Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing-Dish Dainties Part 15

Pare lengthwise a _ripe_ pineapple and remove the eyes. With a fork dislodge from the hard centre the single fruits (the lines left by the bracts will indicate the places where the divisions should be made).

Slice _lengthwise_ three sweet oranges, after removing the peel and white skin. Peel and slice two bananas, and cut in halves lengthwise one cup of strawberries. If the fruit be sweet, use the juice of half a lemon, otherwise omit it. Beat to an emulsion one-fourth a cup of olive oil, one tablespoonful of honey, and, if needed, the lemon juice; toss the fruit, together or separately, in the dressing, and serve on delicate leaves of lettuce. The most striking effect is produced by dressing each kind of fruit separately, thus ma.s.sing each color by itself. When new figs are seasonable, they may be used in fruit salads to take the place of the honey. If the pineapple be of large size, more dressing will be required.

=Fruit-and-Nut Salad.=

Peel neatly three oranges and slice them lengthwise; also cut three bananas in thin slices. Skin and seed half a pound of white grapes, and blanch and slice the meats of one-fourth a pound of English walnuts.

Serve very cold on lettuce leaves, dressed with four tablespoonfuls of oil, two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice--less, if the oranges are sour--and half a teaspoonful of salt.

=Fruit-and-Nut Salad, No. 2.=

Skin and seed half a pound of white grapes; blanch and slice half a pound of English walnuts or almonds. Toss with four tablespoonfuls of oil, one-fourth a teaspoonful of salt and two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice. Serve in nests of lettuce. Garnish the nests with maraschino cherries.

=Cherry Salad.=

(MRS. PETERSON.)

Marinate as many hazelnuts as cherries with plenty of oil, half as much lemon juice as oil, and a little salt, one or two hours. Put a nut in the place of the stone in the cherries. Sprinkle with oil and a very little lemon juice, and serve in lettuce nests.

=Fruit Salad.=

(_Winter._)

Peel two oranges; with a sharp knife cut between the pulp and the skin and remove the section entire. Slice the meats of one-fourth a pound of English walnuts. Of one-fourth a pound of figs select a few for a garnish and cut the rest in thin slices. Slice three bananas. Toss half the ingredients with two or three tablespoonfuls of oil, and, if the oranges are sweet, toss again with one tablespoonful of lemon juice.

Arrange in a mound on a salad-dish. Put the rest of the fruit, each kind separately, on the mound in sections; garnish the edge and top with heart leaves of lettuce, and add stars of mayonnaise and candied cherries here and there.

=Orange-and-Walnut Salad.=

This is a particularly good salad to serve with game. Select fine oranges, remove the peel and every particle of white skin, and slice very thin lengthwise. Slice English walnuts, blanched or plain. To each pint of orange slices add half a pint (scant) of the sliced nuts; dress with three tablespoonfuls of oil, one-fourth a teaspoonful of salt, and, if the oranges are particularly sweet, a tablespoonful of lemon juice.

Serve on a bed of watercress or lettuce.

=Celery-and-Chestnut Salad.=

Sh.e.l.l and blanch the chestnuts; then boil about fifteen minutes, or until tender; drain and cool. When cool cut into quarters, add an equal quant.i.ty of fine-sliced celery, dress with French dressing, and serve on lettuce leaves. Sliced pimentos may be added.

=Apple,-Celery-and-English-Walnut Salad.=

Peel and cut the apples in small cubes; blanch the nuts and break in pieces, and cut the celery in thin slices; marinate the apple and nuts with oil and lemon juice half an hour; drain, add the celery and mayonnaise dressing, and serve in cups made by removing the pulp from red apples. Cut the edges of the apples in small vand.y.k.es; keep fresh in cold water until ready to serve.

=Orange-and-Banana Salad.=

(_Sweet._)

Stir the juice of two oranges, half a cup of sherry wine, one tablespoonful of lemon juice, half a cup of sugar and the unbeaten white of an egg, over the fire, until the boiling-point is reached; let simmer slowly ten minutes, strain through a cheese-cloth, and, when thoroughly chilled, pour over three bananas and three oranges, sliced and mixed together in a salad-bowl. Sprinkle with half a cup of dessicated cocoanut. Serve thoroughly chilled.

=Fig-and-Nut Salad.=

Slice pulled figs, cooked and cooled, and mix with them a few slices of walnuts or blanched almonds. Serve with French dressing made of claret and lemon juice instead of vinegar, or with a cream dressing. In using the cream dressing, mix the ingredients with a little of the dressing and dispose additional dressing here and there, using the forcing-bag and tube. When available, fresh figs are preferable to those that have been cooked.

=Grapefruit Salad.=

Cut the chilled fruit in halves, crosswise, and take out the pulp with a spoon; dress with French dressing. The juice of the grapefruit may be used in the place of other acid, and mayonnaise in the place of French dressing. Serve on lettuce leaves, or return to the skin from which the pulp was removed. The edge of the grapefruit cup may be cut in vand.y.k.es, or otherwise ornamented.

=Turquoise Salad.=

Mix together equal parts of celery and tart apple cut in match-like pieces, and one or two pimentos cut in similar pieces. Dress with mayonnaise made light with whipped cream. Serve in nests of lettuce.

=Turquoise Salad, No. 2.=

Use pineapple in the place of the apple; serve in a mound on a bed of lettuce leaves. Garnish with stars cut from the pimentos with French cutter, curled celery, and heart leaves of celery.

=Salad Chiffonade.=

Seed two green peppers, boil two or three minutes, then cut in shreds.

Shred the light and dark leaves of a head of lettuce, or endive, separately. Cut three tomatoes in shreds. Remove the peel and skin from one large grapefruit. Serve with French dressing, seasoning, and then arranging each article separately upon the serving-dish, having a circle of light and then dark green material about the edge.

=Peach-and-Almond Salad.=

Blanch the almonds and cut in thin slices. Chill the peaches, peel, and cut in slices; use one-fifth as much in bulk of sliced nuts as sliced peaches. Serve with French dressing, or with mayonnaise made white with whipped cream. Garnish the edge with delicate lettuce leaves and serve at once.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fruit Salad.

(See page 90)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Turquoise Salad, No. 2.

(See page 94)]

=Peach Salad.=

(_English style._)

Cut ripe, fine-flavored peaches into quarters, after removing the skins.

Cover with champagne, thoroughly chilled, and sprinkle with tea-rose petals. Serve at once.