Part 19

Wash spinach the same as other greens, p. 253. Cook in boiling salted water until tender, 10-30 m. Lift from the water with skimmer into a colander. (Save water for soups and sauces.) Press dry with a plate. Lay in hot pan and cut across a few times but do not chop; return to colander, pressing in firmly, to mold. Turn the dish in which it is to be served over the colander and unmold. Garnish with triangles of toast and hard boiled eggs. Pass oil, quarters of lemon or lemon juice, Sauce Amèricaine or French or Mayonnaise dressing with it. Many prefer it with salt and oil alone. It may also be served with cream sauce, or drawn butter with lemon juice.

Overcooking develops a strong flavor and causes spinach to lose its bright green color.

When spinach is young and sweet, it may be cooked without the addition of water by covering close and heating slowly at first; but when there is danger of its being bitter it should be cooked in plenty of water.

=Spinach with Cream--Delicious=

Pour hot cream over cooked spinach in vegetable dish.

Spinach is sometimes rubbed through a colander after cooking and served with whipped cream, for luncheon or supper.

=Summer Squash=

Cut squash into inch thick pieces, steam, or stew in a small quantity of water; drain in cheese cloth. Mash, season, heat and serve.

If you ever use butter for seasoning in cooking, use it with summer squash; though a little heavy cream, almond or dairy, is very nice. Never use roasted peanut butter with squash.

Only those squashes which are young enough to cook with the skins and seeds are suitable for stewing, as the skins and seeds contain the flavor.

=Baked Ripe Summer Squash=

Bake whole; open, remove seeds, scrape pulp from skin, season and serve as above. This pulp makes very delicate squash cream pies.

=Summer Squash with Corn=

Add ½ cup stewed green corn to each pint of cooked summer squash. Season with salt and cream.

=Winter Squash=

Winter squashes vary so much in quality that no one way of cooking will do for all. There are some varieties from which the skin may be peeled like a tomato, after steaming; others are so hard that it is impossible to pare them; from these scrape out the pulp with a spoon after steaming; others still, are better to be pared before steaming. When soft and watery after cooking, dry in the oven before mashing, and again afterwards if necessary. Some watery squashes have a rich flavor when well dried out.

=Mashed Winter Squash=

Saw squash in halves, remove the seeds and fibre with a spoon, cut into quarters or eighths, pare or not according to the variety, lay inside down in the steamer and cook over boiling water until tender. Remove from the shell if not pared, mash through a fine colander, season if soft with butter or cream and salt, or with salt only; if dry and mealy like the “Delicious,” use plenty of milk and cream with salt. Beat well and serve.

=Mashed Baked Squash=

Bake halves of squash from which the seeds have been removed, cut side down until tender, 1-2 hours or longer. Scrape pulp clean from the shell, mash, add salt, beat well and serve. Baked squash is so sweet that it requires no seasoning but salt, though a little milk or cream may be added if it is very dry.

=Baked Squash--Virginia Way=

Bake pieces of desired size, the shell side up, on waxed paper in baking pan. Serve on platter, allowing each guest to season to taste, and eat from the natural dish.

=Tomatoes=

As the tomato, though a fruit, is prepared and served in so many ways as a vegetable, we will follow custom and consider it under that head; but it must be borne in mind that it should not be served or eaten in combinations unsuitable for other acid fruits.

The most desirable way to serve the tomato is uncooked when well ripened. When perfectly ripe the skin will peel off without any preparation, and it may sometimes be loosened by rubbing the tomato all over firmly with the back of a silver knife; but when more convenient to use the hot water method, the tomatoes do not need to be soft nor to have a cooked taste.

First--have a kettle with an abundance of perfectly boiling water, also a pail with plenty of the coldest water you can get, ice water if possible. Put a few tomatoes (not enough to cool the water much) into a wire basket. Plunge into the boiling water, let rest an instant if very ripe and a second longer if quite solid, then lift the basket and set quickly into the cold water, then turn the tomatoes out into the water and leave them there. Repeat the process, take care each time that the water is boiling before dipping the tomatoes into it and renew the cold water when necessary.

Tomatoes may be put into the boiling water and transferred quickly to the cold water with a skimmer. When thoroughly cooled, set without peeling into the ice box until ready to use.

=Raw Tomatoes=

Peel, slice into not too thin slices, or cut into quarters or sixths from the blossom end just deep enough for the pieces to spread apart without separating. Serve with salt or with some of the salad dressings as a garnish for meat dishes, or as fresh fruit with sugar or sugar and lemon juice. With sugar and heavy cream my grandfather used to think tomatoes were more delicious than peaches and cream.

=Stewed Tomatoes=

Slice tomatoes into sauce pan and bring to boiling point slowly, boil up well, only, season with salt and serve. Long boiling frees the acid of tomatoes and renders them less wholesome. Tomatoes require more salt for palatability than any other article of food.

=Steamed Tomatoes=

Put rather small tomatoes on pan in steamer, steam from 10-15 m., or until tender. Serve on hot toast or crackers or thin round slices of broiled nut meat with a dainty spray of parsley or chervil, for luncheon or supper; allowing each guest to season to taste. If desired, drawn butter, cream sauce or oil may be passed.

=Broiled Tomatoes=

Cut tomatoes in halves without peeling, dust with salt and fine cracker crumbs, broil over hot coals, skin side down, 15-20 m. Serve plain or with Sauce Amèricaine or any desired dressing with wafers or toast. Firm tomatoes may be cut into thick slices and broiled on both sides. They may be just browned and set in the oven to become tender.

=Tomato Purée=

1 qt. stewed tomatoes 1 or 2 sticks of celery 1 teaspn. sugar 1 tablespn. butter A few slices of onion 1 tablespn. flour chopped parsley salt

Heat tomatoes, crushed celery and sugar for 15 m. Simmer onion in butter without browning, add flour, then tomato, boil up well, strain and add chopped parsley. Serve on toast or with boiled rice or with some meat dish. Very nice on toast with sliced hard boiled eggs.

=Turnips=

The later varieties of turnip are by far the best though some of the earlier varieties are sweet and tender. As they need to be grown quickly turnips are never good in a dry season but will be pithy and strong. Turnips require the greatest care in cooking. If they are over-cooked 5 m., they will begin to turn dark and will have a strong, disagreeable flavor. For that reason they are better to be cut into thin slices. They must be boiled rapidly.

=Boiled Turnips=

Wash, cut into quarters or sixths if large, pare very thick, cut into ½ in. slices, put into perfectly boiling water; boil rapidly for 25 m., or until just tender. Add salt at the end of 20 m. or when nearly tender, if at all; nice, sweet turnips are delicious without salt. Drain thoroughly, in cheese cloth if convenient. Serve plain, or with Chili sauce, Sauce Imperial or Sauce Amèricaine; or pour cream sauce over after draining; or pass oil, oil and lemon juice or French dressing with them.

=Ruta-Bagas=

There are white and yellow ruta-bagas or Swedish turnips, and both are richer in flavor and more nutritious than common turnips. The yellow ruta-bagas are especially sweet and rich. Prepare, cook and serve the same as turnips, except that the ruta-bagas require a little longer time for cooking. They are delightful served with Chili sauce, but are so rich and sweet of themselves that no sauce is necessary.

=Mashed Turnips=

Mash well drained boiled turnips with potato masher in hot pan. Do not put through colander. Season with salt and if not sweet a little sugar. Serve plain or with sauce 57, 58 or 75.

=Vegetable Stew=

Cook separately 1 pt. of string beans, 2 small potatoes and 2 small carrots cut into small pieces, and 1 pt. of green peas. When tender, drain, put all together, add salt and cream or a thin cream sauce.

This makes a very pretty as well as a palatable dish.

STARCHLESS VEGETABLES

Artichokes, Globe Artichokes, Jerusalem Asparagus Beans, young string Beets Brussels Sprouts Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery Cucumbers Egg Plant Endive Kohl-rabi Leeks Lettuce Okra Onions Oyster Plant--Salsify Radishes Ruta-bagas Spinach and all “greens” Squash, summer Turnips

STARCHLESS AND SUGARLESS VEGETABLES

Asparagus Beans, young string Cabbage, red and winter Cauliflower Egg Plant Endive Lettuce Oyster Plant--Salsify Radishes Spinach and all “greens”

The proportion of sugar in nearly all of the other starchless vegetables is small.

CHESTNUTS

Since chestnuts are so largely composed of starch though they also contain a large proportion of albuminoids, from 8.5 to 14.6 according to different authorities, we allow them to follow vegetables while not classing them with them. One writer says “they might have been included among the bread stuffs.” London vegetarians often serve a tureen of plain boiled chestnuts in place of potatoes.

The recipes are for the large imported chestnuts. The smaller native ones require a longer time for cooking. The dried chestnuts which we sometimes find in the stores require 3 hours for boiling.

=To Shell and Blanch Chestnuts=

Boil whole chestnuts rapidly for 10 m. Leave in the hot water, shell and remove the brown covering while warm.

=Boiled Chestnuts=

Cook blanched chestnuts in salted water until just tender, 10-20 m., drain, serve plain or with sauce 14, 16 or 17. Or, boil whole for 25 m. and serve in the shells.

=Chestnut Purée=

Mash boiled chestnuts, add salt, and cream or milk and butter. Beat well, heat in double boiler, serve in center of platter surrounded by nut meat cutlets or croquettes which in turn are garnished with boiled small onions, Brussels sprouts or flowerets of cauliflower suitably seasoned; or purée may be served with globe artichokes, green peas, stewed cucumbers or mashed dry green peas.

=Roasted Chestnuts=

Make at right angles small incisions at the point of the chestnut. Bake 10-20 m. in a rather hot oven, stirring occasionally, or put into a corn popper and shake over the coals.

=Chestnut and Banana Salad with Cream Dressing=

Prepare bananas as suggested for salads, and cover with Cream Dressing--Sweet. Cut boiled chestnuts in quarters and mix lightly with bananas and dressing. Serve in cups or on dainty china plates garnished with flowers or leaves.

=Chestnut Purée--Whipped Cream=

For luncheon, supper or dessert

Add sugar or honey with dairy or cocoanut cream and vanilla, to mashed chestnuts; heat, pile on dish with spoon in rocky form or force through vegetable press, and surround with whipped cream.

=Vanilla or Raisin Chestnuts=

Boil blanched, fresh or dried chestnuts until tender (fresh 15 m., dried, 3 hours). When almost tender, add sugar or honey to water and when the liquid is nearly boiled away, flavor with vanilla; finish in slow oven; serve as confection. Raisin pulp instead of vanilla is delightful.

SALADS

Since experience has taught us that the delicate machinery of the body requires oil to keep it running smoothly, salads as one of the most agreeable means of supplying this need, have been growing in favor.

In our recipes for salad dressings, we have endeavored to give sufficient variety in oils to suit all tastes and circumstances.

“Vinegar--acetic acid, is about ten times as strong as alcohol, and makes more trouble in the stomach than any other acid except oxalic.”--_Dr. Rand._

“No acid should be taken into the mouth with starch as it will prevent the action of the saliva; but if starches have been properly masticated, and a proper amount of saliva mingled with them, lemon juice will not interfere with the digestion of starch in the stomach.”--_Dr. Kress._

For the above reasons, we use no flour or cornstarch in dressings, use lemon juice as the acid, and exclude potato salad. Cold potatoes of themselves are difficult of digestion and combining them with an acid renders them still more so.

Secrets of Success

Use nuts as a garnish, or as an accompaniment to salads instead of mixed with them, as they become tough quickly after touching the dressing. Coarse chopped nuts may be sprinkled over the salad just as it goes to the table.

In beans, green or red French, Lima or California are best for salads since they do not cook to pieces easily.

The whites of hard boiled eggs are more digestible when ground fine, or pressed through a wire strainer. When desired for fancy shapes they may be poached separate from the yolks, p. 199.

Vegetables for salads must be crisp, tender and dry.

Gather lettuce early in the morning, put it into a closed pail or a paper sack and leave in the refrigerator for a few hours; or if it comes from the market slightly wilted, cover it at once with ice water until revived. Never allow the wind to blow upon lettuce. Crisp, by allowing it to stand in ice water after washing until just before serving, then drain and shake in a wire basket or in mosquito netting, cheese cloth or a netted bag.

Celery, parsley, spinach, endive and dandelion may be kept fresh the same as lettuce and crisped in ice water before serving.

Always cut celery, never chop it. Wipe it dry before cutting and if possible, roll in a dry towel a moment after cutting.

Unless cabbage is shaved thread-like it is better to be chopped.

In cooking carrots for salads, drain them when about half done and add boiling water to finish cooking.

The apple, grape fruit and tomato are the only fruits with which a French or Mayonnaise dressing is harmonious.

Dip ripe tomatoes quickly into perfectly boiling water, lift them out and drop into cold water, change the water two or three times if ice is not at hand, set them in a cold place, and peel just before serving.

Do not mix cut, colored fruits (like strawberries) with cream dressings. Lay the pieces between the layers and on top of the salad.

It is seldom suitable to serve fruit salads with lettuce; some glass dish with decorations of leaves, vines and flowers is prettiest.

As a rule, do not mix many kinds of fruit in one salad. One flavor often destroys another.

Many of the fruit salads are suitable for desserts.

Cut oranges in about the middle of the section or just each side of the membrane, leaving that out if convenient; then cut into pieces crosswise.

Cut grape fruit in halves, then around the inside next to the skin, and after removing the pulp, carefully separate it from the membrane.

When juicy fruits are to be used with any but fruit juice dressings, they should be drained. The juices may be used for nectars, other salad dressings or for pudding sauces.

Soak currants or pitted sour cherries in syrup made of one part sugar and two parts water, for an hour or longer, then drain.

For most salads, bananas are better cut into quarters lengthwise, then sliced across.

Pare, quarter and core choice, fine flavored apples, one at a time, cut the quarters into not too thin lengthwise slices, place three or four of the slices together and cut across into small wedge-shaped pieces. Never chop apples for salad. Both apples and bananas should be prepared just as short a time before the meal as possible and should be cut right into the dressing. After being coated with the dressing they will not turn dark.

Shred fresh pineapple according to directions, p. 44. For nut and cream dressings cooked pineapple is preferable. After draining and drying canned sliced pineapple, lay two or three of the round slices together and cut into wedge-shaped pieces about ¼ inch across at the large end.

Keep orange, lemon, grape fruit or tangerine cups in cracked ice or ice water until just before serving, then drain and wipe dry.

The edges of the cups may be pointed or scalloped, and if cups are large the points may be cut deep, and then rolled down. Apple cups may be kept in the same way, or the cut surface may be coated with dressing.

We marinate or pickle some ingredients by mixing them with lemon juice, with or without salt, or with French dressing, a short time before serving. Drain if necessary, before adding the dressing.

A wooden spoon which is used for nothing else is best for stirring dressings while cooking. Dip in cold water and wipe it just before using and wash in cold water immediately after.

Sour cream may be substituted for sweet cream in all dressings; a little less lemon juice is required.

One-third water may be used with lemon juice for dressings if too sour.

Use plenty of salt in dressings for people accustomed to mustard and pepper.

For uncooked dressings all the ingredients and utensils should be as nearly ice cold as possible.

The yolks of five eggs may be used in the place of three whole eggs in boiled dressings.

For salads with eggs, tomatoes or cabbage, a larger proportion of lemon juice and salt is required, and with tomatoes a little sugar is an improvement.

COOKED DRESSINGS

=★ Improved Mayonnaise Dressing=

4 large eggs ⅓ cup oil ⅓ cup lemon juice 1 teaspn. salt

Beat all the ingredients in the inner cup of a double boiler just enough to blend well. Put into the outer boiler containing warm (not hot) water, set over fire, stir with a wooden spoon continuously, taking the inner boiler out occasionally and stirring well if there is danger of cooking too rapidly. When the dressing begins to thicken, remove at once from the fire and set in a dish of cold water which was all ready, stirring until partially cooled. Strain through a wire strainer.

The recipe for this dressing (with some unhygienic adjuncts) was given to me in the early days of my work by a lady to whom a famous chef had given it as a special favor; and to my mind its value is unequalled. It has not an excess of oil like the regular mayonnaise, is easily and quickly made and will keep well in a cool place, covered. I sometimes use ½ cup of oil and ¼ cup of lemon juice, and sometimes just the reverse, according to what I am using it over and the tastes of the people for whom I am preparing it. Three eggs will do very well if one needs to economize in eggs. ¼ cup of cream, whipped, may be added just before serving for Cream Improved Mayonnaise.

=Butter Dressing=

Use melted butter and less salt in improved mayonnaise dressing.

=★ Boiled Salad Dressing--Large quantity=

8-10 eggs 1½ cup oil 1 cup lemon juice 2-3 teaspns. salt

Follow directions for improved mayonnaise dressing.

=No Oil Dressing=

yolks of 2 eggs 1 level teaspn. salt 2 tablespns. lemon juice whites of 2 eggs

Beat yolks, add salt and lemon juice, cook over hot water, cool; add stiffly-beaten whites of eggs when ready to serve.

=Sour Cream Dressing=

Especially good plain on lettuce, and with flavorings for chopped cabbage.

1 egg ½ cup sour cream 2 tablespns. lemon juice 1 tablespn. water ½-¾ teaspn. salt

Beat egg slightly, add cream, cook the same as boiled custard, cool, add water, salt and lemon juice. When desired, water and lemon juice may be flavored according to directions p. 28.

=Sweet or Sour Milk Dressing=

Substitute sweet or sour milk and 1 tablespn. of oil or butter for sour cream in preceding recipe. Omit water and use 2 eggs if desired very stiff.

=★ Cream Dressing--Sweet=

For fruits especially, but suitable for lettuce, cabbage, beets, celery or carrots.

1 cup heavy cream or ⅔ cup light cream 3 tablespns. sugar 3 large eggs 3 tablespns. lemon juice

Beat cream, sugar and eggs in inner cup of double boiler; cook as for custard, set dish in cold water; add the lemon juice gradually, stirring, then a trifle of salt, strain.

⅔ only of the cream may be cooked and the remainder whipped and added to cold dressing. In substituting sour cream for sweet, use 1-1½ tablespn. only of lemon juice.

=★ Nut Dressing--no eggs=

2 slightly rounded tablespns. Brazil, almond, pine nut or roasted or unroasted peanut butter ⅓-½ cup water ½ teaspn. salt 1-1½ tablespn. lemon juice

Rub butter smooth with water, cook just a moment, stirring. Remove from fire, add salt and lemon juice, cool.

Some flavoring is an improvement with the unroasted peanut butter.

Roasted peanut butter dressing and improved mayonnaise dressing may be combined with a very pleasing effect.

Use from ½-¾ cup strained stewed tomato in place of the water, and ¾ teaspn. of salt, for Nut Tomato Dressing.

=★ Almond Butter Dressing=

Add 2 tablespns. of sugar to the nut dressing made with almond butter and you have one of the most delightful fruit salad dressings.

=Rhubarb Salad Dressing=

While the liberal use of rhubarb is not to be recommended on account of the oxalic acid it contains, it affords variety in dressings and has the advantage of always being at hand in the country when one gets out of lemons.

3 large or 4 small eggs ¼ cup oil ½ cup prepared rhubarb ½-⅔ teaspn. salt

Stew rhubarb without peeling, with not more than one tablespoon of water to the quart of rhubarb. Rub through a fine colander or sieve, mix in the proportions given, with the other ingredients and cook the same as improved mayonnaise dressing.

Green gooseberries prepared in the same way may be used in the place of rhubarb.

=Olive Dressing=

Make “No Oil” dressing with 1½ only, tablespn. lemon juice and just before serving sprinkle over it two tablespns. coarse chopped ripe olives.

=Tomato Dressing=

Excellent on apples, string beans, celery, cabbage and lettuce, on peas croquettes, and for decorating.

3 large eggs ¾ cup thick tomato pulp ¼ cup oil 3 tablespns. lemon juice 1-1½ teaspn. salt

Drain juice from stewed tomatoes, rub pulp through strainer or fine colander, combine with other ingredients and cook as improved mayonnaise dressing.

=Orange Dressing=

For suitable fruit salads.

1-1½ cup sugar 1 cup water ⅔ cup orange juice 5-6 tablespns. lemon juice

Boil sugar and water to syrup; cool, add orange and lemon juice, strain. If desired, flavor with oil of orange.

=Boiled Dressing with Cornstarch=

I insert this dressing with many apologies for the cornstarch, which as we know, is entirely out of place in a salad dressing, and trust that it will be used in emergencies only when eggs are very scarce.

2 cups water ½ cup corn starch 2 teaspns. salt 3 eggs or 4 yolks ½ cup lemon juice

Boil salt and water, add the cornstarch which has been stirred smooth with cold water; boil up, add beaten eggs and lemon juice; beat well, cool.

UNCOOKED DRESSINGS

=French Dressing=

Suitable for vegetables, apples, tomatoes, eggs, legumes and nut foods.

The proportions of lemon juice and oil in this dressing vary from 1 part of lemon juice to 4 parts of oil, to equal parts of each, and in extreme cases to the use of four or five times as much lemon juice as of oil according to the ingredients of the salad and individual taste, but the proportions most generally used are the following:

¼-½ teaspn. salt 3 tablespns. oil 1 tablespn. lemon juice