The Healthy Life Cook Book Part 5

Cut up the moist, juicy vegetables such as celery, spinach, onions and tomatoes, place them with the water in a ca.s.serole, put lid on and slowly cook for about one hour until enough juice is extracted to safely add the rest of the cut-up vegetables. The whole should now be placed in a slightly greater heat and simmered until the last added vegetables are quite tender. The mixture should be stirred occasionally with a wooden spoon.

V.--CURRIES.

I do not recommend the use of curries. Many food-reformers eschew them altogether. But they are sometimes useful for the entertainment of meat-eating friends, or to tide over the attack of meat-craving which sometimes besets the vegetarian beginner. Of course there are curries and curries. Cheap curry powders are very much hotter than those of a better quality. When buying curry powder it is best to go to a high-cla.s.s grocer and get the smallest possible tin of the best he keeps. It will last for years. Those who prefer to make their own curry powder may try Dr.

Kitchener's recipe as follows:--

1. CURRY POWDER.

3 ozs. coriander seed, 2-1/2 ozs. tumeric, 1 oz. black pepper, 1/2 oz.

lesser cardamoms, 1/4 oz. cinnamon, 1/4 oz. c.u.min seed.

Put the ingredients into a cool oven and let them remain there all night.

Next day pound them thoroughly in a marble mortar, and rub through a sieve. Put the powder into a well-corked bottle.

A spice machine may be used instead of the mortar, but in that case the tumeric should be obtained ready powdered, as it is so hard that it is apt to break the machine. The various ingredients are generally only to be obtained from a large wholesale druggist.

2. EGG CURRY.

1 large onion, 1 dessertspoon curry powder, 1 oz. b.u.t.ter or nutter, 3 hard-boiled eggs, 1 dessertspoon tomato pulp, 1 teacup water.

Shred the onion, put it in the stew-pan with the b.u.t.ter, sprinkle the curry powder over, and fry gently until quite brown. Sh.e.l.l the eggs and cut them in halves. Add the eggs, the tomato pulp, and the water. Stir well, and simmer until the liquid is reduced to one-half. This will take about 15 minutes. Serve with plain boiled unpolished rice.

3. GERMAN LENTIL CURRY.

Use the ingredients given, and proceed exactly the same as for egg curry.

But in place of eggs, take 1 breakfastcup of cold cooked German lentils (see recipe for cooking lentils). Use also 2 teacups water in place of the 1, and only 3/4 oz. b.u.t.ter or nutter.

4. VEGETABLE CURRY.

Use the ingredients given and proceed the same as for German lentil curry, using any cold steamed vegetables in season. The best curry, according to an Indian authority, is one made of potatoes, artichokes, carrots, pumpkin and tomatoes.

_Note_.--A writer in Ca.s.sell's Dictionary of Cookery says:--"A spoonful of cocoanut kernel dried and powdered gives a delicious flavour to a curry, as does also acid apple."

VI.--VEGETABLES.

Never eat boiled vegetables. No one ever hears of a flesh-eater boiling his staple article of diet and throwing away the liquor. On the contrary, when he does indulge in boiled meat, the liquor is regarded as a valuable a.s.set, and is used as a basis for soup. But his meat is generally conservatively cooked--that is, it is baked, roasted, or grilled, so that the juices are retained. If he has to choose between throwing away the meat or the water in which it has been boiled, he keeps the liquor--witness "beef-tea." For some unknown reason he does not often treat his vegetables in the same way, and suffers thereby the loss of much valuable food material.

The vegetarian--being avowedly a thinker and a pioneer--would, it might be imagined, treat what is now one of his staple articles of diet at least as carefully as the out-of-date flesh-eater. But no! For the most part, his vegetables are boiled, and when the best part of the food const.i.tuents and all the flavour have been extracted, he dines off a ma.s.s of indigestible fibre--mere waste matter--and allows the "broth" to be thrown down the sink, with the consequence that many vegetarians are pale, flabby individuals who succ.u.mb to the slightest strain, and suffer from chronic dyspepsia.

The remedy is simple. Treat vegetables as you used to treat meat. Bake or stew them in their own juice. (See recipe for Vegetarian Irish Stew.) At the least, steam them. A little of the valuable vegetable salts are lost in the steaming, but not much. Better still, use a double boilerette. A very little water is put into the inner pan and soon becomes steam, so that by the time the vegetable is cooked it has all disappeared.

No exact time can be given for cooking vegetables, as this varies with age and freshness. The younger--always supposing it has just come to maturity--and fresher the vegetable, the quicker it cooks.

It should not be forgotten that orthodox cooks put all green and root vegetables, except potatoes, to cook in _boiling_ water. This rule should not be neglected when steaming vegetables--the water should be fast boiling.

I will conclude with a few remarks about preparing greens, cauliflowers, etc. The general practice is to soak them in cold salted water with the idea of drawing out and killing any insects. But this often results in killing the insects, especially if much salt is used, before "drawing them out." A better plan is to put the trimmed cabbage or cauliflower head downwards into _warm_ water for about half an hour. As I trim Brussels sprouts I throw them into a pan of warm water, and the insects crawl out and sink to the bottom of the pan. It is astonishing how many one finds at the bottom of a pan of warm water in which sprouts are soaked.

1. ARTICHOKE, JERUSALEM.

Steam until tender, or bake with a small piece of nutter on each artichoke until brown. Serve with tomato or white sauce.

2. ASPARAGUS.

Tie in a bundle and stand in a deep saucepan with the stalks in water, so that the shoots are steamed. Serve with melted b.u.t.ter or white sauce.

3. BEETROOT.

Bake or steam. It will take from 2 to 4 hours, according to size.

4. BROAD BEANS.

Steam until tender, but do not spoil by overcooking. Serve with parsley sauce.

5. BROCCOLI.

This is a rather coa.r.s.er variety of cauliflower. Cook in the same way as the latter.

6. BRUSSELS SPROUTS.

These should be steamed for not more than 20 minutes. They are generally spoiled by overcooking. Serve plain or with onion sauce.

7. CABBAGE.

Steam. Put in vegetable dish, chop well, and add a small piece of b.u.t.ter.

8. CARROT.

Steam until tender. Serve whole or mashed with b.u.t.ter.