The "Queen" cookery books: Vegetables

to taste. As a garnish, the olive is usually served as a ragout, thus : Stone the olives and set them in a pan with enough good stock and light French wine (in equal parts) to cover them, just bring. this to the boil again, then simmer gently till tender. This makes a delicious sauce for fillets or tournedos of beef, and is the proper sauce for salmi of duck, wild or tame. Save for salmi, brown sauce and a little sherry may replace the stock and the French wine. Olives, mock. — Choose small unripe green plums, and stone them with a column cutter. Put them into a jar with vine leaves between them, dust with a little fennel seed, a good amount of salt, and a tiny pinch of powdered alum, pour over them sufficient boiling oil to cover them, and when cold tie down. If plums prepared thus are stuffed with fillets of anchovy or sardine, packed in jars, and covered with good spiced vinegar, they make a by no means to be despised version of olives farcies. Onions (Oignons). — These, unlike other vegetables, need no cleansing beyond the removal of the stalk and top ends, and of one or two of the outer skins. But they do need blanching, a point often overlooked by our cooks, and hence the accusation of coarseness often brought against this vegetable. As soon as they are trimmed, blanch them by putting them on in slightly salted cold water, and as soon as this boils up strain it off, and if to be served plain boiled, finish boiling the onions in fresh salted boiling water till cooked, which will take, for large Spanish onions, from two to three hours, smaller ones of course taking proportionately less. Onions n la Muscovite. — Blanch the onions as above, allowing them, however, to remain in the blanching water till they are quite half cooked, then drain them and leave them till perfectly cold. Now remove the centre with a column cutter, or scoop it out with a teaspoon, being careful not to cut it through, then mince these centres with half their bulk of mushrooms and a small spoonful of freshly made breadcrumbs, put this all into a pan with a little good espagnole sauce, and pepper, salt, and a very little nutmeg, and stir it all over the fire till of a nice consistency ; then fill up the onions with the mixture, dust the top with breadcrumbs, put a tiny pat of butter, or well clarified dripping, on each, and bake in a moderate oven till nicely coloured. Serve very hot. en gratin. — Blanch the onions as above, then finish cooking them in milk and water till tender enough to sieve (or if preferred to mash), mix them with a little of the liquid they were cooked in, a spoonful or two of cream, and a seasoning of salt, M^hite pepper, and a little cayenne ; pour this puree into a well buttered piedish (or shells, as you please) previously dusted with breadcrumbs, grated cheese, and seasoning, cover the top with the crumbs, cheese, seasoning, and a few drops of liquefied butter, and set in the oven for a few minutes till the top colours nicely. Another form of this dish is to slice down some cold cooked onions (they should be rather undercooked) and arrange them alternately with peeled and sliced tomatoes, in a dish prepared as before, and finish off as in the previous recipe. baked. — Blanch and three parts boil in !»0