Part 12

=Carrots in White Sauce.=--Boil one dozen small French carrots in salted water until tender. Drain, cut into thin slices and sauté in butter, and heat in white sauce; season with mace and add a cupful of cooked green peas, and serve very hot.

CAULIFLOWER DISHES.--For culture, see under Cabbage.

=Cauliflower Boiled.=--Cauliflowers should be cut just before using, so that they may be quite crisp. All the leaves but the small ones close to the flower should be discarded, as the flavour of the coarser leaves would taint the delicacy of the flower.

Let them stand, head downwards, in strong salted water for half an hour before boiling; by this means caterpillars will be cleared out. Have a large saucepan of boiling water, with a tablespoonful of salt and a piece of soda the size of a pea. Put the cauliflowers in, and when the water boils up, draw to one side and partially remove the lid to let the fumes escape, otherwise the flavour will not be so delicate. Time required, twenty minutes to half an hour, according to the size of the cauliflower.

Lift out by thrusting a fork through the thick part of the stalk and place carefully on a hot drainer in a hot dish. The flower should be unbroken. Pour over a rich white sauce, and serve.

=Cauliflower au Gratin.=--Prepare and boil as above, then put the cauliflower in a hot baking dish and cover with grated Parmesan cheese, put in the oven for a few minutes till the cheese is melted.

=Cauliflower Salad.=--Boil a cauliflower (having first removed the outside leaves), in salt water and let it get cold. Cut in pieces with a silver knife and place in a salad bowl. Take the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, mix with salt and pepper to taste, and smooth with a wooden spoon, then add three tablespoonfuls of oil and three of vinegar, drop by drop, beating with the back of the spoon all the time. Mix well, and pour over the cauliflower. This salad requires more vinegar than others.

=Baked Cauliflower.=--(1) Take two cauliflowers, trim off the outer leaves, and wash thoroughly and boil in milk and water for twenty minutes, then drain. Mix two ounces of Parmesan cheese with two eggs and some bread-crumbs. Season well with pepper and salt, cut the cauliflower into four pieces, dip each piece into well-beaten egg and roll in the mixture of cheese and bread-crumbs, bake in a warm oven for ten minutes; a little white sauce may be poured over. Serve very hot.

=Baked Cauliflower à la Béchamel.=--Boil a cauliflower in salted water for half an hour. Drain and break into bits. Put a layer of cauliflower into a pie dish and cover with Béchamel or alla Panna sauce. Sprinkle with some grated cheese. Fill the dish with alternate layers of cauliflower and sauce, and cover the top with bread-crumbs. Spread with grated cheese and bits of butter. Bake in a moderate oven for half an hour. Serve hot.

=Timbâle of Cauliflower.=--After removing all the leaves, boil a large cauliflower in salted water to cover, adding a tablespoonful of salt to the water. Cook until soft, drain, and press through a sieve. Soak two cupfuls of fresh bread-crumbs in milk, squeeze dry, press the cauliflower through a sieve. Mix the crumbs with the cauliflower, add the yolks of three eggs well beaten, a tablespoonful of butter melted, salt and pepper to season, and the stiffly beaten whites of the eggs. Butter a mould, pour the purée into it, cover, and cook in boiling water nearly to the height of the mould for forty-five minutes. Turn out carefully on a serving dish, pour over it a rich cream sauce, and serve.

=Mashed Cauliflower.=--(1) Separate a cauliflower into florets and cook in boiling salted water until tender--not more than ten minutes. Drain, press through a sieve, season with salt, pepper, and butter, and a little cream or milk, reheat, and serve.

(2) Boil and separate two heads of cauliflower. Fry a teaspoonful of chopped onion in butter and press through a sieve with the cauliflower. Moisten with cream sauce, season with salt and sugar, and reheat, adding a little cream if it is too thick.

=Cauliflower à la Hongroise.=--Prepare according to directions given for Boiled Cauliflower (1). Drain, separate into florets, and arrange in a buttered baking dish. Chop a small onion finely and fry it in butter with four tablespoonfuls of stale bread-crumbs. Cook until brown, spread over the cauliflower, and serve immediately.

=Cauliflower à la Parisienne.=--Boil a large cauliflower until tender, drain, chop, and press hard into a buttered mould. Turn out on to a dish that will stand the heat of the oven. Cook together a tablespoonful each of butter and flour, add two cupfuls of stewed and strained tomatoes, and cook until thick, stirring constantly. Season with salt, pepper, and grated onion. Add enough cracker-crumbs to make the sauce very thick. Spread over the cauliflower, put it into a hot oven for ten minutes, and serve.

=Escalloped Cauliflower.=--Boil until tender, separate into small pieces and pack stems downward in a buttered baking dish, or use the cauliflower unbroken. Mix with a cupful of bread-crumbs, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, and enough cream or milk to moisten, pepper and salt to season, and one egg well beaten. Spread over the cauliflower, cover, and bake for six minutes, then uncover and brown. Serve in the same dish.

=Cauliflower in Cheese Shell.=--Use an Edam cheese shell from which the cheese has been scooped out. Fill with creamed cauliflower, sprinkle with cheese, and bake on a tin until thoroughly hot. Buttered crumbs may be spread over the top if desired.

=Cauliflower in Crusts.=--Cut the tops from stale rolls, scoop out the crumbs, and toast or fry the shells thus made. Fill with creamed cauliflower, and serve hot.

=Baked Cauliflower.=--(2) Boil a cauliflower, drain it, and put it in a baking pan. Put two ounces of butter and one ounce of flour into a saucepan, boil it, add three-quarters of a pint of milk, stir it continually, add a bay leaf, a little chopped parsley, salt, and pepper, and stand it in a bain-marie for ten minutes; take out the bay leaf, pour the sauce over the cauliflower, sprinkle it with bread-crumbs, add some bits of fresh butter, and bake it in a very hot oven for a quarter of an hour.

=Cauliflower with Mushroom Sauce.=--Cook cauliflower (see Boiled Cauliflower) and dish on slices of toast. Have ready the following sauce: Six mushrooms finely chopped, a little pepper and salt. Put two ounces of butter in a saucepan, put in the mushrooms, draw to one side, and simmer slowly for ten minutes or till quite tender, stir in one tablespoonful of flour, add half a pint of milk or vegetable stock. Stir till smooth and until it bubbles free from the side of the pan, then if liked one tablespoonful of cream or one yolk of egg may be added, after the saucepan is off the fire. Pour over the cauliflower, and serve.

CELERY (Apium graveolens. Umbellifercæ).

Celery is a subject worth much care and attention. We prefer the smaller, better-flavoured varieties such as Sulham prize pink or Clayworth prize pink. These are both excellent sorts; the second is rather larger and does not stand the winter quite so well, but they are both infinitely superior to the great gross sticks grown for the market. Further, we are of opinion that early celery is scarcely worth eating, the plant needing the effect of frost to develop its clean crispness to the uttermost.

Nevertheless, as folk will have early celery the gardener must sow an early variety in heat in February. The seedlings need tender handling, and must be pricked into rich compost four inches distant as soon as they are large enough to handle. Move them into a cold frame and keep them growing on with plenty of air and moisture, and gradually harden them off, plant them in their trenches early as possible in May, keep them well watered, begin to earth up in July and complete the operation about the middle of August, and dig in September as required.

The main crop should be sown in the frame late in March, the plants put out and hardened off as above, and planted in the trenches in June and July. The latest crop of all may be sown in April, treated in the same way, and pricked out in the open six inches apart on a rich, not too sunny bed, and finally transferred to the trench quite late in July.

For large varieties the trenches should be quite five feet from centre to centre; for smaller sorts four feet is a minimum distance. The trench should be eighteen inches wide at the top and about fifteen at the bottom. In a trench this width there will be two rows of plants a foot apart in the row, the plants being placed W fashion. Many prefer a single row, in which case the trench need be but a foot wide at the bottom. For the main crop the trenches should be two spades deep, for the smaller early sorts and for the late varieties half this depth will be better; in the latter case the roots will stand well above the level between the trenches after earthing up, an important consideration, as dryness is thereby promoted and the plants will better withstand winter damp and frost. A liberal supply (quite three inches) of manure should be dug deeply into the bottom of the trench before planting; it should be well trodden, and a top-dressing of soot applied. The celery plants must be carefully lifted with a trowel, a few at a time, so as to avoid a check, any side shoots must be trimmed off, and any blotched leaves, and they must be carefully and firmly planted in the trench. A thorough soaking of water must be given immediately after planting, whether it is raining or not.

Celery must be kept well watered through dry weather, and water in which soot has been soaking must be sprinkled through a rose at least once a week, in order to check the celery fly. The attack of the celery fly will cause leaves to blister and turn brown in blotches; these blisters contain a maggot and must be picked off and burned.

The first earthing up of main crop celery is done in dry weather, late in August. The plants should be lightly tied together with bast; any side shoots must be removed and the trench weeded. With the spade chop down the sides of the trench and draw the earth up to the celery to the height of about six inches. This earthing up must be repeated two or three times at intervals of about ten days; the bast should be cut away as it will interfere with the growth of the plant if left tied. Great care must be exercised to prevent any grains of earth trickling down into the heart of the plant.

When finished, the earth should come well up to the neck of the plant and the ridge be neatly finished off with rather sloping top in order to throw off the winter wet. During frost a covering of dry fern laid along the top of the ridge will very greatly help to prevent the plants from rotting.

CELERY DISHES.