The "Queen" cookery books: Vegetables

juice and use. Parsnips may be mashed after boiling them till tender enough to sieve, when you work in a little butter, milk, or cream, with white pepper and salt, over the fire, till brought to a nice consistency. They may also be scalloped thus : Take two cupfuls of mashed parsnip, as for parsnip balls, and pile this in a well-buttered fireproof dish ; sprinkle thickly with breadcrumbs, and some morsels of butter, or clarified dripping, dust with coralline pepper, and bake till nicely browned on the top. A few drops of essence of anchovy, or two or three spoonfuls of rich shrimp sauce laid over the bottom of the dish before putting in the parsnip, make a particularly good scallop. Parsnips may also be used as salad thus : Slice, or quarter, the cold cooked parsnips, and toss them lightly in sufficient French salad dressing to coat them well ; then dish with a garnish of spring onions, or onion threads, and some cold, hard-boiled eggs, halved and filled with anchovy, ham, or shrimp butter. Pea {Petits pois) to boil. — Put the peas on in plenty of salted water, with a spray or two of mint, and cook them as fast as possible with the lid off ; when cooked, drain them, lift out the mint, strain the peas, and put half of them into a hot vegetable dish, putting a small pat of butter in the centre, gathering the rest of the peas well over it, and serve hot. These are known as Petits Pois d V Anglaise, and are immensely improved by adding a pinch of sugar when putting in the butter. The other and best way, to my mind, is to put the freshly-shelled peas into sufficient fast boiling water to cover them nicely, adding a dessert- Spoonful each of salt and caster sugar for each quart of water used ; boil the peas very fast with the cover off, for ten to twelve minutes, then drain the peas in a colander, and serve at once on a hot dish. A small spray of mint may be added this way if liked, but remember never to put any soda with peas, as it utterly ruins the young ones. Half an ounce of mint is required for each quart of water, which quantity is sufficient for one pint of peas (do not cook peas in a tinned saucepan). Abroad a kind of pea is often used of which the shell is served with the peas ; these pods are rather flat and broad, and are cooked thus : Partly cook them in a little salted water, and when nearly tender, drain them and lay them in a pan with a pat of butter, some finely chopped parsley and young green onions, with, if liked, a stewed lettuce, strained and shred rather fine ; season with white pepper and salt, and a dust of flour, and moisten with a little good stock. Cook this all together till quite tender, then stir in a tablespoonful of cream, and serve very hot. This is an excellent way of using the after crop which often appears on the pea vines too late to ripen properly, but of course the peas must be of a really good kind. It may be added that many foreign housewives consider old peas are improved if the shells are strung and clipped like French beans, and then put on in water with 2oz. of mint, a dessertspoonful of salt, and a little less of sugar, and boiled very fast for half an hour ; this peapod water is, then carefully strained, and allowed to boil up again, when the peas are put in, and are allowed to cook for half an hour. Remember when peas are H 2