Collective work - Food Facts for the Kitchen Front

Make a thick sauce with the flour, liquid and fat (see page 115), and work the puree and vegetable extract into it. Set aside to cool.

When cold, shape into croquettes. Roll in coarse oatmeal that has been previously toasted a little in the oven or under the grill. Fry in a little fat, turning to colour the cakes evenly. Drain and serve hot with good gravy. Or bake in the oven.

11/2 lb. carrots.

Teacup of stock or water, or sufficient to cover.

Salt, pepper.

Small piece of dripping or margarine.

3 dessertspoons chopped parsley.

Scrub the carrots and cut them into slices, about 1/ 4inch in thickness. Heat the fat in the pan and sauté the carrots, frying them without browning for about 10 minutes, shaking occasionally. Add I gill of stock or water, bringing the level to just cover.

Cook gently until the carrots are tender—about 25–35 minutes. Drain the carrots, reduce the liquid a little by boiling, and sprinkle the chopped parsley (or the chopped feathery carrot tops) over the dish. Pour the reduced seasoned stock over the vegetable and serve at once.

Young carrots and green peas—sufficient to fill a casserole, using twice as much carrots as peas.

2 small sprigs of mint.

2 tablespoons of milk.

Parsley sauce to cover.

A little minced onion, or rings of spring onion.

Salt, pepper.

Prepare enough carrots and green peas to fill the selected casserole, using twice as much carrot as peas.

Scrape and dice the carrots, place them in the casserole, just cover with salted water, bring them to the boil and simmer for five minutes. Then add the peas, the chopped mint, minced onion, a pinch of salt, and the milk. Cover with a close-fitting lid and cook gently in the oven until the carrots are perfectly tender.

Prepare a plain parsley sauce (see p. 115), using 1/ 2pint of liquid from the casserole, 1 oz. flour and 1/ 2oz. margarine or dripping, and season well. Add 2 dessertspoons of finely chopped parsley just before serving. Pour this over the vegetables, replace the lid, and serve very hot.

2 large carrots.

Cold cooked mashed potato.

1 dessertspoon fine oatmeal.

1 teaspoon vegetable extract.

Grate the scrubbed carrots on a suet grater and cook for 10 minutes in a very little water. Season well and add 1 teaspoon of vegetable extract and 1 dessertspoon of toasted fine oatmeal.

Boil five minutes, stirring, to thicken, then set to cool. At this stage the mixture should be quite stiff.

Have ready some cold mashed potatoes, dust the pastry board and pin with flour, and roll out to an oblong shape. Place the carrot filling in the centre, then fold over and shape to a roll. Dot with a few shavings of fat and bake till nicely browned in a moderately hot oven. Serve with well-seasoned brown gravy.

Choose equal quantities of sprouts and carrots by weight, prepare them in the usual way, slicing both to convenient size.

Steam together until tender (about 15 minutes), sprinkling them with a little salt in the steamer.

Alternatively —cook in a very little water in a saucepan, starting the carrots a little ahead of the green sprouts to enable them to finish cooking together. Use the liquor, with added vegetable extract, as sauce. Dress in a little dripping or cooking fat just before serving, adding a small shake of pepper.

About 11/2 lb. carrots.

3/4 lb. potato suet crust.

Salt and pepper.

Gravy powder.

Wash and scrape the carrots. Make 1 lb. potato suet crust (see p. 59). Line a greased pudding bowl with it, then put in a layer of grated raw carrot (about 1 inch deep). Sprinkle with salt, pepper and gravy powder, and cover with a very thin circle of the crust, cut to fit. Repeat the layers of carrot and crust until the basin is full, ending with crust. Cover with margarine paper and steam for 2 1/ 2–3 hours. Serve with brown gravy.

2 lb. carrots.

1/4 head celery.

1 oz. dripping.

3/4 pint vegetable boilings or water.

1/2 oz. flour.

Dash of vinegar.

1 tablespoon home made jam.

2 teaspoons curry powder.

1 apple, peeled and sliced.

A little minced onion, or spring onion.

Scrape and slice the carrots. Prepare the celery and chop fairly fine. Melt the dripping in the pan, put in the apple, minced onion and celery, and sauté for a few minutes without browning. Add the curry powder and flour and fry lightly, stirring well.

Next add the stock or water, vinegar, etc., and stir well until thickened, before adding the carrots and jam. Cover, and simmer for 20 minutes to half an hour.

Serve with a border of creamily mashed potatoes.

CARROT SPREAD (see PACKED MEALS, p. 121).

CARROT PUDDING (see Peace and War Pudding, p. 59, POTATOES).

At a time when salad vegetables are less plentiful comes celery—a useful Vitamin C vegetable. When lettuce is unobtainable, and you want a change from grated cabbage, try young celery leaves in your winter salads. Fresh or dried, they also make good flavouring for casserole and stews.

The best way to serve celery raw is to separate the cleaned stalks, selecting the centre crisp stems for salads, and the “heart” for table use. The outer sections are good braised, served as a vegetable accompaniment, or included in a casserole.

Prepare celery by washing well in a bowl of cold water, then splitting the head and separating the stalks for similar treatment. Leave to crisp or curl in ice-cold water, the shorter stems in a jug or deep basin. Cut celery stalks, trimmed and left in cold water, will curl attractively for serving in a celery vase, or chopped in the salad. Fine curled shreds look most inviting arranged with other, more colourful, vegetables.

1 good head of celery.

A few browned breadcrumbs.

Pepper and salt.

3/4 pint milk and water.

3/4 oz. fat.

3/4 oz. flour.

Wash the celery, trim it into lengths, dice and place in a casserole or deep pie dish. Cover with the milk and water, add salt, and simmer until tender.

Drain, saving the liquid for the sauce.

Prepare the sauce as in recipe, p. 115. Simmer for three minutes, then add a generous sprinkling of pepper and salt (if necessary) before replacing the cooked celery. Return to the casserole, sprinkle with browned breadcrumbs, heat through and serve hot.

1 head of celery

A little fat for frying.

A little flour and water for a thin batter.

Wheatmeal breadcrumbs.

Prepare the celery and trim into short lengths. Simmer these in salted water until tender, then drain, saving the liquid for soup. Make a thin frying batter of flour and water, dip each portion into this, drain, roll in crumbs and fry until lightly browned. Three to four minutes’ frying should be sufficient, turning the pieces until they colour and crisp.