EARLY SPRING VEGETABLES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 539, 21 October 1949, Page 22

EARLY SPRING VEGETABLES

"TE AST week we thought of As- | paragus, which is so much more plentiful than it was even five years ago. Now we come to the other spring vegetables — green peas and early broad beans, new potatoes, young carrots and spring onions. Very young peas may be eaten raw in salad, and even the pods, when very young, may be thinly sliced and combined with other raw vegetables in a mixed salad. Peas may be combined with shredded young carzot and mayonnaise and served in "small portions heaped in lettuce leaves, forming one of the items in a salad plate. Or a small dish of raw peas may be placed on the table for the family to help themselves according to fancy. Everyone knows the delicious flavour of raw young green peas, so why must we invariably cook them? Never shell peas until you are ready to cook them is the counsel of perfection. New Potato Salad Six or 7 cups sliced, cooked, new potatoes (fairly thick slices); 42 cup thinly cut onion or some spring onions cut in 2 or 3 pieces and including the best of the green stalks, 1 cup thinly cut crisp celery, 1 tablespoon minced parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Put all in large bowl, and pour over a little French dressing seasoned with sugar and mustard. Mix gently with wooden spoon and fork and let stand an hour or two, then add sufficient ‘good mayonnaise, rather thin, and mix carefully so as not to break the slices of potato. Serve in a bowl sprinkled with grated raw carrot, or on a large platter surrounded by a ring of sardines and sliced hard boiled egg, sprinkled with paprika. If you have any cold chicken to chop up and add to the potatoes the dish will be extra special. Minted Peas Add to about 3 cups hot cooked green peas one tablespoon butter, 42 cup thin cream (or top milk) and one tablespoon minced fresh. mint. AS Fresh Green Peas Cream, together 40z. butter and a dessertspoon castor sugar, adding a pinch of salt. Put this into a saucepan with 2 tablespoons water, 2 or 3 spring onions (no green part), the heart of a lettuce, a sprig or two of parsley, and 1 to 11% lbs, shelled peas. Unless the peas are very young par-boil them first. Cook these gently, with lid on, shaking tHe pot from time to time. The lid must fit properly and the heat must be moderate, When the peas are cooked, remove parsley, add about an ounce of butter broken into little bits, and serve "as is," without straining, lettuce and onions included. Young Peas and Carrots Carrots should be started first. If not very young, split them down the middle, but young ones are much nicer left whole. The proportion of peas to! carrots depends on individual taste. Have boiling water to just cover carrots, and add salt to taste. When partly tender, add peas. Put in a little sugar and a sprig or two of mint. When cooked,

strain and use liquid to make sauce, adding sufficient cornflour mixed with milk. Do not have sauce thick, but thin and creamy, with a walnut of butter added and a sprinkling of chopped parsley. Spring Vegetable Timbale This recipe was given to me by a Danish chef. The "farce" he specifies is not to be confused with ordinary butcher’s mince, but is something much finer and better. The recipe is given below. It is used in many ways, for instance, in stuffing tomatoes and im making Danish stuffed cabbage and as an excellent foundation for game pies when there is not much game (rabbit perhaps). For vegetable timbale, line a bowl with farce, about %in. thick. An easy way of doing this is to put a layer of farce in the bottom of a buttered basin, and then take a smaller basin and press down right in the centre, then fill with farce all around between the two basins, seeing that the farce is evenly pressed down and joined so that it will turn out unbroken ‘after the timbale (or mould) is cooked. Now remove smaller basin and fill all the space.with finely diced spring vegetables. The vegetables should be first pre-cooked nearly tender by boiling or steaming, and covered with a good white sauce, thin, and flavoured slightly with onion. Finally cover the whole with a layer of farce, put butter paper over all, and steam like any steamed pudding 112 to 2 hours. Turn out on a hot dish and serve with melted butter and new potatoes. Farce One Ib. lean topside beef, %,lb. shredded suet, 1/8th Ib. flour, salt, pepper and a grating of nutmeg, 1 egg and 1 grated onion if liked. Put topside 3 or 4 times through mincer. It must be very fine indeed. Put the shredded suet through with it, to mix all thoroughly. If preferred, may use butcher’s suet. Now put it into a bowl, add flour and seasoning and mix thoroughly. Add egg and a small quantity milk, or water, to make it the consistency of soft dough which must leave the spoon easily. This farce makes splendid rissoles. Just drop spoonfuls into hot fat or butter, flattening the rissoles slightly \in the pan, and serve with any vegetable.