The Healthy Life Cook Book Part 14

Slice one half-pound nuttolene into a baking dish, adding water enough to cover nicely. Place it in the oven, and let it bake for an hour. A piece of celery may be added to give flavour, or a little mint. When done, thicken the water with a little flour, and serve.

17. WELSH RAREBIT.

Cheese, b.u.t.ter, bread, pepper.

Cut thin slices of cheese and put them with a little b.u.t.ter into a saucepan. When well melted pour over hot well-b.u.t.tered toast. Dust with pepper. Put into a very hot oven for a few minutes and serve.

18. YEAST BREAD.

7 lbs. flour, salt to taste (about 3/4 ounce), 1 ounce yeast, 1-1/2 quarts of warm water.

Put the flour into a pan or large basin, add salt to taste, and mix it well in. Put the yeast with a lump of sugar into a small basin, and pour a little of the _warm_ water on to if. Cold or hot water kills the yeast.

Leave this a little while until the yeast bubbles, then smooth out all lumps and pour into a hole made in the middle of the flour. Pour in the rest of the warm water, and begin to stir in the flour. Now begin kneading the dough, and knead until the whole is smooth and damp, and leaves the hand without sticking, which will take about 15 to 20 minutes. Time spent in kneading is not wasted.

Set the pan in a warm place, covered with a clean cloth. Be careful not to put the pan where it can get too hot. The fender is a good place, but to the side of the fire rather than in front. Let it rise at least an hour, but should it not have risen very much--say double the size--let it stand longer, as the bread cannot be light if the dough has not risen sufficiently.

Now have a baking-board well floured, and turn all the dough on to it.

Have tins or earthenware pans, or even pie-dishes well greased. Divide the dough, putting enough to half fill the pans or tins. Put these on the fender to rise again for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake in a hot oven, about 350 degrees (a little hotter than for pastry).

Bake (for a loaf about 2 lbs. in a moderate oven) from 30 to 40 minutes.

Of course the time depends greatly on the size of the loaves and the heat of the oven.

The above recipe produces the ordinary white loaf. Better bread would, in my opinion, result from the use of a very fine wholemeal flour such as the "Nu-Era," and the omission of salt.

XIV.--UNFIRED FOOD.

The true unfired feeder is an ideal, _i.e.,_ he exists only in idea, at least so far as my experience goes! To be truly consistent the unfired feeder should live entirely on raw foods--fruit, nuts and salads. But most unfired feeders utilise heat to a slight extent, although they do not actually cook the food. In addition, most of them use various breadstuffs and biscuits which, of course, are cooked food. "Unfired" bread is sold by some health food stores, and is a preparation of wheat which has been treated and softened by a gentle heat.

Cereals should never be eaten with fruit, but may be eaten with salads and cheese. The mid-day meal of the unfired feeder should consist of nuts or cheese and a large plate of well-chopped salad with some kind of dressing over it; olive oil and lemon-juice or one of the nut-oils and lemon-juice.

Orange-juice or raw carrot-juice may be used if preferred. When extra nourishment is desired a well-beaten raw egg may be mixed with the dressing. Fresh cream may also be used as dressing.

Fruit is best taken at the evening meal, from 1-1/2 to 2 lbs. Nothing should be taken with it except a little nut-cream or fresh cream and white of egg.

Distilled water is a great a.s.set to the unfired feeder, because it softens dried fruits so much better than hard water. It can be manufactured at home, or the "Still Salutaris" bought through a chemist or grocer. The "Still Salutaris" water is about 1/3 per gallon jar. If the water is distilled at home, a "Gem" Still will be needed. (The Gem Supplies Co., Ltd., 67, Southwark Street, London S.E.). It is best to use this over a gas ring or "Primus" oil stove. The cost of the water comes out at about one penny per gallon, according to the cost of the fuel used.

Distilled Water should never be put into metal saucepans or kettles, as it is a very powerful solvent. A small enamelled kettle or saucepan should be used for heating it, and it should be stored in gla.s.s or earthenware vessels only. It should not be kept for more than a month, and should always be kept carefully covered.

For salads it is not necessary to depend entirely upon the usual salad vegetables, such as lettuce, endive, watercress, mustard and cress. The very finely shredded hearts of raw Brussel sprouts are excellent, and even the heart of a Savoy cabbage. Then the finely chopped inside sticks of a tender head of celery are very good. Also young spinach leaves, dandelion leaves, sorrel and young nasturtium leaves. The root vegetables should also be added in their season, raw carrot, turnip, beet, onion and leek, all finely grated. A taste for all the above-mentioned vegetables, eaten raw, is not acquired all at once. It is best to begin by making the salad of the ingredients usually preferred and mixing in a small quant.i.ty of one or two of the new ingredients. For those who find salads very difficult to digest, it is best to begin with French or cabbage lettuce and skinned tomatoes only, or, as an alternative, a saucerful of watercress chopped very finely, as one chops parsley.

1. COTTAGE CHEESE.

Allow the juice of two medium-sized lemons to 1 quart of milk. Put the milk and strained lemon-juice into an enamelled pan or fireproof ca.s.serole and place over a gas ring or oil stove with the flame turned very low.

Warm the milk, but do not allow it to boil. When the milk has curdled properly the curds are collected together, forming an "island" surrounded by the whey, which should be a clear liquid. Lay a piece of cheese-cloth over a colander and pour into it the curds and whey. Gather together the edges of the cloth and hang up the curds to drain for at least thirty minutes. Then return to the colander (still in cloth) and put a small plate or saucer (with a weight on top) on the cheese. It should be left under pressure for at least one hour. This cheese will keep two days in cold weather, but must be made fresh every day in warm weather. The milk used should be some hours old, as quite new milk will not curdle. The juice from one lemon at a time should be put into the milk, as the staler the milk the less juice will be needed. _Too much_ juice will prevent curdling as effectually as too little.

This cheese is greatly improved by the addition of fresh cream. Allow two tablespoonsful of cream to the cheese from one quart of milk. Mash the cheese with a fork and lightly beat the cream into it.

_Note_. Cheese-cloth, sometimes known as cream-cloth, may be bought at most large drapers' shops at from 6d. to 8d. per yard. One yard cuts into four cloths large enough for straining the cheese from one quart of milk.

Ordinary muslin is not so useful as it is liable to tear. Wash in warm water (no soap or soda), then scald well.

2. DRIED FRUITS.

These should be well washed in lukewarm water and examined for worms'

eggs, etc. Then cover with distilled water and let stand for 12 hours or until quite soft and swollen. Prunes, figs, and raisins are all nice treated in this way.

3. EGG CREAM.

2 tablespoons fresh cream, the white of 1 egg.

Put the white of egg on to a plate and beat to a stiff froth with the flat of a knife. (A palette knife is the best.) Then beat the cream into it.

This makes a nourishing dressing for either vegetable salad or fruit salad. Especially suitable for invalids and persons of weak digestion.

4. PINE-KERNEL CHEESE.

Wash the kernels and dry well in a clean cloth. Spread out on the cloth and carefully pick over for bad kernels or bits of hard sh.e.l.l. Put through the macerator of the nut-b.u.t.ter mill. Well mix with the beaten pulp of a raw tomato (first plunge it into boiling water for a few minutes, after which the skin is easily removed). Raw carrot juice, or any other vegetable or fruit juice pulp may also be used.

5. RAW CARROT JUICE.

Well scrub a medium sized carrot and grate it to a pulp on an ordinary tinned bread grater. Put the pulp into a cheese cloth and squeeze out the juice into a cup.

6. TWICE BAKED BREAD.

Cut moderately thin slices of white bread. Put into a moderate oven and bake until a golden colour.

Granose biscuits warmed in the oven until crisp serve the same purpose as twice-baked bread, _i.e.,_ a cereal food in which the starch has been dextrinised by cooking. But the biscuits being soft and flaky can be enjoyed by those for whom the twice-baked bread would be too hard.

XV.--WEIGHTS AND MEASURES AND UTENSILS.

If possible sieve all flour before measuring, as maggots are _sometimes_ to be found therein; also because tightly-compressed flour naturally measures less than flour which has been well shaken up.

1 lb. = 16 ozs. = 3 teacupsful or 2 breakfastcupsful, closely filled, but not heaped.

1/2 lb. = 8 ozs. = 1 breakfastcupful, closely filled, but not heaped.