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CABBAGE
Remember the importance of vitamins when choosing cooking methods, and try to serve cabbage raw sometimes, to save the Vitamin C.
To cook cabbage.—Slice finely and place in a saucepan with a sprinkling of salt and a teacupful of boiling water. Cover, and boil steadily for about 15 minutes. Shake the pan several times during cooking.
If it can be spared, add a little margarine or dripping to the water. Strain off any liquid left in the saucepan and use it for gravy or soup. Serve the cabbage piping hot.
All sorts of additions can be made with cabbage cooked in this way, to vary the flavour. A few bacon rinds chopped small, a few teaspoons of vinegar, and a shake of caraway seeds, or a sprinkling of nutmeg, and your cabbage becomes a continental dish. Always cook steadily with the lid on the pan and sprinkle with a little pepper just before serving.
STUFFED CABBAGE
1 cabbage.
Salt and pepper.
Chopped parsley.
8 oz. browned wheatmeal breadcrumbs.
A little minced onion or chopped spring onion.
1/4 lb. cooked liver, mince, or sausage meat.
Remove the outside leaves, clean and soak the cabbage whole in salted water. Par-boil in boiling salted water for about 5 minutes. Hollow out the cabbage by removing the centre leaves with a sharp knife and fill with the following stuffing.
Mix the chopped liver or meat with the breadcrumbs, add seasonings of pepper and salt, a little chopped parsley and minced onion, then mix to a binding consistency with vegetable boilings.
Pack the stuffing firmly in the cavity, tie the head securely with string, and steam until perfectly tender (about 20 to 25 minutes). (Serves 4.)
The cabbage leaves removed from the centres are useful for salads. Or mixed with mashed potato for vegetable pancakes or breakfast cakes.
CREAMED CABBAGE
1 medium-sized white-hearted cabbage.
1 oz. dripping or margarine.
1/2 pint milk and water.
Salt and pepper.
Wash the cabbage thoroughly in cold water to which a little salt has been added, and shred it. Heat 1/2 pint of milk, then melt an ounce of dripping in it. Add the shredded cabbage and cook steadily until tender, about 15 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper, and serve very hot with the liquid poured round it. This dish is particularly tasty if served with a spoonful of frizzled chopped bacon or a little grated cheese for topping. (Serves 4.)
If the inner section of the cabbage is cooked this way, reserve the outer leaves for the following recipe.
STUFFED CABBAGE LEAVES
Choose the outer green leaves from a tender cabbage, and cook them for a few minutes to make them pliable for rolling.
Make up a simple forcemeat, using either cooked minced meat or cooked sausage-meat, the same amount of breadcrumbs or mashed potato, a suspicion of chopped onion, a liberal sprinkle of chopped parsley and pepper and salt to taste. Bind with a little stock or gravy, and place a spoonful on each leaf.
Roll up and secure with thread, placing them to cook in a casserole in simmering stock to a depth to some half-way up the rolls. Cook until the leaves are tender—about 20 minutes or so—basting from time to time.
Serve on mashed potato, with well-seasoned brown gravy.
CABBAGE PLATE
1 cabbage.
Level dessertspoon curry powder.
1 oz. dripping or cooking fat.
1 lb. potatoes.
1 teaspoon salt.
Shred the cabbage, including the stump, which can be cut into small dice after removing the fibrous outer part. Wash the cabbage in salted water then drain in a colander. Scrub the potatoes thoroughly, but do not remove the peel. They can then be cut into dice, of about 1/2 inch square.
Melt the fat in a deep frying pan, or suitable saucepan, and when quite hot add the vegetables. Sprinkle in the teaspoon of salt and curry powder, then stir thoroughly over moderate heat, cover and cook for a few minutes.
Remove the lid, and continue to cook for about 15 minutes, stirring continuously, but do not add any liquid.
When the vegetables become brown and are quite tender remove and serve fresh and hot. Eaten with wheatmeal bread, this makes a satisfying and appetising meal. It is also a good sandwich filling for a carried lunch. (Serves 4.)
RED CABBAGE CASSEROLE
1 small red cabbage.
1/2 lb. apples.
A small onion, or a little minced spring onion.
1 dessertspoon flour.
Piece of bay leaf.
1/2 pint water, or stock.
1 oz. dripping.
Salt and pepper. Dessertspoon of vinegar (if liked).
Wash and halve the cabbage, remove the centre tough stalk, and shred the leaves into thin slices.
Chop the onion finely, and peel, core and quarter the apples. Place cabbage, onion and apples into the melted dripping in a casserole and sauté for a few minutes. Then add a pinch of salt and the measured water, and simmer gently until the cabbage is tender, adding vinegar if liked.
This vegetable is excellent served with sausages, or to make it a meal in itself, add a little chopped bacon just before the cabbage is to be served. (Serves 4).
CAULIFLOWER
Here is a valuable winter vegetable, which can be eaten either raw or cooked. The flower head can be grated raw for salads, while the green stem is excellent as a separate green vegetable serving. Always ask the greengrocer for the leaves of the cauliflower so that they can be cooked and served with the vegetable, or reserved for another dish.
The vitamin value of the vegetable is retained better if the cauliflower is separated into sprigs and cooked for a shorter time. A few of these can then be set aside for a cold salad, with a final dressing of vinaigrette.
Prepare the vegetable by trimming the stalk, cutting away, but reserving the outer leaves, and washing all in plenty of cold water. Soak the head for 20 minutes in warm salted water to draw away the insects, divide into springs, then rinse and steam or boil in a very little salted water until tender.
After draining the sprigs, dip in browned breadcrumbs, or serve with a coating of plain, well-seasoned white sauce. Here are a few other ways of dealing with cauliflower for vegetable meals.
CURRIED CAULIFLOWER
1 cauliflower.
A few sultanas, if possible.
1 apple.
A little minced onion, if possible.
1 dessertspoon curry powder.
1 oz. flour.
Cook the cauliflower as described above, then drain and save the stock. Measure 1/2 pint of cauliflower stock into a saucepan, add the prepared and sliced apple and the sultanas, and cook until soft.
Mix one dessertspoon of curry powder with an ounce of flour, then moisten with a little stock to a smooth cream. Add to the saucepan and stir until the mixture thickens, adding sufficient stock to bring to a pouring consistency. Then add the cauliflower sprigs to heat through, seasoning if necessary.
A little home-made jam or sweet pickle is an improvement with curry sauce, if you have some handy.
Serve the curry in the centre of a round dish, with a ring of mashed potato round it.
BAKED CAULIFLOWER
2 small cauliflowers.
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs (wheatmeal).
1 gill milk.
1 teaspoon of vegetable extract (yeast product) if liked.
1 oz. dripping or cooking fat.
11/2 oz. flour.
Cook the cauliflowers as described on page 19. Then drain carefully and reserve the liquid, using it for the sauce, in part measure with milk.
Grease a fireproof dish and arrange the cauliflower sprigs in it, keeping them hot while making the white sauce. For this use 11/2 oz. flour, 1 oz. fat and 1 gill milk. When boiled and smooth, add 2 gills of cauliflower stock in which the extract has been dissolved. Season well.
Pour the sauce over the cooked cauliflower, sprinkle with an even coating of browned breadcrumbs, and cook in a moderate oven till crisp. For a quick meal, brown beneath a heated grill until well coloured, and serve very hot.
CARROTS
The carrot is one of the most valuable of all root vegetables. It is a rich source of Carotene, which is converted into Vitamin A, and strengthens our resistance to infection.
Carrots also contain sugar, which is useful for war-time diet. Most children like raw carrots and should be allowed to eat them freely.
Two tablespoons of grated raw carrot daily is a good rule for both children and adults. This can be served in a salad, or taken in a wheatmeal bread sandwich. Here are some sandwich fillings to try.
(See page 60, SALADS).
SANDWICH FILLINGS.
RAW.
1. Add two parts of grated raw carrot to one part of finely shredded white heart of cabbage, and bind with finely chopped sweet pickle. Season to taste.
2. For children—use the filling without pickle, and spread the slice with a little dripping, or margarine mixed with a little vegetable extract. This increases the nourishment and adds to the vitamin value.
COOKED.
3. Prepare and cut the carrot into small cubes, cooking them in well-blended curry sauce. When perfectly tender and yielding to the knife, use as sandwich filling.
4. Chopped cooked carrot, mixed with cooked peas and a little mayonnaise or salad dressing, makes a good filling or salad.
UNCOOKED CARROT PUDDING
2 medium-sized carrots.
2 tablespoons of ground nuts (in season).
1/2 gill warm water, in which is dissolved 1 dessertspoon honey.
1 tablespoon browned crumbs.
1 tablespoon fresh milk.
1 teaspoon “top milk.”
1 teaspoon fruit juice (inseason).
I tablespoon rolled oats or toasted oatmeal.
Wash, scrape, and grate the carrots. Melt the honey in the warm water. Use the liquid to mix the milled nuts, grated carrot, oatmeal and crumbs.
Sharpen with the fruit juice, then add the milk and allow the sweet to stand a short time before serving it in small individual dishes. Use a little “top milk” as a substitute for cream.
CARROT CROQUETTES
6 good-sized carrots.
1 oz. cooking fat or dripping.
A little fat for frying.
1 gill milk and carrot boilings.
1 oz. flour.
Coarse oatmeal for coating.
1/4 teaspoon vegetable extract (if liked).
Slice the carrots and cook in a very little water until tender (see page 11). Drain well, saving the liquid, and mash with a fork until pureed. Season well with salt, add a grate of nutmeg and shake of pepper.
Make a thick sauce with the flour, liquid and fat (see page 115), and work the puree and vegetable extract into it. Set aside to cool.
When cold, shape into croquettes. Roll in coarse oatmeal that has been previously toasted a little in the oven or under the grill. Fry in a little fat, turning to colour the cakes evenly. Drain and serve hot with good gravy. Or bake in the oven.
PARSLEY CARROTS
11/2 lb. carrots.
Teacup of stock or water, or sufficient to cover.
Salt, pepper.
Small piece of dripping or margarine.
3 dessertspoons chopped parsley.
Scrub the carrots and cut them into slices, about 1/4 inch in thickness. Heat the fat in the pan and sauté the carrots, frying them without browning for about 10 minutes, shaking occasionally. Add I gill of stock or water, bringing the level to just cover.
Cook gently until the carrots are tender—about 25–35 minutes. Drain the carrots, reduce the liquid a little by boiling, and sprinkle the chopped parsley (or the chopped feathery carrot tops) over the dish. Pour the reduced seasoned stock over the vegetable and serve at once.
SAVOURY CARROT CASSEROLE
Young carrots and green peas—sufficient to fill a casserole, using twice as much carrots as peas.
2 small sprigs of mint.
2 tablespoons of milk.
Parsley sauce to cover.
A little minced onion, or rings of spring onion.
Salt, pepper.
Prepare enough carrots and green peas to fill the selected casserole, using twice as much carrot as peas.
Scrape and dice the carrots, place them in the casserole, just cover with salted water, bring them to the boil and simmer for five minutes. Then add the peas, the chopped mint, minced onion, a pinch of salt, and the milk. Cover with a close-fitting lid and cook gently in the oven until the carrots are perfectly tender.
Prepare a plain parsley sauce (see p. 115), using 1/2 pint of liquid from the casserole, 1 oz. flour and 1/2 oz. margarine or dripping, and season well. Add 2 dessertspoons of finely chopped parsley just before serving. Pour this over the vegetables, replace the lid, and serve very hot.
CARROT ROLL
2 large carrots.
Cold cooked mashed potato.
1 dessertspoon fine oatmeal.
1 teaspoon vegetable extract.
Grate the scrubbed carrots on a suet grater and cook for 10 minutes in a very little water. Season well and add 1 teaspoon of vegetable extract and 1 dessertspoon of toasted fine oatmeal.
Boil five minutes, stirring, to thicken, then set to cool. At this stage the mixture should be quite stiff.
Have ready some cold mashed potatoes, dust the pastry board and pin with flour, and roll out to an oblong shape. Place the carrot filling in the centre, then fold over and shape to a roll. Dot with a few shavings of fat and bake till nicely browned in a moderately hot oven. Serve with well-seasoned brown gravy.
CARROTS AND SPROUTS
Choose equal quantities of sprouts and carrots by weight, prepare them in the usual way, slicing both to convenient size.
Steam together until tender (about 15 minutes), sprinkling them with a little salt in the steamer.
Alternatively—cook in a very little water in a saucepan, starting the carrots a little ahead of the green sprouts to enable them to finish cooking together. Use the liquor, with added vegetable extract, as sauce. Dress in a little dripping or cooking fat just before serving, adding a small shake of pepper.
CARROT BEEHIVE
About 11/2 lb. carrots.
3/4 lb. potato suet crust.
Salt and pepper.
Gravy powder.
Wash and scrape the carrots. Make 1 lb. potato suet crust (see p. 59). Line a greased pudding bowl with it, then put in a layer of grated raw carrot (about 1 inch deep). Sprinkle with salt, pepper and gravy powder, and cover with a very thin circle of the crust, cut to fit. Repeat the layers of carrot and crust until the basin is full, ending with crust. Cover with margarine paper and steam for 21/2–3 hours. Serve with brown gravy.
CURRIED CARROTS AND CELERY
2 lb. carrots.
1/4 head celery.
1 oz. dripping.
3/4 pint vegetable boilings or water.
1/2 oz. flour.
Dash of vinegar.
1 tablespoon home made jam.
2 teaspoons curry powder.
1 apple, peeled and sliced.
A little minced onion, or spring onion.
Scrape and slice the carrots. Prepare the celery and chop fairly fine. Melt the dripping in the pan, put in the apple, minced onion and celery, and sauté for a few minutes without browning. Add the curry powder and flour and fry lightly, stirring well.
Next add the stock or water, vinegar, etc., and stir well until thickened, before adding the carrots and jam. Cover, and simmer for 20 minutes to half an hour.
Serve with a border of creamily mashed potatoes.
CARROT SPREAD (see PACKED MEALS, p. 121).
CARROT PUDDING (see Peace and War Pudding, p. 59, POTATOES).
CELERY
At a time when salad vegetables are less plentiful comes celery—a useful Vitamin C vegetable. When lettuce is unobtainable, and you want a change from grated cabbage, try young celery leaves in your winter salads. Fresh or dried, they also make good flavouring for casserole and stews.
The best way to serve celery raw is to separate the cleaned stalks, selecting the centre crisp stems for salads, and the “heart” for table use. The outer sections are good braised, served as a vegetable accompaniment, or included in a casserole.
Prepare celery by washing well in a bowl of cold water, then splitting the head and separating the stalks for similar treatment. Leave to crisp or curl in ice-cold water, the shorter stems in a jug or deep basin. Cut celery stalks, trimmed and left in cold water, will curl attractively for serving in a celery vase, or chopped in the salad. Fine curled shreds look most inviting arranged with other, more colourful, vegetables.
CREAMED CELERY
1 good head of celery.
A few browned breadcrumbs.
Pepper and salt.
3/4 pint milk and water.
3/4 oz. fat.
3/4 oz. flour.
Wash the celery, trim it into lengths, dice and place in a casserole or deep pie dish. Cover with the milk and water, add salt, and simmer until tender.
Drain, saving the liquid for the sauce.
Prepare the sauce as in recipe, p. 115. Simmer for three minutes, then add a generous sprinkling of pepper and salt (if necessary) before replacing the cooked celery. Return to the casserole, sprinkle with browned breadcrumbs, heat through and serve hot.
FRIED CELERY
1 head of celery
A little fat for frying.
A little flour and water for a thin batter.
Wheatmeal breadcrumbs.
Prepare the celery and trim into short lengths. Simmer these in salted water until tender, then drain, saving the liquid for soup. Make a thin frying batter of flour and water, dip each portion into this, drain, roll in crumbs and fry until lightly browned. Three to four minutes’ frying should be sufficient, turning the pieces until they colour and crisp.
Serve with a light shaking of vinegar.
CUCUMBER
Not only is cucumber useful as a sandwich filling, or as raw vegetable in salads, but it is excellent steamed or fried. Don’t peel the cucumber; the outside skin makes it more digestible.
Made into small “cups”—by trimming the cucumber into small lengths and scooping out one end—the vegetable can be stuffed, or par-cooked, and used to hold small quantities of sauce-bound foods—meat or fish.
A very attractive effect is obtained by stripping off the skin at regular intervals to a width of 1/3 inch, so that the cups appear to be striped. If time is short, it is best to keep the skin on the vegetable entirely, rather than remove it and cause waste by careless cutting. When stuffed, steam for about 30 minutes.
STEWED CUCUMBER
Slice the cucumber thickly and cook for about 10 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain, and thicken the liquid with a little flour to make a sauce, as described on p. 115. Return the cucumber to the sauce, heat up and serve as a green vegetable.
ROASTED CUCUMBER
Cut a medium-sized cucumber into 2-inch lengths and boil for 4 to 5 minutes in a little salted water. Roll in breadcrumbs, put in a baking tin with a little fat and bake until golden brown (about 5 mins.).
CUCUMBER SAUCE, see p. 115, SAUCES.
LEEKS
(See also p. 108, SOUP.)
To prepare leeks—trim off the roots, the outer tops and the sheath coverings. Split them down the centre and wash very thoroughly, as they hold grit between the folds. Allow them to soak for 20 minutes to half an hour in cold salted water, to ensure they are clear. Then drain, and cook until tender in a very little boiling salted water, from 20–30 minutes according to size.
Drain them well, and serve with a simple white sauce.
LEEK PUDDING
POTATO SUET CRUST PASTRY
8 oz. flour (self-raising)
2 oz. finely chopped suet.
2 oz. grated raw potato.
Filling—2–3 large leeks, or six small ones.
