How to cook vegetables

Dish up on toasted and buttered bread, and cut into portions ; garnish the dish with picked crayfish or prawns, and send to table with some boiled rice as for an ordinary curry. Some cooks prefer to mix a handful of picked shrimps with the spinach before it is dressed. Spinach Ravioles. Prepare the spinach as stated in the previous recipe, but make it thicker by adding less sauce. Bind with 3 yolks of eggs, and let it get cold. Make a ravioli paste with x lb. of flour, a pinch of salt, 2 oz. butter, 2 yolks of eggs, and a little water. Let it rest for 20 minutes, then roll out very thinly. Then with a small spoon take a portion of spinach the size of a nut, and arrange equal distances on the paste. Moisten the intervals with a brush dipped in a beaten egg, then cover it all with a thin piece of paste like the first. Press lightly with the thumb between each portion of spinach to solder the paste, cut out the ravioles with a round-fluted pastry cutter, and arrange them in order on a floured piece of paper. Have a saucepan half full of boiling, salted water, plunge in the ravioles, and boil carefully for 5 minutes. Drain and arrange in layers in a buttered gratin dish, sprinkle each layer with grated Parmesan, pour over some tomato sauce, and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. The dish is then ready to serve. Spinach Souffles. 1 lb. spinach puree (cooked spinach rubbed through a fine sieve), 2 oz. butter, 1 tablespoonful flour, t gill cream, 1 oz. grated Parmesan cheese, cayenne or paprika pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Melt 1 oz. of the butter in a small stew-pan, stir in the flour, cook it whilst stirring, but do not let it take colour ; add a little stock or water, and work vigorously with a wooden spoon over the fire till it resembles a smooth paste ; next add the cream, SPINACH. i 79 work again, and, lastly, put in the spinach puree. Season to taste with the above-named condiments, which must be used in small quantities only, in due proportions. When thoroughly mixed stir in half the grated cheese. Have ready some china souffle cases, well buttered, sprinkle the inside with grated cheese, and fill them with the mixture. Cover the top with grated cheese, mix with an equal quantity of fresh breadcrumbs, place a few tiny bits of butter on top of each, and bake in a very hot oven for 8 minutes. Dish up, and serve at once. Spinach Timbale. Pick and wash 2 lb. of spinach, and cook it with very little water, then drain and pass it through a fine sieve ; press out the water, and put it in a stew-pan containing 2 oz. of butter kneaded with 1^ oz. of flour. Season with salt, pepper, and a little grated nutmeg. Then add a little milk and 1 tablespoonful of Parmesan cheese. Stir well till slightly reduced. Lastly, add the yolks of 6 eggs. Mix thoroughly, reheat, and put into a well-buttered plain mould. Cover the mould with a buttered paper, place it in a stewpan half filled with boiling water, and cook it very gently for about an hour or longer, and turn out when set on to a hot dish. Garnish the top of the timbale with rings of hard-boiled white of egg. Pour a little brown sauce round the base of the dish, and serve. Spinach Gondolas. 1 1 lb. spinach, 2 oz. butter, 1 large finely-chopped shallot, 1 tablespoonful flour, \ gill cream, nutmeg, short crust or rough puff paste, 1 hard-boiled egg.