Cook a heaped tablespoon of semolina in 1/2 pint of milk to a stiff paste. Spread it on a plate to cool. (Smooth it neatly with a knife). When quite cold, cut it into four. Dip in a beaten egg and fry brown. Serve hot with lemon sauce. This may also be served as a savoury dish with parsley sauce. The quantity given above is sufficient for two people.
Boil eggs for 20 minutes. Remove shells. Cut in halves and take out the yolks. Well mash yolks with a very little fresh butter, melted, and curry powder to taste. Stuff the whites with the mixture, join halves together, and arrange in a dish of watercress.
5 ozs. small sago, sugar to taste, 1-1/2 pints water, or water and fruit juice. Wash the sago. Soak it for 4 hours. Strain off the water. Add to the strainings enough water or the juice from stewed fruit to make 1-1/2 pints liquid. Sweeten if necessary, but if the juice from stewed fruit is used it will probably be sweet enough. This dish is spoiled if made too sweet. Put the sago and 1-1/2 pints liquid into a saucepan and stew for 20 minutes. Now add the stewed fruit which you deprived of its juice, stir well, pour into a wet mould, and serve cold. Made with water only, and flavoured with a very little sugar and lemon peel, it may be served with stewed fruit.
Nearly every housewife makes milk puddings, but only one in a hundred can make them properly. When cooked, the grains should be quite soft and encased with a rich thick cream. Failure to produce this result simply indicates that the pudding has been cooked too quickly, or that the proportion of grain to milk is too large. Allow 2 level tablespoons, not a grain more, of cereal (rice, sago, semolina, tapioca) and 1 level tablespoon sugar to every pint of milk. Put in a pie-dish with a vanilla pod or some strips of lemon rind, and stand for an hour in a warm place, on the hob for example. Then take out the pod or peel and put into a fairly hot oven. As soon as the pudding boils, stir it well, and move to a cooler part of the oven. It should now cook very slowly for 2 hours.
Stew. Choose a small head of celery, not a large, coarse head which will be tough. Well wash and cut into about 8 pieces. (Keep any large coarse sticks, if such are unavoidably present, for soup.) Put in stew-pan and barely cover with water. Simmer until tender. Lift out on to hot dish. Thicken the liquor with a little wholemeal flour, add a small piece of butter pour this sauce over celery, and serve.
Apples, castor sugar, grated lemon rind, butter or nutter, bread-crumbs or Granose flakes. Bread-crumbs make the more substantial, granose flakes the more dainty, charlotte. Use juicy apples. "Mealy" apples make a bad charlotte. If they must be used, a tablespoon or more, according to size, of water must be poured over the charlotte. Peel, core, and slice apples. Grease a pie-dish. Put in a thin layer of crumbs. On this dot a few small pieces nutter. Over this put a generous layer of chopped apple. Sprinkle with sugar and grated lemon rind. Repeat the process until the dish is full. Top with crumbs. Bake from 20 minutes to half an hour. When done, turn out on to dish, being careful not to break. Sprinkle a little castor sugar over. Serve hot or cold. Boiled custard may be served with it.
2 cups lentils, 12 small leeks, 4 cups water, short crust. Put the lentils, water, and leeks, finely shredded, into a covered jar or basin. Bake in a slow oven until done. Put into a greased pie-dish and cover with short crust. (If lentils are very dry, add a little more water.) Bake. Serve with boiled potatoes, brown gravy, and any vegetable in season, except spinach or artichokes.
An excellent dish for children and persons with weak digestive powers. The chestnuts need not be peeled or pricked, but merely well covered with cold water and brought to the boil, after which they should boil for a good half hour. Drain off the water and serve hot. They may also be boiled, peeled, mashed and eaten with hot milk.
The young tops of nettles in early spring are delicious. Later they are not so palatable. Pick the nettles in gloves. Grasp them firmly, and wash well. Put a small piece of butter or nutter with a little pounded thyme into the saucepan with the nettles. Press well down and cook very slowly. A very little water may be added if desired, but if the cooking is done slowly, this will not be needed. When quite tender, dish up on a layer of bread-crumbs, taking care to lose none of the juice. This dish somewhat resembles spinach, which should be cooked in the same fashion, but without the butter and thyme.
