Collective work - Food Facts for the Kitchen Front

When young these vegetables can be cooked whole, with tops and tails removed. When older, a stringy vein develops down the ribs of the pod, which must be removed before cooking for full enjoyment.

Trim away the “strings,” then slice the bean lengthways, or break with the fingers into 2-inch lengths (this saves time), and steam or boil the vegetable until tender in a small quantity of boiling salted water. When tender and young allow them to “steam” by using very little water, and adding, if possible, a very little fat which they can absorb during the cooking. This makes them glisten well and improves their flavour. The actual cooking time varies with the age and size of the beans.

When beans are home-grown and can be gathered near the time of cooking, their full flavour and goodness can be enjoyed; for households purchasing from local markets, it is wise to select beans as crisp as possible.

When runner beans are too old for table, let them mature on the plants and then dry the beans (not the pods) for winter use.

For FRENCH AND RUNNER BEANS IN SALADS, see p. 61, SALADS.

Here is a favourite vegetable that can play a number of different roles. The sugar it contains makes it acceptable for salads, whether cooked or raw, or it can be baked or fried to develop a still more attractive flavour.

In preparing the vegetable, it is important to avoid breaking the skin, or the rich red colour “bleeds” away in the cooking.

Beet tops can be used as a vegetable too, and are as delicious as spinach if steamed or boiled in a very little water.

To cook the beets, wash them well in cold water, then boil steadily in salted water for 2 hours or more with the lid on the pan, until they feel tender. Press with the back of a wooden spoon to test, but do not prod with a fork, or the juices will escape. Drain them, and peel away the skin quickly.

When the oven is on, try baking the beetroots, without fat or water, as you would potatoes, or wrap them in a margarine paper and bake as before. They will take about 2 hours, if medium-sized.

To serve hot. —Cut quickly into quarters, and serve in a hot vegetable dish with a little melted fat and a sprinkling of chopped parsley. Or, pour a little thin white sauce over them.

To serve cold in salad, first slice the cooked beetroot thinly or cut into dice, and dress with vinaigrette (two parts salad oil to one of vinegar with seasonings). Arrange neatly in a salad dish, with a ring of chopped celery round, and a topping of either grated horseradish or chopped apple.

Small young beetroots.

1 oz. flour.

1 oz. fat.

1/2 pint milk, or vegetable stock and milk mixed.

Salt.

1 tablespoon horseradish cream or 1 dessertspoon grated horseradish.

1 tablespoon vinegar.

Boil or bake the beetroots in the usual way. Drain, peel, and place them in a hot dish, quartered if large. Prepare a coating sauce with the flour, fat and milk (see p. 115), season with salt, and add the horseradish and vinegar.

Pour over the beetroot and serve very hot.

1 small cooked beetroot.

1 pint tablet jelly (vanilla or red-currant).

1 small teacup vinegar.

1/4 teaspoon salt.

1/2 teaspoon pepper.

3/4 pint water.

Cut up the jelly and dissolve in 1/ 2pint of hot water, then make up to 3/ 4pint in all, with extra cold water. Dice the beetroot quite finely and arrange it in a pint mould, or several smaller sized ones, seasoning with the pepper and salt.

Add the vinegar to the jelly when quite cold, and while still liquid pour into the moulds to set.

Made in smaller quantities with left-over cooked beetroot; this is attractive if served with salad for a simple lunch or supper meal, adding hard-boiled egg to make it more substantial.

Remember the importance of vitamins when choosing cooking methods, and try to serve cabbage raw sometimes, to save the Vitamin C.

To cook cabbage. —Slice finely and place in a saucepan with a sprinkling of salt and a teacupful of boiling water. Cover, and boil steadily for about 15 minutes. Shake the pan several times during cooking.

If it can be spared, add a little margarine or dripping to the water. Strain off any liquid left in the saucepan and use it for gravy or soup. Serve the cabbage piping hot.

All sorts of additions can be made with cabbage cooked in this way, to vary the flavour. A few bacon rinds chopped small, a few teaspoons of vinegar, and a shake of caraway seeds, or a sprinkling of nutmeg, and your cabbage becomes a continental dish. Always cook steadily with the lid on the pan and sprinkle with a little pepper just before serving.

1 cabbage.

Salt and pepper.

Chopped parsley.

8 oz. browned wheatmeal breadcrumbs.

A little minced onion or chopped spring onion.

1/4 lb. cooked liver, mince, or sausage meat.

Remove the outside leaves, clean and soak the cabbage whole in salted water. Par-boil in boiling salted water for about 5 minutes. Hollow out the cabbage by removing the centre leaves with a sharp knife and fill with the following stuffing.

Mix the chopped liver or meat with the breadcrumbs, add seasonings of pepper and salt, a little chopped parsley and minced onion, then mix to a binding consistency with vegetable boilings.

Pack the stuffing firmly in the cavity, tie the head securely with string, and steam until perfectly tender (about 20 to 25 minutes). (Serves 4.)

The cabbage leaves removed from the centres are useful for salads. Or mixed with mashed potato for vegetable pancakes or breakfast cakes.

1 medium-sized white-hearted cabbage.

1 oz. dripping or margarine.

1/2 pint milk and water.

Salt and pepper.

Wash the cabbage thoroughly in cold water to which a little salt has been added, and shred it. Heat 1/ 2pint of milk, then melt an ounce of dripping in it. Add the shredded cabbage and cook steadily until tender, about 15 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper, and serve very hot with the liquid poured round it. This dish is particularly tasty if served with a spoonful of frizzled chopped bacon or a little grated cheese for topping. (Serves 4.)

If the inner section of the cabbage is cooked this way, reserve the outer leaves for the following recipe.

Choose the outer green leaves from a tender cabbage, and cook them for a few minutes to make them pliable for rolling.

Make up a simple forcemeat, using either cooked minced meat or cooked sausage-meat, the same amount of breadcrumbs or mashed potato, a suspicion of chopped onion, a liberal sprinkle of chopped parsley and pepper and salt to taste. Bind with a little stock or gravy, and place a spoonful on each leaf.

Roll up and secure with thread, placing them to cook in a casserole in simmering stock to a depth to some half-way up the rolls. Cook until the leaves are tender—about 20 minutes or so—basting from time to time.

Serve on mashed potato, with well-seasoned brown gravy.