Allied cookery

Wash and trim the celery, cut each stick into pieces about 2 inches long, cover with cold water, bring to the boil, and pour the water away. Put in the stock, the Spanish onion finely chopped, season with salt and pepper, and cook gently for about }4 an hour. Meanwhile, skin the onions, fry them in hot butter, but very slowly, to prevent them taking colour, drain well from fat, and keep them hot. Add the flour to the butter, and fry for a few minutes without browning. Take up the celery, add the strained stock to the milk, pour both on to the roux or mixture of flour and butter, and stir until boiling. Season to taste, add the cream and >^ the parsley, arrange the celery in a circle on a hot dish, pour over the sauce, pile the onions high in the centre, sprinkle over them the remainder of the parsley, and serve. The Allied CooKery 67 celery may also be served on croiites of fried or toasted bread arranged in rows with the onions piled between them. A nice change may be made by substituting mushrooms for the onions. STUFFED ONIONS (Italian) IRemove from 6 onions the centres with an apple-corer and fill them up with the following stuffing : One tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese mixed with 2 hard-boiled eggs and chopped parsley. Boil them first, then roll them in flour and fry them in olive-oil or butter. Then put them in a baking-dish with ]/2 tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese and i tablespoon of melted butter. Put them in the oven and bake until golden. ONIONS (Venetian style) Remove the centres of 6 small onions. Boil them for a few moments, drain them, and stuff them with the following: Take a piece of bread, dip it in milk, squeeze out the milk, and mix the bread with i tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese, the yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs. Mix well together, then add some fine-chopped parsley, a pinch of sugar, salt, and pepper, and the yolk of i 68 Allied CooKery raw egg; mix again well, and then stuff the onions with the mixture. Dip them in flour and in egg, and fry them in lard. Put them on a platter and serve with a piquante sauce made as follows: Chop up fine some pickles, capers, and peppers, and >^ cup of water. When these are cooked, add i tablespoon of butter and cook a little while longer, then pour over the onions and serve. FRIED PUMPKIN OR SQUASH (Italian) tTake a slice of pumpkin or squash, remove the rind and the seeds. Cut it into fine strips. Roll in flour and dip in egg, and fry in boiling lard or olive-oil. If desired as garnishing for meat, cut the pumpkin exceedingly fine, roll in flour, but not in egg, and fry. CUCUMBERS (Italian) peel and boil 3 or 4 cucumbers in salted water for 5 minutes. Drain and cut them into pieces I inch thick and put them in a frying-pan with i ounce of butter, a little flour, and ^ pint of stock ; stir well, and add some salt and pepper. Reduce for about 15 minutes, stirring until it boils; add i teaspoon of chopped parsley, }4 a teaspoon of Allied CooKery 69 grated nutmeg, yi a cup of cream, and the beatenup yolks of 2 eggs. Put on the fire again for 3 or 4 minutes. Do not let boil, and serve hot. SARMA (Serbian) put a cabbage in boiling water. Let it stand while preparing the rest of the dish.