STEWED SQUASH
Peel squash, cut in quarters, put on to boil in cold water, and cook until tender. Drain, mash fine and smooth, add one-half cup of milk or cream, one tablespoon of b.u.t.ter, pinch of salt and pepper and put back on stove to keep hot. Beat well with a spoon to make light and smooth.
PARSNIPS
First sc.r.a.pe parsnips, then boil in weak salt water until tender; drain, and put in white sauce. Oyster plant may be prepared same way.
SPINACH
Spinach with large leaves is best. It is richest in mineral matter and is less liable to conceal insects that are difficult to dislodge. Buy the crisp, green spinach that has no withered leaves or stalks. That is the freshest and healthiest.
Cut off the roots and pick it over carefully, cutting off all the withered leaves and stems, put the leaves in cold salt water to soak for half an hour. That refreshens them, and makes any minute insects crawl out and come to the surface. Shake the leaves about and turn them over several times, drop them in a large pan of water; rinse well; lift them out separately and drop back into a second pan of water. Continue washing in fresh water until there is not a grain of sand to be found in the bottom of the pan.
In cooking be careful not to put too much water in the pot. That is the trouble with most spinach. It is drowned in water; a cup is plenty for one quart of spinach. Let the water come to a boil. Then lift the spinach out of the pan with the cold water dripping from it and put it into the pot, into the boiling water. Put the lid on the pot. Turn the fire a little low and let it cook slowly for fifteen minutes, stirring every now and then to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Just before taking up the spinach put some salt in it; then drain off the water and put a big tablespoon of b.u.t.ter and one-quarter teaspoon of pepper in it. Take it out of the pot and place it in a long, flat dish.
Slice some hard-boiled eggs and place the slices all around the spinach for a kind of border.
SPINACH WITH CREAM SAUCE
Cook as directed, drain through colander, and grind through machine, make a rich cream sauce. Stir spinach in this sauce, add pepper, salt, nutmeg to taste, and garnish with slices of hard-boiled egg.
SPINACH--FLEISCHIG
Boil a quart of spinach about fifteen minutes, drain thoroughly through a colander and chop extremely fine. Heat one tablespoon of drippings in a saucepan, rub one tablespoon of flour in it, add salt, pepper and ginger to taste. Add one cup of soup stock to the whole or some beef gravy. Put the spinach in the sauce, let boil for five minutes. Garnish with hard-boiled eggs or use only the hard-boiled whites for decoration, rub the yolks to a powder and mix through the spinach.
SAVOY CABBAGE
Cut off the faded outside leaves and hard part of the stalk, and wash the vegetable well. Cook in boiling salted water. Drain, chop very fine and proceed as with spinach in the foregoing recipe.
BRUSSELS SPROUTS
Remove any wilted leaves from the outside of the sprouts, and let them stand in cold salted water from fifteen to twenty minutes. Put the sprouts into salted, rapidly boiling water and cook, uncovered, fifteen or twenty minutes or until tender, but not until they lose their shape.
Drain them thoroughly in a colander; then place them in a saucepan with b.u.t.ter, pepper and salt, and toss them until seasoned; or mix them lightly with just enough white sauce to coat them.
OYSTER PLANT--SALSIFY
Wash, sc.r.a.pe and put at once in cold water with a little vinegar to keep from discoloring. Cut one-half inch slices and cook in boiling, salted water until soft. Drain and serve in white sauce. Or boil in salted, boiling water until tender and cut in four pieces lengthwise, dredge with flour and sprinkle with a little salt and fry in hot b.u.t.ter or fat until nicely browned.
SCALLOPED SALSIFY
Boil and slice the salsify as in preceding recipe. b.u.t.ter a baking dish; fill it by adding alternate layers of salsify and small bits of cheese.
Season with salt, pepper and b.u.t.ter. Pour over it a sufficient quant.i.ty of milk or cream to moisten thoroughly. Bake one-half hour. Bread crumbs may be added if desired.
PLUMS, SWEET POTATOES AND MEAT
Wash one pound of prunes or plums and put on to boil with one pound of brisket of beef or any fat meat; when the meat is tender add five medium-sized sweet potatoes which have been pared and cut in small pieces. Place the meat on top, add one-half cup of sugar and a piece of sour salt (citric acid). Cover and bake until nicely browned. If gravy should cook away add some warm water.
TSIMESS
Take equal portions of parboiled spinach and sorrel, season to taste with ground nutmeg, pepper and salt, and add sufficient drippings to make all moist enough. Place in a covered dish in a slow oven.
This is prepared on Friday and left in the oven to keep hot until needed for Shabbas dinner. All green vegetables may be prepared in the same way.
TURNIPS
Do not spoil turnips by overcooking. The flat white summer turnip when sliced will cook in thirty minutes. The winter turnip requires from forty-five to sixty minutes.
BOILED TURNIPS
Have the turnips peeled and sliced. Drop the slices into a stew-pan with boiling water enough to cover generously. Cook until tender, then drain well. They are now ready to mash or chop. If they are to be served mashed, put them back in the stew-pan; mash with a wooden vegetable masher, as metal is apt to impart an unpleasant taste. Season with salt, b.u.t.ter, and a little pepper. Serve at once.
HASHED TURNIPS
Chop the drained turnips into rather large pieces. Return to the stew-pan, and for one and one-half pints of turnips add one teaspoon of salt, one-fourth teaspoon of pepper, one tablespoon of b.u.t.ter, and four tablespoons of water. Cook over a very hot fire until the turnips have absorbed all the seasonings. Serve at once. Or the salt, pepper, b.u.t.ter, and one tablespoon of flour may be added to the hashed turnips; then the stew-pan may be placed over the hot fire and shaken frequently to toss up the turnips. When the turnips have been cooking five minutes in this manner add one-half pint of meat stock or of milk and cook ten minutes.
When meat or soup stock is used subst.i.tute drippings for the b.u.t.ter in the above recipe.
KOHL-RABI WITH BREAST OF LAMB
Strip off the young leaves and boil in salt water. Then peel the heads thickly, cut into round, thin slices, and lay in cold water for an hour.
Put on to boil a breast of mutton or lamb, which has been previously well salted, and spice with a little ground ginger. When the mutton has boiled one-half hour add the sliced kohl-rabi, and boil covered. In the meantime, drain all the water from the leaves, which you have boiled separately, and chop them, but not too fine, and add them to the mutton.
When done thicken with flour, season with pepper and more salt if needed. You may omit the leaves if you are not fond of them.
KOHL-RABI
Kohl-rabi is fine flavored and delicate, if cooked when very young and tender. It should be used when it has a diameter of not more than two or three inches.
Wash, peel and cut the Kohl-rabi root in dice and cook in salt water until tender. Cook the greens or tops in another pan of boiling water until tender, drain and chop very fine in a wooden bowl. Heat b.u.t.ter or fat, add flour, then the chopped greens, and one cup of liquor the Kohl-rabi root was cooked in or one cup of soup stock. Add the Kohl-rabi, cook altogether, and serve.
Use same quant.i.ties as for turnips.
KALE