How to cook vegetables

Cut the cucumber into i-in. thick slices, peel thinly, and stamp out the inside by means of a pastry cutter. Blanch the pieces in salted water and drain on a cloth. Pound the meat, mushrooms, and ham together in a mortar, when fine rub through a sieve. Put the puree in a stew-pan, season with pepper, a little salt, and a pinch of grated nutmeg, warm up the sauce and aspic together, stir over the ice till it begins to set, then add the cream previously whipped. Stamp out some rounds of brown bread a little larger than the cucumber shapes, spread over with some of the above-prepared puree, place a round of cucumber on each and fill up the centre of each with the puree (pile up high). Decorate tastefully with some creamed butter and lobster butter, dish up, garnish with sprigs of fresh parsley, and serve. DANDELION. Cucumber Salad. Cucumber salad is frequently served as horsd’oeuvre. In England and America it is served with boiled salmon or turbot. To prepare, peel a cucumber, cut it into very thin slices, sprinkle with salt, and let stand for ^ hour. Then drain, season with pepper, oil, and vinegar. Serve in a shallow dish, and sprinkle over some finely-chopped parsley. Ribbon Cucumber Salad. Cut a green cucumber into rather thick slices. Peel them with a sharp knife, cut the cucumber into spirals until the centre containing the seed is reached. The cucumber thus cut resembles a large ribbon which may be rolled out and cut into short strips and seasoned as usual. DANDELION (Dent-de-Lion). This plant, when young, constitutes one of our best salads. It grows wild in the fields, but it is easily cultivated. The dandelion or pissenlit can be cooked in the same manner as chicory or spinach. Dandelion Soup. 3 dozen dandelion stems, a little salad oil, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 quarts of stock, 3 yolks of eggs, chicory, toasted bread. Cut up and blanch the dandelion stems. Toss them with the garlic in oil in an earthenware pan till they become a pale colour. Put some chicory in a stewpan, add the stock, let it soak for a while. Cook for 1 hour, bind the soup with the yolks of eggs, season, and serve in a tureen with sippets of toasted bread. Dandelion Salad. Take the required quantity of young dandelion petals, rinse them in cold water and drain carefully in a cloth, then season with salt, oil, and vinegar. Pile up high in a salad bowl, and garnish with a border composed of seasoned watercress and small cress. TOO ENDIVE. The leaves of this plant are much used as a salad ; sometimes also in stews and soups, and they may be boiled and eaten with meat like other green vegetables. It is a very wholesome article of food, and especially valuable because it may be grown for winter use when lettuce and other salad vegetables are scarce or unobtainable. Endive is said to be a native of China and Japan, and was brought to Europe early in the sixteenth century ; it has long been naturalised in this country, but is cultivated much more extensively on the continent, especially in Belgium. There are several varieties of this plant ; the cut-leaved, or curled variety is usually prepared for salads in this country, but the dwarf white Batavia, commonly known as Belgian endive, is more delicate and agreeable in flavour. Endive au Gratin.