The Healthy Life Cook Book Part 4

18. NUT AND LENTIL ROAST AND RISSOLES.

Proceed as for nut roast or rissoles, but use cold stewed lentils (see recipe) in the place of bread-crumbs.

19. PINE KERNELS, ROASTED.

Put on a tin in a warm oven, bake until a very pale golden colour. On no account brown. Serve with vegetable stew.

20. RICE, BOILED.

1 cup unpolished rice, 3 cups water.

Put the rice on in cold water, and bring it gradually to the boil. Boil hard for 5 minutes, stirring once or twice. Draw it to the side of the stove, where it is comparatively cool, or, if a gas stove is used, put the saucepan on an asbestos mat and turn the gas as low as possible. The water should now gradually steam away, leaving the rice dry and well cooked.

Serve plain or with curry.

21. RICE, SAVOURY.

Cook rice as in foregoing recipe. Fry a small, finely-chopped onion in very little fat. Add this to the cooked rice with b.u.t.ter the size of a walnut, and a pinch of savoury herbs. Shake over the fire until hot. Serve with peeled baked potatoes and baked tomatoes.

22. RICE AND EGG FRITTERS.

Mix any quant.i.ty of cold boiled rice with some chopped parsley and well-beaten egg. Beat the mixture well, form into small fritters, roll in egg and bread-crumbs or white flour, and fry to a golden brown. Serve with egg sauce.

23. TOAD-IN-THE-HOLE.

Grease a pie-dish. Put in it 2 or 3 small firm tomatoes, or some small peeled mushrooms. Make a batter as for Yorkshire pudding and pour over.

Bake until golden brown.

24. VEGETABLE MARROW, STUFFED.

1 medium marrow, 2 ozs. b.u.t.ter or 1-1/2 oz. nutter, 1 dessertspoon sage, 2 medium onions, 4 tablespoons bread-crumbs, 1 tablespoon milk or water.

Chop the onion small and mix with the bread-crumbs, sage, and milk or water. Peel the marrow and scoop out the pith and pips. (Cut it in halves to do this, or, better still, if possible cut off one end and scoop out inside with a long knife.) Tie the two halves together with clean string.

Stuff the marrow and bake for 40 minutes on a well-greased tin. Lay some of the nutter on top and baste frequently until done. It should brown well. Serve with brown gravy or white sauce.

25. VEGETABLE MARROW AND NUT ROAST.

Make a paste as for nut roast (see recipe). Peel marrow, scoop out the inside, and stuff. Bake from 40 minutes to an hour in a hot oven. Baste frequently.

26. VEGETARIAN IRISH STEW.

1 lb. tomatoes, 7 small Spanish onions, 8 medium potatoes, 1 oz. nutter or b.u.t.ter, 2 small carrots or parsnips, or 1 cup fresh green peas.

A saucepan with a close-fitting lid, and, if a gas stove is used, an asbestos mat (price 3-1/2d. at any ironmongers) is needed for this stew.

Skin the tomatoes, peel and quarter the onions, and put them into the saucepan with the nutter and shut down the lid tightly. If a gas or oil flame is used, turn it as low as possible. Put the asbestos mat over this and stand the saucepan upon it. At the end of 1 hour the onions should be gently stewing in a sea of juice. Add the potatoes now (peeled and cut in halves). Also the peas, if in season. Cook for another hour. If carrot or parsnip is the extra vegetable used, cut into quarters and put in with the onions. When done, the onions are quite soft, and the potatoes, etc., just as if they had been cooked in a steamer.

Note that the onions and tomatoes must be actually stewing when the potatoes are put in, as the latter cook in the steam arising from the former. Consequently, they should be laid on top of the onions, etc., not mixed with them. If cooked on the kitchen range, a little longer time may be needed, according to the state of the fire. Never try to cook quickly, or the juice will dry up and burn. The slow heat is the most important point.

27. VEGETABLE PIE.

Cook the vegetables according to recipe for vegetable stew. When cold put in a pie-dish (gravy and all) and cover with short crust. Bake for half an hour. If preferred, the vegetables may be covered with cold mashed potatoes in place of pie-crust. Top with a few small pieces of nutter, and bake until brown.

28. VEGETABLE STEW.

1 carrot, 1 turnip, 1 potato, 1 parsnip, 2 Jerusalem artichokes, 2 onions, 2 tomatoes, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, nutter size of small walnut.

Scrub and sc.r.a.pe the carrot, turnip, parsnip and artichokes. Peel the potato and onions. Shred the onions and put them into a stew-pan with the nutter. Shake over the fire, and fry until brown, but do not burn or the flavour of the stew will be completely spoilt. Cut the carrot and parsnip and potato into quarters, the artichokes into halves, and put into the stew-pan with the onions. Barely cover with water. Bring to the boil and stew very gently until tender. Skin the tomatoes, break in halves, and cook slowly to a pulp in a separate pan. Add these, with the lemon juice, to the stew, and slightly thicken with a little wholemeal flour just before serving.

IV.--Ca.s.sEROLE COOKERY.

Ca.s.serole is the French word for stew-pan. But "Ca.s.serole Cookery" is a phrase used to denote cookery in earthenware pots. It commends itself especially to food-reformers, as the slow cookery renders the food more digestible, and the earthenware pots are easier to keep clean than the ordinary saucepan. The food is served up in the pot in which it is cooked, this being simply placed on a dish. A large pudding-basin covered with a plate may be used in default of anything better. A clean white serviette is generally pinned round this before it comes to table. Various attractive-looking brown crocks are sold for the purpose. But anyone who possesses the old-fashioned "beef-tea" jar needs nothing else. It is important to ensure that a new ca.s.serole does not crack the first time of using. To do this put the ca.s.serole into a large, clean saucepan, or pail, full of clean cold water. Put over a fire or gas ring, and bring slowly to the boil. Boil for 10 minutes and then stand aside to cool. Do not take the ca.s.serole out until the water is cold.

1. FRENCH SOUP.

2 carrots, 1 turnip, 1 leek, 1 stick celery, 1/2 cabbage, 1 bay leaf, 2 cloves, 6 peppercorns, 3 qts. water.

Sc.r.a.pe and cut up carrots and turnip. Slice the leek, and cut celery into dice. Shred the cabbage. Put into the jar with the water, and place in a moderate oven, or on the top of a closed range. If it is necessary to use a gas ring, turn very low and stand jar on an asbestos mat. Bring to the boil slowly and then simmer for 2-1/2 hours.

2. HOT POT.

1 lb. potatoes, 2 carrots, 1 large onion, 1 turnip, 1/4 lb. mushrooms or 1/2 lb. tomatoes, 1 pint stock or water.

Wash, peel, and slice thickly the potatoes. Wash and sc.r.a.pe and slice the carrots and turnip. Skin the tomatoes or mushrooms. Put in the jar in alternate layers. Moisten with the stock or water. Cook as directed in recipe 1 for 1-1/2 hours after it first begins to simmer.

3. STEWED APPLES.

Take hard, red apples. Wash, but do not peel or core. Put in jar with cold water to reach half way up the apples. Cover closely and put in moderate oven for 2 hours after it begins to simmer. At end of 1 hour, add sugar to taste.

4. VEGETABLE STEW.

1-1/2 lbs. (when prepared and cut up) of mixed seasonable vegetables, including, whenever possible, tomatoes, celery and spinach; one tablespoonful of water.