SALSIFY FRITTERS.—
Having washed and scraped the salsify roots, and cut off the extreme joints, stand them up and grate them. Beat three eggs very light, and stir them gradually into a pint of milk, with sufficient flour to make a stiff batter. Instead of grating the salsify you may cut it into pieces, and boil it till quite soft, so that you can mash it easily. Add a little pepper. Have ready over the fire a deep frying-pan or skillet, with plenty of boiling lard. Put in a large spoonful of the batter, and into the middle of each drop a spoonful of the mashed salsify. Fry these fritters of a light brown on both sides, and take them out with a perforated skimmer, draining off the lard through its holes.
You may fry the mashed salsify without the batter, taking large spoonfuls, and dipping each in beaten egg first, and afterward twice over in grated bread-crumbs, so as to resemble fried oysters.
Or you may first boil the roots merely split in two, and then fry them in fresh butter, or bake them brown in an oven.
SALSIFY OYSTERS.—
Get some fine salsify roots, (called also oyster-plant,) and wash and scrape them well. Boil them in sufficient fresh oyster liquor to cover them well, and when they are soft take them out, split them, and cut them into pieces about two inches long. Then put them into a stew-pan, with the oyster liquor, some pieces of fresh butter rolled in flour, and some blades of mace and some grated nutmeg, with a few whole pepper-corns. Let them cook between five and ten minutes, having stirred among them the beaten yolks of two or three eggs. Serve them up hot, as a side dish.
MELONGINA OR EGG-PLANT.—
Take a large fine egg-plant, and see that there are no blemishes about it. Having cut it into thin round slices, (without paring off the skin,) sprinkle between the slices a very little salt and pepper, cover them with a plate, and let them rest an hour more. Then wipe the pieces dry. Have some beaten egg in one deep plate, and some bread-crumbs, finely grated, in another. Dip each slice of egg-plant first into the beaten egg, and then into the bread-crumbs, and fry them brown in a pan full of boiling lard, or else lard and fresh butter mixed in equal quantities. Take them out with a perforated skimmer, and drain them well.