Harper's cook book encyclopædia

To one quart of stewed tomatoes that have been well seasoned add two or three okras cut into thin slices, a table - spoonful of melted butter, and one teaspoonful of curry powder. Soak one cupful of rice in cold water fifteen minutes and then rinse in clear water. Butter a baking- dish and put in a layer of the prepared tomatoes, then a layer of rice, alternating them until the dish is filled, having tomatoes for the last layer. Sprinkle bread-crumbs over the top and scatter tiny bits of butter over them. Put in a moderate oven and bake about forty-five minutes. Salsify, Baked. — Salsify is sometimes styled the vegetable oyster, from its supposed resemblance to the oyster in flavor. It is one of our most valuable winter vegetables, and especially nice when eaten with turkey or other fowl. Without scraping, boil until the skin comes off easily. Slice thin. Put into a china bakingdish a layer of salsify, a layer of crumbs of bread, a little salt, pepper, and a covering of butter as thin as you can cut it. Repeat until full, with crumbs of bread for the top. Pour in then as much milk as the dish will hold, and bake brown. Salsify, Fried. — Stew the salsify as usual till very tender; then with the back of a spoon or small mallet mash it very fine. Beat up an egg, add a teacupful of milk, a little flour, butter, and seasoning of pepper and salt. Make into little cakes and fry a light brown in boiling lard. Salsify Sauce. — Scrape and wash two roots of salsify, rub them with lemon, and throw them into cold water till wanted. Boil the roots till perfectly tender in lightly salted water. Drain them, cut them into small pieces, stir them into half a pint of melted butter, simmer a few minutes, and serve. Time, one hour and a quarter. Salsify, Stewed. — Wash the roots and scrape off their skins, throwing them, as you do so, into cold water, for exposure to the air causes them to immediately turn dark. Then cut transversely into little bits, throw into fresh water, add a little salt, and stew in a covered vessel until tender. Pour off the water, add a small lump of butter, a little pepper, and a gill of sweet cream. Spinach. — It should be cooked so as to retain its bright- green color, and not sent to table, as it so often is, of dull-brown or olive color; to retain its fresh appearance, do not coyer the vessel while it is cooking. Boil until Spinach VEGETABLES Spinach with Gravy tender, drain in a colander, chop fine, add a lump of butter, a teacupful of rich cream, a teaspoonful of powdered sugar, one of salt, and a little black pepper. Serve hot, covered with slices of hard-boiled egg. Spinach (French mode of dressing). — Prepare the spinach as usual. When it has been boiled, drained, soaked in cold water, squeezed dry, and chopped small, dissolve 2 ozs. of fresh butter in a saucepan, and stir the spinach in it over the fire till it is hot and dry. Add to it, gradually, two or three table- spoonfuls of boiling cream. Add a dessert-spoonful of powdered sugar and a little salt, and stir the mixture over the fire till the moisture is absorbed ; then serve the spinach very hot. Garnish the dish with fried sippets of bread, or freshly baked pieces of puff paste cut into fancy shapes, or with hard-boiled eggs cut in slices or quarters. Time, ten minutes to boil the spinach.