=Boiled Seakale.=--Boil in salted water and vinegar for twenty minutes
to half an hour, drain, and arrange neatly, lengthwise, on a drainer;
pour over a good white sauce, and serve very hot.
_Another Method of boiling Seakale._--Soak for half an hour in cold
water, and cook for twenty-five minutes in boiling water. Drain, press
out the liquid, chop finely, and reheat. Season with salt and pepper,
and pour over good melted butter.
Cooked seakale can also be served as a salad. Cut it into short pieces,
season with salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar, or lemon juice. Mix
carefully. Dish up, garnish to taste, and serve.
=Creamed Seakale.=--Tie some seakale up in bundles, and put them in
boiling salted water; boil till quite tender, about thirty minutes,
drain well, take the string off. Put some slices of toast in a dish,
arrange the seakale on them, and pour over a good Béchamel sauce, made
with a little double cream.
For other ways of cooking seakale, adapt those recipes dealing with
celery and asparagus.
SHALLOT (_Allium Ascalonicum. Liliaceæ_).
Shallots enjoy a rich soil, somewhat similar to that given to onions;
they follow celery well, the old manure and well-broken-up ground being
exactly what they like. They are propagated by division of the offsets.
These cloves, as they are usually called, are planted in rows nine
inches to a foot apart, the cloves four inches asunder in the row. Any
good day in February these may be planted, and they should not be too
deeply buried.
Keep the rows weeded with the Dutch hoe, and when the leaves wilt and
give indications of ripening in July or August, pull the crop, let it
dry for a couple of days, and store the bulbs for use in a dry place.
Shallots may also be raised from seed sown in March.
Shallots have a strong onion flavour, and are largely used for
seasoning, and they make excellent pickle.
SORREL (_Rumex Acetosa. Polygonaceæ_).
Sow seed in spring, and thin out to six inches, or propagate by
division of established plants in March or the beginning of April.
These perennial plants last for several years, and the leaves should
be gathered singly. There are several varieties, and probably
the Broad-leaved French Sorrel is as good as any. Sorrel is not
sufficiently appreciated in this country. A few leaves make an
excellent addition to a spring salad. We find it better to strip the
leaves from the midrib and use the fragments for salads, discarding the
midrib.