Winter Vegetables

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 935, 12 July 1957, Page 32

Winter Vegetables

are now so much used that it is sometimes forgotten that there are still thousands of people who like to grow all kinds of both green and root vegetables in their gardens and cook them in various ways. Sometimes they use them separately, sometimes in combination, sometimes in soup and not forgetting pickles, For a large country family, even a big deep-freeze unit will not hold enough; plenty of cabbages and cauliflowers, carrots, onions and beetroot are still needed in the garden. Cabbage need not always be just plain boiled, and cauliflowers can be dressed up with cheese sauce and even made into a savoury pie. A dash of made mustard added to the white sauce you are pouring over cauliflower or cabbage or broccoli gives it a great lift. Or try frying lightly 4% cup of minced onion in 2 tablespoons of butter for 5 minutes and pour that over the green vegetable already chopped and dished. Cabbage should not be drowned in water, but cut up quite small, sprinkled with salt and only a little boiling water poured over, so that it is steamed and only cooked for a short time. It should be crisp when strained. Cabbage with Tomatoes and Eggs Cook four cupfuls of chopped white cabbage in boiling water for only 7 minutes. Drain well., Return to pan with 2 cups of canned or preserved tomatoes, 1 cup minced celery, 2 chopped onions, 2 tablespoons minced green peppers, 2 tablespoons butter, and pepper and salt to season. Simmer all for 15 minutes. Have ready poached eggs on toast, arranged on individual dishes, and pour the cabbage mixture around. Cabbage Stuffed with Farce This was given me by a Danish chef. First make the farce: 1 lb. lean topside, 14 Ib. shredded suet, Ye lb. flour, pepper, grated nutmeg, 1 egg, salt. Mince meat 3 or 4 times. Add suet; put into bowl and add flour and seasoning, mixing thoroughly. Add egg and small quantity of milk or water to make it the consistency of soft dough. It must leave the spoon quite easily. Then take a nice firm white cabbage. Remove with a single cut the root end about 3 inches down, and hollow the cabbage with a knife, making cavity sufficiently large to hold farce. Place root end as lid on top and tie up in pudding cloth. Boil 2 to 3 hours (slowly). Turn out on dish. Pour over melted butter, and serve with caper sauce. Five Minute Cabbage (Special) Three cups milk, 1144 quarts shredded cabbage, 34 cup thin cream, 3 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons flour, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper. Bring milk to boiling point. Add cabbage and boil 2 minutes, then add cream, the blended flour and butter, salt and pepper. Cook rapidly 3 to 4 minutes. & Savoury Cabbage Dice some rashers of bacon very small. Cook them in a saucepan with a little butter, and finely chopped. onion. Acd a chopped and steamed cabbage and seasoning. Stir well till mixed and Hot right through. Cauliflower Pie Cook cauliflower as usual; drain and ‘mash well. Season with salt, pepper and -FROZEN vegetables

a little chopped thyme and parsley. Stir in about 3 oz. of grated cheese and 2 tablespoons. of milk. Butter a pie-

dish, line it with this mixture, adding a sprinkle of grated onion. Then put a layer of preserved tomatoes, or a layer of skinned and sliced raw tree tomatoes. Dot with butter. Cover with the remainder of the first mixture, spread with a thick layer of mashed potatoes, mark with a fork, dot with butter and bake in moderate oven 35 to 45 minutes. Coral Cauliflower Soup One cauliflower, 1 large tin tomatoes, 144 pints of white stock or water saved from boiling potatoes, butter, salt and pepper, sugar, 1 onion. Boil cauliflower. Drain. Press flower through a potato ricer or sieve. (Leave out a sprig or two.) Cook: chopped onion in butter, without browning. Drain off fat. Turn out tomatoes and rub through sieve or use tomato soup. Put tomatoes, cauliflower and onion into saucepan. Bring to boil. Add pepper, salt and sugar. Add stock (could be milk, but must not boil or else add warm).\ Cauliflower Pickle (Sweet) Cut up finely 1 large cauliflower and 4 large onions. Sprinkle with salt and leave overnight. Strain. Then boil for 20 minutes in 1 quart vinegar. Thickening: Half a cup of flour, 114 teacups golden syrup, % tablespoon

curry, 1/2 tablespoon turmeric, 2 dessertspoons mustard, mixed with 1 pint vinegar. Heat till thick, then stir into other ingredients. Boil all 5 or 6 minutes. Bottle when cold. Cauliflower Pickle (with Pineapple) One large cauliflower broken into little flowerettes, 3 lb. sliced onions, Sprinkle handful of salt over, leave all night. Next day strain and cover with vinegar. Boil 30 minutes. Then add 1 large tin of.pineapple cut small. Thicken with 14 cup flour, 1 tablespoon mustard, 2 tablespoons curry powder, 4 tablespoons sugar. Mix to paste, stir into the pickle. Boil 10 minutes, then bottle. Cauliflower au Gratin Choose a good, firm cauliflower and cook it in plenty of fast-boiling salted water. When cooked, strain and place in a fireproof dish. Melt 1 oz. butter and stir in 1 oz. flour. Add % pint milk, then bring to the boil and continue to boil for about 5 minutes, stirring all the time. Add 3 oz. grated’ cheese, season

with pepper and salt and pour over the cauliflower, sprinkling a little grated cheese on top. Brown in a hot oven or under the grill. Cauliflower (De Luxe) To each cup. of white sauce add 1 tablespoon whipped cream and 3 tablespoons grated cheese. Mix these together and mask a hot boiled cauliflower well. Sprinkle with a little more cheese and a pinch of cayenne. Put this into a hot oven and just brown lightly or place under heated griller to brown. Chow Chow (with Cauliflower) Six pounds mixed vegetables (cauliflowers, etc.), 31/2 pints vinegar, 1 dessertspoon ground ginger, 1 tablespoon salt, 1 cup sugar, a few chillies, Let all come to the boil. Thicken with %4 cup flour, 2 tablespoons mustard, 1 oz. turmeric, 1 tablespoon curry powder and 1 pint vinegar, all mixed smoothly. Boil half an hour. Cabbage Pickle (Like Sauerkraut) Cut up cabbage (or cauliflower) overnight and sprinkle with salt. In the morning wash off the salt and drain for half a day. Put into jars, sprinkle allspice at the bottom and in the middle, as well as on top. Cover with best vinegar, filling the jars. Tie up and keep in a cool place. Parsnips in Tomato Sauce Slice 2 Ib. of pared parsnips crosswise and cook in a small quantity of salted water till tender. In the meantime put into a saucepan a medium onion (sliced), and 12 cup diced celery, 31% cups of canned (or home preserved) tomato pulp, 1 teaspoon salt, a bay leaf, 14 teaspoon pepper, 1 dessertspoon sugar and 3 or 4 cloves. Simmer all this with lid on for about 42 hour. Then add the strained cooked parsnips and simmer together for a few minutes, This is a very tasty vegetable dish served with either hot or cold meat, sausages, liver, bacon or fried fish. Creamed Cauliflower Cut into quarters. Wash. Put in double pan with 1 oz. butter and 1 gill milk. Cover, and cook till tender (40 to 50 minutes). Strain off liquid and make it into sauce with % oz. flour, salt, pepper and a little cold milk. Pour over cauliflower. Candied Mint Carrots Parboil sufficient washed and scraped carrots for 10 minutes in boiling salted water. Split them down lengthwise, unless very small and young. Arrange in casserole, sprinkle with brown sugar and

finely-chopped mint. Dot with generous knobs of butter. Bake in hot oven for half an hour.

NEXT WEEK: Soup for Cold Days