Enquire Within Upon Everything Part 104

1111. Potatoes Roasted under Meat.

Half boil large potatoes; drain the water; put them into an earthen dish, or small tin pan, under meat roasting before the fire; baste them with the dripping. Turn them to brown on all sides; send up in a separate dish.

1112. Potato b.a.l.l.s Ragout.

Add to a pound of potatoes a quarter of a pound of grated ham, or some sweet herbs, or chopped parsley, an onion or shalot, salt, pepper, and a little grated nutmeg, and other spice, with the yolk of a couple of eggs; then dress as _Potatoes Escalloped_. (1116).

1113. Potato Snow.

Pick out the whitest potatoes, put them on in cold water; when they begin to crack, strain, and put them in a clean stewpan before the fire till they are quite dry, and fall to pieces; rub them through a wire sieve upon the dish they are to be sent up on, and do not disturb them afterwards.

1114. Potatoes Fried Whole.

When nearly boiled enough, put them into a stewpan with a bit of b.u.t.ter, or some clean beef dripping; shake them about often, to prevent burning, till they are brown and crisp; drain them from the fat. It will be an improvement if they are floured and dipped into the yoke of an egg, and then rolled in finely sifted bread-crumbs.

1115. Potatoes Fried in Slices.

Peel large potatoes, slice them about a quarter of an inch thick, or cut them into shavings, as you would peel a lemon; dry them well in a clean cloth, and fry them in lard or dripping. Take care that the fat and frying-pan are quite clean; put it on a quick fire, and as soon as the lard boils, and is still, put in the slices of potato, and keep moving them until they are crisp; take them up, and lay them to drain on a sieve. Send to table with a little salt sprinkled over them.

1116. Potatoes Escalloped.

Mash potatoes in the usual way; then b.u.t.ter some nice clean scallop-sh.e.l.ls, pattypans, or tea cups or saucers; put in your potatoes; make them smooth at the top; cross a knife over them; strew a few fine bread-crumbs on them; sprinkle them with a paste-brush with a few drops of melted b.u.t.ter, and set them in a Dutch oven. When nicely browned on the top, take them carefully out of the sh.e.l.ls, and brown on the other side. Cold potatoes may be warmed up this way.

1117. Potato Scones.

Mash boiled potatoes till they are quite smooth, adding a little salt; then knead out the flour, or barley-meal, to the thickness required; toast on the girdle, p.r.i.c.king them with a fork to prevent them blistering. When eaten with fresh or salt b.u.t.ter they are equal to crumpets--even superior, and very nutritious.

1118. Potato Pie.

Peel and slice your potatoes very thinly into a pie-dish; between each layer of potatoes put a little chopped onion, and sprinkle a little pepper and salt; put in a little water, and cut about two ounces of fresh b.u.t.ter into bits, and lay them on the top; cover it close with paste. The yolks of four eggs may be added; and when baked, a tablespoonful of good mushroom ketchup poured in through a funnel.

Another method is to put between the layers small bits of mutton, beef, or pork. In Cornwall, turnips are added. This const.i.tutes (on the Cornish method) a cheap and satisfactory dish for families.

1119. Cold Potatoes.

There are few articles in families more subject to waste, whether in paring, boiling, or being actually wasted, than potatoes; and there are few cooks who do not boil twice as many potatoes every day as are wanted, and fewer still who do not throw the residue away as being totally unfit in any shape for the next day's meal; yet if they would take the trouble to beat up the despised cold potatoes with an equal quant.i.ty of flour, they would find them produce a much lighter dumpling or pudding than they can make with flour alone: and by the aid of a few spoonfuls of good gravy, they will provide a cheap and agreeable appendage to the dinner table.

[EVERY RECEIPT IS THE BASIS OF MANY OTHERS.]

1120. Mashed Potatoes and Spinach or Cabbage.

Moisten cold mashed potatoes with a little white sauce: take cold cabbage or spinach, and chop it very finely. Moisten with a brown gravy. Fill a tin mould with layers of potatoes and cabbage; cover the top, and put it into a stewpan of boiling water. Let it remain long enough to warm the vegetables; then turn the vegetables out and serve them. Prepare by boiling the vegetables separately, and put them into the mould in layers, to be turned out when wanted. It forms a very pretty dish for an entree.

1121. Cold Carrots and Turnips.

These may be added to soups, if they have not been mixed with gravies: or if warmed up separately, and put into moulds in layers, they may be turned out, and served the same as the potatoes and cabbage described above.

1122. French Beans.

Cut away the stalk-end, and strip off the strings, then cut them into shreds. If not quite fresh, have a basin of spring water, with a little salt dissolved in it, and as the beans are cleaned and stringed throw them in; put them on the fire in boiling water, with some salt in it; after they have boiled fifteen or twenty minutes, take one out and taste it; as soon as they are tender take them up, throw them into a cullender or sieve to drain. Send up the beans whole when they are very young.

1123. Boiled Turnip Radishes.

Boil in plenty of salted water, and in about twenty-five minutes they will be tender; drain well, and send them to table with melted b.u.t.ter.

Common radishes, when young, tied in bunches, boiled for twenty minutes, and served on a toast, are excellent.

1124. Asparagus.

Asparagus (often mis-called "_asparagra.s.s_").--Sc.r.a.pe the stalks till they are clean; throw them into a pan of cold water, tie them up in bundles of about a quarter of a hundred each; cut off the stalks at the bottom to a uniform length leaving enough to serve as a handle for the green part; put them into a stewpan of boiling water, with a handful of salt in it. Let it boil, and skim it. When they are tender at the stalk, which will be in from twenty to thirty minutes, they are done enough.

Watch the exact time of their becoming tender; take them up that instant. While the asparagus is boiling, toast a round of a a quartern loaf, about half an inch thick; brown it delicately on both sides; dip it lightly in the liquor the asparagus was boiled in, and lay it in the middle of a dish; melt some b.u.t.ter, but do not put it over them.

Serve b.u.t.ter in a b.u.t.ter-boat.

1125. Artichokes.

Soak them in cold water, wash them well; put them into plenty of boiling water, with a handful of salt, and let them boil gently for an hour and a half or two hours: trim them and drain on a sieve; send up melted b.u.t.ter with them, which some put into small cups, one for each guest.

1126. Stewed Water-Cress.

The following receipt will be found an agreeable and wholesome dish:--Lay the cress in strong salt and water, to clear it from insects. Pick and wash nicely, and stew it in water for about ten minutes; drain and chop, season with pepper and salt, add a little b.u.t.ter, and return it to the stewpan until well heated. Add a little vinegar previously to serving; put around it sippets of toast or fried bread. The above, made thin, as a subst.i.tute for parsley and b.u.t.ter, will be found an excellent sauce for a boiled fowl. There should be considerably more of the cress than of the parsley, as the flavour is much milder.

[A GOOD SUGGESTION IS OFTEN INVALUABLE.]

1127. Stewed Mushrooms.

Cut off the ends of the stalks, and pare neatly some middle-sized or b.u.t.ton mushrooms, and put them into a basin of water with the juice of a lemon as they are done. When all are prepared, take them from the water with the hands to avoid the sediment, and put them into a stewpan with a little fresh b.u.t.ter, white pepper, salt, and a little lemon juice; cover the pan close, and let them stew gently for twenty minutes or half an hour; then thicken the b.u.t.ter with a spoonful of flour, and add gradually sufficient cream, or cream and milk, to make the same about the thickness of good cream. Season the sauce to palate, adding a little pounded mace or grated nutmeg. Let the whole stew gently until the mushrooms are tender. Remove every particle of b.u.t.ter which may be floating on the top before serving.

1128. Indications of Wholesome Mushrooms.