The "Queen" cookery books: Vegetables

tender in boiling salted water ; then take them up, remove the skins, turn them on to a napkin on a hot dish, and serve at once with butter, salt, and white pepper, and, if liked, a little claret. Or, remove the outer skin, and blanch them as you do almonds, in boiling water, till you can remove the inner skin Easily, throwing each as done into a basin of salted and acidulated cold water. Now stir together smoothly ^oz. of flour and loz. of fresh butter, moistening this, when blended, with half a pint of rich wellflavoured stock ; when this boils up season it with salt and pepper, lay in the chestnuts, let the sauce just reboil, then draw it to the side of the stove, and allow it to simmer steadily till the nuts are perfectly tender but unbroken. These are excellent as an accompaniment to roast meat or poultry. Chestnut puree is cooked as above, the nuts being rubbed through the sieve as soon as they are tender, then finished off with a pat of butter, a dust of caster sugar, a grate of nutmeg, and sufficient espagnole or good brown sauce to bring them to the right consistency, if to be used hot. If for use with a chaufroix, allow the puree to get cold, then mix into it lightly and quickly two or three spoonfuls of stiffly-whipped cream. stuffing. — For an average good turkey, cut the tops from 2 to 31b. of chestnuts, and bake them for fifteen minutes ; now peel off the skins, and lay the nuts in a pan with just enough second stock to cover them, bring this to the boil, then draw the pan to the side, and only allow them to simmer till the chestnuts are tender, and have absorbed all the stock. (Keep them covered with a buttered paper whilst cooking.) Now rub the nuts through a fine wire sieve, mix them with a pat of butter or 6 to 8oz. of fat bacon cut into dice and fried, a pinch of caster sugar, and a dust of coralline pepper, and insert as much as you require into the body of the bird, sending the rest to table in a vegetable dish. Chestnuts with truffles. — Toss 12 to 16oz. of fat bacon (cut into dice, with two minced shallots) over the fire till lightly coloured, then add twenty to thirty cooked chestnuts, also cut into dice, and 4oz. of truffles, previously roughly minced ; season to taste with freshly ground black pepper, salt, and a little powdered spice and herbs. Stir this altogether over the fire for a few minutes, then use. Chicory {Chicoree). — See Endive. Chives {Ciboule, ciboulette, or civettes). — These are a small kind of onion, differing, however, from the ordinary sort by the fact that the leaves and not the bulbs are used. They are greatly used for flavouring and seasoning, and, properly speaking, should always form a part of any d’uxelle fourniture or fines herbes garnish. They should, when possible, be used directly they are gathered, as the flavour passes off very quickly, and in consequence they are not often seen in greengrocers’ shops. Their flavour is far more delicate than that of the onion proper, and is almost indispensable for the perfect success of certain dishes, such as civets de lihre, &c., which are said to derive their name from the cives or civettes used in their preparation. Colcannon. — Take equal parts of cold cooked