Hilda's diary of a Cape housekeeper

CHEESE PUDDING- AND STRAWS July cut the bird into nice pieces (the bones can be added to the stock-pot). Have ready a puree made in the following way. Take these ingredients — 6 large tomatoes (if not in season use canned ones). Half a clove of garlic. A few sweet herbs. An onion cut up and fried in dripping. A teaspoonful of brown sugar, and the same of salt. An oz. of butter or dripping. A strip of lemon-peel. Boil all this till the tomatoes are soft, and then press all through the colander and put back into the enamelled saucepan ; lay the cut-up fowl in this and let it simmer (but not boil) for an hour. Stand it on the coolest side of the stove to keep warm till wanted, and serve as an entree, with boiled rice. Cold Lamb. — A dish of any remains of cold lamb done in the above way is very good also. July 13. — Cheese Pudding. — To-day I found we had a I lb. of grated cheese over that wanted using, so we had this cheese pudding (Mrs. Deney’s recipe) for dinner, which has the merit of not taking long to make, so is easily added to the menu if an unexpected guest arrives. Beat the following all well together — I lb. grated cheese. (Dutch sweet-milk cheese is best for this.) I egg. I teacupful of milk. A pat of butter. An eggspoonful of salt and a little cayenne pepper. Put in a small pie-dish and bake a quarter of an hour. Parmesan Cheese Straws. — Here is another way of using a July ORANGtB jam. TEA-CAKBS small quantity of Parmesan. Beat up i egg and mix thoroughly with 2 ozs. Parmesan cheese, the same weight of flour and butter, a little salt, and a pinch of cayenne ; knead well. Roll out once, evenly, with a rolling-pin, and cut into even-sized strips. Carefully place each strip, without breaking, on a baking tin which you have previously greased, and bake the " straws ” to a light golden colour. July 17. Orange Jam.— Now that oranges are getting more plentiful I shall as soon as possible make some orange jam (from Mrs. Burrel’s recipe), for which I shall need 12 oranges, 3 lemons, 9 pints of water, 10 lbs. sugar. You make the jam as follows — Cut up the oranges and lemons in thin slices, being careful to take out all the seeds. Pour the water on the cut-up fruit and let it stand 24 hours. The next day boil it for i| hours, then add the sugar and boil until the syrup is jellied. July 19.— I see on looking back at my last year’s diary that this day last year, when we had a party for little F ’s birthday, among other cakes, etc., for tea we had two kinds of almond cakes, some lemon biscuits, and some little drop tea-cakes, of which the description in my book is marked specially, “ This recipe is very good!' So I think I cannot do better than write out all three recipes for the benefit of other people who have birthdays. Tea-cakes. — I will begin with the little drop tea-cakes. P'or this you will need — -I lb. butter. ' 3 ozs. flour. 3 eggs. ^ lb. sifted or rolled sugar. TWO ALMOND CAKES July 1 oz. almonds, bleached and pounded, 20 drops of vanilla essence to flavour. Beat the butter to a cream, add the sugar next, and then the yolks of the eggs. Beat all well together. Now add the flour and other ingredients, keeping to the last the whites of the eggs well whisked. Drop little drops of the mixture on buttered paper and bake in a slow oven. Almond Cake, No. 1 (Miss Breda’s). — Ingredients —