The girl's own cookery book

All vegetables after being cooked may be sauté, that is, tossed over the fire in a little butter before being sent to table. They will be improved by the process. Sauté potatoes are lightly browned in the butter. Cauliflowers, broad beans, vegetable marrows, and similar vegetables are excellently served with sauce Blanche. This sauce is made as follows : — Melt an ounce of butter, and stir into it three-quarters of an ounce of flour. Mix with a wooden spoon to form a smooth paste. The sauce will not oil if the flour and butter are well cooked. Stir in half-a-pint of cold water and boil, then mix in well, off the fire, the yolk of one egg. Three or four drops of lemon-juice may be added at the last moment or not. Vegetables plainly boiled are generally eaten with meat, but vegetables form a delicious dish when eaten alone after the meat. French people have vegetables served by themselves constantly, and it would be a great improvement if English people would imitate their example in this respect. Asparagus, globe artichokes, green peas, French beans, cauliflowers, and tomatoes, may all be prepared to form most agreeable dishes, which would be sure to be appreciated if people would only try them. Asparagus, cauliflower, and globe artichokes, served alone, may be boiled in the usual way, accompanied either by oiled butter, melted butter (to which a little cream and a few drops of lemon-juice have been added), or Dutch sauce. These sauces are made as follows ; — Oiled butter. — Melt a little fresh butter without browning it. Skim it well, let it stand a minute or two, then pour it away from the curd, which will settle to the bottom. Add a pinch of salt, and serve the clear oily part only. Melted butter. — Melt an ounce of butter and mix half-an-ounce of flour smoothly with it. Add half-apint of cold water, and stir the sauce till it boils. Dutch sauce. — Real Dutch sauce is thickened with yolk of egg How to Cook Vegetables. 8i only. To make it, mix thoroughly in a plain jar the yolks of two eggs, two tablespoonfuls of boiling water, a little pepper and salt, and four ounces of fresh butter. Set the Jar in a small saucepan half filled with cold water, and stir the contents of the jar over a moderate fire till the water in the saucepan boils; cool a minute, then add as much lemon-juice as will make the sauce pleasantly acid. The sauce should look like thick, smooth cream. Imitation Dutch sauce is made by using more water and thickening the sauce with a small quantity of flour. Sauce thus made, however, is not so delicate as sauce thickened with egg only. Sauces of this kind are expensive when more is made than is required, and no one thinks of putting a large portion of rich sauce upon his plate, so that rich sauce possesses that pleasing qualification — “ a little goes a long way.” Sauce made with half the quantities given above, and costing about sixpence, would be enough for a small bundle of asparagus. Boiled artichokes are particularly delicious. The leaves are eaten with the fingers, though a fork is needed for the fleshy heart of the vegetable. The leaves are taken one at a time, and the broad thick part is dipped into the sauce, and this portion only is eaten.