Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing-Dish Dainties Part 8

(_Used as a border for shrimp, lobster, chicken and other salads._)

(MRS. E. M. LUCAS, IN BOSTON COOKING-SCHOOL MAGAZINE.)

Cut boiled artichokes into quarter-inch slices and stamp out with a French vegetable cutter. To half a pint add one tablespoonful of olive oil, half a tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar and one-fourth a teaspoonful of salt; toss lightly together and let stand one hour; drain, and arrange as a border with an outer layer of tiny blanched lettuce leaves.

2. Scoop out the centres of the artichokes and fill with mayonnaise, or with ravigote, tartare or tyrolienne sauce. Serve on lettuce leaves as a border to a meat or fish salad.

3. Fill the centres with walnut meats, sliced, or tender celery stalks, cut fine and mixed with mayonnaise.

=Asparagus Salad.=

Cut cold cooked asparagus into pieces an inch long, mix lightly with cream dressing and serve, in individual portions, on curly lettuce leaves.

=Asparagus-and-Salmon Salad.=

Mix cold cooked salmon with mayonnaise, form in a mound and encircle with a wreath of cold cooked asparagus tips dressed with French dressing.

=Asparagus-and-Cauliflower Salad.=

Break the cooked cauliflower into its flowerets, dispose in the centre of the serving-dish and surround with a wreath of cooked asparagus tips.

Pour over the whole a mayonnaise, a boiled or a cream dressing, and sprinkle with chopped capers or pimentos.

=Salad of Turnips with Asparagus Tips.=

Cook the turnips in boiling salted water until tender; drain, and cut out the centres, forming cups. Sprinkle the inside with oil and a few grains of salt, and, when the oil is absorbed, pour over the cups a little lemon juice or vinegar. Set aside to become cool. When ready to serve, arrange the cups on shredded lettuce and fill with cooked asparagus tips, cold and mixed with mayonnaise or French dressing, as desired. Peas, flageolets or wax beans, cut fine, may be used instead of the asparagus. Garnish with radishes.

=Green-Pea Salad.=

Mix the peas with a cream dressing; serve in nests of lettuce; garnish the top of each nest with a little chopped beet, or a fanciful figure cut from a pickled beet or pimento.

=Green-Pea-and-Potato Salad.=

Mix equal parts of cold cooked peas and potatoes cut in very small cubes; season with salt and pepper, and serve as green-pea salad.

=Asparagus Salad.=

Sc.r.a.pe the scales from the stalks, and cook, standing upright in boiling salted water, until tender; drain and chill thoroughly. Serve on lettuce leaves with French dressing. Garnish the lettuce with hard-boiled eggs cut in quarters lengthwise.

=Macedoine of Vegetable Salad.=

Dress one cup, each, of cooked carrots and turnips, cut in dice, string beans, cut small, green peas, and half a cup of cooked beets, cut small, with French dressing; add two tablespoonfuls of chopped gherkins; drain, and mix with sufficient jelly mayonnaise to hold the vegetables together. Arrange in dome shape and cover with more jelly mayonnaise.

Set a row of sliced gherkins near the top, and fill in the s.p.a.ce to the top with string beans or asparagus tips. Surround the base with alternate rounds of beet and potato overlapping one another. Decorate the s.p.a.ce above with slices of potato and beet cut in diamonds, and surround the base with light-green aspic cut in diamonds. One pint of aspic will be sufficient; use chicken stock, and tint with color paste.

=Russian Vegetable Salad.=

Select two moulds of suitable shape and size (tin basins or earthen bowls will do) and chill in ice water. Have ready cooked b.a.l.l.s, cut from carrots and turnips, and cooked string beans and cauliflower, all marinated with French dressing. Drain the vegetables, dip them into half-set aspic, and arrange against the chilled sides of the moulds; then fill the moulds with aspic jelly. When set, with a hot spoon scoop out the aspic from the centre of each mould and fill in the s.p.a.ce with a mixture of the vegetables and jelly mayonnaise, leaving an open s.p.a.ce at the top to be filled with half-set aspic. When thoroughly chilled and set, turn from the moulds, the smaller mould above the other. Garnish with flowerets of cauliflower, dipped in aspic and chilled, and lettuce.

Serve with mayonnaise.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Russian Vegetable Salad.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Macedoine of Vegetable Salad.

(See page 47)]

=Stuffed-Cuc.u.mber Salad.=

Pare a short cuc.u.mber and cut it lengthwise in two parts; remove the seeds and let chill in ice water for an hour. Chop together the solid part of a peeled and seeded tomato, half a slice of new onion, a stalk of celery and a sprig of parsley; mix with mayonnaise or a boiled dressing and use as a filling for the well-dried halves of cuc.u.mber.

Serve on cress or lettuce.

=Cowslip-and-Cream-Cheese Salad.=

(See cut facing page 58.)

Cook the cowslip leaves until tender in boiling salted water, reserving a few choice leaves with blossoms for a garnish. Chop fine, season to taste with salt and paprica, press into a mould, and set aside to become chilled. Slice chilled cream cheese (Neufchatel or cottage) in uniform slices, and arrange at the sides of the mound. Serve with French or mayonnaise dressing.

=Cauliflower Salad, Egg Garnish.=

Separate a cauliflower into flowerets and boil in salted water until tender, _not longer_. Drain carefully. Season with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and a sprinkling of chopped tarragon leaves (or use tarragon vinegar). Arrange symmetrically in an earthen bowl, having the upper surface level. Let stand to become thoroughly chilled, then turn on to a serving-dish; the shape of the mould will be retained. Cover with mayonnaise dressing or Sauce Tartare, and surround with lengthwise quarters of hard-boiled eggs.

=Potato Salad with Mayonnaise.=

Boil the potatoes and let cool without paring. Then remove the skins and cut into slices, b.a.l.l.s, or cubes. Squeeze over them a little onion juice, sprinkle with fine-chopped parsley, and let stand in a French dressing several hours. Mix the dressing after the usual formula, and use enough to moisten well the potato. When ready to serve, make nests of heart leaves of lettuce, put a spoonful of the potato in each, with a teaspoonful of mayonnaise above, sprinkle the mayonnaise with capers, and press the quarter of a hard-boiled egg into the top of the mayonnaise. Or add the chopped white of egg to the potato before marinating, and sift the yolk over the mayonnaise.

FISH SALADS.

"_Some choice sous'd fish brought couchant in a dish, Among some fennel._"

"_Of what complexion?

Of the sea water green, sir._"