MRS. C. S. PEEL’S
COOK-BOOKS
DISHES MADE WITHOUT
MEAT
BOOKS BY MRS. C. S. PEEL IN CONSTABLE’S HOME SERIES
The Simplified Series of Cook-Books.
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_Crown 8vo._ Price 3_s._ 6_d._
MRS. C. S. PEEL’S COOK-BOOKS
DISHES MADE
WITHOUT MEAT
BY
MRS. C. S. PEEL
_Author of “10/- a Head for House Books,” “The Single-handed
Cook,” “How to Keep House”
and “The New Home”_
LONDON
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO LTD.
1907
NOTE
Fish dishes are not treated of in this book, as they will be found in
the Volume of the series--entitled _Fish and How to Cook it_. Also, as
these little cook-books are intended primarily for households where
both time and money must be economized, the recipes are neither over
elaborate nor over expensive.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
VEGETABLE DISHES 7
CHAPTER II
VEGETABLE DISHES (_continued_) 24
CHAPTER III
HOW TO COOK CORN, HARICOTS AND LENTILS, AND
TO MAKE MAIGRE SOUFFLÉS 41
CHAPTER IV
DISHES MADE WITH MACARONI AND SPAGHETTI 52
CHAPTER V
DISHES MADE WITH RICE 59
CHAPTER VI
CHEESE DISHES 65
CHAPTER VII
OMELETTES AND CURRIES 73
CHAPTER VIII
SALADS 79
CHAPTER I
VEGETABLE DISHES
There is undoubtedly a great and growing liking for _maigre_ dishes,
not only amongst those people who eat them from religious motives, but
amongst the general public. Nowadays at most of the smart restaurants
vegetable and cereal dishes are a feature of almost every meal, and at
private houses no luncheon and few dinner menus are considered complete
unless a vegetable or cereal dish is included.
But apart from fashion the value of these dishes is great; they are
good for the health and good for the pocket of the housekeeper,
provided they are ordered with discretion.
In the country, where vegetables are plentiful and money is not, I have
often noticed that sufficient use is not made of vegetables, while
where fresh green food is a luxury its place is not taken--as it should
be--by such food stuffs as rice, macaroni, haricot beans and corn.
As the housekeeper whose weekly income is limited knows only too well,
there often comes a day when the supply of meat falls short. Then
comes the question, can it be eked out in a presentable manner or
must more be bought and the desired cost exceeded. Now the woman who
caters carefully will realize how such inexpensive materials as rice or
macaroni, potatoes or cabbage may be pressed into service.
For example, the only available meat dish for luncheon is a hot pot of
mutton and the party is suddenly augmented. Add to the menu a dish of
macaroni au jus, or a rissole or corn curry, and supplement the homely
pudding with a little cheese savoury, and what more can any one desire?
Then if the meat for a veal and ham pie is scarcely sufficient add a
liberal quantity of partly cooked macaroni cut into short lengths,
while should the quantity of minced mutton available seem sadly little,
add an ample border of savoury rice or an extra dish of potato and
cheese balls. If rissoles are required add to them by means of mashed
potato or rice.
Then never allow small quantities of cooked vegetables left over from
lunch or dinner to be thrown away. Place them on clean plates in the
larder; they will prove useful additions to the next day’s bill of fare.
For example, you have two or three young carrots, a cupful of peas,
even a smaller quantity of broad beans. Slice the carrots and arrange
all three vegetables in china shells, mask with mayonnaise sauce,
sprinkle with coralline pepper, and serve with cold meat, or reheat
them by steaming, place them in a hot fireproof dish, cover with
boiling hot maître d’hôtel sauce, and garnish with rolls of bacon, and
serve as a luncheon dish; or add a little onion and use for a vegetable
curry, and serve surrounded by well-boiled rice; or reheat, mix with
parsley and butter sauce, cover with mashed potato, score the top and
brown in the oven, and serve for luncheon in the guise of vegetable pie.
If some new potatoes are left over, slice, fry, and serve with or
without bacon for breakfast; while should you have some old boiled
potatoes to use up they may be mashed and employed in half a score of
ways; incorporated with cabbage, pepper, salt, and a little butter,
formed into cakes, and fried to serve with bacon, grilled chicken or
ham, for instance.
Thus the clever housekeeper economizes and yet does not allow her
economies to be apparent.
Before passing on to the recipes which are the _raison d’être_ of this
little volume, I would say a word on the treatment of vegetables.
It is the habit of gardeners to pick fruit, vegetables, etc., in the
morning, and to bring in the day’s supply at about eleven o’clock, and
on Saturday to provide sufficient for two days’ consumption. Except
in the case of strawberries (which should be gathered, if possible,
on the day on which they are to be eaten) and asparagus (which is
infinitely better when cut just before the time for cooking), there is
no objection to this plan, provided the garden produce is stored in the
best manner. Carrots and turnips, leeks and onions should be placed
in wire racks; and lettuces should be arranged root-end downmost in a
shallow pan of fresh water. Cabbages and cauliflower may be treated
likewise. Parsley should be placed in water as if it were a flower--not
soused head over heels in that liquid. Whether the stalk-end of a
cucumber should be placed in water, or whether the vegetable should
be left dry in a cool, airy place, is a moot point. I do not feel
competent to say which course should be followed, but my cook, who
is clever at cooking vegetables, opines that cucumbers should not be
placed in water; and, in any case, that they should not be kept long
when cut.
Mustard-and-cress should be arranged in a shallow pan of water.
Peas and broad beans should not be shelled unnecessarily long before
eating, and if it is necessary to keep them they should be placed in a
wire rack in a cool, well-ventilated place.
All vegetables should be eaten while young, or they lose considerably
in flavour. When French or runner beans are quite young it is better
merely to remove the strings and to cook them whole; but when old age
approaches they are more palatable when sliced.
To Boil Vegetables
When boiling vegetables remember that all fresh vegetables should
be plunged into boiling salted water, the proportions being 1
tablespoonful of salt to 1 gallon of water.
Dried vegetables should be placed in lukewarm water.
A piece of sugar put into the water in which green vegetables are
cooked helps to bring out the flavour.
Leave the cover off the pan in which vegetables are cooked, or, at all
events, leave it half off, so that the steam can escape easily.
Do not allow vegetables to stay in the water in which they are boiled,
but drain them at once, pressing out all the water possible.
Green vegetables take on an average about 20 minutes to cook, though 10
minutes is often long enough for young peas, while cabbages sometimes
take nearly an hour.
The best way of cooking peas is as follows:--Shell a pint of peas and
place them in a jar with a closely-fitting lid, put in with them a
saltspoonful of salt, a tablespoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of
powdered white sugar, a sprig of mint and a shake of black pepper.
Cover the jar closely and place it in a saucepan of boiling water. Boil
briskly, until done, which should be in ½ an hour to ¾ of an hour.
Peas with Béchamel Sauce (Hot)
Cook the peas as in the preceding recipe, and just before serving pour
over them a small quantity of Béchamel sauce.
Petit Pois au Beurre (Hot)
_Peas with Butter_
Having cooked the peas either by the method described above or having
boiled them in the ordinary way, drain off the water and shake the peas
to dry them well, return them to the hot dry pan they were cooked in,
and at the last moment before serving throw in a pat of butter, let
this just melt, and serve.
French Beans
_À la Crême de Fromage_ (_Hot_)
Cook the beans in the usual way by throwing them in boiling salted
water in which a teaspoonful of sugar has been placed. If young, cook
them whole, only removing the spines and pointed end, or if stock can
be used, place them in a pan which has been buttered, sprinkle them
with salt, and just cover them with stock. When tender place them on a
hot dish, make a white sauce with ½ oz. of butter and ½ oz. of flour
mixed with ½ pint of the stock in which the beans have been cooked, add
a good pinch of salt and stir well, adding one well-beaten egg and two
tablespoonsful of finely-grated cheese. Do not let the sauce boil after
the egg has been added or it will curdle. Pour round the beans and
serve.
French beans can also be served with Béchamel sauce or quite plainly
with a small quantity of butter melted and run over them, with a shake
of pepper and salt, or again with a plain melted butter sauce.
Flageolets
Flageolets are the beans of the kidney bean, French bean, etc., and
when shelled and cooked in various ways are excellent eating. They
should be boiled in the same way as peas, simply omitting the sprig of
mint, and can be served in various ways.
Flageolets au Beurre (Hot)
Having boiled and drained the beans, place a pat of butter in the
saucepan just before serving.
Flageolets au Maître d’Hôtel (Hot)
Make a butter by mixing 1 oz. of butter, the juice of ½ a lemon, a
teaspoonful of chopped parsley, a pinch of salt and pepper, mix well
and form into a pat. When the beans are cooked and drained, place this
with them, shake and serve.
Flageolets à la Crême de Fromage (Hot)
(_With Cheese Sauce_)
Follow the directions for French beans, substituting flageolets, and
boiling in the ordinary way.
Cabbage with Cheese Sauce (Hot)
Boil a cabbage, cut it in 8 pieces, then place it in 1 pint of cheese
sauce, make it thoroughly hot, and serve with the sauce poured over it.
Cabbage à la Crême (Hot)
Drain a boiled cabbage, cut it up small, put it into a saucepan with
1 oz. of butter, 1 gill of cream, and a seasoning of pepper and salt,
stir it all together over the fire till thoroughly hot, then turn it
out on to a hot dish, and serve with fried croûtons.
Brussels-Sprouts
can be served in various ways. For au beurre after boiling, drain well,
taking great care to squeeze every drop of water possible from the
sprouts, return to the pan and toss in butter, and dust with pepper and
salt.
Brussels-Sprouts à la Maître d’Hôtel (Hot)
Follow the above recipe, substituting maître d’hôtel butter for
ordinary butter.
Brussels-Sprouts au Jus (Hot) with Stock
Blanch the sprouts, by dipping them in boiling water and letting them
remain in it for a few minutes. Remove them and drain well, placing
them in a pan with just enough stock to cover them. Simmer until
tender, drain and serve.
Boiled Nettles (Hot)
Choose very young nettles, and wash them well in two or three waters;
chop them up very fine, and put them into a stewpan with a little
water, and steam until quite tender. Meanwhile toast as many slices of
bread as required, trim these neatly, lay them on a hot dish, drain the
nettles well, serve on the hot toast, dusted with pepper and salt, and
serve with a beurre fondue sauce, made as follows:--Put 2 oz. of butter
into a clean saucepan with ½ a teaspoonful of salt, and half as much
pepper, and 1 dessertspoonful of lemon juice; stir these all together
over the fire until half melted, take it off the fire and continue
stirring until the butter is all dissolved.
Stewed Nettles (Hot)
Wash the shoots and young leaves of nettles very thoroughly in slightly
salted water, dry well and mince very finely. Put this into a stewpan
with 1 tablespoonful of finely-chopped onion, a suspicion of brown
sugar, season with pepper and salt to taste, pour in a little stock or
water, and stew gently at the side of the fire until quite tender; then
mix together 1 oz. of butter and 1 teaspoonful of salt, till perfectly
smooth, add this to the nettles, with ½ a tablespoonful of thick cream
or new milk, stir it all well together till quite hot, and serve on
slices of hot toast. If liked, the onion may be omitted, when the
nettles are treated exactly like spinach.
Purée of Watercress (Hot)
Wash some watercress well, getting rid of all faded or discoloured
parts, then put it on in plenty of boiling salted water, and boil it
till almost cooked; lift it out, and drain on a sieve or colander to
get rid of as much water as possible. Meanwhile melt about 1½oz. of
butter in a pan, put the watercress on in this, sprinkle it lightly
with flour, and stir it all together over the fire for about 10
minutes, then add about 2 gills of good stock, season with pepper
and salt; cook it for 10 minutes longer, stirring it continuously,
rub it through a sieve and serve very hot, garnished with quartered
hard-boiled eggs, and fried croûtons.
Stewed Lettuce
Treat exactly as in the previous recipe.
Purée of Turnip Tops
Proceed as for watercress or lettuce.
Cauliflower with Tomato Sauce (Hot)
Clean and soak the cauliflower in salt and water for 1 hour, then
plunge it into boiling water, returning it again to cold water. After
this put it in a pan of boiling water slightly salted (½ oz. of salt to
1 gallon of water) and boil it until tender, 20 to 25 minutes. In the
meantime make ½ pint of tomato purée by the following recipe, and when
the cauliflower is cooked place it on a hot dish, pour the purée over
it, sift some finely-grated brown crumbs over it and serve.
Tomato Purée
Six smallish tomatoes. Cut them into slices and place them in an
enamelled saucepan, add 1 oz. of butter, a teaspoonful of chopped
parsley, salt, pepper, and a tiny pinch of cayenne. Pour over one pint
of stock. Boil until quite soft, and then pass through a sieve, add
1 oz. of anchovy essence, thicken with ½ oz. of butter and ½ oz. of
flour previously mixed together in another pan with some of the tomato
mixture. Stir over the fire until the sauce thickens, and it is then
ready for use.
Cauliflower Fritters (Hot)
Break a cooked cauliflower up into neat pieces, dip these in frying
batter till well covered, and fry in boiling fat. Drain them well,
sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and coralline pepper. Serve at
once on a napkin.
This is an excellent way of serving cauliflower which has been left
over.
Cauliflower au Gratin
Boil the cauliflower as before, place it in a fireproof dish, pour over
it an ample quantity of cheese sauce, sprinkle with grated cheese and
brown crumbs and bake until slightly brown on the top. For cheese sauce
see the recipe for French beans à la crême de fromage (page 12).
Cauliflower with Soubise Sauce
Boil the cauliflower, place in a fireproof dish. Cover with delicate
onion sauce (Soubise sauce, p. 47), sprinkle with brown crumbs and make
very hot in the oven.
Spinach Patties (Hot)
Take 1 lb. of spinach leaves, pick and wash them well, and after this
blanch them by plunging them for 5 or 6 minutes in boiling water, drain
them and place them in cold water, remove, press, and strain, to get
rid of as much moisture as possible. Chop them up, place in a stewpan a
pinch of salt and sugar, ½ oz. of butter and ¼ oz. of flour, and after
stirring this for a few minutes add the spinach. Stir for 5 minutes
then add ¼ pint of milk, stir for a few minutes longer, and then add
½ pint of milk, stirring steadily until the liquid is almost dried
up. Remove from the pan and pass through a sieve, then return to the
fire and add a small pat of butter and keep very hot. Have ready the
required number of pastry patty cases. Quickly make some buttered egg,
place some of the spinach in each case, with a spoonful of buttered egg
on the top, and serve at once very hot.
Spinach and Tomatoes (Hot)
Prepare the spinach as in the preceding recipe. Bake six small
tomatoes carefully in the oven with a piece of butter on each. When
ready arrange the spinach in a dish in the form of a border, place the
tomatoes in the centre and serve.
Épinards (Spinach) à la Crême (Hot)
Wash the spinach in six or seven waters, so as to prevent its being
gritty; put it in a saucepan on the fire, with a very little water and
salt; when done strain very dry and chop it up very fine. Warm 2 oz. of
butter in a stewpan, put the spinach in, stir till the moisture quite
evaporates, then add a very little salt, a tiny pinch of sugar (a very
little nutmeg, if liked), a pinch of flour, and 1 large tablespoonful
of cream, and let the whole simmer for a quarter of an hour. Then put
through a sieve and keep hot. In the meantime, fry in fat some bread
cut into fingers, about 2½ in. long and ½ in. square, and plant them in
little rows all over the spinach when dished.
Spinach cooked thus is delicious and a very different matter from the
stringy green mass generally served.
Turnip Tops à la Crême
Cook as in the previous recipe for spinach.
Almost any greens, including cabbage and Brussels-sprouts, are
excellent when served thus.
Asparagus.
Asparagus is really almost at its best served plain boiled with oiled
butter; but when it first comes in, the big kind, which is best for
boiling, is rather expensive, and few people seem to know how good the
more “grasslike” kind is if treated properly.
Boiled Asparagus (Hot)
Although every one will at once say they know how asparagus should be
boiled, yet it is a melancholy fact that it is not by any means an
invariable rule to find this vegetable properly treated. If, however,
the following directions are carried out the result is certainly worth
the little extra trouble. Cut the stalks of a bundle of fresh asparagus
evenly and tie them up into a bunch, put them upright into a pan just
large enough to hold them comfortably and with boiling water to within
about 3 in. of the tops. Keep them on the fire for from 30 to 40
minutes, then lift them out, drain well, remove the string, and dish
them on a neatly folded napkin or square of toast. Treated in this way,
the heads are not so apt to come off, and the stalks, instead of being
tough, are quite tender and eatable. Excellent asparagus cookers are
now made, but if one of these is not to hand its lack will not be felt
if the instructions already given are observed. Asparagus should be
served with
Plain Oiled Butter, or Beurre Fondu,
which is made as follows:--Put 2 oz. of fresh butter into a pan with 1
saltspoonful of salt, ½ a saltspoonful of pepper, and ½ a tablespoonful
of lemon juice; stir this over the fire with a clean wooden spoon till
the butter has rather more than half melted; then lift it off the fire,
and continue the stirring until the butter is entirely melted, when
it will have a creamy taste, quite different from the ordinary oiled
butter.
Asparagus au Jus (Hot)
Cut the young, green, small asparagus diagonally into equal lengths
(like French beans), and toss these lightly in bacon fat; when slightly
crisped, season with white pepper, salt, minced parsley, and chervil,
and add a little stock; simmer gently till cooked. Now add a spoonful
or so of good beef or mutton gravy, and serve. The great secret of this
dish is only to put in enough stock in the first instance to cook the
asparagus, for it should all be absorbed by the time you add the gravy.
Asparagus Sprue à la Pompadour (Hot)
Steam the sprue, or small asparagus, in boiling salted water (_see_
p. 21), cut into lengths as above, and let them dry in a well-heated
napkin, in a warm place, to keep hot. Meanwhile stir together some
fresh butter, the yolk of 1 or more eggs, a spoonful of vinegar, a dust
of salt, and some freshly-ground black pepper; stand the pan containing
this in another pan half-full of boiling water, and stir it over the
fire till thoroughly blended. Place the asparagus in the dish, pour the
sauce over it, and serve.
Iced Asparagus
For this the large asparagus is required. When cooked lay on ice
or keep in an ice cave. Serve in an entrée dish and hand very cold
mayonnaise sauce.