Part 3

=Boiled Globe Artichokes.=--Cut off the tips of the leaves and round off the bottoms. Remove the stalks and trim away the outer leaves. Soak for half an hour in salt water, washing thoroughly. Boil until tender in a large quantity of salted water, put into a serving dish, dot with butter, and heat till the butter is melted, and serve. Hollandaise sauce can be served with them.

=Boiled Italian Artichokes.=--Cut off the stems and boil till tender in salted water. Cut in half from top to bottom and serve to each person. Pass with them Hollandaise sauce. The scales must be stripped off and the soft end dipped into the sauce and eaten. The fuzzy part should be scraped off and the bottom eaten with a fork.

=Artichokes à la Babette.=--Put green artichokes into water and remove the choke. Trim the leaves neatly, parboil five minutes in salt water, and drain. Put into a buttered casserole, season with salt and pepper, and add a little butter. Cover and cook in a moderate oven for twenty-five minutes. This can be served with Hollandaise sauce.

=Fried Artichokes.=--Cut off the leaves and trim away the choke part. Chill on ice. Make a batter of half a cupful of flour, a pinch of salt, and baking powder, mix with a cupful of milk and a beaten egg. Cut each artichoke into pieces, season with salt and pepper, dip in the batter, and fry in deep fat, drain, and serve with any kind of sauce.

=Stuffed Artichokes.=--Clean and trim the artichokes, boil in salted water until tender, drain, scoop out the soft part with a spoon, season with a cupful of chopped nuts, salt, pepper, melted butter, and lemon juice. Put the artichokes into a buttered baking dish, fill with nuts, tie into shape with string, add two cupfuls of stewed and drained tomatoes, a sliced onion, a pinch of salt, and a tablespoonful of butter. Bake slowly for an hour, basting frequently with the liquid. Take off the strings and strain the sauce, and serve.

=Stuffed Fonds of Artichokes.=--Cook eight artichoke bottoms in boiling water, drain, season with salt and pepper, fill with nuts, sprinkle with crumbs, dot with butter, and bake for ten minutes, basting with butter, and serve in the same dish.

=Artichokes à la Crême.=--Trim the artichokes and soak for half an hour in cold water and a little vinegar water to cover, rinse in fresh water and cook in salted water until tender. Drain and reheat in a cream sauce. An egg beaten and the juice of a lemon or a few drops of vinegar may be added.

=Artichokes à la Mode.=--Prepare and trim four or more artichokes, put into a saucepan with two tablespoonfuls of butter, the juice of a lemon, a pinch each of salt and pepper. Simmer until tender, drain, and brown in the oven. Put into the pan in which they were cooked two tablespoonfuls of butter, one heaped tablespoonful of flour, stir well, add half a cupful of milk, and half a cupful of water. Let it boil four minutes, stirring continually. Add one wineglassful of white wine, and serve in a sauce-boat.

=Artichokes à l’Italien.=--Wash, quarter, and trim the artichokes, and boil in salt water until tender. Drain, remove and discard the chokes, arrange the artichokes on a dish with the leaves outwards, pour over a white sauce flavoured with mushrooms, and garnish with watercress.

=Artichokes à la Lyonnaise.=--Prepare and clean the artichokes, boil till tender in salt water, drain, wipe dry, fry in equal parts of butter and oil, when brown add two tablespoonfuls of flour, stir well, then half a cupful of water, and boil for three minutes, season with salt, pepper, minced parsley, and lemon juice, and serve.

Second Method.--Pull off the leaves and cut the artichokes into quarters, parboil in salt water for five minutes, drain and arrange in a thickly buttered baking dish, sprinkle with sugar, salt, and white pepper, add one wineglassful of white wine and one tablespoonful of water. Simmer slowly for three-quarters of an hour. Add one tablespoonful of butter and a little lemon juice poured over the artichokes before serving.

=Artichokes à la Pompadour.=--Cover eight artichoke bottoms with cream sauce, lay on each one a large floweret of boiled cauliflower previously boiled for a quarter of an hour, cover with more of the sauce, sprinkle with crumbs and grated cheese, dot with butter. Bake brown in a buttered pan, basting with the sauce as needed.

=Artichokes à la Provence.=--Peel the artichokes and boil in salt water until tender. Drain and serve with a cupful of brown butter sauce to which has been added the yolks of two eggs well beaten, with a teaspoonful of lemon juice. The sauce must not be allowed to boil after the eggs are added.

=Artichokes à la Tartare.=--Cut the artichoke stalks close, cut the sharp points from the leaves, removing not more than half an inch from each. Wash in cold water to which a little vinegar has been added. Drain and cook gently in salt water, drain upside down until dry, fill the hollow left by the choke with Tartare sauce or with a sauce made as follows:--Beat together half a cupful of melted butter, one tablespoonful each of lemon juice and olive oil, a little salt, finely chopped parsley, French mustard, and grated onion to season. Bring to the boil, take from the fire and pour it very slowly upon one beaten egg, stirring all the time. Pour over the artichokes and serve.

(French mustard is mustard mixed with vinegar instead of water.)

=Purée of Artichokes.=--Clean some artichoke bottoms and cook in salted water. Drain, rinse, and cut into small pieces. Reheat in a saucepan with an equal quantity of Béchamel sauce, and cook until slightly reduced. Rub through a fine sieve, season, add butter and cream, and serve.

Another Method.--Put two tablespoonfuls of butter and two tablespoonfuls of flour in a saucepan and stir for five minutes. Pour one and a half pints of boiling milk in gradually, beat well with a wooden spoon and flavour with herbs, a quarter of a teaspoonful of grated nutmeg, twelve peppercorns, a pinch of salt, and three ounces of chopped mushrooms. Cook for a quarter of an hour and rub through a fine sieve.

=Italian Dishes.=--Clean and cut the under leaves of three large globe artichokes. Boil them sufficiently to be able to pick out the chokes and put them in cold water for five minutes. Drain thoroughly, then fill the hole in the artichoke with a forcemeat made of two shallots well chopped, six mushrooms minced, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a little butter and grated nutmeg, mix well together, tie up the artichokes with string. Heat three tablespoonfuls of good olive oil in a pan, and brown them well on both sides and then place the artichokes in a fireproof dish and put a bit of butter on the top of each, bake for forty minutes in the oven, and serve. Pour any kind of sauce over them.

=Artichokes and Eggs.=--Cut off the sharp tops of young artichokes and slice them into four pieces, flour them and put them into a fireproof dish with boiling, pure olive oil. Beat up two or three eggs with some salt, pour over the artichokes, and cook till the eggs are set. Serve hot in the dish in which they were cooked.

=Fried Artichokes.=--Cut off the sharp ends of the leaves of quite young artichokes and any hard leaves off the stalks, which must be peeled. Cut the artichokes into four pieces, put them in a saucepan with butter, salt and pepper. Shake the saucepan occasionally, and when they have absorbed all the butter pour over them a cup of water to finish the cooking. Take them out, dry them, and put into a saucepan some chopped parsley, a tablespoonful of finely grated bread, and the juice of a lemon. Boil the sauce for a few minutes, then take it off the fire and add a little more water, heat again over the fire, pour over the artichokes, and serve hot.

ASPARAGUS (Asparagus officinalis. Liliaceæ).

As asparagus is a perennial plant of long life it is of great importance that the bed in which it is to spend fifteen years or more should be well prepared and suitable for it. A light sandy loam is the very best of soil for this purpose. If, however, the gardener has only heavy soil at his command, he can still grow good asparagus by providing ample drainage and by raising his asparagus beds a few inches above the level of the surrounding garden.

Ground should be prepared for asparagus in the early winter, when it must be thoroughly trenched, and left in a rough condition for the winter frosts to pulverise and open it. A good dressing of manure should be dug into the second spit.

Asparagus is generally planted far too closely, with the result that only very second-rate sticks are grown. Now a mature asparagus plant will be from three to four feet across the roots if properly grown, and this definitely points to the fact that the plants should be at least three feet apart. There is no doubt whatever that plants four feet apart will give the finest heads, and the ideal width for the beds would be three feet, with two-foot alleys between, the plants being put four feet apart down the middle of the beds. Unfortunately few gardeners (except nurserymen growing for the market) will afford this ample space, therefore we lay down as the absolute minimum distances two and a half feet between the rows, the plants the same distance in the row. By placing the plants alternately and not opposite each other in the adjoining row a little more distance apart is given.

No asparagus bed should contain more than three rows--two are plenty--as it injures the heads if the gardeners are tramping about over them gathering the crop. The edge of the bed should be at least eighteen inches distant from the nearest row of plants, and between the beds eighteen-inch alleyways should be left for traffic and cultural purposes.

Since asparagus is four years coming to bearing size from seed, many people prefer to start a plantation with two or three year old plants, but it is difficult to transplant safely, and certainly the best plantations come from seed. This should be sown in March or April. At each point where it is wished to establish a crown three seeds should be planted an inch apart and two inches deep. When the seedlings are well up the strongest should be left and the two others pulled away.

If, however, plants are to be put out the utmost care is necessary. In the first place it is no use planting in autumn or winter. The only safe time is just when the plants are beginning to make their spring growth. If moved when they are dormant the plants will lie quietly rotting in the ground, and the gardener will be lucky if ten per cent. of autumn-moved plants survive.

March and April are the months in which to plant; February is generally too early and May is sometimes too late, though we have this year made a small plantation at the end of April every plant of which has survived. The ground is prepared for the plants by opening it out to a depth of four inches, and by means of the garden line and a rake or hoe ridges should be formed along the line the plants are to be placed. When the plants arrive from the nursery they should be at once unpacked, a few at a time, and planted forthwith, as drying winds are most injurious to the roots. The roots should be laid on and over the ridges and earth at once drawn over them. Repeat the operation, half a dozen plants at a time, until the whole is finished. Earth should be returned from the alleys till the beds stand some four inches above them, and all raked level and tidy. The crowns should not be more than four inches beneath the surface of the finished bed.