BAKED BEANS WITH SPINACH AND EGGS
Some red haricot beans, a small onion, a few pieces of celery, tomato sauce (recipe, [page 106]), spinach, eggs (allowing one for each person), butter, seasoning.
Method.—Soak the beans over night, wash them and put them into a saucepan of cold, salted water; as soon as it has boiled rapidly pour off the water and fill up the saucepan with boiling water, adding the onion, celery, and salt, pepper and nutmeg, and let the beans boil gently until the skins will break easily. Then turn them into a colander and remove the skins; melt an ounce or two of butter (a liberal quantity should be allowed) in an earthenware pipkin; put in the beans, pour the tomato sauce over them, cover closely (tying a piece of greased paper over the top if the lid does not fit well) and stand the pipkin in a pan of hot water in a moderately hot oven for five hours, replenishing the water when necessary and adding a little more sauce if it is required. Butter as many china egg poachers as are needed and break a new-laid egg into each, scatter a little salt and pepper over the top and place the poachers in a shallow pan of boiling water in the oven and let the eggs cook until they are sufficiently set to turn out. Make a border of carefully prepared spinach on a hot dish, place the eggs at intervals on it, and fill the middle with the baked beans; a little powdered parsley sprinkled over the eggs will add to the dainty appearance of the dish. The water in which the beans are cooked should be saved as it would be a good foundation for various vegetable soups or sauces.