Part 24

=Mashed Split Peas.=--Soak a pint of split peas overnight, drain, cover with cold water, add a pinch of soda, and cook slowly for three hours or more. Strain and press the peas through a sieve, season with salt and pepper, moisten with boiling milk, and beat until smooth. Turn into a buttered baking dish and bake for one hour; serve in the same dish.

=Pea Chowder.=--Prepare according to the directions given for baked mashed peas. Add to the peas a can of corn, a cupful of milk, salt and pepper to season; cover, and cook slowly for thirty minutes, and then add a tablespoonful of butter, and serve.

=Purée of Green Peas.=--Shell four pounds of fresh green peas when they are getting old; put them in an earthenware pot, cover them with cold water, and boil for half an hour or longer with a sprig of mint. Take out one cupful of peas, rub the rest through a sieve, and mix in an earthen pot, with one quart of milk, four ounces of butter, and two tablespoonfuls of flour. Stir until the soup is thick. Add a pinch of salt and grated nutmeg, and lastly the whole peas, and serve hot.

=Peas en Croustâdes.=--Boil a quart of green peas with a sprig of mint until tender twenty minutes to half an hour. Make a sauce of one cupful of milk, one tablespoonful of butter, the yolks of three eggs, well beaten, salt and pepper to season. Mix with the peas and fill timbâle shells or croustâdes. These are made by cutting stale bread in blocks, hollowing out the centres, and toasting or frying the shells thus made. Half a cupful of boiled carrots cut into dice, fried in butter, and seasoned with a few drops of lemon juice may be added to the peas.

=Pea Cakes= (Dried Peas).--Boil three cupfuls of peas in salted water until tender, and put through a sieve, seasoning with salt, pepper, and butter. Make a batter of one cupful of milk, two beaten eggs, and half a cupful of flour sifted with half a teaspoonful of baking powder. Stir the pulp into the batter, mixing thoroughly, and fry by spoonfuls in deep fat.

=Curry of Green Peas and Potatoes.=--Two or more parboiled potatoes, cut into dice, a pint of boiled green peas, an onion chopped very finely, an apple peeled and chopped in small dice, a teaspoonful of curry powder, a tablespoonful of mixed pickles chopped, and a tablespoonful of chutney. Put two ounces of butter in a saucepan, add the chopped onion and curry powder, cook slowly, stirring frequently till the onion is quite tender; stir in a tablespoonful of flour, add a breakfast-cupful of vegetable stock, or water and milk in equal parts. Let all simmer together for five minutes, add the peas, potatoes, apples, pickles, and chutney, draw to one side, and simmer slowly for twenty minutes or longer. Serve on a very hot dish with a border of boiled rice.

=Sauté Green Peas.=--Boil a pint of shelled peas in a stewpan in a quart of boiling water; add a very little green mint, a teaspoonful of salt and a pinch of moist sugar, when the peas are tender, about twenty minutes, drain the water from them and add half an ounce of fresh butter, and a pinch of caster sugar and a little pepper, toss them over the fire for a few minutes and serve.

=Petits Pois= (Bottled Peas).--Put the peas into a saucepan, with a lump of butter and a little salt. Place on the fire, and stir with a wooden spoon; add ten or twelve very tiny onions and the small heart of a lettuce. Simmer for an hour without water, add a little sugar and more butter, and serve.

=Boiled Dried Peas.=--Wash the peas, and soak them in water for twelve hours; then drain off the water and put them into boiling water with a little salt and a pinch of soda; keep the pan on the side of the fire, and simmer for two hours; drain them, and put them in a clean saucepan, with one ounce of butter, and a little pepper and salt, scatter some finely chopped parsley over them, and serve very hot.

=Green Pea Omelette.=--Make an omelette in the usual way, adding two or three tablespoonfuls of milk and two or three drops of onion juice; put two tablespoonfuls of young boiled peas into the middle of the omelette when finished and fold over on a very hot dish garnished with young boiled peas.

=Bottle Peas.=--Fill large-mouthed glass bottles with young, freshly gathered shelled peas; add a good teaspoonful of salt and half a gill of water, cold; screw on the metal tops tightly, and tie a wisp of straw round each bottle to prevent them cracking each other before putting them in a stock pot filled up with hot water; boil fast for half an hour, then take them off the fire. When the bottles are cold, test them whether any of them leak; keep the bottles in a dry, cool place.

POTATO (Solanum tuberosum. Solanaceæ).

In the small garden the early potato is the only one worth finding room for. As a rule the main crop potato can be bought as cheaply as it can be grown, and as good. But a newly dug young potato from one’s own patch is incomparably better than the product of the Channel Islands as it reaches the table.

Good, wholesome, light, rich soil will grow a good early potato. Last year’s celery bed will make good ground for either peas or potatoes, but to grow potatoes well, the ground needs plenty of manure. We give it rather an extra dose in the small garden, because our economy of space makes it necessary to grow the Brussels sprouts between the potato rows.

The gardener will learn by experiment what variety suits his soil best, but one with dwarf, compact haulm is to be preferred on account of the sprouts, which will have to fight for their share of light and air for a good month. Myatt’s Early Ashleaf is such a variety; but whatever the kind chosen, the tubers should be placed, early in February, in a light place exposed to full sun, but protected from frost. This will induce them to start into growth, and push up dark green or purple shoots that are plump and sturdy. A sprinkling with tepid water hastens the process, but they must not be kept watered. On no account must they be allowed to shoot forth in the dark, or lank anæmic growth will result that will be perfectly useless.

As Brussels sprouts may have to grow among the potatoes, the rows must be thirty inches asunder. Do not plant with a dibber--it results in uneven growth--but open trenches with the hoe across the ground. These should be four inches deep. The seed potatoes should be cut, the larger tubers making into two or more sets, each with a good shoot on it, or at least a plump and promising “eye,” but even the small ones should have a piece cut away in order to promote the rapid decay of the substance of the tuber, and its sending its goodness into root and top. The sets should be placed a foot apart in the trenches and the earth returned, either with the hoe, or merely scuffled in with the feet.

As soon as the green shoots show sufficiently above the ground to indicate the rows clearly, earth should be drawn up to them from either side, ridging up the rows, and covering the green shoots about an inch. No time is to be lost in performing this operation, as by this means the tender shoots will be protected from the spring frosts. A week or ten days later this will have to be repeated, and early in May, say about the 10th, it must be done a third and final time.

Nothing now remains but to wait for cropping time, and to hope no late frost may cut the tops down. The first dish of young potatoes should be dug in the second week of June, and by the 10th of July the crop should be ready for lifting. Do not wait for the haulm to die down before doing this, but as soon as the tubers have come to their full growth choose a fine, hot, dry day, and dig the whole crop up. Shake the potatoes free from adhering soil, and clear away the haulm, and leave them lying on the sun-baked ground for several hours for the tender skins to harden before removing them to the tool-shed floor, where they may lie not more than a couple of days, secure from dew or rain, to ripen off before storing.

The haulm should at once be burned with other rubbish, as we do not want it to lie about and rot, and form excellent harbourage for germs of the potato disease, which may linger in the ground for years.

Main crop potatoes are planted in the same way as early ones, the rows should never be less than thirty inches apart, and the sets should be fifteen to eighteen inches in the row; when the stems are well up they should be earthed up, and this operation may be repeated. The crop will be ready for lifting in September or October, according to the variety. The potato disease, which has destroyed so many thousands of tons of tubers, can be almost certainly guarded against. The potato tops should be sprayed with Bordeaux mixture in mid-June, and again six weeks later, whether the disease has manifested itself or not. This is practically a specific, and in some of our colonies a farmer who neglected this precaution, and so allowed his crop to become infected and infectious, would have an exceedingly poor time when he met his brother growers; it ought to be so in England.

POTATO DISHES.

=To Boil Potatoes.=--Winter potatoes differ so much in quality and habit that different varieties require different treatment. If they turn black when cooked, or fall away outside before the heart is tender, try them steamed in their jackets, or steamed without.

In England boiling the peeled potato is the universal custom, but in Ireland they are wiser, and cook the tuber in the skin.

Wash the potatoes thoroughly, put into clean water, and peel with a sharp knife; let the peel be as thin as possible, as the best part of a potato lies near the outside; turn the tuber while peeling, this greatly facilitates the process; cut out the eyes with a pointed knife; plunge into abundance of cold water to cover. Put into a saucepan of boiling water, a teaspoonful of salt to half a gallon of water, cook for half an hour or a little less; drain off the water, put on one side of the stove for five minutes, shaking constantly, dish very hot, and serve. If it is necessary to keep them hot for some time, do not let them remain in the water, but after draining draw to one side, and put a clean towel, folded up in the pan, so as to absorb the steam.

=Steamed Potatoes.=--Prepare as for boiling, steam for three-quarters of an hour; ten minutes before they are done, sprinkle a little salt over them. Arrange neatly on the dish, and send to table very hot.

=Steamed Potatoes in their Jackets.=--Wash thoroughly, and leave them to dry for a short time; then with a sharp knife make an incision round the middle, steam for three-quarters of an hour, and before sending to table remove the skins; these readily strip off in two parts. Be careful to keep the potatoes hot.

=Baked Potatoes.=--Wash thoroughly, and leave them to dry for an hour; then prick them and bake for an hour and a half in a moderate oven. A longer time may be required if the potatoes are very large. Choose tubers of equal size, and rather large. Up-to-Dates are the best bakers. Send to table, with a napkin folded in the dish, but on no account put a cover on; this would make them limp and dull.

=Brown Potatoes.=--Wash, peel, and dry the potatoes; cut to an equal size. Put them in a dripping-tin, containing about an inch of melted butter, or nutter; let it boil before the potatoes are put in, baste occasionally, and when they have been in half an hour turn them over and brown the other side; they will take an hour or more, according to their size. Drain on kitchen paper, and serve in a hot tureen.