How to cook vegetables

Prepare a white sauce or Bechamel sauce. After boiling, add a teaspoonful of finely-chopped parsley, the juice of half a lemon, and a grate or two of lemon rind. If piquancy is desired, add a little cayenne, or Paprika pepper. Parsley Sauce. Prepare a white sauce and add a dessertspoonful of finely-chopped parsley before boiling. Celery Sauce. Boil i or 2 sticks of celery in salted water until soft. Take them out of the water, chop finely, reheat, and rub through a sieve ; add this to a white sauce. If the sauce is too thick, add a little milk or cream to make a proper consistency, heat up again, and serve. Tomato Sauce. Slice 3 or 4 small ripe tomatoes and fry them in a small stew-pan with 2 oz. of raw ham or bacon cut into dice and x oz. of butter. Next add a few slices of carrot, onion, and very little celery, a small bayleaf, and a blade of mace. Then add \ pint of brown sauce or Bechamel, also a few mushroom trimmings if handy, and cook gently for 20 minutes or longer, adding a little stock, if found too thick. Reheat it, remove the scum, strain the sauce, and season to taste. Tomato Sauce ( another way). ( For Artichokes, Broad Beans, French Beans, Vegetable Marrow, etc.) 1 oz. Brown & Poison’s cornflour, 1 lb. fresh tomatoes, or 1 tin preserved tomatoes, 3 shallots, or a small onion, 2 oz. fat bacon, 1 oz. butter, 1 bay-leaf, 1 small bunch of mixed herbs, salt and pepper. Cut the bacon into small pieces or dice and fry it with the butter. Put in the chopped shallots or onion, bay-leaf, and herbs, and fry gently for 3 minutes. Then add the tomatoes cut into small pieces and simmer till tender. Rub through a fine sieve. Boil up again. Blend the corn flour with a little water and stir to the above. Stir till it boils and cook for ten minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and use as required. If fresh tomatoes are used, it is necessary to add about 2 pint of stock or water with the tomatoes. If preserved ones are used the liquid in the tin must also be added whilst cooking this sauce. VEGETABLE SAUCES. Butter Sauce. (Asparagus, Spinach, Scarlet Beans, Haricot Beans and French Beans, are often served with a butter sauce as below. Cabbage, Seakale, and Vegetable Marrow are also delicious if served with this sauce.) 1 oz. Brown & Poison’s cornflour, i£ oz. salt butter, 1 pat of fresh butter, \ pint vegetable liquor or water. Melt the salt butter in a stew-pan. Add the cornflour and stir over the fire till smooth. Then add the vegetable liquor or water, stir over the fire till it thickens, and cook for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Incorporate the fresh butter at the last. If desired richer, add, a few minutes before serving, a tablespoonful of cream and a yolk of egg. The sauce must not be allowed to boil again after either of these has been added. Cold Cucumber Sauce. Peel a small, or half a large cucumber, cut it into pieces, and boil till tender in salted water or white stock. Drain well, and rub it through a fine sieve. Put the pulp into a small stew-pan, and let reduce to half its quantity with a gill of Bechamel sauce ; season to taste, strain again, and place on the ice. Whip up I gill of cream, and add to it 2 to 3 tablespoonsful of mayonnaise sauce ; into this stir the cold cucumber sauce, which is then ready for serving. Gratin Sauce.