Dishes made without meat

Of all the cereals none, I think, yields a better result than corn—known to some people as green, and to others as Indian corn or maize. Freshly cut, boiled, and eaten with salt, pepper, and oiled butter, it is delicious; but every one, alas, does not grow it, and many folk have to be content with the tinned corn, which, nevertheless, is excellent. It may be bought in tins of two sizes, and is quite inexpensive.

To Cook Corn

Open a small tin of corn and strain off the liquid, and then simmer the corn until tender, but not “mashy,” in 3 tablespoonsful of milk, ½ oz. of butter, pepper and salt. About 10 minutes will suffice for the cooking.

Corn with Buttered Egg

Have ready the buttered egg, and pile it in the centre of a hot fireproof dish, surround with the cooked corn and garnish with small circles of fried bread.

Egg and Corn Toast

Prepare the egg and corn as before, stir them together and serve very hot on buttered toast.

Corn with Poached Eggs

Spread the cooked corn flat on a hot fireproof dish, and arrange the poached eggs neatly on it, and serve very hot.

Corn au Gratin

Cook the corn as before, and have ready a delicate white sauce as below. Heat a fireproof dish, butter it, and sprinkle with fine brown crumbs. Heat the corn in the sauce, and place it in the dish, cover with grated cheese and crumbs, and bake for 20 minutes in a hot oven.

White Sauce

Melt 2 oz. of fresh butter, and sprinkle into it 1½ oz. of dry sifted flour. Stir until the sauce will leave a clean place in the pan when lifted in the spoon. Add quite gradually ½ pint of milk, stirring all the time. Bring to the boil, and cook for 10 minutes. Season with salt and white pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice. Half water and half milk or stock may be used instead of all milk, and a spoonful or two of cream added just at the last is an improvement. If a

Cheese Sauce

is required add a piled-up tablespoonful of finely-grated cheese, stirring it in well so that it shall be smooth.

Corn au Gratin with Tomato Sauce

Prepare as before, using tomato sauce instead of white sauce.

Tomato Sauce

Take 6 small tomatoes, slice them and place in a pan with 1 oz. of butter, salt and pepper, and 1 pint of stock and water, or milk and water. Boil until soft, sieve, and thicken with 1 oz. of white roux (flour and butter cooked until smooth, as described in “White Sauce”). Stir until smooth and very hot.

Corn Fritters

½ tin of corn, 2 eggs, 2 tablespoonsful of flour, 1 tablespoonful finely-chopped parsley, seasoning to taste. Drain the corn into a bowl; stir in the flour carefully, add the parsley, season, and lastly, well beat the eggs, and stir those in. Have ready some boiling fat in a frying-pan, into which the batter should be dropped in dessertspoonsful. Drain on kitchen paper, and serve at once on a hot dish.

Corn Rissoles.

Take the cooked corn and beat it in white, cheese, or tomato sauce, and then leave until cold. Form into rissoles, egg and crumb and fry. Serve very hot, garnished with fried parsley.

Omelette with Corn

Prepare the omelette as usual, and have ready some corn heated in white sauce. Just before serving the omelette spread the inner portion with the hot corn.

Curried Corn.

Prepare the corn as before, and heat in a good curry sauce. Pile in the centre of a hot dish and surround with boiled rice garnished with sieved yolk of egg.

Curry Sauce

Slice an onion and ½ a small apple finely, and fry them in 2 oz. of clarified dripping or butter. Stir in ½ a dessertspoonful of curry powder and the same of flour. Salt to taste. Add ¼ pint of stock or milk, cook gently for 30 minutes, then put all through a sieve, add a few drops of lemon juice, and reheat.

“Humitas”

(A Chili dish)

Grate some fresh green corn, add a little sugar and red pepper.

Fry this slightly in clarified dripping. Arrange two leaves from the sugar-corn, the broad part lapping over the other. Fill this with about a tablespoonful of the mixture, then fold it up neatly in the leaves, tying it with a thin strip from another, and bake.

When the fresh corn is not in season, the corn in tins will answer the same purpose if cooked and passed through a wire sieve and wrapped in vine leaves.

Corn and Cheese Cream

Cook the corn, mix it into the cheese cream, and serve very hot on buttered toast. For the Cheese Cream see page 71.

The serving of these recipes may be varied: for instance, instead of sending corn au gratin to table in one large dish, bake and serve it in small brown or green earthen pipkins, one to each person, or in the centre of a croûton of fried bread.

It is worth noting, too, that haricot beans may be substituted for corn in any of these recipes. They should be soaked for 2 to 4 hours, and then boiled in stock or water for 3 hours.

Haricot Beans

Haricot beans must be soaked for quite 12 hours in cold water, then put into a pan with cold water slightly salted, (½ oz. of salt to 1 gallon of water,) brought slowly to the boil, then drawn aside and simmered for about 2 hours.

Haricot Beans à la Milanaise (Hot)

Boil the beans as directed and serve with a covering of sauce à la Milanaise, which should be made in the following manner: Scald 4 onions for 5 minutes in boiling water, then dry them and cut them up, place them in a saucepan with a pinch of sugar, 1 oz. of butter, and a saltspoonful of salt. Boil a tablespoonful of rice, and when cooked add it to the onion; moisten with ½ pint of milk or water, cook slowly, stirring occasionally; when the onions are soft add 1 tablespoonful of finely-grated cheese. Mix well and pass through a sieve, add to this ½ pint of white sauce, mix thoroughly, repeat and pour over the beans.

Haricot Beans with Tomato Purée

Cook the beans as before and serve covered with tomato purée (see page 18.)

Haricot Beans with Soubise (Onion) Sauce

Cook the haricots as before and serve with onion sauce poured over and croûtons of fried bread arranged round.

Soubise Sauce

Take 2 large onions, peel them and put them in boiling water for 5 minutes. Strain, slice, and place in a pan with 1 oz. of clarified dripping and stew until tender. Lift the pan from the fire and stir in ½ pint of melted butter sauce. Let it boil, stir for about 7 to 10 minutes, and then rub through a hair sieve.

Lentils

Soak the lentils for at least 12 hours in cold water. Then drain and place them in a pan with cold salted water (1 gallon of water to ½ oz. of salt), bring them to the boil, then draw aside the pan and simmer, until the lentils are quite soft, about 1 hour. After having been cooked like this they can be served in any of the methods advised, for haricot beans or plain, save for the addition of a pat of butter melting among them, a sprinkling of chopped parsley, and a shake of pepper and salt.

Lentils with Curry Sauce

Cook the lentils as before and serve with plenty of curried sauce poured over. For the curry sauce see page 45.

Maigre Soufflés

There is no nicer way of serving such vegetables as cabbage, spinach, artichokes, or celery, than in the form of a soufflé, which may appear as an entrée or second course dish, or as a vegetable to accompany meat or poultry.

Savoury soufflés of rice and of macaroni are also delicious, and although all soufflés require care in the cooking, a cook of moderate abilities will soon master the art of making these delicious dishes.

Vegetable Soufflé

Have ready about ½ lb. of any carefully made and well-flavoured vegetable purée—spinach, cabbage, turnip tops, Brussels-sprouts, carrot, turnip (or both mixed) artichoke, tomato, or celery. Then put 1 gill of water and 1 oz. of butter into a pan with a pinch of salt. Directly this comes to the boil, stir in 1 oz. of flour, stirring it well with a wooden spoon for 2 or 3 minutes, put in the purée, and just remove the pan for a little, add the yolks of 2 eggs, 1 at a time, and 1 whole egg, and finally the whites of 2 eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Have ready a papered soufflé dish, fill it three-quarters of the way up, bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes, and serve at once, first removing the paper and wiping the dish.

The purée may be prepared at any time, but the eggs should only be added just before the soufflé is to be baked. The dish (china or tin) in which the soufflé is baked must be well greased and a greased paper tied round. The mixture rises so strenuously that if the dish is 3 parts full (and it should be to look well when served), the paper is required to prevent the mixture from falling over, as it rises just above the edges of the dish. When baking the soufflé do not bang the oven door, and open it very gently, and, by degrees when taking the soufflé out. If kept waiting the soufflé will fall and become tough. So with these dishes the diners must wait for the soufflé rather than the soufflé for the diners.

Vegetable Purée

This is merely the vegetable boiled in water or stock, and then put through a sieve so that it forms a preparation resembling a very thick custard. Spinach à la crême (page 20) and purée of watercress, lettuce, and turnip tops (pages 16 and 17) are excellent foundations for soufflés. Such vegetables as artichokes and celery should be treated as follows:—

Celery Soufflé (Hot)

Wash some celery well, and remove all the outside parts, cut up ½ lb., put it on in cold, salted water, bring this to the boil, take out the celery and drain. Put the celery into a pan with 1½ gills of milk, half a bayleaf, a blade of mace, a slice of onion, and boil it all till tender, then sieve the celery, and it is ready for the soufflé.

Savoury Rice Soufflé

Wash 2 oz. of rice and then place it in ¾ of a pint of boiling stock (fish or vegetable stock), and cook until the rice swells and is soft without being pulpy. Drain it and let it cool, and then stir into it 1 oz. of fresh butter, 2 or 3 tablespoonsful of tomato purée, salt and pepper the beaten yolks of 2 eggs and then the frothed whites. Bake in a soufflé dish prepared as already described.

Mushroom and Rice Soufflé

Proceed as before, but use stewed mushrooms instead of the tomato purée.

Rice and Cheese Soufflé

Proceed exactly as for Savoury Rice Soufflé but add 2 oz. of grated cheese.

Macaroni Soufflé

Proceed as for Rice Soufflé, using about the same bulk of cooked macaroni (cut into half inch lengths) as of cooked rice.