How to cook vegetables

Soak the beans over night in cold water with a small piece of soda. Drain, and put them in a stewpan with the butter, let them get thoroughly hot, add enough cold stock or water to well cover, boil up, skim, and let simmer. Peel and chop the onion. Cut the bacon into strips, fry in a frying-pan, add the onion, and stir over the fire for a few minutes ; put this with the beans, season with pepper and a little salt. Cook slowly till tender. Stir occasionally to prevent burning, pile on a hot dish, sprinkle over with chopped parsley, dish up, and serve. Haricot Bean Salad. The white haricot is very nourishing, but sometimes difficult to digest. When it is dressed as a salad , the oil renders it more digestible. Cook the beans in the ordinary way, and use the same seasoning as for lentil salad, adding, if desired, some chopped chives. When the haricots are cooked they should be well drained and cooled before mixing. Mixed Haricot Salad. A mixture of equal quantities of French beans and white haricots is one of the best of salads. Boil them separately, and when they have been drained and cooled mix together and season with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, chervil, parsley, and chives. Haricots Flageolets, with Carrots. Blanch and cook in salted water i pint of green flageolets, drain and keep hot. String and cook in salted water i lb. small French beans, or jerry beans, cut into lozenge shape. Scrape half a bunch of young carrots, partly cook them in water, and finish off in a little rich stock, then glaze them with a little meat stock and chopped parsley. Toss the flageolets in a saute-pan with a little butter over the fire, add enough white sauce and cream to moisten them, and reheat ; then add half the French beans previously tossed in butter, and about a dessertspoonful of chopped parsley. Season with pepper and a pinch of nutmeg and a pinch of castor sugar. Dish up in an earthenware cocotte dish ; garnish with the remainder of the French beans (tossed in butter), so arranged as to form a border ; garnish also with about a dozen young carrots glazed, and a similar number of small fleurons placed round the base of the dish. Serve hot. If liked, a few drops of lemon juice can be mixed with the flageolets just before serving, also a few slices of cooked young carrots. Butter Bean Croquettes. Soak i pint of butter beans in water and cook them in salted water until they can be easily mashed. Press them through a sieve. Heat up 2 oz. butter in a stew-pan, add the beans, and season with salt and pepper and a very little powdered sage. Shape the mixture like small sausages, dip in egg and oatmeal or breadcrumbs, and fry a golden brown in clarified butter. Drain carefully, dish up, and serve hot. Broad Beans with Bacon. Cook the broad beans in salted water with a bouquet garni and a piece of smoked bacon. When BROAD BEANS. tender, drain them and immerse in cold water. Remove the skin if they are large, then just before serving simmer for about io minutes in melted butter sauce. Add a little chopped parsley and lemon juice. Serve with slices of cooked bacon strewed round the beans. This is a typical English dish. Broad Beans a la Poulette.