Every kind of cookery can be done with wholemeal flour. In making ordinary white sauce or vegetable sauce, this is how we make it; Chop fine some onion or parsley; boil in a small quant.i.ty of water, stir in wholemeal flour and milk, add a little pepper and salt, thin with hot water, and thus produce a sauce that helps down vegetables and potatoes. In making a brown sauce we put a little b.u.t.ter or olive oil in the frying-pan; let it bubble and sputter, dredge in Allinson wholemeal flour, stir it round with a knife until browned, add boiling water, pepper, salt, a little ketchup, and you then have a nice brown sauce for many dishes. If we wish to make it very tasty we fry a finely chopped onion first and add that to it. White sweet sauce is made from wholemeal flour, milk, sugar, and a little cinnamon, cloves, lemon juice, vanilla, or other flavouring. Yorkshire puddings, Norfolk dumplings, batter puddings, and such puddings can all be made with wholemeal flour, and are more nourishing and healthy, and do not lie so heavy as those made from white flour. Pancakes can be made from wholemeal flour just as well as from white.
All kinds of pastry, pie-crusts, under crusts, &c., are best made from Allinson wholemeal, and if much b.u.t.ter, lard, or dripping is used they will lie just as heavy, and cause heartburn just as much as those made with white flour. There is a subst.i.tute for pie-crusts that is very tasty, and not at all harmful. We call it "batter," and it can be used for savoury dishes as well as sweet ones.
SAVOURY DISHES MADE WITH BATTER.
Fry some potatoes, then some onions, put them in layers in a pie-dish; next make a batter of Allinson wholemeal flour, 1 or 2 eggs, milk, and a little pepper with salt; pour over the fried vegetables as they lie in the dish, bake in the oven from 1/2 an hour to 1 hour, until, in fact, the batter has formed a crust; eat with the usual vegetables. Or chop fine cold vegetables of any kind, fry onions and add to them, put in a pie-dish, pour some of the batter as above over them, and bake.
All kinds of cold vegetables, cold soup, porridge, &c., can go into this, and tinned or fresh tomatoes will make it more savoury. Tomatoes may be wiped, put in a pie-dish, batter poured over, and then baked, and are very tasty this way. b.u.t.ter adds to the flavour of these dishes, but does not make them more wholesome or more nourishing.
STEWED FRUIT PUDDING.
Cut Allinson wholemeal bread into slices a little over a 1/4 of an inch thick, line a pie-dish with these, having first cut off the hard crusts. Then fill the dish with hot stewed fruit of any kind, and at once cover it with a layer of bread, gently pressed on the hot fruit.
Turn out when cold on to a flat dish, pour over it a white sauce, and serve.
SUBSTANTIAL BREAD PUDDINGS.
Soak crusts or slices of Allinson bread in hot water, then break fine in a pie-dish, add to this soaked currants, raisins, chopped nuts or almonds, a beaten-up egg, and milk, with sugar and spice, and bake in the oven. Or tie the whole up in a pudding-cloth and boil. Serve with white sauce or eat with stewed fresh fruit. These puddings can be eaten hot or cold; labourers can take them to their work for dinner, and their children cannot have a better meal to take to school.
SWEET BATTER.
Mix Allinson wholemeal flour, milk, 1 or 2 eggs together, and a little sugar and cinnamon, and it is ready for use. Stew ripe cherries, gooseberries, currants, raspberries, plums, damsons, or other ripe fruit in a jar, pour into a pie-dish; pour into the batter named above, bake, and this is a good subst.i.tute for a fruit pie. Prunes can be treated the same way, or the batter can be cooked in the saucepan, poured into a mould, allowed to go cold and set; then it forms wholemeal blancmange, and may be eaten with stewed fresh fruit. Rusks, cheesecakes, buns, biscuits, and other like articles as Madeira cake, pound cake, wedding cake, &c., can all be made of wholemeal flour.
WHOLEMEAL SOUP.
Chop fine any kinds of greens or vegetables, stew in a little water until thoroughly done, then add plenty of hot water, with pepper and salt to taste, and a 1/4 of an hour before serving, pour in a cupful of the "Sweet Batter," and you get a thick, nourishing soup. To make it more savoury, fry your vegetables before making into soup.
_A MONTH"S MENUS FOR ONE PERSON_.
No. 1.
CAULIFLOWER SOUP.
1/2 small cauliflower, 1/2 pint milk and water, small piece of b.u.t.ter, 1 teaspoonful of fine wholemeal, pepper and salt to taste. Wash and cut up the cauliflower, cook till tender with the milk and water, add b.u.t.ter and seasoning; smooth the meal with a little water, thicken the soup with it, boil up for a minute and serve.
WHOLEMEAL BATTER.
2 oz. wholemeal, 1 gill of milk, 1 egg, seasoning to taste. Make a batter of the ingredients, b.u.t.ter a flat tin or a small pie-dish, turn the batter into it, and bake it from 20 to 30 minutes. Eat with vegetables.
BLANCMANGE.
1 even dessertspoonful of wheatmeal, 1 ditto cornflour, 1/4 pint milk, sugar and vanilla to taste. Smooth the meal and cornflour with a little of the milk, bring the rest to the boil, stir in the mixture, add flavouring, let it all simmer for 5 to 8 minutes, stirring all the time. Pour into a wetted mould, and turn out when cold.
No. 2.
ARTICHOKE SOUP.
1/4 lb. artichokes, 1/4 lb. potatoes, 3/4 pint milk and water (equal parts), 1/4 oz. b.u.t.ter, pepper and salt to taste. Peel, wash, and cut up small the vegetables, and cook them in the milk and water, until tender. Rub them through a sieve, return to saucepan, add b.u.t.ter and seasoning, boil up and serve.
FLAGOLETS.
3 oz. of flagolets, 1/4 pint parsley sauce. Cook the flagolets till tender, season with pepper and salt, and serve with the sauce. Make it as follows; 1 gill of milk, 1 teaspoonful of cornflour, 1 teaspoonful of finely chopped parsley, pepper and salt, and a small bit of b.u.t.ter.
Boil up the milk, thicken with the cornflour, previously smoothed with a spoonful of water; boil up, season, and mix with the parsley before serving.
WHEATMEAL PUDDING.
2 oz. of fine wheatmeal, 1 egg, 1/2 gill of milk, 1 tablespoonful sultanas washed and picked, 1/2 oz. of oiled b.u.t.ter, a little grated lemon peel, sugar to taste. Beat up the egg and mix well all ingredients; b.u.t.ter a small pie-dish, and bake the pudding about 1/2 hour.
No. 3.
CARROT SOUP.
1 carrot, 1 potato, and 1 small onion cut up small, 1 pint of water, a little b.u.t.ter, and pepper and salt to taste. Cook the vegetables in the water till quite tender, rub them through a sieve, adding a little water if necessary; return to saucepan, add seasoning and b.u.t.ter, boil up and serve.
LENTIL CAKES.
2 oz. of picked and washed Egyptian lentils, 1 small finely chopped and fried onion, 1 dessertspoonful of cold boiled vermicelli, 1 egg, some breadcrumbs, seasoning to taste. Stew the lentils with the onion in just enough water to cover them; when cooked, they should be a thick puree. Season to taste, add the vermicelli, and form into 1 or 2 cakes, dip in egg and breadcrumb, and fry in vege-b.u.t.ter, or b.u.t.ter.
Serve with potatoes and green vegetables.
TAPIOCA PUDDING.
1 oz. small tapioca, 1/2 pint of milk, sugar to taste. Put the tapioca into a small pie-dish, let it soak in a very little water for half an hour, pour off any which has not been absorbed. Pour the milk over the soaked tapioca, and bake it in the oven until thoroughly cooked. Eat with or without stewed fruit.
No. 4.