Part 17

=Pumpkins and Eggs.=--Cut a small young pumpkin into rather thin slices, and fry in pure olive oil in a fireproof pan. Beat up two or three eggs, and pour them over the pumpkin. When the eggs are set serve in the pan.

=Italian Dish of Pumpkins.=--Cut twelve or more young pumpkins, about the size of an egg, into slices, removing the seeds and the pulp. Place them in an earthenware baking dish, and add some pure olive oil. Cook well over a brisk fire; add salt and pepper to taste, and some grated cheese, and serve hot.

=Pumpkin Croquettes.=--Mix one pint of mashed pumpkin or squash, half a cupful of bread-crumbs, one tablespoonful of butter, salt and pepper to season. Heat thoroughly, shape into croquettes, dip in egg and crumbs, and fry in deep fat.

=Pumpkin Cake.=--Boil, mash and cool two pumpkins, season with salt and pepper. Add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, two cupfuls of milk, two eggs well beaten, and enough flour sifted, with one tablespoonful of baking powder, to make a smooth batter. Fry by spoonfuls on a small griddle, and serve hot with white sauce.

=Baked Squash or Pumpkins.=--Cut into two-inch pieces, remove the seeds and strings, put into a baking pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake, basting with molasses and melted butter. Keep covered during the first half hour. Serve in the shells, or cut in halves and bake, covered, for two hours, remove from the shell, mash, and season with salt and pepper.

=Pumpkin Custard.=--Boil and mash a squash, season with salt, pepper and butter, and add two beaten eggs with half a cupful of milk. Mix thoroughly, put into a buttered baking dish, and bake in a moderate oven until puffed and brown; it must not boil, or the custard will crack and be watery.

=Escalloped Pumpkin.=--Cut crook-neck squashes into slices; peel and boil in salted water for fifteen minutes; drain and put into a buttered baking dish in layers, seasoning each layer with sugar, grated nutmeg, and bits of butter. Pour over half a cupful water and bake for one hour. Serve in a baking dish.

=Baked Pumpkins.=--Peel, boil and mash, two small squashes. Cool, add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, two eggs well beaten, half a cupful of cream or milk, salt and pepper to season. Turn into a buttered baking dish, sprinkle with crumbs, dot with butter, and bake for half an hour. Three squashes may be used, if a cupful of milk is added.

=Stuffed Pumpkins.=--Simmer two small summer squashes for ten minutes in boiling water to cover. Cut in halves, scrape out the pulp, remove the seeds, and press dry. Chop an onion finely, and add two cupfuls of shelled shrimps; fry in lard, with a chopped tomato, a bit of bay leaf and thyme, parsley and garlic to season. Add a cupful of crumbs, the squash-pulp, salt and pepper to season, and one egg well beaten. Mix to a smooth paste, fill the shells, cover with buttered crumbs, and bake until brown. Lobster may be used instead of the shrimps.

HORSE-RADISH (Cochlearia Armoracia. Ord. Cruciferæ).

Once in the ground, there is no doubt about having this relish to the roast beef of old England. Indeed horse-radish is so much of a weed that, as with Jerusalem artichokes, it had better be grown in some otherwise waste corner of the garden where it will not interfere with other crops.

Slips of the roots should be planted in February or March in rows twenty inches apart, the plants eighteen inches in the row. The ground should be deeply dug and well manured. The plants will stand through two seasons without deterioration.

DISHES.

=Scraped Horse-Radish.=--Wash and scrape the root as you would a carrot, then with a sharp knife cut thin curling strips lengthwise from the thick end down to the point of the root. These are used as a decoration and adjunct of roast beef, served in heaps round the dish.

=Horse-Radish Sauce.=--Wash and scrape the horse-radish, then grate as much as is required, standing in a strong draught if possible that the pungent aroma may be drawn away, or the tears will flow freely. To two tablespoonfuls of grated horse-radish add an equal quantity of cream, a little pepper and salt, a teaspoonful of sugar, and one tablespoonful of vinegar, added slowly, lest it curdle.

If required with hot beef, the sauce may be made hot in a double saucepan, or in a bain-marie, but it must not boil.

KALE (see under Cabbage).

KOHL-RABI (Brassica Caulo-rapa. Cruciferæ).

This may either be sown where it is to stand, in rows fifteen inches apart, or better, in a seed bed in April and transplanted in May or June to its final home. Besides providing a turnip-like swelling of the stem, the greens treated in late winter, like turnip tops, are quite delicious.

Kohl-rabi is prepared and cooked in the same way as turnips and carrots, and the recipes given for these may be adapted for the cooking of this vegetable.

DISHES.

=Italian Dish.=--Take four kohl-rabis, one head of white cabbage, one head of kale, and some beetroot leaves, cutting away the stalks and the ribs. Cut the kohl-rabi into small pieces, and tear the leaves into bits. Wash well and put them into a saucepanful of water, with a little minced parsley, and salt to taste. Boil for one hour, then pour away nearly all the water, leaving just enough to cover the vegetables. Add one pint of milk--cream is of course better--and boil for fifteen minutes. Meanwhile pound twenty leaves of basil and one clove of garlic in a mortar; mix with two ounces of grated cheese and three or four tablespoonfuls of pure olive oil. Put one half of this into the soup when it has boiled for fifteen minutes, and the rest just before serving.

=Cream Kohl-Rabi.=--Peel a kohl-rabi; slice and soak in cold water for half an hour. Drain, cover with cold water, and cook until tender. Drain, and pour over sauce to which has been added the well-beaten yolk of an egg.

=Kohl-Rabi à l’Espagnol.=--Trim and quarter a small kohl-rabi, and cook until tender in salted water to cover, adding a little butter. Drain, and reheat in a well-buttered espagnol sauce.

=Stewed Kohl-Rabi.=--(1) Put the tops in cold water. Peel and quarter the roots. Cover with cold salted water and boil until tender. Chop the greens fine, fry in butter, and add the roots cut into dice. Season with salt and pepper, add a cupful of stock, and thicken with flour which has been browned in butter.

(2) Wash, peel, and cut into dice a quart of kohl-rabis, and cook in salted water until tender. Cook the tops in another pan of boiling water until tender. Drain and chop very finely. Cook two tablespoonfuls of flour in butter, add one cupful of soup or stock, and the chopped greens. When smooth and thick, add the cooked dice, reheat and serve.

LEEK (Allium Porrum. Liliaceæ).

The leek is useful in almost any size; even the smallest go well in soup; but to be enjoyed it should be well grown. A long growing season is indispensable to make good roots, and it is also of great importance that the leeks should be kept growing through dry weather, or they may prove tough and indigestible.