How to cook vegetables

Belgian endive can be braised, like celery, but the best way to cook it is au gratin. Trim and wash the endive (6 or more heads), then blanch in salted and acidulated water, and drain. Butter a gratin dish, and pour a little white sauce in it, then place in the endive, season, moisten with a little veal stock, and cover with enough white sauce to coat. Sprinkle over some grated Gruyere and Parmesan cheese, bake in the oven until quite cooked, then serve. Braised Endive. Trim and wash about 4 large heads of endive, blanch them in slightly salted water, and drain them on a sieve. Cut each head in 2 or 3 portions, 4-in. lengths, tie up each with thin twine. Range them in a well-buttered saute-pan, season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and moisten with I pint of rich stock. Cut a few thinly-cut slices of streaky bacon into strips, fry them a little, and put these on top of KOHL-RABI. the endive. Cover the pan and put it in a hot oven to cook the contents for about 30 minutes. When done, take up, drain the endive, and reduce the liquor or stock, adding to it a little brown or Espagnole sauce, and a small piece of meat glaze. Dress the endive on a vegetable dish, strain over some of the sauce, and serve hot. Endive Salad. Pick and wash the endive, then cut in, pieces of about 1 in., season with salt, pepper, mustard, oil, vinegar, and finely-chopped herbs. Finocchio. This is a delicious vegetable, but unfortunately little known in this country, it is always obtainable at Italian greengrocers. Braise in good stock, like celery, and serve with a very rich brown meat glaze poured around it. Green Corn. Remove the husks and silky threads of each com, and cook from ten to twenty minutes in boiling water (slightly salted) . Drain well and dish up. Serve with a light white sauce or else with vinaigrette. KOHL-RABI. This is the name of a cabbage species, the stem of which swells out close to the ground, presenting the appearance of a large turnip. On this the leaves grow in clusters. When young it is very palatable, and extremely wholesome and nutritious. There are three varieties, white, green, and purple. It is also called turnip cabbage, its name being derived from two German words which signify cabbage turnip. Kohl-Rabi are prepared and cooked in the same way as turnips and carrots, and the recipes given for these may be adapted for cooking this vegetable, which so far is but little known in this country, and is rather difficult to procure on that account. LAVER (Seaweed). Laver is of great benefit as an article of food in invalid dietary. It is cooked the same way as spinach. Purple laver (porphyra vulgaris ) is best, on account of its gelatinous nature. It is highly nutritious, and most palatable if served with lemon juice. The green laver ( ulva latissimd) and the sea lettuce ( ulva lactuca) are prepared and eaten in the same way, and are most efficacious in the treatment of scrofulous disease. For the most part, the lavers are of a pale-green colour, but the porphyra and bangia are exceptions, both these being of a deep purple. Purple laver is found at all seasons and all localities. LEEKS (Poireaux).