Part 31

=Stuffed Vegetable Marrow.=--Peel a medium-sized marrow, and remove the seeds, keeping the marrow whole. Prepare the following stuffing:

Two or three chopped and fried onions, six ounces blanched nuts or almonds (these should be ground, and also fried with the onions), six ounces of bread-crumbs, pepper and salt, one chopped hard-boiled egg, and one raw egg to bind the whole. Fill the marrow with this mixture, and steam for half an hour, to partly cook the marrow. Now place in a baking tin, cover with bread-crumbs, place some small pieces of butter on the top, and bake for another half hour, until the marrow is quite soft, and a nice rich brown. Serve with brown gravy.

=Stuffed Vegetable Marrow No. 2.=--Cut a marrow in half. Scoop out the pith and pips. Stuff with the following mixture:

One cupful of bread-crumbs, any ground nuts, a little sage, an ounce of boiled onions well chopped, one ounce of nutter, seasoned and mixed with a well-beaten egg. Tie the two halves with string, and bake for forty minutes in a well-greased tin. Baste frequently with nutter, and serve with brown gravy.

=Stuffed Vegetable Marrow No. 3.=--Having peeled the marrow, cut it in half, lengthways, and remove the seeds, fry some mushrooms lightly in butter, add bread-crumbs and seasoning to taste, fill the marrow with this force meat, tie the two halves together with a string, and steam them gently for about two hours over boiling water, and serve with white sauce.

=Vegetable Marrow Fillets.=--Cut the marrow into fillets. Peel, cook, and allow to get quite cold. Dip into frying batter, and cook in boiling fat. Serve with any cheese dish.

=Purée of Vegetable Marrow.=--Take six small vegetable marrows, and peel, cut in slices and put in a stewpan, with two ounces of butter. Set over a quick fire for half an hour, stirring constantly. Add two and a half pints of stock, season with pepper and salt, and boil for twenty minutes. Pass through a sieve, return to the saucepan, add three tablespoonfuls of cream. Boil for a few minutes, and serve with croûtons.

=Mashed Vegetable Marrow.=--After boiling the marrows in salted water, rub them through a fine sieve, pour the purée into a stewpan, in which there is a little melted butter, add a little cream and a little pepper, stir it over the fire for five or six minutes, dredging in a little flour to thicken it slightly. It takes half an hour to cook.

=Vegetable Marrow with Cheese.=--Peel some green marrows, and cut them in quarters (after taking out the seeds), put them in a sauté pan, with an ounce of butter, pepper, salt, and a pinch of nutmeg, put the pan on the fire for a quarter of an hour, shaking it from time to time, pour a little cream over them, and a teaspoonful of grated Parmesan cheese, put the marrow into an oblong dish, cover with bread-crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese, put it for a few minutes into a hot oven, and serve with piquant sauce.

SALAD PLANTS--BRITISH AND CONTINENTAL.

By W. F. Giles (of Messrs. Sutton & Sons, Reading).

Salads just now are recommended by the medical profession, besides being a popular dish, and so I cannot do better than give Mr. Giles’s list of plants for this purpose, though practically nearly every vegetable grown can be used for cooked or uncooked salads, the composition of which depends on the taste of the consumer.

=Australian or Golden Cress.=--Belongs to the same class as the garden cress, but the leaves are broad and almost yellow in colour, and is cultivated in exactly the same way.

=Belle Isle or American Land Cress.=--It resembles somewhat the watercress; in flavour, however, it is more pungent, but it is a useful plant as a component of salads.

=Cabbage Lettuce.=--Often seen in many gardens in the spring.

=Celeriac--Turnip-rooted Celery.=--Is not much in request in this country, although in France and America it is largely grown. It is chiefly used for soup flavouring and served cooked, although it can of course be included in salad. There are white, golden, and green forms.

=Chives--Chenopodium Amaranticolor.=--This is a plant which has only recently been heard of in England. It grows to a height of five or six feet, and produces a large quantity of succulent leaves, which are green in colour but marked with purple. In habit of growth it resembles the Orache or mountain spinach, but continues in use for a longer period. The seed can be sown in pots in the spring and transplanted, and the plants will continue to bear young leaves all through the summer and well into the autumn. A little of it can be added to the salad bowl, but it should be used sparingly.

=Lettuce.=--One of the most useful salad plants.

=Mercury or Good King Henry.=--Although usually cooked like spinach, it can be eaten in a mixed salad.

=Orache or Mountain Spinach=, of which there are the white and red varieties.--The leaves, which are large, can be used either boiled as spinach, or mixed with other ingredients as a salad.

=Pimpinella or Salad Burnet.=--Burnet is an old-fashioned herb, and is called by the French and Italians “Pimpinella.” In Italy it is so highly prized that they have a proverb which says:

“That salad is neither good or fair, If Pimpinella be not there.”

It has a very distinct flavour, and is quite easily grown. The plant is perennial, very hardy, and will grow almost anywhere. It will, in fact, continue green during the greater part of the year, and may be used in the winter when little other salad is to be had. Seed is usually sown in spring and summer, and the leaves, which are produced in great abundance, are tender, and used as salad.

=Poirée, Swiss Chard, or Leaf Beet.=--I have now enumerated most of the cultivated plants which are used for salad purposes either in this country or on the Continent, but still the list is not complete. There are various wild ones which are sometimes used; in fact it is said that the poorer French and Italians gather almost anything green and tender and use them as salads. Such things as the tops of nettles, the leaves of the wood sorrel, sweet cicely, and of the cuckooflower or ladies’ smock, of scurvy grass, nasturtiums, and of salad rocket or wild cress, besides shoots of hops, of vines, and asparagus, are all used to a greater or lesser extent in the great salad-eating countries. In addition, the foliage of salsify, tansy, borage, and caraway, the shoots of sage, and the leaves of balm, and even the pods of young peas, are sometimes brought into use; in fact, there almost seems no end to the supply of tender material which can be eaten dressed with salt, vinegar, and oil, as a good salad should be.

The great art of preparing a salad from these lesser-known plants is to so judiciously mix them that the taste of one may not overpower the remainder. The more popular subjects, such as lettuce or endive, are used as a basis, and with the addition of a little of one or more of the other plants I have mentioned, an agreeable mixture may be obtained to suit all palates. One special point, however, which is often overlooked in this country, is the fact that a salad should always be served freshly made. It is a common experience in Continental hotels or restaurants to see the waiter mixing the oil and vinegar and adding them to the salad immediately before placing it on the table. There are one or two points which are not seen to in this country. First, supposing the salad is to have lettuce for the foundation. The leaves should be torn, and not cut. If not very dirty they are simply wiped, but should it be necessary to wash them, they must be afterwards drained and tossed lightly on a soft cloth to get rid of every drop of water. In this country salading is often put to soak, thus making the leaves sodden, and being imperfectly dried, a good deal of the water goes into the salad bowl, which, according to the Continental idea, immediately spoils the mixture. Next the leaves are selected and put into the salad bowl whole, and not shredded up, as is usually done here. No steel knife should be allowed to touch them. They should then be turned about with a wooden fork whilst being sprinkled with good salad oil. Only sufficient oil should be added to moisten every leaf well. Vinegar must be added in very small quantities, the object being to give merely an appetising flavour, and not to make an acid mixture. The thing to avoid is too much dressing; if any liquid stands at the bottom of the bowl, it will cause the leaves to become sodden and discoloured. Any additional flavouring required can be obtained by adding to the lettuce small quantities of such things as finely chopped chives, tarragon, chervil, burnet, shallot, or almost any of the plants I have referred to, and a little salt and pepper to taste completes the salad.

=Purslane--Tarragon--Curled Chervil.=--Known as a herb rather than a salad plant, but is useful for the latter purpose.

=Radishes--Winter Radishes--Tomatoes--Cucumbers--Celery--Beet--Endive--Onions--Mustard and Cress--Watercress--Chicory= (or Barbe de capucin)=--Witloef--Blanched Dandelion--Finnochio= (or Florence Fennel)=--Corn Salad or Mache--Rampion= (rampions are eaten raw like radishes, or boiled and cut up into salads).

SALAD DISHES.