LADIES’ COLUMN.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 666, 9 September 1921, Page 6

LADIES’ COLUMN.

(By “ Ru-ru/’) One of ou<r readers has written to “Ru-ra” to say “ I am a country woman with a large family and very often have unexpected visitors and sometimes run short of meat. Unfortunately we are not near a butcher’s. Can ‘Ru-ru’ suggest any substitute for meat in case of emergency?” Nearly all country folk grow their own veg-eteables and usually have a good supply. There are very many savoury dishes, not only cheap, but quite delicious, made from vegetables. The following recipes are excellent: — Vegetable Cutlets. Take 1 breakfast cupful of lentils and boil on slow fire with 2 cupfuls of water (When cooked they ought to be dry and floury). Take remains of cold cooked carrots (3 medium sized), 1 small cooked onion, 1 tablespoonful of cold mashed turnips, about cupful of cold potato, and any other vegetable left over from previous meal. Mash all well together, add good seasoning of salt and pepper, Lnd 1 well beaten egg. Mould into cutlet shapes, dip in egg and bread crumbs and fry a golden brown. Have previously browned in the oven some thin pieces of crust and stick in the end of each cutlet to resemble the bone. This is quite a delicious dish and in appearance exactly like ordinary cutlets. Vegetarian Sausage. 1 - teacupful, broken macaroni, 1 good sized onion finely chopped, 1 teacupful ground walnuts, salt and pepper, a dash of nutmeg, 1 egg, 1 teacupful bread crumbs. Method: Bon mareoni till quite soft, drain, chop finely and mix thoroughly with other ingredients and egg, and. mix , iht* 3 firm paste. Put into a _ buttered parchment paper and roll into shape of large sausage and tie ends. lhen cover with pudding cloth and boil loi Its hour. Take out of cloth and paper and set aside to cool. Cut into slices to serve.

Carpot Mould.

Two or 3 large carrots, 2oz butter, %lb cold cooked potatoes, pepper and salt to taste. Method: Boil the carrots in salted water till soft, strain and mash with a fork. Mix in potatoes,and butter, adding a little milk if necessary; season and mix well (plenty of peper). Butter some small cups or moulds and steam tor 20 minutes. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve.

Curried Carrots.

Cut carrots into slices and cook in plenty of water, salt to taste; add onion and other vegetables if desired. When quite soft thicken with pea flour, add curry powder to taste and a small piece of butter. Serve with plain boiled rice. Haricot beans can be curried in the same way and aie very nice.

Stuffed Onions. Take four large onions and boil -till tender but not broken, drain well; when cold remove the centres. Unop three of these centres and mix with them a cupful of chopped ham, season to taste, moisten with milk and white of egg. Fill the centres with this mixtures, place a piece pf butter on top of each; set in a deep dish, nour a little milk about them: and bake covered for 20 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with breadcrumbs ana dot with pieces of butter. Bake for 10 minutes longer.

Potato acid G,reen Pea Balls. Take some cold mashed potato and the same quantity of cold green peas, season well with pepper ana sat, mix with egg and shape mto balls, din in egg and bread crumbs and toy golden brown. These can be mate without the peas and are very nice.

Vegetable Brawn.

Three cups lentils, 1 cup haricot beans, %lb butter, J ilb sago, salt, pepper and herbs. Wash lentils and beans, put them in a saucepan with enough butter to cook, adding an onion, salt, pepper and herbs. They will take 3 or 4 hours to cook, add more water if necessary. When quite soft add butter and slowly the sago: boil for few minutes, stirring ail the time, then turn into a basin, put a tin plate on Top and leave m a slow ovene for 2 or 3 hours. - hmi out next morning. (The sago binds it gether.

Cauliflower au Gyatin.

Steam cauliflower till. all. the moisture is out, cut into small pieces and place in a buttered dish, cover completely with gratin sauce, sprinkle with bread crumbs, grated . cheese, and some oiled butter. .Bake m quick oven for 10 minutes. Gratin Sauce.—loz buttei, loz cornflour, % pint milk, 2 tablespoons grated cheese, salt and peppei and a little cayenne. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add cornflour and stu t smooth, but do not let it brown*, add milk and let it boil, stirring all the time; cook slowly for o mmu.es, add seasoning, then grated cheese, staring all the time. Parsnip Fritters.

Take 4 or 5 parsnips, 1 teaspoonful of flour, 1 egg, some butter or beet dripping. Boil the parsnips till tender then mash them finely, add fioui, egg well beaten and seasoning, bnape mixture into cakes and fry on both sides a delicate brown in boiling dripping or butter. Serve hot on a napkin. Savoury Rice. ilb of rice, 1 onion, 3 tablespoonfulsVf cheese (grated), 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce, 1 tablespoonful of chopped parsley and herbs, loz Ot butter, cayenne and salt. Method. Boil the rice and onion in water and when tender and nearly dry siir in the other ingredients. Mix all together- and make a mound of it on a hot dish. Vegetable Curry. Boil different kinds of vegetables, the greater the variety the better.

[To every cup of vegetables allow 1 tablespoonful of butter, 2 tablespoonfuls of flour, curry powder, ko pint of water or stock, little cocoanut, 1 large apple, tomato sauce (or if in season fresh tomatoes), mix together. Served with boiled rice and siices of hard boiled egg. Put wall of rice round dish, then the slices of egg resting against the rice and pour curry in centre. Savoury Macgroni. Boil some macaroni till tender, silce some onions and fry a rich brown. Then make some batter of 4 tablespoonfuls of flour, pepper and salt, 1 egg, 1 pint milk. Place onions in bottom of dish, then macaroni and pour batter over it. Bake in brisk oven for 20 minutes. Serve with brown gravy. Croquettes De Vermicelle. Boil. 2c>z of vermicelli in % pint of 1 milk until quite tender, mix in loz j butter, 1 teaspoonful mustard, 2oz I grated cheese, cayenne and salt. When 1 the mixture has become cold, roll it ont on a board (using a few bread crumbs) about 4$ in thick. Cut into i small crescents or any fancy shapes,; dip in egg and bread crumbs: fry in ; hot fat a pretty golden colour; dress ! in a circle. This is a very pretty | savoury. There are'many nice savoury dishes made with eggs cooked in different ways, some of which will be given in next week’s column. THE ART OF SERVING. All the difference between an appettising and an unappetising meal ljet in the way it is served. Fresh, clean, table linen, well polished glass, carefully cleaned knives and forks and a few flowers will do wonders towards giving a meal, however simple, a tempting appearance. Dishing Up. Too often cooks know nothing whatever about the art of dishing up. A world of difference lies between, say, a breakfast of bacon and eggs thrown anyhow on to a dish, and one where the bacon is served nicely curled in little rolls, upon a piping hot dish, and the poached eggs neatly trimmed and placed upon rounds of nicely browned toast. How SMoi To Serve. -What is more unappetising than boiled fish plumped down anyhow on a dish too large for it, or slabs of fried fish piled one on top of another? Decorate your dish ' with a fancy paper or folded napkin | anad place your fish carefully in the middle, garnish it with fresh parsley and slices of lemon and you wall note the 'difference. Look to the Cruet Stand. Even a cruet stand can make or mar a din. ner, for w~ho wants to help themselves to half-dried mustard, soiled salt and musty-looking pepper. Keep your cruet bright, refill it twice a week and you will find it adds a flavour of its own to your meal.

] ALL ROUND THE HOUSE. If a housewife fully realised the value of turpentine she would never be without it. It gives quick relief to burns, is excellent applied to corns, good for outward application for sore throats and rheumatism. By putting a few drops in drawers and chests it will prevent motths and will keep ants away. Nails used in bathrooms and kitchens on which damp cloths and towels may be hung should be dipped in enamel, so that they may not leave rusty marks. *• Meat will leech for many days even in the hottest weather if it is hung in a current, of air and covered with muslin which lias been wrung- out in vinegar. Potatoes are greatly improved by being par-boiled before being- baked with meat. The juice of a baked lemon squeezed 'on sugar and taken will often prevent a cold from developing. Apples are claimed to be a good brain food. Ku-'ii" is offering- as a prize a large and handsome box of best English chocolates for tile best cake recipe, not necessarily a block cake: any fancy kinds may be entered. All recipes must be sent in to “Ru-ru,” care Times,” by .September 16. Result will be published on September 23.,