The Skilful Cook Part 105

Pepper and salt to taste.

_Method._--Cut the vegetables into small dice.

Place them in a salad bowl.

Mix the oil and vinegar with the pepper and salt, and pour over them.

Spring Salad.

_Ingredients_--1 lettuce.

Some mustard and cress.

Endive.

Hard-boiled eggs.

Beetroot.

Watercress.

Some _mayonnaise_ or salad-dressing.

_Method._--Wash the vegetables well; put them in a draught to dry them quickly.

Then cut them rather coa.r.s.ely.

Put them into a salad-bowl.

Pour over the dressing, and garnish with hard-boiled eggs and beetroot.

For a more elaborate salad, put the vegetables into a gla.s.s or silver dish, heaping them high in the centre.

Decorate with sprigs of endive, placing a large tuft at the top.

Round the base place the hard-boiled eggs, cut in quarters, alternately with slices of beetroot.

Finish off with a border of chopped aspic jelly.

MISCELLANEOUS DISHES.

Cheese Pates.

_Ingredients_--Some stale bread.

tablespoonful of hot water.

4 tablespoonfuls of grated cheese.

1 oz. of b.u.t.ter.

A few bread-crumbs.

Pepper and salt.

A little cayenne.

A few browned bread-crumbs.

The yolk of an egg.

_Method._--Cut the bread in slices of one inch in thickness.

Stamp into rounds with a circular pastry-cutter; scoop out the inside, making little nests of them.

Fry in hot fat (_see_ French Frying); drain them on kitchen paper.

Put them inside the oven to keep hot.

Put the b.u.t.ter and water into a saucepan on the fire to boil.

When boiling, stir in sufficient crumbs to make the mixture stiff.

Beat in the yolk, add pepper, salt, and cayenne; and stir in the cheese.

Pile the mixture on the cases; sprinkle a few browned crumbs over them and be careful to serve quite hot.

Welsh Rare-bit.

_Ingredients_--Some slices of bread about half an inch in thickness.

Some slices of cheese.

A little b.u.t.ter.

The yolk of an egg.

Pepper and salt.

A little cayenne.

_Method._--Toast the bread and keep it quite hot.

Cut the cheese into very thin pieces.

Put it in a saucepan with the b.u.t.ter; pepper and salt to taste.

Stir until it has melted, then mix in the yolk.

Spread it on the toast, and brown before the fire.

Toasted Cheese.

_Ingredients_--Some slices of very hot toast.

Some slices of cheese.

Mustard, pepper and salt.

_Method._--Toast the cheese nicely, and lay it quickly on hot toast.

Spread a little mustard thinly over it, with pepper and salt, and serve very hot.