Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Use a head of cauliflower weighing about two pounds and a half, a cupful of milk or cream, three table-spoonfuls of butter, one table-spoonful of flour, half a teaspoonful of chopped onion, one teaspoonful of sugar, two teaspoonfuls of salt, and one-third of a teaspoonful of white pepper. Remove and discard the green leaves of the cauliflower, and wash the remaining part in cold water ; then place it, head down, in sufficient cold water to cover it, and add two table-spoonfuls of salt. Soak it for two hours, and at the end of that time put it into a large stew-pan, and add three quarts of boiling water. Cover, and simmer for thirty minutes; then turn into a colander, and drain thoroughly, and afterward turn into a wooden bowl or tray, and pound to a pulp. Finally rub through a purée sieve. Put the butter and chopped onion into a large frying-pan, and cook slowly for five minutes. Add the cauliflower, salt, pepper, sugar, and flour, and cook for five minutes, stirring all the while; then add the stock or cream, and cook for three minutes longer, stirring all the while. At the end of that time spread the purée on the dish, add the entrée, and serve. Other Pur6es. Spinach is prepared in almost the same manner as cauliflower. There is this difference : use only water enough to cover it when it is boiled; or if the bitter flavor of the vegetable be liked, use only a cupful of water to a peck of spinach. Turnips and carrots will require forty minutes' boiling ; asparagus, fifteen, — only the green heads being cooked; peas, from twenty to forty minutes, — the time depending upon their age and freshness; beans can be boiled sufficiently in an hour and a quarter if fresh, or in two hours, if they be rather old. When tomatoes are used for a purée, most of the liquor must be drained from them before they are put on to cook ; and to each quart of the pulp there should be added two table-spoonfuls of powdered cracker crumbs, two level table-spoonfuls of flour, two large table-spoonfuls of butter, one table-spoonful of sugar, a quarter of a teaspoonful of pepper, and one teaspoonful of salt. Cook the tomatoes for half an hour ; then add the other ingredients, having the flour and butter mixed together, and cook twenty minutes longer. Finally rub the purée through a sieve. Pur6e of Chestnuts. To garnish a dish that will serve for twelve persons, use fifty Spanish chestnuts, one table-spoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of salt, one-fourth of a teaspoonful of pepper, half a pint of white stock, one gill of cream. Shell, blanch, and boil the chestnuts in water sufficient to cover them, for half an hour. Drain off the water, and put the nuts in the mortar. Pound them to a powder, and add the butter, the seasoning, and the stock, a little at a time. Continue pounding for ten minutes longer ; then rub through a purée sieve. Put the strained mixture in a stew-pan, and cook slowly for one hour, stirring frequently. Then beat in the cream, and cook for five minutes longer. This purée is served with cutlets of turkey and game. Pure"e a la Bretonne.