CABBAGE STUFFED WITH NUTS
A medium-sized red cabbage, 2 small onions, 1 carrot, 1 small turnip, 3 ozs. Brazil nuts, 3 ozs. pine nut kernels (or Cob nuts), 4 ozs. bread, boiling milk, 2¹⁄₂ ozs. butter, 1 egg, thick brown sauce, seasoning, fried breadcrumbs.
Method.—Partly cook the cabbage, then drain it and make a hollow in the middle beginning at the stalk end, fill it with the nut forcemeat, and tie a wide piece of tape round it. Melt one ounce of butter (dairy or nut) in a stewpan and put in an onion, the carrot and turnip, each cut into slices; season with salt and pepper, and fry gently for ten minutes; then put in the cabbage and pour in sufficient brown sauce to about half cover it; place a piece of greased paper over the pan before putting on the lid, and put it in a moderately hot oven for about half an hour; the cabbage should be basted with the sauce two or three times while it is cooking. When it is done, carefully remove it from the stewpan on to a hot dish, scatter some chopped parsley over it, and surround it with little heaps of fried breadcrumbs; the sauce in which it was cooked should be strained and sent to the table in a hot tureen. For the forcemeat, put an ounce of butter into a saucepan with a small onion (sliced), and fry for five minutes, taking care it does not brown; put the bread, which should be the crumb of a milk loaf, into a basin and pour in sufficient boiling milk to cover it and let it soak while the onion is being fried. Then add the bread to the onion; season with salt, pepper, and a little mace, and stir over the fire until a smooth thick paste is formed, when it should be passed through a sieve into a basin. Have ready the nuts which have been passed through a nut mill or fine mincer; add them to the paste and also half an ounce of butter and a well-beaten egg and use as directed. Large Cos lettuces are excellent served in the same way as the cabbage.
CARROTS IN RICE BORDER
One bunch young carrots, 2 or 3 tomatoes, 2 ozs. butter, ¹⁄₄ pint thick brown sauce, white stock, milk, 1 teacupful rice, seasoning, chopped parsley.
Method.—Put the rice, after washing it well, into a saucepan containing plenty of cold water and bring it gradually to boiling point and let it boil for ten minutes; then pour off the water and add an equal quantity of milk and nicely-flavoured, colourless vegetable stock and let it cook until it is very tender and all the liquid is absorbed. Add one ounce of butter to the rice, a tablespoonful of tomato catsup and some salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a pinch of curry powder and put it into a well-buttered border mould, pressing it down firmly, and bake in a fairly quick oven for half an hour. Scrape and trim the carrots (preferably the French round variety), and cook them in salted water until they are just tender, then drain them and put them into a saucepan containing the butter warmed and seasoned with salt, pepper, castor sugar, and nutmeg; cover the pan, and let them simmer steadily for a quarter of an hour, then add the tomatoes, which should be sieved, and the brown sauce, and let the carrots cook for another quarter of an hour. Turn the rice border from the mould and fill the middle with the carrots; sprinkle a little parsley over them and serve at once. If preferred, the border can be made of equal quantities of carefully-mashed potato (prepared as if for potato rissoles, with an egg) and any well-cooked green vegetable which has been passed through a wire sieve.
CASSOLETTES WITH PEAS
Two pounds of cooked potatoes, 2 ozs. butter, 3 tablespoonfuls cream (or milk), 2 raw yolks, 1 whole raw egg, breadcrumbs, seasoning, 1 pint peas, 1 tablespoonful minced onion, ¹⁄₄ teaspoonful chopped mint.
Method.—Put one ounce of butter into an earthenware casserole with the onion and cook gently for five minutes (without colouring), then add the peas and simmer them for ten minutes in the butter, turning them constantly with a wooden spoon; at the end of the time season with salt, pepper, and castor sugar, add the mint and a quarter of a pint of water; bring the latter gradually to boiling point, then cover the peas closely with a greased paper before putting on the lid of the casserole, and let them cook very gently until they are quite tender. They must be stirred from time to time, and if they get too dry a little more water may be added, but it is not intended there should be much, and when done it should be nearly all absorbed, and then two tablespoonfuls of cream should be added and the simmering continued, for ten minutes more, but the cream must not be allowed to boil. Pass the potatoes through a sieve into a basin (they should be still hot) and add one ounce of warm butter and a tablespoonful of cream and beat them well, then add (one at a time) the yolks of two raw eggs, and season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, a pinch of castor sugar and a few drops of lemon-juice and beat the mixture again for a few minutes and spread it out on a flat dish. When it is cold take a small portion at a time and roll it on a floured board into a little ball (of about the size of a golf-ball); flatten it slightly at each end, thus converting it into the shape of a small cylinder; mark the top with a small round cutter, then dip the cassolettes into beaten egg and cover them thickly with fine, dried breadcrumbs, and after allowing time for the crumbs to dry, fry them in deep boiling fat until they are a decided golden colour. Drain the cassolettes, and carefully remove the marked portion, then take out all the soft inside, leaving the cases hollow; fill them with the stewed peas, place in the oven for a few moments and serve garnished with parsley. Cassolettes made in the same way may be filled with buttered eggs mixed with a small quantity of chopped parsley and onion, and also hard boiled eggs chopped and mixed with white mushroom sauce.