EVER-USEFUL EGGS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 741, 25 September 1953, Page 22

EVER-USEFUL EGGS

protean egg," for it can indeed assume "a variety of guises," plain, savoury or sweet, but always beneficial and nourishing. Besides their considerable protein value, eggs supply minerals (iron, calcium and phosphorus), and several vitamins. Over and above their use in cakes, custards and puddings, they have innumerable uses in mai dishes, in conjunction with meat, poultry or fish; and omelets can be varied almost indefinitely by the addition of cheese, mushrooms, asparagus, tinned fish and so on. Then think of the variety of souffles, besides the ordinary and popular fried or poached eggs on steak, or on toast spread with mince, etc. Eggs are very perishable and must be kept cold. There is no difference in food value or flavour between brown-shell eggs and white ones. The white of the egg is most digestible if the water, or milk, in which it is poached or boiled is allowed only to simmer and not boil fast. Fried Eggs The secret of good fried eggs lies in a heavy frying pan, low heat, and only sufficient butter or fat to barely cover the pan. Break the egg into a saucer and slide it into the hot fat, cook slowly over low heat. Sprinkle with pepper while frying, and a very little salt. A peeled clove of garlic rubbed over the pan before heating it, gives a faint ( OOKS speak truly of "the flavour. Serve on bacon, or on toast either plain or covered with creamed meat)(that is, minced ham or any leftover’ meat heated in white sauce flavoured with minced onion), or on a thin slice of veal cutlet; or as a fried egg platter: that is, place each fried egg on a neat piece of toast, with a cduple of slices of fried or grilled bacon on one side and a fried sausage on the other, the sausage being placed on slices of fried apple. Very fine indeed. Chinese Omelet Four tablespoons butter or margarine, 2 teaspoon sugar, 142 cups chopped raw onion, 1 teaspoon salt, 1% teaspoon

pepper, 1 _ tablespoon flour, 14% cups chopped cooked chicken, pork or veal, 4 eggs. Melt the butter or margarine. Add the sugar and, when melted, add the onion. Cook until yellowed and tender, stirring often. Add the salt, pepper and flour. When well mixed, add the meat (or chopped canned or cooked crab meat). Beat the eggs light. Combine with the hot onion mixture and drop by generous tablespoons into a heavy, heated frying pan containing enough melted butter or margarine to barely cover the bottom. Frv first on one side, then on the other, like pancakes, and | serve very hot. Souffle Three _ tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons but-~ ter or good cooking "at, | 1 cup milk, pepper and

salt, 3 or 4 eggs, 1 cup (left-over) minced ham _. or fowl. or other meat, or mashed or chopped vegetables (carrot, cauliflower.

kumara, mushrooms, parsnips, etc.), or grated cheese. Melt the butter in sauce‘pan, stir in flour and make into smooth paste; add milk gradually and stir until mixture thickens, add the salt. Remove from heat end stir in well-beaten egg yolks and the minced meat or cheese, Then lightly fold in the stiffly-beaten whites. Turn into greased baking dish and bake 50-60 minutes in medium heat (350 degrees or regulo 4). Serve immediately in dish in which it is baked. Scotch Eggs Hard-boil as many eggs as you require by putting them on in cold water, bringing ‘to the boil, and then steadily simmering (not boiling hard) for about 20 minutes, Put them into a bowl of cold water to get cold right through, Then shell them. Skin a pound of pork sausages (or buy sausage meat), and mash it smooth with a fork. Then take one egg at a time with floured hands and cover it thickly and smoothly with sausage meat. Dip each in beaten egg, and roll in breadcrumbs, or crushed cornflakes or wheatflakes.- Some people like to do this twice, to make a thicker covering of egg and crumbs or flakes. Fry in deep smoking-hot fat to a nice golden brown, turning now and then, Nice hot with jacket potatoes and a green vegetable; also excellent if allowed to get cold, cut in halves, and seryed with lettuce salad and mayonnaise. A very nice supper dish. Eggs and Smoked Fish Simmer smoked fish in milk, till soft and tender, after. skinning, and soaking if too salt. Flake it up and arrange in servings in individual dishes; or in separate heaps in oven dish. Break an egg carefully on each heap, and bake in hot oven till egg is set, about 10 minutes, A little of the milk. the fish was cooked in may be poured into dish, and be used to baste the egg with. The fish

may be left-over. The milk may be thick with cornflour and a knob of butter added. Spanish Omelet Make ordinary omelet with lightlybeaten eggs and milk, allowing about a tablespoon of milk to each egg, and cooking in hot frying pan with a tablespoon of hot butter. Have the flame low. and as omelet cooks, draw the edges toward the centre with a knife until the whole sets nicely. Before folding over, place a good spoonful of this sauce on the centre, then fold over and pour the rest of the sauce over and around. The sauce: Heat two tablespoons butter in a pan, add 1 chopped onion, and cook a few minutes. Rea! Spanish sauce has 6 chopped olives and 1% a green pepper chopped, also, in this. Get them if you can. Then add 1% cups tomatoes and a tablespoon of chopped mushrooms, a little salt and a few grains of cayenne. Preserved tomatoes will do. Californian Omelet Soak 1% cup breadcrumbs in % cup milk for 15 minutes. Then season with pepper and salt. Separate the white from the yolks of 4 eggs, and beat each well. Add the yolks to the bread and milk, and then lightly cut in the whites. Pour all into hot buttered pan, and cook an low flame till delicately brown and set. Can be finished in oven if liked. Fold and turn out on hot dish. To make more substantial haye ready 142 cups white sauce with which any kind of canned or left-over vegetables has been mixed? Before folding over the omelet, spread it with these creamed vegetables. Fold over and serve on hot dish. Asparagus is especially nice in this,