ROAST SWEET POTATOES WITH MEAT
Pare, cut lengthwise, salt and put them around roast meats or poultry of any kind. Roast about three-quarters of an hour, or until brown.
SWEET POTATOES AND APPLES
Wash and pare long sweet potatoes. Cook in boiling salted water until almost soft; drain and cut slices crosswise, two inches high. Core, pare and cut apples in one-half inch rounds. Into a spider, place the potatoes upright, with a slice of apple on top of each. Pour over one-half cup of maple syrup, one-fourth cup of water and two tablespoons of b.u.t.ter. Baste frequently until apples are soft. Then pour one teaspoon of rum over each section, place a candied cherry in the center of each apple and bake ten minutes. Remove to platter and if desired, pour more rum over and around. Light the liquor and bring to the table burning.
CANDIED SWEET POTATOES
Boil sweet potatoes, peel and cut into long slices; place in an earthen dish; place lumps of b.u.t.ter or chicken-fat if desired on each side, and sprinkle with sugar. A little water or juice of half a lemon may be added. Bake until the sugar and fat have candied and the potatoes are brown.
DRIED BEANS
Look the beans over carefully to remove all dirt and pebbles, then wash clean. Soak them overnight in plenty of cold water. In the morning pour off the water and put them in a stew-pan with cold water enough to cover them generously. Let them come to the boiling point in this water, then drain. If the beans are old and hard, for each quart put a piece of soda about the size of a large bean in the water in which they are soaked overnight, also in the first water in which they are boiled.
The scalded and drained beans should be put back in the stew-pan and covered generously with boiling water. Add one tablespoon of salt for one quart of beans. They should now cook slowly, with the cover partially off the stew-pan until they have reached the required degree of tenderness. For stewed and baked beans the cooking must stop when the skins begin to crack. For beans served with a sauce they should cook until perfectly tender, but they must not be broken or mushy. For purees and soups they should be cooked until very soft.
SWEET SOUR BEANS AND LINZEN
Soak overnight and drain the beans, boil in salted water until tender; drain and prepare by adding salt and pepper to taste, thicken with one tablespoon of drippings in which has been browned one tablespoon of flour and some soup stock. If the beans are to be made sweet sour add two tablespoons of vinegar and two tablespoons of brown sugar; boil for a few minutes and serve.
BAKED BEANS WITH BRISKET OF BEEF
Wash, pick over and soak overnight in cold water, two cups of navy beans. In the morning, drain and cover with fresh water, heat slowly and let cook just below the boiling point until the skins burst. When done, drain beans and put in a pot with one and one-half pounds of brisket of beef. Mix one-half tablespoon of mustard; one teaspoon of salt, one tablespoon of mola.s.ses, two tablespoons of sugar, one-half cup of boiling water and pour over beans, and add enough more boiling water to cover them. Cover pot and bake slowly six or eight hours.
HARICOT BEANS AND BEEF
Wash two cups of haricot beans and leave them covered with two pints of water overnight. Next day brown one coa.r.s.ely chopped onion in a little fat and put it with the beans and their water into a ca.s.serole or stew-jar.
Cook closely covered and rather slowly in the oven or by the side of the fire one hour, then put in a pound of beef in fairly large pieces.
An hour later add one carrot cut into dice, half as many dice of turnip, and salt and pepper to taste. Continue the slow cooking until these vegetables are tender, and a few minutes before serving thicken the stew with pea meal or flour previously baked to a fawn color. Flavor with vinegar.
Owing to its concentrated nutriment this stew should be served sparingly with an abundance of potatoes and green vegetables.
BEANS AND BARLEY
Soak one-half cup of navy beans in cold water overnight. Drain and cook in one quart boiling water with one teaspoon of salt until tender but not broken, add one-half cup of barley and let cook slowly until barley is tender, about one-half hour. Add fat soup stock as the water evaporates. Season to taste and bake in medium oven about one-half hour or until dry but not browned.
DRIED LIMA BEANS, BAKED
Wash one pound of dried Lima beans, let soak overnight. Drain, add fresh water, bring quickly to the boiling point, then let simmer until tender. Add salt and paprika. Heat two tablespoons of poultry or beef fat in a spider, add two tablespoons of flour, when brown add one cup of bean liquid, and the beans. Let simmer and bake in ca.s.serole one-half hour. Reserve the bean broth and add more if necessary.
FARSOLE
Soak the large, very hard Lima beans overnight. To a pound of beans take two large onions. When the beans are soft add the onions browned in fat, salt, pepper, a tablespoon of sugar, a quarter cup of rice, and let all simmer until the rice is done.
FARSOLE DULCE
Soak dried Lima beans in cold water overnight. Drain, put on with very little water, add one tablespoon of fat, peel of lemon or orange. When beans are half done, add a tablespoon of sugar which has been browned in a pan, stew slowly until the beans are tender.
SLAITTA (ROUMANIAN)
Soak one pound medium-sized white beans overnight. Put on to boil in cold water, when soft, mash, adding a little warm water while mashing.
Add salt and mashed garlic to beans and one or two teaspoons of sugar.
To a pound of beans take a pound of onions. Brown the onions in oil and add water so they do not become too brown or greasy. When beans are tender serve on platter with browned onions poured over them. May be served either hot or cold. This dish is served with Carnatzlich. (See Meats.)
BAKED LENTILS (LINZEN)
Pick and wash one-half pound of lentils and soak them in cold water overnight. In the morning put them over the fire in a large saucepan with about a quart of water. As soon as the water begins to boil, the lentils will rise to the top. Remove them with a skimmer, put them in a baking dish with one small onion and three or four ounces of smoked fat meat in the centre, and pour over them a pint of boiling water, in which one-half teaspoon of salt and one-quarter teaspoon of pepper have been mixed. Bake in a moderate oven four or five hours. The lentils must be kept moist and it may be necessary to add a little water from time to time.
MEAT SUBSt.i.tUTES
The following recipes contain as much nourishment as any meat dish and can readily be subst.i.tuted for meat at a meal.
LENTIL SAUSAGES
For each person soak one tablespoon of lentils overnight. Then drain and leave them spread on a dish for a day.
When ready to use, chop them finely and cook gently in a covered jar in an outer vessel of water for about one hour, adding from time to time just as much water as they will absorb.
When fully cooked, stir in about twice their bulk in bread crumbs (preferably whole wheat), a slight flavoring of very finely chopped onion, powdered mixed herbs and nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste, and drippings to make the whole fairly moist.
When cool, shape into sausages (or cutlets or round cakes for luncheon), coat them with egg and bread crumbs or seasoned flour, and brown them in a little fat in a frying-pan or in a fairly hot oven.
Gravy or diluted meat extract should be served with them. They are no less good when fried overnight and reheated in the gravy.
MOCK CHILE CON CARNE
Pick over and wash two cups of kidney beans, soak in one quart of water.
Next morning bring to a boil in fresh water, drain, cover beans with boiling water and cook until tender. Half an hour before beans are to be served, put one tablespoon of b.u.t.ter in a saucepan, chop and add four green, peppers, one small red pepper, one onion, one pint of tomatoes, one teaspoon of salt, cook fifteen minutes, add to beans with three tablespoons of uncooked rice, simmer until thick.