Collective work - Food Facts for the Kitchen Front

For root vegetables—carrots, turnips, swedes, etc.—the most important thing to remember is to scrape or peel them lightly, taking as little off the edible parts as possible. Steam them if you can, boil them in a very little salted water if you can’t. They are good, too, baked round the joint or in a very little water in a dish in the oven. The only exception to this rule is beetroot (see p. 15).

These are good winter vegetables, rarely used as much as they might be.

If the artichokes are dipped in very hot water prior to peeling, the skin scrapes off very easily, and with little waste. Place them immediately into cold water to which a little vinegar has been added, to save them from discolouring.

They can then be steamed, or boiled in a little salted water. For a more nourishing dish, cook them in sufficient boiling milk and water, in equal quantities, to just cover, add a pinch of salt and cook steadily for 15–20 minutes with the lid on the saucepan. Remove the vegetables and thicken the stock as described on page 115. Then replace the artichokes in the sauce, heat up and serve.

1 pint vegetable boilings or water.

1/2 pint milk.

1 oz. cooking fat or margarine.

11/2 lb. artichokes.

A little chopped spring onion.

Seasoning of pepper and salt.

Peel and slice the artichokes as above and chop the onion. Toss the vegetables in the melted fat, lid on the pan, until the fat is absorbed and the flavours are well drawn. Pour on the water or vegetable liquor, add a pinch of salt, replace the lid and allow to simmer for half an hour, or until the vegetables are tender.

Pass them through a sieve, or beat to a puree with a wooden spoon. Blend 1 1/ 2dessertspoons of flour to a smooth cream with a little cold milk, then add some of the hot stock to it. Return all to the saucepan, stirring, bring to the boil, and simmer for at least 10 minutes. Add the remainder of the milk, reheat, season, and serve the hot soup with home-made rusks of wheatmeal bread (see p. 111, BREAD AND BAKING).

1 lb. mixed cooked artichokes and potatoes.

1/2 pint white sauce to which about 2 teaspoons chopped capers or pickled nasturtium seeds and 1 teaspoon vinegar have been added.

Browned breadcrumbs.

A few shavings of cooking fat.

Dice the cooked artichokes and potatoes into neat cubes, placing them in a fireproof dish. Prepare the sauce, using part artichoke stock and part milk (see p. 115).

Pour the hot well-seasoned sauce over the vegetables, sprinkle with browned crumbs, dot here and there with cooking fat, and heat through in a moderately hot oven, or under a well-heated grill, until crisp-crusted and golden. Serve hot.

Another appetising way to cook this vegetable is to cut across the artichoke to make thinnish slices. These can be fried, like potato chips, in a little fat, then drained, salted, and seasoned with pepper, and perhaps a sprinkling of finely “powdered” cheese, if it can be spared. (The dry, next-to-the-rind pieces of hard cheese grate down excellently for this.)

Peel the artichokes and slice very thinly. Soak in wellsalted water for about half an hour. Dry on a wire cake tray in a very slow oven until quite crisp (about 3 hours). Store in air-tight tins. These crisps are as delicious as potato crisps and have a pleasant flavour.

Unless home-grown, asparagus is a luxury vegetable.

If buying asparagus, see that the stalks are fresh, the heads crisp and the cut ends of the stalk clear-coloured. If they are to be kept fresh for a few hours, place the stems in a jug of cold water.

To Cook. —Scrape the stem lightly with a knife, then wash in cold water. Trim the stalks to one length, and tie into conveniently-sized bundles.

Cook gently in boiling salted water, or steam in a small amount of water, with the heads emerging, until the green part of the stem is quite tender. Drain on a fish slice, and lay the bundles on slices of toast. Snip the strings and dress the tips with as much melted fat—margarine for preference—as can be spared.

As a pod vegetable, broad beans are valuable food. They contain vitamins A, C, and B 1, and good vegetable protein. Freshly picked, when young, they are really delicious.

Steamed, or boiled in a little salted water, they soon become tender, but be sure to leave on the outer skins of the seeds. Many people make the mistake of peeling away this covering skin, which deprives the dish of much flavour and food value.

Serve cooked broad beans with a little melted fat and a sprinkling of fresh chopped parsley. When a little older, they taste good in a parsley sauce, or with piquant flavouring.

Young broad beans are also good eaten raw in a salad.

When young, broad beans can be used in two ways. The pods are very tender and delicious when sliced like runner beans, simmered in salted water and dressed in exactly the same way. They are also good served in parsley sauce.

Shell the beans in the usual way and cook for the first meal. Cut the pods into strips or diagonal slices, and cook them too. When cold, the sliced pods are good dressed in mayonnaise or French dressing in salad.

1 lb. very young beans.

1 oz. margarine or bacon dripping.

1 oz. flour.

1 dessertspoon of finely chopped parsley.

1 gill bean liquor.

1 gill milk.

Seasoning of salt and pepper.

Trim the end from the pods and cut the beans into inch lengths. Cook in boiling salted water until tender, then drain.

Make a parsley sauce with the bean stock, fat and flour, adding the milk after the sauce has fully cooked. Shake in the chopped parsley, season with salt and pepper, and mix in the cooked beans last of all. Heat through and serve.

When beans are a little older, they can be sieved and “creamed” to make them more attractive for table. Take a quart measure of shelled beans and steam or boil them in the usual way till tender.

Drain them, then rub them through a sieve. Take the remaining liquor and make up to the required quantity of liquid with milk, for a white sauce. Use an ounce of bacon dripping or margarine and an ounce of flour for each gill and a half of stock (for method, see p. 115), and use the sauce, after boiling and seasoning, to bring the puree to a creamy consistency.

For BROAD BEAN SALAD see p. 61, SALADS.

Boil the prepared beans until tender, then prepare a sauce with 1 oz. margarine or cooking fat, 1 level tablespoon flour, and 1/ 4pint of stock from the beans.

Melt the fat, stir in the flour smoothly and allow them to cook together slowly. Gradually add the gill of stock, stirring until fully thickened. When returned to the boil for three minutes, season well, and add 1 tablespoon of vinegar, and 1/ 2teaspoon of chopped capers.

Heat the beans in this sauce, then serve while very hot.

Broad beans which have been allowed to mature in their pods may be stored for winter use. Make sure they are quite dry before packing in airtight tins. Soak and cook like haricots.