LADIES COLUMN.

Waikato Argus, Volume II, Issue 118, 10 April 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

LADIES COLUMN.

COOKERY. Vecetaules. -Parsnips, like all other vegetables, are good for the blood, they coutiin more nourishment than turnips, ami like carrow, are sometimes objected to on account of the large amount of sugar in them, this may he counteracted by boiling them with plenty of salt. ll pared before cooking a little vinogu' or lemon juice may be added to the water to preserve the colour or a few drops put in while mashing them. Ingredients : ."• parsnips, 2oz. butter, milk or cream, pepper and suit. Preparation : \Wh the parsnips carefully and put them into plenty <f boiling salted water. Boil slowly three-quarters of an hour, like potatoes, if done too quickly they will be soft outside and hard in the centre. When cooked rub the skin oil' with a knife or grater, cut them in nieces threequarters" of an inch thick, fry in hot dripping or butter on both sides, dredge with pepper and B'xlt, and serve very liot. Another mode of cooking them is to boil them as before, then mash them with a fork or wooden spoon, mix with them a little butter, one tablespoonful of good milk or cream, add a little pepper and salt, stir over the fire till very hot, pile them high on a dish, serve with sauce or decorate with par* by. A third way of serving tlieni is, after mashing them to add a dessertspoonful of flour, 1 teaspoonful of milk, do. of butter, season with pepper and salt to taste, then with floured hands, make them into small cakes and fry in hot fat in a. deep saucepan. Drain on kitchen paper an 1 serve on a servit tte or fancy paper. + + + Spinach Sour.—lngredients : Jib. of spinach, 1 teaspoonful of sugar, pinch of carbonate of soda, loz. of butter, lib. of veal, chicken or rabbit, low., of flour, 1 quart of stock, J-pint of (ream, grate of nutmeg, small piece of carrot, turnip, onion, celery, 2 quarts of water. Pre paration: I'ut into a saucepan the water, meat and vegetable.?, allow to boil three hours, adding water as it boils away, str.iin, and it is ready for use. Wash and pick the spinach very carefully, put it on to boil in plenty of boiling salted woter, add the soda and sugar, boil ten minutes with the lid off. Strain it and then nib through a wire sieve with the back of a wooden spoon. Put the butter into a stewpac to melt, add the flour, mix we'l, then add all the stock very gradually, stirring well to prevent it becoming lumpy. When it boils add the spinach, salt, pepper, nutmeg and cream. Allow to become quite hot, stir well, it need not boil. t t t fc'OVBISE SOOT. This is a refined variety of onion soup, the name being given to disarm criticism. People imagine onion soup must be strong of flavour and indigestible ; it is not so if properly made. Ingredients : 1 dessertspoonful of butter, C onions (medium sized), small piece of celery, carrot and turnip, 1 teaspoonful of sugar, 1 teacupful of milk, 1 slice of bread, 2 quarts of white stock, pepper and salt. Preparation : Put the butter into it saucepan to melt, pare, Mash and cut up the onions rotlghfy, put them amongst the butter to cook for ten minutes, with the lid on to prevent them from browning, shake the pan occasionally. Wash all the vegetables, add them and the stock or water, sugar and bread. Boil for 1-A hours, then strain, rubbing the onions and bread only through the sieve. Return to the saucepan with the milk and warm up, add pepper and salt and serve. Send some croutons of toast to table with it. This soup may be made without neat ot stock. It is very nutritious and is called " soup maigre." It has no taste of onions if properly made. In " Soubise Bftine " the onions are browned a little and crusts of brsacl used for the thickening. The milk is left out and a little of Liebig's Extract used instead. The sugar used counteracts to a certain extent the taste and some of the objectionable properties of the onions. Gentle stewing in butter brings out the flavour of the onions milder ; the milk answers the same purpose. In this and similar soups any starchy' ingredients, such us potatoes, flour, tapioca or sago, are employed to bring the ma'erials together and to prevent them from separating in the tureen, t t ' t PoTAGEA LA A.MEKIC.UxE.--Take one tin of potatoes or twelve fresh ones, put them into a saucepan with 1 pint of water, a piece of carrot and turnip, one or two small onions, a few peppercorns, 1 blade of mace, five cloves and a sprig of parsley, cook until so r t, then strain through a sie.e or colander, rubbing the ingredients through with the back cf a wooden spoon. Measure the puree and add to each pint 1 pint of stock and a pinch of sugar, put all into a saucepan, shake into it 1 tablespoonful of cooked tapioca, stir until it boiln, add to it a squeeze of lemon juice or a little vinegar, serve with croutons of frisd bread. t t • + Savoury Toast.—Fry six rounds of bread in boiling fat, drain ou kitchen paper, cook 2oz. of bacon, make a little white sauce of 1 teaspoo lful of butter, loz. of flour and enough water to make a very thick sauce, chop the bacon and pound it with the sauce and the yolk of 1 hard boiled egg, add ;, little pepper, salt, cayenne and a drop of cochineal. Spread this mixture smoothly on the toast, grate the white if an egg on top and decorate with chopped parsley, t t t Rich Chocolate Cake. —lngredients: Mb. chocolate, ilb. butter, Jib. flour, 6oz. sugar, 4 eggs, 1 teaspoonful baking powder, 2oz. ground rice. Preparation : Grate the chocolate and dissolve it in 1 tablespoonful of milk over the fire, stirring all the time. P.eat the butter and sugar to a cream, till quite white, sift the Hour, add it, the chocolate, ground rice and Inking powder to the bn f terand sugar, beat the mixtuie well, drop in the yolks of the eggs separately, beating all the time. Beat the whites very stiffly, stir them in gently. Have a cake tin ready lined with paper, buttered and floured, bake in a mode -ate oven till ready. t r t Croustaoes a l\ Hii.ANAlSe.—lngredients : 3oz. butter, 4oz. flour, 1 yolk of egg, a little water. Preparation : Make this into rough puff ;r>astc, line some small patty pans wi'ii it, put in the centre of each, a small thick crust of bread, or a piece of dough made of flour and water, brush over with egg and bake till ready, when done take out the d'lmmy out of the centre of each with the point of a knife. t f r Mixture.—lngredients : Joz. flour, ?.oz. butter, 2oz. cheese, 2 tablespoonfuls of stock, cayenne, cieam and milk. Preparation : Mix the butter and Hour over the fire, add the stock gradually, then a little milk, a few grains of cayenne, the cheese cut in thin slices, a pinch of salt may be required, mix over the fire till the cheese has melted, add a little cream, mix well and put some of the mixture neatly into each shape of pastry. —It does not requite any further cooking. t t t Conway Pojidiso. apples, 2 cloves, '2 tablespoonfuls water, ooz breadcrumbs, 2 large eggs, 2 tablespoonfuls sugar, 1 tablespoonful finelychopped euet, a little nutmeg, tcacupful milk or cream, a few drops of essence of lemon, a little short crust. Preparation : Pare, cut up arid stew the apples in the water with the cloves, rub them through a sieve or colander, add a large tablespoonful ol sugar. In another basin mix the breadcrumbs, suet, nutmeg, and a tablespoonful of sugar together. Wet the edges and butter the bottom and sides ot a tmallpicdish, line it with abort crust, ornament the edges with stars of paltry, put in tiut ,i huge layer of apples, theu one of mixed breadcrumbs,

repeat until the dish is full, putting a layer of apples last, dredge son e sugar over, brush the paste over with water, bake half-all-hour in a moderate oven. Put on the milk to boil, beat up the eggs with a large dessertspoonful otsngir and the flavouring, pour the boilirg milk amongst the eggs, stirring well all the time, return to the tire until the custard thickens (it must not boil). , Wh«»li the pie is ready pour the custard all over the apples and cook in a slow over ten minutes, until the custard sets, r t r SIIOKT CRUST. —Ingredients : Ooz Hour, 2oz butter, half - teaspoonful baking powder, water. Preparation: Rub the butter into the flour, add the baking powder and then the water. Mix with a knife, roll out once only to the proper size, very thin ; this paste is not folded at all. " ______________