Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

Peas dressed with Lettuce.— Choose a fine lettuce, strip off the outside leaves, open the centre and insert a fresh sprig of thyme. Tie the lettuce together, or it will fall to pieces. Put it into a stewpan with a quart and a half of freshly-shelled Peas, a quarter of a pound of butter, and just one gill of water. No more water is required, as the lettuce and the Peas yield a good deal. Add a little salt. Put the pan on a slow fire for twenty minutes. Then take out the lettuce, and allow the Peas to stew till they have absorbed all the sauce. Stir the yolk of an egg into four tablespoonfuls of cream, add a teaspoonful of powdered sugar, and a dust of white pepper. Mix this very quickly with the Peas, so that their heat and that of the stewpan warms the cream. Do not put this sauce on the fire, or the egg and cream will curdle. Stewed Peas a la Fran^aise. — Put a quart of Peas, one ounce minced onion, half an ounce powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, and one gill of water into a closely-covered stewpan. Stew gently for half an hour. When the Peas are done add three ounces of butter, toss it well in the stewpan, so that it mixes with the Peas, but be careful not to put it on the fire. If you do, the butter will oil. Stewed Peas a la Paysanne.— The oldest Peas can be made tender if cooked in this way. Put three ounces of butter, an ounce of minced onion, a bunch of mint, and a teaspoonful of salt into a stewpan. Cook this till the onion begins to colour, then add a quart of Peas with as much broth as will float them. Add one or two sliced lettuces. Stew very slowly till the Peas are tender. Strain, add a teaspoonful of sugar, thicken the liquid with a little butter and flour, put the Peas back into it, stir well, bring the saucepan to steaming point, and serve at once. Some people prefer, for both these dishes, that a small onion should be put in whole, and removed when the Peas are served. Mrs. C. W. Earle’s Stewed Peas.— Put the Peas into a saucepan with a good-sized cabbage-lettuce cut up, a white MRS. C. W. EARLE’S STEWED PEAS onion, a sprig of parsley, and four ounces of butter kneaded with flour. Put the butter in small lumps on the Peas, and add a lump of sugar and a very little salt. Cover the saucepan, and let it simmer slowly for about three-quarters of an hour. (A bunch of mint should be added, and might by many people be preferred to the parsley.) Green Peas with Lettuces. — For this dish stew two large Cabbage Lettuces as on page 347. Boil the Peas in water in which the shells have been boiled, with a good bunch of mint, a bouquet of parsley, a green onion, some lettuce leaves and stalks. When the Peas are done remove these leaves and the bouquet, put the Peas in a very hot dish with some morsels of butter melting on them, and arrange the stewed Lettuces round them. Puree Of Peas. — Boil the Peas well, and rub them through a sieve. Add half an ounce of butter, a tablespoonful of cream, a dust of pepper, and of sugar, and a very little salt. SALSIFY. Salsify is a somewhat tasteless root, in appearance like a white carrot. It is best when slowly simmered for half an hour, then cut into pieces three inches long, and fried in batter. When the pieces of Salsify are dry, grated cheese should be dusted over them.