Part 5

=Ragout of Asparagus.=--Chop finely a little parsley, two or three young onions, and a few leaves of lettuce, fry them brown in butter, dredge with flour, add a cupful of water, and salt and pepper to season. Reheat the cooked asparagus in this sauce, sprinkle with grated nutmeg, and serve very hot.

=Asparagus= (American Recipe).--Take thick slices of bread about two inches thick, and stamp them out into neat rounds with a biscuit cutter; with a smaller cutter mark a circle in the centre of each, round and scoop out the crumbs to the depth of an inch, taking care to leave the sides and bottom quite firm; arrange these in a shallow dish and pour over them half a pint of milk to which a beaten egg has been added. Then take up carefully and fry in a frying basket in a pan of boiling fat. They will brown immediately, and must be removed when a pale golden brown; drain on kitchen paper. Cut the tender part of the asparagus into pieces of an equal size, rejecting that which is woody. Wash, and simmer in salted water until tender, and drain. Put a heaped tablespoonful of butter into a saucepan with a heaped tablespoonful of flour, then add a quarter of a pint of the water in which the asparagus was cooked; let it come to the boil and add the asparagus, the juice of a lemon, and one teaspoonful of finely chopped parsley. Fill the canapes with this mixture and arrange on a dish and garnish with cress or parsley and sliced lemon.

=Asparagus à la Tartare.=--Cool cooked asparagus on ice, and serve very cold with mayonnaise or Tartare sauce.

=Tartare Sauce.=--Mix six tablespoonfuls of olive oil, two of vinegar, two teaspoonfuls of French mustard, salt and pepper to taste, and a pinch of sugar. Bring to the boil and pour hot over boiled and drained asparagus. Cover, stand on ice, and serve very cold.

=Asparagus à la Tyson.=--Boil the asparagus in salted water, drain, cut the strings, and arrange on buttered toast. Cook together a tablespoonful each of butter and flour, add a cupful of the water in which the asparagus was boiled, and cook until thick, stirring constantly. Season with salt, red and black pepper, and pour over the asparagus and serve.

BASIL (Ocymum Basilicum. Labiatæ).

Sow in pans in a hotbed in April. Transplant in May into a light, rich border, setting the plants nine inches apart. The flower stems should be cut as soon as ready and dried for winter use, in the way of lavender. They are used for seasoning, as also are the young leaves, which the plants will continue to grow until the frosts.

BROAD BEAN (Vicia Faba. Leguminosæ).

Broad beans may be grown in any good garden soil, but they prefer a rich, well-drained loam. A sandy loam will produce early and mid-season crops, but will be found to be too hot for late crops; while a heavy soil is more suited to mid-season and late crops than to early ones.

The ground for beans should be prepared early in the autumn, and in light soils plenty of manure trenched in will keep the plants growing through a dry season. In a light soil a sowing may be made during open weather in mid-December. This early sowing gives the beans time to get their roots well down, out of the reach of drought, and will yield in June, but about once in five years frost and damp will destroy the whole sowing.

In normal soils February is perhaps early enough to make the first sowing, and in heavier ground, March. Where there is plenty of space, if late beans are in great request, sowings may be made till mid-June in heavy soils, but in moderately light ground it is not worth while to sow after April. March and April are the best months, however, in the generality of gardens for successional sowings.

Where an extra early supply is needed, sow in boxes in gentle heat, early in February; grow on in cold frames as soon as up; harden off and plant out early in March. A sheltered and warm border must be chosen for this planting, and the plants should be set in rows two feet apart, the plants six inches in the row. This procedure should provide broad beans about the 14th of June.

Some gardeners plant beans with a dibber, but it is much better practice to open out a trench six inches wide with the hoe, and place the beans in this trench in two rows, the beans nine inches apart in the row, and set W fashion. This method ensures the seed being planted at an even depth, and obviates any poaching of the soil by the dibber, which always tends to leave a cylindrical hole with compressed sides. The double rows of beans should be thirty inches apart.

In June, when the beans are well in flower, they are too often attacked by the black aphis. This may be washed off and killed by syringing with an emulsion of soft soap and paraffin. It is good practice to break off the infected tops and burn them. Topping the plants will be no detriment, but will throw the strength back into the pods already forming. Finally, gather the beans as soon as they are at all large enough to cook; old beans are good, but young beans are far better.

DISHES.

=Boiled Broad Beans= are best when gathered young, about two-thirds grown; the flavour is then very delicate. Some consider this plan wasteful, but it is not so, really, as if one waits for the crop to attain its full size, an enormous quantity of beans are ready at once. By beginning early one can keep pace with nature.

Shell the beans, and put them into boiling water with one tablespoonful of salt and a very small piece of soda. Boil for ten minutes if very young, increasing the length of time as they grow older. Drain and heap up on a drainer, pour over parsley sauce, and serve very hot.

=Parsley Sauce.=--Pick and wash some fresh parsley, dip into boiling water for a minute, place in the corner of a towel, and wring out. This process eliminates some of the bitter flavour, and saves the trouble of boiling the parsley. Chop with a Lightning Mince Cutter. Make a good white sauce (see Sauces), put in the chopped parsley, stir well, and pour over the beans.

=Polenta Beans.=--Boil two cupfuls of haricot or butter beans, which have soaked overnight, until soft, drain, add two tablespoonfuls of molasses, a teaspoonful each of salt, mustard, and olive oil, pepper to taste, and a little vinegar. Cook in a baking dish in the oven for twenty minutes and serve very hot.

=Cream Beans.=--Soak one pint of haricot or butter beans overnight in cold water, drain and boil until soft in salted water. Haricots will take two or three hours, butter beans about one and a half hours. Press through a sieve, and mix with a sufficient quantity of cream sauce to make very soft, season with salt and pepper, add two eggs well beaten, turn into a buttered baking dish, sprinkle with crumbs, dot with butter, and bake brown.

=Broad Bean Pudding.=---When broad beans get too old for eating plain, boil them and rub them through a sieve, pound smoothly with a little pepper and salt, some cream, and the yolk of one egg, boil one hour in a buttered basin that will just hold the mixture, and serve with parsley sauce.

=French Bean Curry.=--Cook your beans and drain, and when cold add other cold vegetables that may be left over, carrots, peas, &c., mix them with butter and onions, previously cooked together, add a teaspoonful of curry powder and a little flour, let them simmer a long time, adding a little stock as the moisture dries up, then serve as a curry, with well-boiled rice separately.

=Haricot Beans.=--Soak twelve hours, boil three hours, and serve with piquant sauce.

=Broad Beans= (South American Dish).--Take one pint of shelled beans, and put them into boiling water. Boil rapidly for six or seven minutes, then drain and skin them. Put into a stewpan one ounce of butter and a small onion finely chopped, let them sweat for five minutes. Add six button mushrooms finely chopped and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, stir in an ounce of flour and a little salt and pepper, a teaspoonful of lemon juice and a teacupful of boiling water; add the beans, and simmer gently for fifteen minutes; just before serving add a wineglassful of sherry.

=Bean Soufflé= (Haricot).--Soak two cupfuls of dry haricot beans overnight, and boil until soft in water to cover, about three hours, changing the water once. Drain, press through a sieve, season with salt and pepper, add a little butter, and four tablespoonfuls of hot milk, and mix well. Fold in the stiffly beaten whites of two eggs, turn into a buttered baking dish, bake for twenty minutes.

=Bean Croquettes= (Haricot).--Boil two cupfuls of butter or haricot beans until soft, two or three hours, drain, press through a sieve, season with salt and red pepper, and add one tablespoonful each of molasses and vinegar, mix thoroughly, cool and shape into croquettes, dip in egg and bread-crumbs, fry in butter, and serve with tomato sauce.

FRENCH BEANS (Phaseolus vulgaris. Leguminosæ).

French or kidney beans may be sown in April if an early sort be chosen and a sunny bed selected. The rows should be thirty inches apart, and the plants thinned to nine inches in the rows; as they will transplant well, gaps can be made up where there have been failures. For later sorts the plants should be at least a foot apart. The main sowings should be made from about the 20th of April till the end of May in light soils, in heavy ground they may be sown right through June; for later sowings choose quick-growing, forcing varieties. If climbing varieties be used the rows must be four or five feet apart, and sticks provided for the plants to climb over. Catch crops of early lettuce may be planted between the rows at the time of sowing (or the beans may be set between rows of established lettuce plants). Radishes and mustard and cress are other crops which may be grown between rows of kidney beans with advantage.