=Pumpkins with Cheese.=--Cut twelve young pumpkins about the size of
a small egg into four pieces, and remove the seeds and pulp. Put them
into a saucepan (earthenware for choice), add butter and salt, and cook
over a hot fire, shaking from time to time. Place them in a dish and
sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese. Add a tablespoonful of stock to
some tomato sauce. Pour it over the pumpkins, and serve hot.
=Fried Pumpkin.=--Dip pieces of squash into batter, and fry in deep
fat, or mix two cupfuls of mashed, cooked squash with three well-beaten
eggs, two tablespoonfuls of cream, one tablespoonful of melted butter,
and flour enough to make a smooth batter. Fry by spoonfuls on a griddle
or in a frying pan.
=Pumpkins and Eggs.=--Cut a small young pumpkin into rather thin
slices, and fry in pure olive oil in a fireproof pan. Beat up two or
three eggs, and pour them over the pumpkin. When the eggs are set serve
in the pan.
=Italian Dish of Pumpkins.=--Cut twelve or more young pumpkins, about
the size of an egg, into slices, removing the seeds and the pulp. Place
them in an earthenware baking dish, and add some pure olive oil. Cook
well over a brisk fire; add salt and pepper to taste, and some grated
cheese, and serve hot.
=Pumpkin Croquettes.=--Mix one pint of mashed pumpkin or squash, half a
cupful of bread-crumbs, one tablespoonful of butter, salt and pepper to
season. Heat thoroughly, shape into croquettes, dip in egg and crumbs,
and fry in deep fat.
=Pumpkin Cake.=--Boil, mash and cool two pumpkins, season with salt
and pepper. Add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, two cupfuls
of milk, two eggs well beaten, and enough flour sifted, with one
tablespoonful of baking powder, to make a smooth batter. Fry by
spoonfuls on a small griddle, and serve hot with white sauce.
=Baked Squash or Pumpkins.=--Cut into two-inch pieces, remove the seeds
and strings, put into a baking pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and
bake, basting with molasses and melted butter. Keep covered during
the first half hour. Serve in the shells, or cut in halves and bake,
covered, for two hours, remove from the shell, mash, and season with
salt and pepper.
=Pumpkin Custard.=--Boil and mash a squash, season with salt, pepper
and butter, and add two beaten eggs with half a cupful of milk. Mix
thoroughly, put into a buttered baking dish, and bake in a moderate
oven until puffed and brown; it must not boil, or the custard will
crack and be watery.
=Escalloped Pumpkin.=--Cut crook-neck squashes into slices; peel and
boil in salted water for fifteen minutes; drain and put into a buttered
baking dish in layers, seasoning each layer with sugar, grated nutmeg,
and bits of butter. Pour over half a cupful water and bake for one
hour. Serve in a baking dish.
=Baked Pumpkins.=--Peel, boil and mash, two small squashes. Cool,
add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, two eggs well beaten, half
a cupful of cream or milk, salt and pepper to season. Turn into a
buttered baking dish, sprinkle with crumbs, dot with butter, and bake
for half an hour. Three squashes may be used, if a cupful of milk is
added.
=Stuffed Pumpkins.=--Simmer two small summer squashes for ten minutes
in boiling water to cover. Cut in halves, scrape out the pulp, remove
the seeds, and press dry. Chop an onion finely, and add two cupfuls of
shelled shrimps; fry in lard, with a chopped tomato, a bit of bay leaf
and thyme, parsley and garlic to season. Add a cupful of crumbs, the
squash-pulp, salt and pepper to season, and one egg well beaten. Mix to
a smooth paste, fill the shells, cover with buttered crumbs, and bake
until brown. Lobster may be used instead of the shrimps.
HORSE-RADISH (_Cochlearia Armoracia._ Ord. _Cruciferæ_).
Once in the ground, there is no doubt about having this relish to the
roast beef of old England. Indeed horse-radish is so much of a weed
that, as with Jerusalem artichokes, it had better be grown in some
otherwise waste corner of the garden where it will not interfere with
other crops.
Slips of the roots should be planted in February or March in rows
twenty inches apart, the plants eighteen inches in the row. The ground
should be deeply dug and well manured. The plants will stand through
two seasons without deterioration.