For people with good digestion, the lentils may be ground through a
food cutter instead of being put through the colander.
=Chick Peas Roast=
Substitute chick peas for lentils in lentil roast.
=Peas Roast=
1 pt. mashed, dry, split or whole green peas, 1 to 2 eggs or whites of
eggs only, or a little fresh cracker dust. Bake as lentil roast until
firm only. Serve with tomato cream sauce or almond cream, tomato or
celery cream sauce. Peas require no flavoring, but celery or celery
salt may be added, serving with plain cream sauce.
=Sister Boulter’s Red Kidney Bean Loaf=
Cook and crush or grind red kidney beans, add salt and sage, mold.
Serve cold, sliced, with or without oil, or use for sandwiches. A few
crumbs may be added if necessary, the loaf baked, and served hot with
any suitable accompaniment.
=Purées of Legumes=
Add sufficient water, nut or dairy cream or milk to mashed beans, peas
or lentils to make of the consistency of a thick batter. No sauce is
required.
=★ Rich Baked Beans=
Wash beans and get them into boiling salted water, in the bean pot,
as quickly as possible. For each pint of beans use 1¼ to 1¾ teaspn. of
salt. Add plenty of water at first, perhaps three times the quantity of
beans. Put into a hot oven until they begin to boil, then reduce the
temperature to such a degree as will keep them just simmering for from
12 to 24 hours. The old-fashioned New England baked beans were kept in
a brick oven for three days, and each day they were better than the
last.
Do not stir the beans after the skins begin to break. When necessary
to add more water, pour it boiling over the top and let it settle in
gradually. A gentle shaking may be helpful. After they are swollen and
softened they should not have too much water on at a time, nor be baked
too fast; if so, they will be “mushy.”
They are most generally liked slightly juicy when served--not too wet
nor too dry, but just “juicy.” They may be served with the Salad Entrée
dressing, Improved Mayonnaise or French dressing, with oil or lemon
juice or with Chili sauce, but they all spoil that delightful bean
flavor in the rich, thick juice. Beans have a characteristic flavor
which is destroyed by the addition of anything but salt and water.
Molasses, cream, nut butter and tomato are all good in their place, but
that is not in baked beans if we attain to the keenest enjoyment of
the bean flavor. We get the rich red color, without the rank molasses
taste, by prolonged baking. Cream and milk deaden the flavor, and nut
butter and tomato change it.
Those who taste our baked beans for the first time exclaim, “I would
not have believed it,” and it is hard for them to believe that there is
no meat in them.
Bake Red Kidney and other varieties of beans the same as white beans.
For those who think they must have the molasses, use 1 teaspn. molasses
(or 2 teaspns. for a very strong molasses flavor) 2 teaspns. oil and
1½-1¾ teaspn. salt to each pint of beans.
=★ Western Baked Beans=
Boil beans in salted water until the skins are broken. Put into a
pudding dish with plenty of water and bake in a slow oven until dry and
mealy and delicately browned over the top.
=Baked Split Yellow Peas=
1 qt. (1½ lb.) split peas
1-2 tablespns. browned flour
½ cup strained stewed tomato
3-3½ teaspns. salt
Wash peas, put into bean pot, add browned flour, tomato and salt which
have been mixed together, then turn over them two or three times their
quantity of boiling water. Stir well. When boiling, regulate the heat
of the oven so as to keep them gently simmering for from 5 to 7 hours.
Do not stir after they are first put to cooking. They require greater
care than beans to keep them from breaking. However, if they do not
keep their shape they will be of a jelly-like consistency not at all
objectionable. May add 2 large onions sliced fine.
=Baked Split Yellow Peas No. 2=
1 qt. peas
¼ cup roasted nut butter
1 cup tomato
3-3½ teaspns. salt
Rub nut butter smooth with tomato and add with salt and boiling water
to peas. Raw nut butter and browned flour may be substituted for the
roasted nut butter.
=★ Baked Split Green Peas=
Wash peas and put into a baking dish with 1 teaspn. of salt to each
pint of peas and 2 to 2½ times the quantity of water. Cook on top of
the stove until tender (about 1 hour), then put, covered, into a slow
oven and bake until dry and mealy all through, which will not be long
if there was not too much water in them. Peas lose their delicate
flavor and develop a strong taste if cooked too long. If this amount of
water is too great, use a little less. Serve if desired in the dish in
which they were baked, with sauces given for mashed peas. A mint and
celery flavored raw nut butter sauce is nice with them.
When desired very smooth they may be put through a colander. They may
be used in soups and in all dishes where mashed peas are required.
=Baked Lentils--great favorites=
Stew lentils with salt, with or without chopped onion, until nearly
tender.
Add a little cream, turn into a baking dish and finish in the oven.
Serve juicy.
A little thick cream poured over the lentils during the last of the
baking gives a nice crusty finish to the top.
=Stewed Beans=
Put red kidney and other beans with tough skins into boiling unsalted
water and cook until nearly but not quite tender before adding the
salt. Common white, Lima and all beans with tender skins must be put
into boiling salted water at first. After a short time of rapid boiling
let beans just simmer until tender, then add a little heavy cream and
stand back where they will keep hot but will not boil, for a half hour
or longer. A little raw nut butter may be cooked with them sometimes,
or, cocoanut cream may be substituted for dairy cream.
Red kidney and some of the richer varieties may be served with boiled
rice or in a mashed potato border.
=Stewed Split Green Peas=
Cook peas in salted water ¾ to 1 hour, add cream, heat and serve. Two
parts stewed dried or green sweet corn to one of peas, may be added
sometimes.
=Flowering Beans=
which have no equal in flavor, should be put into a large quantity of
cold water, brought to the boiling point, boiled for 10 m., drained and
put to cooking in boiling unsalted water. Add salt when nearly tender.
Try them.
=Stewed Beans in Bean Sauce=
Mash a few of the stewed beans, add cream, or milk and butter with the
water from the beans, more salt if necessary; blend well, pour over
remainder of beans, heat. Serve on toast or as preferred.
=Stewed Lentils--for people with good digestion=
Cook lentils with raw nut butter, onion, garlic, browned flour and
salt, until tender, rich and juicy. Serve without mashing with boiled
rice or with some of the large sizes of macaroni, cooked.
Lentils may be cooked plain with salt and seasoned with cream or butter
at the last.
=Ragout of Chick Peas--especially delicious=
Soak the peas over night. Cook and cook and cook in the water they
were soaked in. When about half done add garlic, onion, a very
little browned flour, tomato and salt. Serve with dressing, rice,
dumplings--steamed or baked, or on toast.
=Cabbage Leaf Rolls of Lentils=
1 cup lentils
1 cup rice
2 tablespns. raw nut butter
onion
sage
salt
1 loose head of cabbage
a little tomato if desired
Boil cabbage leaves in salted water 5-8 m., or sprinkle with salt, pour
boiling water over and let stand 20 m. to ½ hour. Refresh with cold
water, drain.
Cook lentils till beginning to get tender but not until broken, drain
and save water.
Cook rice in salted water until swollen but not soft (about 15 m.),
drain if necessary and save the water. Mix lentils, rice, sage, chopped
onion, raw nut butter and salt smooth with a little of the lentil
water. Put a tablespoonful of this mixture in the center of each
cabbage leaf. Fold the sides of the leaf over and roll into croquette
shape. Pack close in layers in an oiled baking dish. (A flaring granite
pan would do nicely.) Pour the rice water and lentil water over, with
a little tomato if desired, and add enough boiling, slightly salted
water to cover. Press a plate over the rolls, cover and bake ¾ to 1
hour in a moderate oven.
Drain, save liquid, remove plate, invert dish on to chop tray, leaving
rolls in a mound. Thicken liquid slightly and turn over rolls or serve
separately. Garnish mound.
Dairy butter may be used in place of raw nut butter.
[Illustration: POACHED EGGS AND POACHERS]
[Illustration: VARIEGATED MEAT, P. 186]
=Savory Hash=
Equal quantities mashed lentils and boiled rice or chopped potato,
seasoned with sage or onion. Add water or cream and salt. A few soaked
and chopped dried olives may be added to the hash.
“The pea and the lentil are roasted in the Mediterranean countries and
form there a regular article of food. In India peas are parched in hot
sand. The chick-pea, as found by experiment, can be parched over coals
in a few moments and thus be made edible. The taste reminds one of
pop corn and roasted chestnuts. A slight bitterness is present, due,
probably, to the skin which does not slip off in roasting as does the
skin of the peanut. When this skin is removed before roasting, as it
may be by a half hour’s soaking, the product is improved.
“Our common split pea is also palatable when parched. Parched peas are
too hard for any but the strongest teeth, and, as used in India, they
are ground and cooked after parching. The roasted chick-pea is also
used as a substitute for coffee.”--_Mary Hinman Abel, Farmers’ Bulletin
No. 121, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture._