Part 13

=Waldorf Salad.=--Equal parts of apple and celery cubed, served on lettuce with walnuts peeled, and sliced cold hard-boiled eggs, with dressing poured over it.

=Stewed Celery.=--Cut into inch-lengths enough celery to make a quart. Cover with boiling salted water and cook slowly for half an hour. Drain the celery and strain the cooking liquid. Thicken one cupful of the liquid with a tablespoonful each of butter and flour cooked together, season with salt and pepper, reheat the drained celery in the sauce, and serve. Add a little cream to the sauce if desired.

=Celery Sandwiches.=--Very finely shredded celery. Cream, salt and pepper, thin slices of buttered white bread.

Moisten the celery slightly with the cream, season to taste. Place a thin layer between the slices of bread and butter, decorate with sprigs of parsley and serve.

=Celery with Bread Sauce.=--Boil four heads of celery until tender, in salted water to cover, and drain. Boil a sliced onion until tender, in a pint of milk, strain the milk and cook in it enough soft bread-crumbs to make a smooth sauce. Cut the celery into short lengths and reheat in the sauce, seasoning with salt, pepper, and a heaped teaspoonful of butter.

=Celery Fritters.=--Make a batter of two eggs, one cupful of milk, a tablespoonful of melted butter, one cupful of flour, and a pinch of salt. Boil until tender in salted water stalks of celery cut into four-inch lengths, drain, cool, and dry. Dip in batter, fry in deep fat, drain, and serve with Hollandaise sauce.

=Celery with Cream.=--Cut some celery into small pieces about two inches long, wash them and dry them on a napkin, blanch them and drain. Stir two ounces of fresh butter, a tablespoonful of flour, and half a pint of good vegetable stock; add the celery and simmer for twenty minutes, beat up two yolks of eggs with half a teacupful of cream, and a pinch of grated nutmeg; stir this into the celery, being careful not to let it boil again; serve very hot with croûtons.

=To Fry Celery.=--Prepare the celery as above, boil in salted boiling water for a quarter of an hour, then dry on a napkin; beat a fresh egg, stir into it one tablespoonful of flour and one cupful of hot vegetable stock, add salt and pepper, put the pieces of celery into the batter, and then roll them in bread-crumbs and fry in butter.

=Celery with Parmesan Cheese.=--Cook some whole heads of celery as above, when drained lay them in a dish, sprinkle with finely grated Parmesan cheese, pour melted fresh butter over them, put them into the oven till they have taken a good colour, add a little gravy, and serve.

=Escalloped Celery.=--Chop celery very fine, or cut in half-inch lengths, and cook until tender in boiling salted water to cover. Drain and reheat in a cream or white sauce. Put into a buttered baking dish in layers, sprinkling each layer with grated cheese or crumbs, or both crumbs and grated cheese. Have crumbs and cheese on the top, dot with butter, and brown in the oven.

=Purée of Celery.=--Cut into small pieces four heads of celery, and put into a saucepan with a sliced onion and half a cupful of butter, simmer slowly until tender, then add half a cupful of flour, made smooth with a little cold milk, and cook until smooth and thick, add two cupfuls of milk, stirring constantly. Press through a sieve, season with salt, pepper, a very little sugar, and butter, and moisten to the proper consistency with cream.

=Celery Slaw.=--Mix two cupfuls of finely-cut celery with the beaten yolk of an egg, a tablespoonful each of butter, cream, and vinegar, a teaspoonful of sugar, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly, cover tightly, and keep hot, without cooking for twenty minutes. Serve either hot or cold.

CELERIAC.

Celeriac, or turnip-rooted celery, is an admirable vegetable not nearly enough grown in this country. It requires exactly the same treatment as main-crop celery, except that it is planted on the flat two feet apart in every way. The ground should be richly prepared, and should be kept weeded by means of the Dutch hoe; the action of this admirable tool results in a most excellent friable state of the surface soil, admitting air and preventing evaporation; indeed a good Dutch hoeing is equivalent to a thorough soaking of water. The celery fly will attack the celeriac in exactly the same way as it does celery proper, and the same precautions must be used against it. Celeriac stands frost well, and may be dug as required through the autumn and winter.

CHERVIL (Scandix Cerefolium. Umbelliferæ).

Sow in shallow drills a foot apart and thin to a foot in the row. Early spring is a good time to sow; the seed will germinate all the year round; probably a couple of sowings four months apart will provide sufficient. The leaves are used rather sparingly in salads, and for various flavouring purposes.

TURNIP-ROOTED CHERVIL (Chærophyllum bulbosum. Umbelliferæ).

This is one of the subjects whose seed must be sown as soon as ripe. There are expedients for keeping it unspoilt until spring, but it is better to sow in August, in drills a foot apart. Thin the plants to three inches, and later thin again to nine inches apart.

The roots are perfectly hardy, and will be ready to use from September onwards the year after the seed is sown.

The roots are eaten boiled in the way of parsnips.

DISHES.

=Herb Soup.=--Sorrel, eschalot, chervil, a little mint and parsley. Boil all for a few minutes in a pint of milk. Add a good piece of butter and salt to season. Boil all together for a minute, then pour it over some crusts of bread in a soup tureen.

=Vegetable and Cream Soup.=--Boil three lettuce heads, four heads of celery, two onions, a handful of chervil, a little sorrel, tarragon, and thyme, in one quart of water till well stewed. Strain off the heads half an hour before dinner; let the soup cool, and add one pint of fresh cream, or quarter of a pint of cream and make up to a pint with milk, with the yolks of three eggs; stir well, put it on the fire to heat, and do not let it boil.

=Chervil Summer Salad.=--(1) Take two large cucumbers and one head of celery; peel and slice, add a bunch of red radishes, six cold boiled, young globe artichokes, cut into quarters, sprinkle with finely chopped chervil, mix, and pour mayonnaise sauce over just before serving.

(2) Take three heads of fresh lettuces, one of celery, a little chopped tarragon and chervil, and one or two carrots. Dress with five tablespoonfuls of pure olive oil, two of white wine vinegar, one small teaspoonful of salt, and half a teaspoonful of pepper. Stir well before serving. Cold boiled haricot beans or green peas are a good addition.

Freshly chopped chervil can be added to any salad with advantage. It is especially good with small boiled potatoes cut in slices, served with either oil and vinegar or mayonnaise sauce.

CHICORY (Cichorium Intybus. Compositæ).

The seeds are sown in June in shallow drills in pretty rich ground. The drills should be nine inches apart, and the plants thinned to three inches. When wanted in winter the roots are lifted, the leaves trimmed off an inch from the crown, and the roots stacked in dry earth or sand in a dark cellar or frost-free pit. A sprinkle of water will start them into growth, and with no other trouble the blanched leaves may be gathered in about four weeks’ time.