Dishes made without meat

Potatoes

A favourite kitchen superstition is that which forbids the use of left-over potatoes. For many dishes cooked potato is required. Why then cook fresh potatoes for the purpose and thereby waste time and money?

The sensible cook keeps all left-over potato, and makes use of it in some of the ways here described.

Potato Croquettes (Hot)

Take 1 lb. of cold cooked potato and place in a mortar. Mash it until all the lumps have disappeared, add a pat of butter and enough milk or cream to make the potato soft, and of the right consistency to form into balls, add a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a very small quantity of chives (if liked), mix well and form into balls. Coat them with egg, roll them in finely-grated breadcrumbs, fry a golden brown, drain and serve.

Potatoes à la Crême (Hot)

Having washed and peeled the number of potatoes required, cut them into very thin slices and as much the same size as possible. Place them in cold water for ½ hour, then drain them and dry on a soft clean cloth. Have ready a fireproof dish with a closely-fitting lid, butter the bottom and sides of it, and place a layer of potatoes in it, laying them to overlap each other, and also to stand round the sides, place on these a layer of soft butter, and a sprinkling of salt, and continue in this way until the dish is full, ending with a layer of butter. Place the lid on firmly, and place the dish in a moderate (350 deg.) oven for ¾ of an hour.

Cheese Potatoes (Hot)

Follow the previous recipe, the only difference being that grated cheese should be sprinkled between each layer of potato in addition to the butter.

Potatoes à la Crême (Hot)

(A Method of Using up left-over new Potatoes)

Put into a pan from ½ to 1 oz. of butter, add a good dessertspoonful of flour, some parsley and minced chives, with salt, pepper, and a dust of nutmeg to taste; when the whole is smoothly blended, pour in sufficient single cream or new milk, and stir it all together till it boils up, then add as many cold, cooked new potatoes as you want, and allow them to heat thoroughly in the sauce without actually boiling, which would break them; serve with a dust of coralline pepper.

Potatoes au Gratin (Hot)

Well butter a gratin dish, and dust it liberally with minced parsley, white and coralline pepper, and, if liked, a little grated Parmesan; cover this with a layer of thinly sliced, cold, cooked new potatoes, moistening them as you do so with a little cream, milk, or, failing either of these, a little oiled butter, dusting the whole with minced parsley, pepper, salt, and a very little cheese; repeat these layers till the dish is full, finishing with a very light sprinkling of fine white breadcrumbs, a little spice, grated cheese, and, lastly, some tiny morsels of fresh butter, and bake till the surface is nicely covered.

Potato and Cabbage Cakes

Take any cold potato and cabbage, mash it smoothly together, adding beaten egg, white sauce, or melted butter to moisten. Flavour rather highly with pepper, add a little salt. Form into round cakes, flour, and bake or fry.

Curried Potato Cakes

Have ready some curry sauce with which to moisten the mashed potato, and proceed as before.

Potato Cromeskies (with Mushroom)

Have ready some well-flavoured mushrooms stewed in white sauce (the mushrooms cut into small pieces). Make some smoothed mashed potato and add to it a beaten yolk of egg. Form balls of the potato. Hollow out a place in each, fill with the mushroom mixture. Cover with more potato, egg, crumb, fry and serve very hot.

Potato Mould (Hot)

Mash 1 lb. of well-boiled potatoes with the same quantity of boiled mashed carrot, pass through a fine wire sieve, mix all well together with warm milk, and a lump of butter; place in a buttered mould, and set in a hot oven for 10 minutes, turn out on a hot dish, and brown in the oven.

Artichokes au Gratin (Hot)

Wash and peel the artichokes and place them in cold salted water, then put them in a pan full of boiling salted water. Boil for 20 minutes. (If the artichokes are old they should be put into cold water, which must be brought to the boil and kept so until they are cooked.) Take the artichokes out and drain them, cut into pieces, then place them in a fireproof dish, covering them with a good white sauce. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Place in a moderate oven, and bake about 10 to 15 minutes until of a golden brown.

Scalloped Artichokes

Cook as in the previous recipe, but omit the cheese and bake in shells which have been buttered and sprinkled with brown crumbs. Sprinkle the artichoke mixture with crumbs also, place a little butter on the top and brown as before.

Artichoke Soufflé

See page 48.

Artichoke Chips

Cook as before; slice, fry in boiling fat. Drain and leave till cold. Fry, drain, and serve very hot.

Cream of Artichokes (Hot or Cold)

Boil 1 lb. of artichokes until quite tender, then pass them through a sieve. Make a custard with ½ pint of milk and the yolks of four eggs, pepper and salt. Whisk up the white of 1 egg, and whisk this into the custard, mix it with the artichoke and place all in a well-buttered mould and steam for an hour. Serve hot with anchovy sauce, or set the mould on ice, and when quite cold turn it out on to a dish and serve with iced mayonnaise of hollandaise sauce.

Eggs and Artichokes (Hot)

Boil 8 artichokes and cut them into slices, place them in a fireproof dish. Hard boil 4 eggs. When cold shell them and chop them up, place the eggs on the top of the sliced artichokes, and pour over the whole a good white sauce flavoured with Parmesan cheese. Dust over with breadcrumbs and make thoroughly hot in the oven.

Bouchées d’Artichauts (Hot)

Prepare the green artichokes by cutting off the leaves close down to the fond and trim off any that may adhere, cut off the stalk as closely as possible. Plunge the artichoke bottoms into boiling salted water, and leave them for five minutes, then take them out and remove the choke. Place in boiling water and boil them until tender. When cooked take them out, drain them, and put them through a sieve, season with pepper and salt, moistening the whole with enough white sauce to make a purée. Have ready some pastry patty cases, ready cooked, fill each with the mixture, and serve very hot.

Fonds Artichauts au Gratin (Hot)

Boil the artichoke bottoms in the manner described above, mash them and season with pepper and salt, adding a little cream and butter, place some of the mixture in china shells or small fireproof dishes, grate some cheese over each, and bake in the oven until a golden brown.

Stuffed Artichokes.

Take the cooked artichoke bottoms and fill with mashed potato flavoured with cheese. Brown in the oven and serve with cheese sauce.

Artichokes with Cream Cheese

Fill the artichoke bottoms with cream of cheese (see page 71), and serve on buttered toast very hot.

Mushrooms au Gratin (Hot)

Peel the mushrooms and cut off their stalks, and place them in a buttered fireproof dish. Peel the stalks and wash them, add the peelings, dry them and cut them up. Make a sauce with 1 oz. of butter, and when melted add ½ oz. of flour, stirring into it ½ pint of milk. Stir well, bring to the boil, and then throw in the chopped stalks, a dessertspoonful of finely-chopped parsley, a teaspoonful of finely-chopped onion, a dusting of pepper, and ½ a teaspoonful of salt. Simmer the sauce until it thickens, strain and add some browning. Pour the sauce over the mushrooms, sprinkle some browned breadcrumbs over the whole, and bake in a quick oven for 10 minutes.

Mushroom Croûtes (Hot)

Cut some rounds of bread about ¾ of an inch thick and scoop them out rather thinner in the centre, fry until a golden brown, drain, and keep hot. Place the required number of mushrooms on a greased baking-tin with a piece of butter in each, and place in the oven to cook. In the meantime mince one or two mushrooms and place them in a pan with a small quantity of good brown sauce. When cooked place a spoonful on each croûte, and a whole mushroom on the top of each. Serve very hot.

Roes and Mushrooms on Toast (Hot)

Make the necessary number of round croûtons of lightly-fried bread, and choose a like number of mushrooms the same size as the croûtons. Peel the mushrooms, rinse them in warm water, to remove any grit, and remove the stalks. Place them on a greased baking sheet, stalk side uppermost. Put some small pieces of butter on each mushroom and a little pepper and salt. Cover with buttered paper and cook in a moderate oven for 10 to 20 minutes. Serve a mushroom on each croûton, and on each mushroom place a cooked bloater roe curled round.

Stuffed Aubergines (Egg Fruit)

Boil the aubergines until tender (25 to 30 minutes), and then half them lengthwise. Scoop out the pulp carefully, sieve it, and mix it with some fine brown crumbs (about a dessertspoonful to each half-pint), pepper, salt, and some oiled butter. Fill the skins with this mixture, sprinkle with crumbs and oiled butter, and bake in a moderate oven until browned.

Tomatoes au Gratin (Hot)

Take four tomatoes as nearly the same size as possible, and a slice off the top of each. Scoop out the middle of the tomato as much as possible, leaving the frames for cases. These set on one side. Work the pulp through a sieve, and mix into it a heaped-up tablespoonful of finely-grated breadcrumbs, add the yolks of 2 eggs, and mix well. Fill the tomato cases, heaping the mixture up, grate a layer of cheese over them, place on a buttered baking dish and bake for 10 minutes.

Tomato Pie (Hot)

Slice a good-sized onion thinly, blanch it, and fry in fat till lightly browned. Take 1 lb. of ripe tomatoes, skin and cut in slices. Place a layer of onions in the bottom of the pie dish with a good seasoning of salt and pepper, then a layer of tomatoes, with white breadcrumbs scattered over and a few pieces of butter, and so on until the dish is almost full. Have ready some well-mashed potatoes, and spread thickly over so as to form a crust, and bake until brown.

Tomatoes à la Crême de Fromage (Cold)

Whip ½ pint of cream until stiff, season it with celery salt and pepper. Add 3 oz. of grated cheese, then whisk in by degrees ¼ pint of cool but liquid aspic jelly, which has been flavoured with tarragon vinegar. Continue to whisk until the mixture begins to stiffen. Previously peel and halve some small round tomatoes, and remove the seeds from the halves when cut open, and drain for a little. Place each piece of tomato, when filled, on a cheese biscuit, and ornament it round the edge with a piping of cheese cream. Garnish the dish with cress, and put a tiny bunch into the middle of the cream with which the tomatoes are filled.

Tomato Canapés (Cold)

Cut some slices of bread 2½ in. in diameter, and ⅛ in. thick. Soak in milk and then fry a pale colour. Spread when cold with grated cheese and butter made into a paste. Dip some small tomatoes into hot water, skin them and put one on each piece of bread, placing some finely-minced parsley and grated Parmesan on each.

Beignets of Vegetable Marrow (Hot)

Peel the vegetable marrow and strain it without removing the seeds. When three-parts cooked, take it out of the pan and cut it into neat pieces, as much one size as possible, remove the seeds, dip each piece of marrow into batter and fry until a golden brown in boiling fat.

To Make the Batter

Whip two eggs and mix them with about two tablespoonsful of flour. This is generally sufficient to make a stiff batter. Then add by degrees ⅓ of a pint of milk, salt and pepper, cover and put by for an hour or two. Be sure that the article to be fried is quite dry before being dipped in the batter.

Salsify Scallops (Hot)

Boil the salsify for 50 minutes, then place in a mortar and mash to a pulp, add a few drops of anchovy essence and some milk or cream, to make it the consistency of a thick custard. Place the mixture in buttered shells, sprinkle some finely-grated breadcrumbs over it, place a piece of butter on each and brown in the oven.

Salsify Fritters (Hot)

1½ lb. salsify, 2 oz. beef dripping, lemon juice. Wash and lightly scrape the salsify roots and put them in cold water. Put the dripping, a little salt, and the lemon juice in a saucepan with enough water to cover the salsify. When it boils put in the roots and let them simmer gently until they are tender. This will take 30 to 40 minutes. Do not cover the pan. When tender drain off the water and cut the roots into pieces about 2½ in. long. Sprinkle the salsify with a little pepper, oil, and vinegar, and then dip the pieces into batter. Fry in boiling fat until a golden brown, then take out, drain and serve.

Glazed Carrots (Hot)

Blanch some small, young carrots, as much of a size as possible, dry them well, and if necessary, trim them evenly; put them into a pan, with just enough stock to cover, and a lump of loaf sugar; boil them up sharply till the stock is reduced to a glaze, then add to this 1½ oz. of butter and a seasoning of salt, and stir them in this till the liquid is all absorbed, and the carrots are quite glazed with the butter.

Carrots à la Flamande (Hot)

Take about 12 young carrots, blanch them in scalding water, and rub them well. Then put them into a stewpan with about 1 oz. of butter, a saltspoonful of castor sugar, some finely-minced parsley, a seasoning of pepper and salt, and sufficient water to cover them liberally; simmer the carrots in this for about 15 to 20 minutes, when they should be quite tender, shaking them once or twice in the process. Remove the pan from the fire, and stir in the yolk of 1 egg beaten up with 2 spoonsful of cream or new milk, and serve very hot.

Glazed Turnips (Hot)

Peel about 1 lb. of young turnips, wash them well, cut into quarters, and put them on in salted water; bring this sharply to the boil, then place them in a well-buttered small frying or sauté pan, sprinkle them liberally with castor sugar, and directly the turnips begin to colour pour a little stock in, and season with pepper and salt, and a little more sugar if liked; let them stew slowly till quite tender, and serve them with the sauce poured over them.

Turnips à la Poulette (Hot)

Peel about 1 lb. of young, fresh turnips, wash them well, trim into olive or pear shapes; put them on in cold, salted water, and bring them sharply to the boil; then drain them, rinse in cold water, and dry them in a clean napkin. Have ready some velouté (i.e. melted butter made with 1 oz. of butter, 1½ oz. of flour, and about ¾ pint of vegetable stock instead of water), drop the turnips into this, and cook them till ready, very gently, for about 20 to 25 minutes according to size. When ready lift them out, and keep hot. Add a spoonful of castor sugar to the liquor, boil it up sharply, and just before serving stir in the yolk of an egg and a little piece of butter cut up small; do not let the sauce reboil after adding these; season to taste with pepper and salt, pour the sauce on to the turnips, and serve very hot.

Onions au Gratin

Blanch (by placing in boiling water) 1 lb. of onions, then divide them into quarters and boil in milk and water until tender. Cut them up, moisten them with some of the liquid in which they were boiled, mash them smoothly, add a cupful of cream, or one of milk enriched with the yolk of an egg, pepper and salt. Place the purée in a fireproof dish, which has been buttered, strew some grated cheese over, and sprinkle a little melted butter over all. Bake until hot throughout, and until the top is coloured.

It is worthy of note that where grated cheese is mentioned, it is quite unnecessary to buy Parmesan for the purpose. Any dry ends of cheese, grated, will serve.

Celeri à la Duchesse (Hot)

Cook some celery slowly in equal parts of milk and water, seasoned with salt and pepper; when cooked, lift out, cut it up, and place a layer of it in a fireproof dish, seasoning with salt and pepper, and moistening with some béchamel or any good white sauce, and continue these layers until the dish is full, taking care to raise it up in the centre; strew it rather thickly with grated Parmesan cheese; moisten it with some oiled butter, and put it into the oven for 10 minutes, to colour nicely.

Fried Celery (Hot)

Thoroughly wash three heads of celery, remove the leaves, and cut into 4 inch lengths, then put in a stewpan with ½ a pint of stock and a seasoning of pepper and salt. Simmer gently for a quarter of an hour. Let the celery cool, then take it out, dip it in egg and breadcrumb, and fry in butter. Serve very hot, and hand tomato sauce with it.

For the following vegetable dishes, see