Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing-Dish Dainties Part 6

_Method._--Mix the potatoes, gherkins, nasturtium shoots and seeds in a bowl rubbed over with garlic; add the oil, vinegar and seasonings, and mix again. Pile in a mound on a serving-dish, dust with chopped parsley, and garnish with a wreath of nasturtium blossoms and leaves.

=Stuffed Beets.=

Boil new beets, of even size, until tender. Set aside for some hours, or over night, covered with vinegar. When ready to serve, rub off the skin, scoop out the centre of each to form a cup, and arrange the cups on lettuce leaves. For each five cups chop fine a cuc.u.mber. Make a French dressing of two tablespoonfuls of oil, half a tablespoonful (scant) of vinegar, one-fourth a teaspoonful, each, of paprica and salt. Stir the dressing into the cuc.u.mber and fill the beets with the mixture. Of the beet removed to form the cups, cut slices and stamp out from these stars or other fanciful shapes, and use to decorate the top of each cup.

Chopped radish, cress, olives or celery are all admissible for a filling.

=Salad of Brussels Sprouts and Beets.=

Soak the sprouts in salted water; then drain and cook in salted boiling water about fifteen minutes, or until tender; drain and cool. Dress with French dressing and pile in a mound. Finish the top with a fanciful-shaped figure cut from a slice of pickled beet, and place a wreath of cooked beet, chopped and seasoned with French dressing, about the whole.

=Macedoine Salad.=

Cut pieces of carrot and turnip one inch long and half an inch thick.

Put over the fire in boiling water and bring quickly to the boiling-point; drain, cover with fresh water, and cook until tender; score the top of each piece and insert an asparagus point. Dip the pieces in a little melted gelatine and set alternately in a circle on the serving-dish. Have carrots cut in small cubes or straws, turnips and beet root the same, green string beans cut in small pieces, asparagus and peas, all cooked separately until tender. Mix with French dressing and dispose inside the circle. Each vegetable may be ma.s.sed by itself, or all may be mixed together. Finish the top with half a dozen short stalks of asparagus.

=Tomato-and-Onion Salad.=

Peel and shred four tomatoes; slice thinly a very mild onion and separate into rings; dress freely with oil and tarragon vinegar, and season with salt and pepper. Serve on lettuce leaves, sprinkling the whole with fine-chopped parsley and green peppers.

=Endive,-Tomato-and-Green-String-Bean Salad.=

Dress the well-blanched stalks of a head of endive, three tomatoes, peeled, cut in halves and chilled, and a cup of cold cooked string beans, separately, with French dressing, using in the dressing tarragon vinegar and a few drops of onion juice; then arrange on a serving-dish.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Endive, Tomato, and Green String Bean Salad.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Stuffed Beets.

(See page 34)]

=Cuc.u.mber Salad.=

(_German style._)

Pare large cuc.u.mbers and cut them into thin slices; cut each slice round and round so as to form a long, narrow curling strip. Let these strips stand two hours in salted ice water, drain, and dry in a soft cloth.

Serve with French dressing. Toss first in the oil, then add the condiments, and lastly the vinegar. Americans would prefer to omit the salt from the ice water, as it softens the cuc.u.mber.

=Cuc.u.mber Salad for Fish Course.=

With a handy slicer remove the outside rind from the cuc.u.mbers, cut in thin slices, and let stand in ice-water to chill. Wipe dry, and arrange the slices in the salad bowl in the form of a Greek cross. Make a French dressing, in the proportion of three tablespoonfuls of cider vinegar to six tablespoonfuls of oil, half a teaspoonful of salt, and a dash of paprica. Rub the inside of the salad bowl with the cut side of an onion before the salad is disposed in it.

=Cooked Vegetable Salad.=

Dress cooked kidney beans, peas, and b.a.l.l.s cut from potatoes, each separately with French dressing, to which a few drops of onion juice have been added. Dispose upon a serving-dish and let stand in a cool place an hour or more. Garnish at serving with heart leaves of lettuce.

=Potato Salad.=

(_German Style._)

INGREDIENTS.

1 quart of potato slices or cubes.

About 1/2 a cup of beef broth.

1 teaspoonful of salt.

1/2 a teaspoonful of paprica.

8 tablespoonfuls of oil.

1 tablespoonful of grated onion.

2 hard boiled eggs.

4 tablespoonfuls of vinegar.

1 teaspoonful of mustard.

1 teaspoonful of sugar.

Fine chopped parsley.

(1 cup of mushrooms.)

_Method._--Boil the potatoes without paring. German potatoes, which are waxy rather than mealy, may be procured in large cities especially for salads. Peel the potatoes and cut them while hot into slices or cubes; pour over them as much beef broth as they will readily absorb and sprinkle with the salt and pepper, the oil and onion; mix lightly and set aside for some hours. Then add the whites of the eggs chopped fine, the yolks pa.s.sed through a sieve, and mix with the rest of the oil, stirred with the vinegar into the mustard and sugar. After disposing in the dish, sprinkle with the parsley. If mushrooms be at hand, simmer ten or fifteen minutes in broth, break in pieces, and add to the salad with the egg.

SALADS, LARGELY VEGETABLE, SERVED WITH MAYONNAISE, CREAM OR BOILED DRESSING.

=Cauliflower Salad.=

Soak the cauliflower in salted water an hour; cook in boiling salted water until tender; drain and chill, then sprinkle with French dressing and set aside for half an hour. Sever the flowerets partly from the stalk, but so as not to change their relative positions, and place on a serving-dish; put heart leaves of lettuce between the flowerets and about the base of the vegetable; pour a cup of mayonnaise dressing over the whole, and sprinkle with pimentos or fine-chopped parsley. In serving, separate the flowerets with a sharp knife.

=Tomatoes Stuffed with Nuts and Celery.=

Peel the tomatoes; cut out a circular piece at the stem end of each and scoop out the flesh so as to form cups. Chill thoroughly, then fill with English walnut or pecan meats, broken into pieces, and celery, cut into small pieces and mixed with mayonnaise. Serve on lettuce leaves.

=Stuffed-Tomato Salad.=

INGREDIENTS.

6 smooth, small-sized tomatoes.

6 tablespoonfuls of chicken, veal or tongue, cut fine.

6 tablespoonfuls of peas.