Cookery for every household

Trim off the thick end of the stalk, separate the stems and wash the sea-kale well in cold water. Examine it carefully for any slugs or grit. When clean, tie it in bundles with tape. Then put it into a saucepan with boiling water to cover it, add a little salt, and cook gently until when tested with a skewer it feels tender. Drain at once, because if left to overcook it very readily toughens. Place the sea-kale in a hot vegetable dish, removing the tape, and keep it warm over hot water, whilst making the sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour and mix it well in. Then add one tea-cupful of the water in which the sea-kale was boiled and stir until boiling. Add the cream and seasoning and cook a minute or two longer. Pour this sauce over the sea-kale and serve. Note. — Any other white sauce may be used in place of cream sauce. Time to cook, 20 to 25 minutes. Sufficient for 3 or 4 persons. 567. Sea-kale a la Polonaise (Chou de Mer a la Polonaise) 1 lb. sea-kale. 1 hard-boiled yolk of egg. 1 tea-sp. chopped parsley. 1| oz. butter. Seasoning. 1 table-sp. bread-crumbs. 1 tea-sp. lemon juice. Prepare and cook the sea-kale as in last recipe. Drain it well and arrange it neatly in a long fireproof dish. Sprinkle the tender part of the vegetable with the sieved yolk of egg and parsley mixed, and heat in the oven a few minutes. Meanwhile heat the butter in a saucepan, seasoning it with pepper, and salt if necessary. When beginning to brown, stir in the bread-crumbs and cook a minute longer. Then remove the saucepan from the fire, add the lemon juice or a few drops of tarragon vinegar and pour this over the sea-kale. Serve very quickly. Sufficient for 3 or 4 persons. Sorrel (Oseille) Sorrel is more used abroad than in this country; in France it is a general favourite and is largely used for cooking purposes. It resembles spinach AND SALADS 163 in appearance, but the leaf is rather smaller and the taste slightly bitter. Sorrel to be good must be young and fresh, and then if nicely cooked it forms a most wholesome vegetable and is an excellent accompaniment to veal, mutton, or game. It is also very good in soup. When the leaves begin to get a little older and stronger in taste, it is a good plan to mix them with some other tender green, such as spinach, lettuce, or endive ; in fact, a mixture of spinach and sorrel is always good, as the sorrel supplies a sharpness which seems to be wanting in spinach. Besides the recipes given below, sorrel can be cooked according to any of the recipes given for cooking spinach, and like spinach it is very good served with eggs, either poached, scrambled, or hard-boiled. 568. Sorrel a la Creme (Oseille a la Creme) 1 tea -cupful water. A pinch of nutmeg. | tea-sp. castor sugar. Croutons of fried bread. 2 lbs. sorrel. 1 oz. butter. 1 dessert-sp. flour. 1 or 2 table-sps. cream or milk. Salt, pepper.