365 tasty dishes

Pick over a bunch of watercress, freshen in cold water for an hour, then dry thoroughly in a towel. Sprinkle with a French dressing and arrange in a salad dish. Quarter 3 tart red apples, remove the cores and cut in quarter-inch sections. Arrange these in and among the watercress, add more dressing and serve with roast duck. xC— Hamburg Steak with Peppers. When hamburg steak is served for dinner it should be flattened out into a large oval cake about an inch and a half thick and broiled ; so prepared it is sometimes spoken of as a broiled chopped or minced steak. As an accompaniment to this or a steak of tenderer cut, quarter green or red sweet peppers, remove seeds and veins and fry quickly in deep fat or a little butter. Serve these on and around the meat. i7.--Tomato Croquettes. Stew together for twenty minutes ^ of a can of tomatoes, i tablespoonful of chopped onion, i sprig of parsley, ^ of a bay leaf, 4 cloves and sufficient salt and pepper to give a very high seasoning. Rub through a sieve. In a clean saucepan melt together 2 tablespoonfuls of butter and 5 tablespoonfuls of flour. Add a cupfuls of the strained tomato and stir and cook for ten minutes. Take from the fire and set aside until cold. Flour the hands and carefully mold into small croquettes. Dip each into slightly-beaten egg and roll in fine bread crumbs. Let stand for twenty minutes, then repeat the dipping and rolling in crumbs. Fry at once in a kettle of smoking-hot fat and drain on unglazed paper. x8. — Hashed Brown Potatoes. Chop rather fine sufficient cold boiled potatoes to measure i pint and season them with I scant teaspoonful of salt and % oi a teaspoonful of pepper. Put i large tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan and place over the fire. When hot put in the potatoes and press them carefully down on the bottom of the pan. Turn the pan round from time to time and cook slowly without stirring until the potatoes are golden brown at the bottom and well crusted together. Roll over very slowly and carefully and turn out on a heated platter, sprinkling with a litde chopped parsley. zg. — Rice with Dates, Orange Sauce. A simple luncheon-sweet is prepared by cooking ^ of a cupful of rice in i pint of milk in a double boiler until tender. Just before dishing it, stir in with a fork ^ of a cupful of finely-cut dates and serve with a sauce made with i cupful of boiling water, I tablespoonful of cornstarch dissolved in cold water, )^ of a cupful of sugar, i teaspoonful of lemon juice and ^ of a cupful of orange juice. 20. — Bubble and Squeak. Bubble and squeak is the old name for a warmed over dish of cold meat and cabbage, the meat being usually corned beef though cold boiled or baked beef was also used. Cut about 2 pounds of lean cold meat in small, rather thin slices. Put them in a pan with I tablespoonful of dripping and let them color quickly. Chop the boiled cabbage and put it into a saucepan with 2 tablespoonfuls of butter, salt and pepper to taste and stir over the fire until smoking hot and just beginning to color. Turn it out on a heated platter and press it down in the centre, in this hollow arrange the browned meat and send at once to the table. 21. — Apple Slump. A nice hot lunch dish is apple slump. Put quartered or sliced apples into a deep kettle, add sugar and a spoonful of butter and cook until the apples are partly tender. Put over them a rich biscuit crust rolled out two-thirds of an inch thick, cover and let the apples simmer gently for forty-five minutes; uncover and place in a hot oven until browned. 22. — Poached Eggs a la Creole.