The "Queen" cookery books: Vegetables

and use. Sorrel may also be cooked by any recipe given for spinach. Sorrel is one of the things that require specially to be used fresh, hence probably its unpopularity here, where there is not sufficient demand to ensure a constant fresh supply. To soften the acid flavour objected to by some, use half and half sorrel and spinach, or one part spinach to three of sorrel. If the sorrel is old, and consequently rather more acid, mix it in the same way with lettuce instead of spinach, and allow a little more caster sugar. Spinach (Epinards). — Pick over the spinach (about 2 to .3lb.), removing all faded or imperfect leaves and any coarse stalk. Well wash in two or three waters, then either put it on in a pan with a little water, or only the water adhering to the leaves after washing, and let it cook till tender, which takes from ten to fifteen minutes. Now drain well, and rub it through a sieve. Melt together loz. of butter with a teaspoonful of flour, till perfectly smooth, add this to the spinach with pepper, salt, and a little new milk or cream, or good gravy, stir it all well together till hot, and serve. Spinach improves by reheating, and in France a largo quantity is cooked at a time (generally by the creameries, from whom it may be bought ready for re-heating and finishing off). But to ensure success with spinach cooked thus, the vegetable when blanched should be well drained, pressed, and chopped, then sieved and finished oft’ with butter or cream, or an addition of rich veal stock as preferred. (French cooks almost invariably Stipulate for an extra allowance of butter when 1-29 spinach is used.) When made thus into a puree it is served with croutons and poached eggs, or oeufs mollets, as preferred. In England spinach is, after well washing, put on in a generous amount of boiling salted water, the leaves being pressed down from time to time to keep them covered whilst cooking. They are then strained, pressed, and finished off as before. Remember that the young leaves of nettles, beetroot, watercress, turnip tops, and even curly kale, are excellent treated as spinach. Spinach aux olives. — Take the requisite quantity of cold cooked spinach and stir it over the fire, seasoning it with a few drops of lemon juice, white pepper, salt, and butter, stirring in at the last a little cream, rich stock, or sauce, as preferred. Have ready as many scpiare croutons of delicately fried bread as you have guests, pile each up with the hot puree, and set on the top of each a stoned olive filled with anchovy or ham butter, or a rolled fillet of anchovy, and serve very hot as a vegetable entremets or a garnish. au gratin. — Remove the stalks and centre string from a pound of spinach, put it on in cold, slightly salted water, bring this to the boil, then strain it well, pressing all the moisture out of it gently, so as not to break or mash the leaves. Well butter a fireproof dish, dust it with a mixture of fine white breadcrumbs, grated Parmesan cheese, pepper and salt, lay in the spinach at full length, sprinkling it, as you place it, with the same mixture of crumbs, cheese, &c. ; dust it lightly with coralline pepper, lay tiny morsels of butter all over it, cook it fifteen minutes in a moderate oven, and serve very hot. K ]30