QUICK SNACKS FOR EMERGENCY MEALS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 81, 10 January 1941, Page 45

QUICK SNACKS FOR EMERGENCY MEALS

heaven-sent gift for making a tasty and quite importantlooking meal out of nothing at all, when unexpected visitors turn up; but a few suggestions may be helpful all the same. A farmer’s wife, of course, can generally serve that ever welcome stand-by, bacon and eggs, which with green peas and new potatoes makes a delicious and nourishing meal. Then a big dish of junket, and some apples from. the orchard stewed with a few cloves (if there is no time to bake them with some dates inserted where the core has been), and most people will be satisfied. Still, it is by no means every farm which has an orchard! Nor even a garden with green peas and new potatoes growing therein! And I’m not sure that even eggs are so plentiful on every farm as they used to be. Formerly, the farmers just kept "fowls," which had a free run and found a great part of their own food, with just a few handfuls of oats or wheat, and perhaps some home grown Indian Corn thrown to them once a day. Often they just roosted in the trees or in old sheds; and the children knew just where each one had her nest, and went gathering the eggs after school. With what proud cluckings would the missing speckled hen appear, after three weeks’ absence, with her brood of twelve or thirteen sturdy little chicks cheeping along | beside her! But nowadays fowls are kept so scientifically and lay their eggs so methodically in "trap-nests," that they really have no home-life at all! I suppose it is all for the best, but the old way was very homely and personal. However, I started this with the intention of giving some recipes for hasty or unexpected meals. It is a wise housekeeper who keeps a supply of tinned foods in the pantry, for use in emergency, and who can find there also some scraps of cheese as well as " left-overs " of meat and fish. Ss ane housewives have a Curry Snacks Make a good curry sauce by browning (not burning) about 2 ozs. of butter in a saucepan with 2 or 3 grated onions; add a dessertspoon of good curry powder (a little less or more according to taste), and a sprinkling of coconut if liked, and cook gently for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring all the while. Then add a grated apple or two, a little sugar, salt and lemon juice, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce. Now a few raisins may go in, and a spoonful of mango chutney, stirring and simmering all the time. Now sprinkle with a tablespoonful of flour and stir well, and then gradually add stock (or water) until the desired consistency has been reached. Lastly add any scraps of meat, or rabbit, or poultry, you may

have in the pantry-or use all three! Scraps of left-over fish are good. used this way. If you haven’t enough, you will have noticed it beforehand, and have hard-boiled some eggs in readiness; these can be cut in rounds and added to the mixture. It is splendid if you have some cold boiled rice, for that goes in too, and helps considerably. In the meantime, one of the children has been making for you some slices of toast, and on these you pile up the Curry Snack. Very tasty and satisfactory-and uses up even stale bread. Scrambled Eggs and Fish Break up any left-over cooked fish into flakes, beat up sufficient eggs in a basin, then add about a tablespoon of milk for each egg, some pepper and salt, and the flaked fish. Melt some butter in a frying pan, and when hot pour in your egg and fish mixture and stir over a gentle heat till thick and creamy. Take care not to over-cook. Serve piled up on hot-buttered toast. If you haven’t any left-over fish, a tin of salmon can be used, and is excellent. Creamed Eggs with Sardines Four tablespoons of butter, ¥% cup stale breadcrumbs, 1 cup milk, 2 hardboiled eggs, 1 tin sardines, salt and pepper. Melt the butter, add the breadcrumbs and milk, and bring to boiling point. Chop eggs finely and add to

mixture, then mash and add _ sardines. Add necessary seasonings, and when thoroughly hot, serve on slices of toast. Sheeps’ Tongues in White Sauce Make a rich, thick, white sauce, and add 1 dessertspoon of chopped parsley; empty in the contents of a tin of sheep tongues, and simmer until the tongues are heated through. Serve with potatoes, and green vegetables. Sheeps’ Tongues with Pickled Walnuts Fry a large onion finely sliced, and then stew it in some well flavoured stock. Mash up three or four pickled walnuts and add them to a thickening of flour, one dessertspoon Worcestershire sauce, and a little vinegar from the walnuts. Add all this to the stock. Skin a tin of sheeps’ tongues and let them cook in this sauce for a-quarter of an hour. Serve very hot. Sheeps’ Tongues Cutlets Open a tin of sheeps’ tongues, slice them in half (lengthwise), dredge with seasoned flour, dip each piece in beaten egg, then in breadcrumbs, and fry in boiling fat. Ox Tongue Croquettes You may have some end pieces of ox tongue left over at Christmas or holiday time, which can be tastily used up in croquettes. If not, use a tinned ox-tongue for this quick snack. Make the everuseful white sauce by melting one or two tablespoons of butter and stirring in the same quantity of flour, with seasoning of pepper and salt, a little chopped

parsley, and a grating of onion, cooking a minute or two while stirring, and then gradually adding hot milk until the mixture is smooth and very. thick. Let this cool, then add the tongue minced. Shape into croquettes, dip in egg and breadcrumbs (or cornflakes or wholemeal) and fry in very hot fat. Drain on kitchen paper and serve piping hot. Very good with green peas and new or mashed potatoes, or fried tomato slices. Tomato Cheese One and a-half cups of white sauce, 1 cup of grated cheese, salt, pepper, 2 large tomatoes, 2 cups rice, 2 tablespoons butter, 4% teaspoon salt and a little pepper. Combine the white sauce and cheese. Stir till melted. Season. Peel and slice tomatoes. Pile hot rice, to which butter, salt and pepper have been added, on the slices of tomato. Cover with cheese sauce, and serve at once. Creamed Salmon with Green Peas Take two teaspoons minced onion, 2 tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons butter, pepper and paprika to taste, 1 small tin salmon, 1 small tin (or some freshcooked) green peas, 42 cup boiled rice, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 pint milk. Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in flour, and when frothy, gradually stir in milk and make into a sauce. When boiling season to taste, then add flaked salmon, minced onion, and simmer, stirring very lightly for two or three minutes, Add peas and, when piping hot, pour over the hot rice, arranging in the centre of (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) a hot dish. Mash 6 or 7 potatoes, season, add 1 dessertspoon butter. Arrange potatoes round edge of dish. Bananas with Bacon Take six bananas and 1% Ib. bacon. Roll half lengths of peeled bananas in strips of bacon. Secure with toothpicks. Bake in a greased oven-proof dish in a hot oven, about 15 minutes or so, until the bananas are tender, and the bacon is crisps Baste at least once during the baking. Whole bananas may be wrapped in bacon and cooked in the same way. Cheese Patties Line little patty-tins with a good pastry. Then beat up an egg, mix in about 2 ounces of cheese, season with pepper, salt, and cayenne, and add a teacup of milk. Fill the pans, cover with a pastry lid, and bake. A little chopped bacon added to this makes them even more delicious. Cheese Beanies This is an original recipe requiring half a pound of lima beans cooked in salted water till quite tender. Mash and mix in 3 ozs, grated cheese (packet cheese is nice), a little chopped onion (three spring onions, green part and all, for preference), seasoning, about 1 tablespoon of flour, and 1 beaten egg to bind, Form into rissoles, flour and fry in boiling fat till golden brown. Reserve a little of the beaten egg to dip the rissoles in before flouring. Serve very hot with or without vegetables. Cheese Salmon Timbales ‘Flake and bone a 1-Ilb. tin of salmon. Mix with one cup of soft breadcrumbs, 1% cup of milk, 2 tablespoons melted butter, 1 tablespoon chopped onion, 2 beaten eggs, salt and pepper. Bake in buttered custard cups in a moderate oven about 30 minutes, or in a big piedish. Unmould, and serve with this hot sauce: Melt 1 oz. cheese (packet cheese) in a double boiler, and add one-third of a cup of milk, stirring until smooth. Serve with mashed potatoes topped with green peas.