How to cook vegetables

Simmer the tapioca slowly in the stock with the carrot and onion (peeled and sliced) and add the tomatoes (cut up small). Boil the whole to a pulp, and rub it through a sieve, add the milk, and season with salt and pepper and a grate of nutmeg. Reduce it by boiling for another io minutes. Serve with fried bread croutons. Tomato Soup ( another way). 3 pints stock, i lb. ripe tomatoes, a ham bone or trimmings of ham, i small onion, i oz. butter, i oz. ground tapioca, salt, pepper, i blade of mace, toasted bread. Cut the tomatoes into quarters, peel, and slice the onion, fry them in the butter, and add the tomatoes. Then put in the stock and ham bone or trimmings, and cook for 20 minutes. Remove the scum, add the mace and the necessary seasoning. Continue to cook till the tomatoes are tender, then rub the soup through a fine sieve. Return to the stew-pan, boil up, and sprinkle in the tapioca or sago. Cook for 15 minutes, and serve the soup with dice-shaped pieces of toast, which should be handed round separately. Baked Tomatoes. Chop finely 4 oz. of cooked ham, 1 oz. of beef suet or fat bacon, and 3 to 4 mushrooms. Mix these with 1 teaspoonful of chopped parsley, add a grate or two of lemon rind. Fry these ingredients in a little butter, then season, and moisten with a beaten egg. Remove the stalks from 4 large ripe but firm tomatoes, wipe them, and cut each in half. Scoop out some of the pulp, which may, if liked, be mixed with the stuffing. Put enough of the mixture in each half of tomato so as to completely fill same. Sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs, and place a small piece of butter in the centre of each. Bake in a fairly hot oven for 15 minutes. Dish up and serve hot. Curried Tomatoes. Chop half an onion very small, and fry it in butter until cooked ; then add a large dessertspoonful of “ Empress ” curry powder, about 2 slices of minced apple, and a gill of rich gravy. Stir the ingredients all together, and allow them to simmer for 10 minutes. Add six small skinned ripe tomatoes, and, just before serving, a teaspoonful of lemon juice. The sauce for this dish should be thick enough to coat the tomatoes. Serve with plainly boiled rice. Sauteed Tomatoes. Wipe 1 lb. small firm, even-sized tomatoes with a cloth and cut into slices. Peel and chop 2 shallots finely. Melt oz. butter in a saute or frying-pan; when hot put in the shallots and fry to a golden brown. Be careful not to let them get too brown, else the flavour of the tomatoes will be spoilt. Place in the tomatoes, and fry them over a brisk fire — they will take about 10 minutes to cook. Season with salt and a little mignonette pepper. Dish up on a hot dish, and sprinkle a little finely-chopped parsley over the top. Tomato Pudding. Scald and peel 8 to 10 ripe tomatoes, then slice them and range them in a buttered pudding basin with layers of thin slices of bacon and breadcrumbs. Season each layer of tomato with salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg, and sprinkle over a little oiled butter between each layer of breadcrumbs. Continue thus till the basin is filled ; cover the top with slices of bread dipped in butter. Cover with a cloth and boil the pudding for 2 hours. Unmould on to a dish, and pour over a nicely-seasoned tomato sauce. Tomatoes on Toast.