Other Chinese specialties that are cheap in Chinatown and fine
for varying salads and vegetable side dishes are Chinese cabbage,
water chestnuts, called "Chinese potatoes," mustard greens,
bamboo shoots, fresh ginger root and all sorts of strange bulbs and
tubers you'll begin to hanker for, once you get the economical and
refreshing habit of using them as the Chinese do — and it's well
to remember they were the world's first great cooks and their
chop sueys and such will still take a lot of beating.
Another good Chinatown buy is lychee nuts, those sweet gummy
meats the laundryman gives you for a Christmas present. They
cost just half as much in Chinatown as in any uptown grocery and
a pound of them makes dessert for several meals.
STRING BEANS, SALTED DOWN
Use string beans as young, tender and fresh as possible. Pack in
kegs or crocks, put a good sprinkling of salt between each 3-inch
layer of beans. Put a wooden cover on top and weigh it down. The
EAT YOUR spinach! 1 57
liquid extracted by the salt will rise over the cover and should be
kept skimmed. When you*re ready to use some of them in the
winter, soak most of the salt off, remove the strings and cook the
same as fresh.
This should be done in season, of course, when green beans get
down to a few cents a pound in big city markets. While these
won*t be just as fresh six months later as those expensive ones
preserved by the new freezing process, they'll be fresher and
cheaper than you can buy already canned and cooked.
WILD CUCUMBERS
These prickly little fellows abound in most parts of America
and send out eager shoots that leap and climb faster and farther
than squash plants, so that one tiny seed will make a vine that
yields bushels of native cucumbers that needn't cost a cent. Some
Southern manufacturers put them up instead of gherkins and this
salubrious old-fashioned pickle now sells under the name of " Cute
Cukes" in fancy groceries at fancy prices. You can fill a barrel
with them on half a day's holiday in the country and pickle them
with vinegar made cheaper and better at home, putting down a
whole barrel of pickles for winter at just whatever you may want
to spend for spices. They suit everybody's taste and are welcomed
as a refreshing novely. You can stuff them with peppers to make
them as attractive as stuffed olives.
GROUND CHERRIES, OR HUSK TOMATOES
There's a lot of confusion about these homely little bundles of
luscious flavor that grow about the size of cranberries, each en-
closed in a tissue husk that looks like a Chinese lantern. Some say
they taste like cherries, others like tomatoes. We've eaten them
ever since we were kids and don't yet know which they resemble
most. When preserved in syrup they taste like figs. In any case,
they're not common in city markets, but when they do appear
they're dirt cheap. So if you can find them, get acquainted with a
tart-sweet vegetable-berry that's great to eat plain or put up for
winter.
158 MOST-FOR-YOUR-MONEY COOK BOOK
UNFIRED FOOD
Page 86
Presented as published in 1938. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Other Chinese specialties that are cheap in Chinatown and fine for varying salads and vegetable side dishes are Chinese cabbage, water chestnuts, called "Chinese potatoes," mustard greens, bamboo shoots, fresh ginger root and all sorts of strange bulbs and tubers you'll begin to hanker for, once you get the economical and refreshing habit of using them as the Chinese do — and it's well to remember they were the world's first great cooks and their chop sueys and such will still take a lot of beating.
Another good Chinatown buy is lychee nuts, those sweet gummy meats the laundryman gives you for a Christmas present. They cost just half as much in Chinatown as in any uptown grocery and a pound of them makes dessert for several meals.
STRING BEANS, SALTED DOWN
Use string beans as young, tender and fresh as possible. Pack in kegs or crocks, put a good sprinkling of salt between each 3-inch layer of beans. Put a wooden cover on top and weigh it down. The
EAT YOUR spinach! 1 57
liquid extracted by the salt will rise over the cover and should be kept skimmed. When you*re ready to use some of them in the winter, soak most of the salt off, remove the strings and cook the same as fresh.
This should be done in season, of course, when green beans get down to a few cents a pound in big city markets. While these won*t be just as fresh six months later as those expensive ones preserved by the new freezing process, they'll be fresher and cheaper than you can buy already canned and cooked.
WILD CUCUMBERS
These prickly little fellows abound in most parts of America and send out eager shoots that leap and climb faster and farther than squash plants, so that one tiny seed will make a vine that yields bushels of native cucumbers that needn't cost a cent. Some Southern manufacturers put them up instead of gherkins and this salubrious old-fashioned pickle now sells under the name of " Cute Cukes" in fancy groceries at fancy prices. You can fill a barrel with them on half a day's holiday in the country and pickle them with vinegar made cheaper and better at home, putting down a whole barrel of pickles for winter at just whatever you may want to spend for spices. They suit everybody's taste and are welcomed as a refreshing novely. You can stuff them with peppers to make them as attractive as stuffed olives.
GROUND CHERRIES, OR HUSK TOMATOES
There's a lot of confusion about these homely little bundles of luscious flavor that grow about the size of cranberries, each enclosed in a tissue husk that looks like a Chinese lantern. Some say they taste like cherries, others like tomatoes. We've eaten them ever since we were kids and don't yet know which they resemble most. When preserved in syrup they taste like figs. In any case, they're not common in city markets, but when they do appear they're dirt cheap. So if you can find them, get acquainted with a tart-sweet vegetable-berry that's great to eat plain or put up for winter.
UNFIRED FOOD