish at the side of the stove. Make a sauce with 1 1/2 cups of the stock in which they cooked, into which beat the yolk of 1 egg and 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice; season this with pepper and salt and pour over the turnips. Instead of this, ordinary white sauce may be made of the turnip stock.

MASHED TURNIPS

Peel and quarter 2 good-sized turnips, cover them with boiling water, and let cook until tender, which should be in from half an hour to three quarters; drain them in a colander, and press gently with a wire potato-masher to remove as much water as possible, then mash them and beat them well, stirring in 2 tablespoons of butter, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 saltspoon of pepper.

MASHED TURNIPS AND POTATO

Prepare turnips as for mashed turnips, and mash with them an equal quantity of boiled potatoes; add butter, pepper, and salt, and beat up very light before serving.

TURNIPS AU GRATIN

Cut boiled turnips in thin slices, and arrange them in a buttered baking dish in layers one inch deep; sprinkle each layer with melted butter, pepper, salt, and grated cheese. Finish with cheese on the top, and bake for twenty minutes.

RAGOUT OF TURNIPS

Put 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan, and when melted add 1 tablespoon of chopped onion and 4 cups of diced turnips, and stir until they begin to brown; season with 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 saltspoon of pepper, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and add slowly 1 cup of vegetable broth or milk into which 1 tablespoon of flour has been made smooth. Let simmer gently for half an hour.

TELTOWER RÜBCHEN

Buy the imported "rübchen," which are the daintiest tiny turnips, and heat them in their own liquor; then drain and serve with Spanish sauce.

PARISIAN TURNIPS

Cut turnips into small rounds with a Parisian potato cutter, and boil them for half an hour or until tender, the time depending largely upon the age of the turnips. Drain, and cover with highly seasoned white sauce, to which 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley has been added.

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Journal of Education, Boston.

VEGETABLE COMBINATIONS

CHOP SUEY

Put 1 cup of onions, fried until brown, 1 cup of celery cut in two-inch pieces and then shredded and stewed in vegetable stock for half an hour, 1 cup of fried mushrooms, and 2 cups of boiled rice in a saucepan with a cup of thin brown sauce. Let all heat together for ten minutes, and season with salt and pepper.

COLCANNON

This is made by the mixture of two or more vegetables already boiled. Use equal parts of mashed potato and sprouts (or any greens) finely minced, and grated onion if wanted, and add some mashed carrots or turnips or both; season with salt and pepper. Mix 2 eggs through 4 or 5 cups of vegetables, press into a mould, and boil or steam for half an hour. Turn out to serve, and serve plain or with a brown sauce.

MACEDOINE OF VEGETABLES

Boil 1 small cauliflower and set it aside to drain; then boil 2 cups of diced carrots, drain them when tender, but reserve the stock. Add to the carrots the cauliflower carefully separated into little pieces, 2 cups of boiled peas, or 1 can, 1 cup of cooked or canned flageolets, 1/2 a cup of carrot stock, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, 1 small saltspoon of pepper, and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Let simmer together until heated, and then add 1 chopped onion, 2 bay leaves, 1 tablespoon of butter. If liked, a sauce made of 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of flour thinned with the carrot stock and highly seasoned can be strained over the vegetables before serving.

CANNED MACEDOINE OF VEGETABLES

Delicious combinations of peas, shaped carrots, flageolets, etc., can be had in bottles. Drain them, and put in a saucepan with 1 tablespoon of butter and some pepper and salt. When hot serve or add 1/2 cup of cream. Serve to garnish, or alone, or use to fill peppers, or tomatoes, or patties.

VEGETABLE CHOWDER