The "Queen" cookery books: Vegetables

the top, and baked for ten to fifteen minutes, they are served as T. au gratin, a name also applied to the following : Have ready a puree of artichoke, dilute it slightly with veloute or white sauce, season it with freshly ground black pepper and salt, and turn it into a well-buttered fireproof dish, dust it with freshly- grated cheese (a spoonful or so may be mixed with the puree if liked), and bake till the top is nicely coloured. Jerusalem Artichoke Mould {Crime de topinambours). — Make a puree with 21b. of artichokes, by rubbing them when cooked through a sieve, and when sieved stir into it a custard made with half a pint of new milk and the yolks of four eggs, whisk it all well together, then add the white of one egg, pepper and salt ; turn it all into a buttered mould, and steam it for an hour. Turn it out, and serve with either tomato, maitre d’hotel, or veloute sauce, or the simpler sauce given for Artichokes a la Morny. If preferred, the mould, when cold, may be set on ice, and when icy cold, turned out and served with iced savoury cream or iced mayonnaise sauce. Most vegetables can be treated in this way successfully, especially black salsify or scorzanera, if a few drops of essence of anchovy be added to the diluting sauce. Mashed {Puree de topinambours). — Wash, peel, and boil the vegetable in salted milk or water, or half and half, till tender, then drain and rub them through a sieve ; squeeze all the water from them, put the puree into a clean pan, with a small piece of butter, a spoonful of cream, white pepper, salt if necessary, and a tiny grate of nutmeg if liked, stir VEGETABLES. 17 it all over the fire till fairly dry and quite hot, and serve. Jerusalem Artichoke Chips. — Peel and slice some rather large artichokes, dropping them as you do so into salted and acidulated water to preserve the colour, then, when wanted, lift them out with a slice, drain and lay them on a clean cloth, dry well, put a few at a time into the frying basket, and fry like potato chips. Drain well, and serve dusted with a little salt and coralline pepper. Fritters. — Slice some parboiled artichokes, quarter of an inch thick, flour these lightly, egg and breadcrumb them, and fry a golden brown in plenty of hot fat. Or they may be cut into fingers, dipped in frying batter, and fried as before. Artichoke, Japanese {Stachys Japonais). — This may be treated in the same way as the ordinary Jerusalem artichoke, though it is a trifle more delicate in flavour. Do not use strongly flavoured sauces with it, or the special aroma will be lost. It is delicious served cold with plain cream. Or when cold it may be sliced and served with either a French or a mayon- naise dressing. ' Asparagus {Asperges). — These should be carefully picked over, the stalks well scraped with the back of a knife, and made into small bundles, keeping the heads very even ; then with a sharp knife cut the stalks also even, and tie the bundles up with a tape. There are two methods of cooking them, the old and the new. The former is to lay them longways into fast boiling salted water (allow ^ oz. salt to half a gallon of water), with a lump of sugar, and boil c 18 VEGETABLES.