Cookery for busy lives and small incomes

Method. — Well wash the rice and lentils, put them into a saucepan with the thyme, the onions sliced from the top to the bottom, pepper and salt, and cover them with water; cook gently until tender, adding more water if necessary. Stir occasionally, and take care the mixture does not burn. Slice and fry some onions and spread on the top when ready to serve. Vegetable Hot Pot Ingredients. — 4 lbs. of potatoes, 6 onions, 1 doz. mushrooms or tomatoes, 2 ozs. of dripping, pepper and salt. Method. — Peel and slice the potatoes and onions, and peel and rinse the mushrooms, put them in layers in a baking-jar, seasoning well with pepper and salt, and placing little pieces of dripping between them. Pour in a pint of water and bake for two hours. Egyptian Stew Ingredients. — 1 pint of Egyptian lentils, 3 carrots, 2 turnips, 4 onions, 3 sticks of celery, 1 table -spoonful of ketchup. Method. — Wash and soak the lentils, put them into a baking-jar with the carrots, turnips, onions, and celery, cut into small dice. Pour in one quart of water, add pepper and salt, and the ketchup, and cook for two hours until the lentils are tender. If no stewing-jar is at hand, use a saucepan. Haricot beans may be cooked in the same manner. PUDDINGS PUDDINGS Puddings that are to be boiled must be put into boiling water, the pudding must be under water, and the water kept boiling the whole time. The pudding basin or mould must be quite filled. Neglect of these rules will cause the water to soak into the pudding and spoil it. If puddings are boiled in basins, they must be well greased, and a scalded and floured cloth tied over the top. They are lighter if boiled in a cloth. It must be scalded and floured. Put a plate at the bottom of the saucepan to prevent the pudding sticking and burning. Plain puddings are good and wholesome foods for children. Suet Pudding Ingredients. — 1 lb. of flour, 3, 4, or 6 ozs. of suet, 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder, a little salt. Method. — Shred and chop the suet, and mix tvith the flour and baking powder, and add a little salt. Mix rather stiffly with water, and boil in a scalded and floured cloth for four hours. A richer pudding may be made by using more suet. Another Way Take the ingredients mentioned in the foregoing recipe and some scraps of stale bread, soak these in cold water and then squeeze as dry as possible, beat to crumbs with a fork ; add the bread to the flour and finish as directed for suet pudding. Yeast Dumplings Drop small dumplings made of bread dough, E which is ready for baking, into quickly boiling water or broth, and boil with the lid on the saucepan from twenty minutes to half an hour, according to their size. Baking-powder Dumplings Ingredients. — 1 lb. of flour, 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Method. — Mix together with a little cold water into a soft dough, and cook like yeast dumplings. Plain Currant Pudding Follow the directions for suet pudding, adding to the ingredients three table-spoonfuls of- currants and three table-spoonfuls of sugar. Baked Plum Pudding Ingredients. — 1 lb. of flour, 3 ozs. of suet, 3 ozs. of currants, 3 ozs. of moist sugar, 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder, a little salt, a little milk (skim will do).