Part 7

=Boiled Beetroot.=--Select small, smooth beets and clean without cutting or scraping them. Boil for an hour or two, and cool. Remove the skins, cut them into slices, and serve either cold, or reheat in melted butter with salt, pepper, vinegar, chopped parsley and a little chopped, boiled onion added to season it.

=Stewed Beetroot.=--Prepare according to the direction given for boiled beets, and cut into thin slices. Cook together a tablespoonful each of butter and flour, add a cupful of water and a tablespoonful of vinegar. Cook until thick, stirring constantly. Season with salt and pepper, heat the beets in the sauce, and serve with small button onions parboiled, and fried brown in butter and sugar.

Another method.--Prepare according to directions given for boiled beets. When peeled and sliced reheat, with salt, pepper and vinegar to taste, a boiled onion chopped fine, and a little minced parsley; add a little flour cooked in butter and simmer slowly for fifteen minutes, stirring frequently.

=Cream Beets.=--Cook small white beets in salted water until tender. Rinse in cold water, rub off the skins, and reheat in cream sauce, or cut boiled beet into dice and mix with the sauce, adding more butter.

=Crême Sauce.=--A mixture of Béchamel Sauce. (See Sauce, p. 208.) Let it cool and then add two tablespoonfuls of cream and the yolk of one egg.

=Baked Beets.=--Wash without peeling, and bake slowly until done. Remove the skin, cut into slices, and season with melted butter, salt, and pepper. Serve very hot, with a little vinegar or sugar added to the seasoning, or serve whole with seasoned, melted butter.

=Beets with Sour Sauce.=--Prepare according to directions given for boiled beets, blend a heaped teaspoonful of cornflour with a little cold water, mix with a scant cupful of vinegar, bring to the boil, and cook till thick, stirring constantly. Add a teaspoonful each of butter and sugar to the sauce, and season with salt and pepper. Pour over the beets, and serve very hot in a covered dish. Less vinegar may be used, adding water as needed, and the sugar can be omitted also.

=Pickled Beets.=--(1) Wash small beets, but do not cut or scrape them. Cover with boiling water and boil until tender. Drain, rinse in cold water. Rub off the peel with your fingers, cut into slices, sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover with vinegar and let them stand for several hours before using. Serve cold.

(2) Boil two cupfuls of vinegar with a few cloves and peppercorns, a blade of mace, a tiny bit of ginger root. Take from the fire and add two cupfuls more of vinegar, and cool. Two tablespoonfuls of grated horse-radish and sugar to taste may be added. Prepare the beets according to directions given for boiled beets, and when peeled and sliced cover with the spiced vinegar. Let these stand for several hours before using.

=Beets with Pink Sauce.=--Prepare according to directions given for boiled beets. Peel and cut into dice, saving the juice. Make a drawn-butter sauce, seasoning with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Reheat the beets in the sauce until the sauce is coloured.

=Beet Sauté.=--Prepare according to directions given for boiled beets. When peeled and sliced fry in butter, seasoning with pepper and sugar, serve hot.

=Beets Green.=--Use young beets, no larger than a walnut. Don’t cut off the tops. Wash thoroughly in several waters, using salt water first. Cook quickly in salted water until tender, drain, cut off the tops, and skin the beets by plunging into cold water and rubbing off the skins. Drain the greens, cut them up, and mix with the beets, season with salt and pepper, add melted butter and vinegar or lemon juice. Garnish with slices of hard-boiled eggs. Serve cold.

=Beets à la Barbette.=--Wash the beets and cook in boiling salted water until tender, leaving on a portion of the stalk. Rub off the peel, slice, season with salt, pepper, and brown sugar, and a little caraway seed. Pour over vinegar to taste, and let them stand several hours before using. For a relish beets may be chopped fine and mixed with an equal quantity of grated horse-radish.

=Beets à la Béchamel.=--Prepare according to directions given for boiled beets, and reheat in Béchamel sauce.

=Beets à la Chartreuse.=--Prepare according to directions for boiled beets. Cut a very thin slice of onion for every two slices of beet, and sandwich a slice of onion between each two, pressing together gently. Season with salt, pepper and vinegar, dip in butter, and fry slowly in deep fat, or butter, or oil.

=Beets à la St. Laurence.=--Previously prepare according to boiled beets. Fry a chopped onion in butter, dredge with flour, add two cupfuls of vegetable stock or milk, and cook until thick, stirring constantly. Add the beets, salt and pepper to taste, and cook for ten minutes; add two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of vinegar, bring to the boil, and serve.

=Beet-greens or Tops à l’Anglaise.=--Wash thoroughly and pick apart tender young beet tops. Cook until tender in a covered saucepan, using only enough melted butter to keep from burning. When tender, season with pepper and salt, add melted butter. Garnish with sliced hard-boiled eggs.

BORAGE (Boraginaceæ).

Sow in March and April in any ordinary garden soil in shallow drills a foot apart. Thin out the seedlings to a foot apart and keep the ground hoed between. The young leaves are used for claret, champagne, ginger ale cups, and as flavouring and garnishing for salads.

=Borecole or Kale.=--For culture, see under Cabbage.

=Broccoli.=--For culture, see under Cabbage.

BROCCOLI DISHES.

=Boiled Broccoli.=--To each half gallon of water allow one tablespoonful of salt and a tiny bit of soda; strip off the outside leaves, cut off the inside ones level with the flower; cut off the stalks close to the bottoms, and put the broccoli into cold salted water or vinegar and water, heads downwards, let them remain for about three-quarters of an hour, then put them into a saucepan of boiling water salted in the above proportion, and keep them boiling gently with the stalks upwards and the saucepan uncovered. Take up with a slice the moment they are done, drain well, and serve with a tureen of melted butter, a little of which should be poured over the broccoli. If left in the water after it is done the broccoli will break, its colour will be spoilt, and its crispness lost. If boiled too fast it will break.

Note.--It is a good plan to place a small piece of toast or bread in the saucepan in which green vegetables are boiled, as this absorbs the unpleasant odour generated during the cooking.

=Broccoli au Gratin.=--Boil the broccoli according to directions, put in a tureen, and sprinkle over a little pepper and quarter of a pound of grated Parmesan cheese, put in the oven for five minutes until the cheese is melted.

=Mould of Broccoli.=--Butter a mould, and put in the parboiled flower broken in smallish pieces, pour in a good white sauce in which two ounces of grated Parmesan cheese have been dissolved, a squeeze of lemon juice, and two hard-boiled eggs chopped up; the eggs should be placed among the broccoli; pour in the sauce, cover with buttered paper, and steam for one hour or bake for half an hour.

=Brussels Sprouts.=--For culture, see under Cabbage.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS DISHES.