FoodNet

Practical West African cookery

1910

Page 57 · 4 recipe records on this page

Presented as published in 1910. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
A pinch of salt and pepper, red if possible. A pinch of nutmeg. (A teaspoon chopped parsley.)Stuffed Paw Paw or Stuffed Cucumber 1. Choose two of the best tomatoes, if they are large ones, or three if they are small. Cut a slice off the base of the tomatoes and carefully scoop out nearly all the pulp with a teaspoon. Halve the other tomatoes and scoop out all their pulp, which should then be passed through the small sieve to remove the seeds. Chop up the onion and mix it with the pulp. 2. Melt the butter in the small enamel saucepan and sprinkle in the flour as soon as the butter begins to sing. Stir with a wooden spoon, and when quite smooth add the tomato and onion pulp and cook till the mixture has become like a thick custard. 3. Pour it on to a plate and mix into a good paste with the bread crumbs, parsley, salt, pepper, nutmeg and the beaten egg. If the paste is too thin, add a few more bread crumbs. 4. Fill the two hollowed-out tomatoes with the paste, sprinkle over a few crumbs and place a dab of butterStuffed Tomatoes on the top. 5. Grease a pie dish with a little butter or laid, caie- fully place in it your tomatoes and put them in a slow oven for a good twenty minutes. If the oven is too hot and the tomatoes seem likely to burn or to get too dry, put a little VEGETABLES. 117 more butter on top of each one. Serve in the dish they have been baked in. Egg plants oan be stuffed in exactly the same way, using of course their own pulp instead of tomato pulp. Gauta. (I). Gauta is a sort of native tomato with rather a bitter taste, but it makes quite a good substitute for tomatoes and is especially good fried. Tatassa. (I). These can be fried like tomatoes or stuffed in the same way. Fresh Maize. (I). Strip off the leaves and “ threads,” put the cobs in the colander placed over the large saucepan filled with boiling water and steam them till the grains are quite soft. Serve with butter and salt. The cobs can also be roasted in front of the fire. The ordinary native maize is poor, and it is quite worth while to try and grow any good American variety. Fresh Native Beans. Wakin Bissa. (I). 1 teacup beans. 4 teaspoon salt. £ onion. £ teaspoon pepperFresh Native Beans. 1. Wash the beans, put them with the onion into a saucepan with enough cold water to cover them. Add salt and pepper and bring slowly to a boil. Let them cook slowly till they are quite soft. Serve with just a little of the water they have cooked in and sprinkle, if possible, with chopped parsley or basil. Lentils or Dried Peas. (1). 2 tablespoons lentils or peas, j 4 pint water. 4 onion. I 1 saltspoon salt and pepperLentils or Dried Peas. Soak the lentils or peas in cold water for twelve hours. H 118 VEGETABLES. Drain off the water and put them in the saucepan with half a pint cold water, the onion, salt and pepper. Bring slowly to the boil, then set a little aside and simmer gently for two or three hours, till the lentils or peas are quite soft. The time varies according to their freshness. If the water has been all absorbed before they are cooked, add a little more. The lentils will not take so long to cook as the peas and should be taken off tbe fire before they become a mash. Add half a teaspoon butter or lard and sprinkle with chopped parsley, if possible, before serving. Cold lentils are very good in a salad.