ARTICHOKES à l’Italienne.
Ingredients.—4 or 5 artichokes, salt and butter, about ½ pint of good gravy. Mode.—Trim and cut the artichokes into quarters, and boil them until tender in water mixed with a little salt and butter. When done, drain them well, and lay them all round the dish, with the leaves outside. Have ready some good gravy, highly flavoured with mushrooms; reduce it until quite thick, and pour it round the artichokes, and serve. Time.—20 to 25 minutes to boil the artichokes. Sufficient for one side-dish. Seasonable from July to the beginning of September.
ARTICHOKES, Boiled Jerusalem.
Ingredients.—To each ½ gallon of water allow 1 heaped tablespoonful of salt; artichokes. Mode.—Wash, peel, and shape the artichokes in a round or oval form, and put them into a saucepan with sufficient cold water to cover them salted in the above proportion. Let them boil gently until tender; take them up, drain them, and serve them in a napkin, or plain, whichever mode is preferred; send to table with them a tureen of melted butter or cream sauce, a little of which may be poured over the artichokes when they are not served in a napkin. Time.—About twenty minutes after the water boils. Average cost, 2d. per lb. Sufficient,—10 for a dish for 6 persons. Seasonable.—from September to June.
ARTICHOKES, Mashed Jerusalem.
Ingredients.—To each ½ gallon of water allow 1 oz. of salt, 15 or 16 artichokes, 1 oz. butter, pepper and salt to taste. Mode.—Boil the artichokes as in the preceding recipe until tender; drain and press the water from them, and beat them up with a fork. When thoroughly mashed and free from lumps, put them into a saucepan with the butter and a seasoning of white pepper and salt; keep stirring over the fire until the artichokes are quite hot, and serve. A pretty way of serving Jerusalem artichokes as an entremets, or second course dish, is to shape the artichokes in the form of a pear, and to serve them covered with white sauce, garnished with Brussels sprouts. Time.—About 20 minutes. Average cost, 2d. per lb. Sufficient for 6 or 7 persons. Seasonable from September to June.
ARTICHOKE (Jerusalem) SOUP, sometimes called Palestine Soup (a White Soup).
Ingredients.—3 slices of lean bacon or ham, ½ a head of celery, 1 turnip, 1 onion, 3 oz. of butter, 4 lbs. of artichokes, 1 pint of boiling milk, or 1 pint of boiling cream, salt and cayenne to taste, 2 lumps of sugar, 2½ quarts of white stock. Mode.—Put the bacon and vegetables, which should be cut into thin slices, into the stewpan with the butter. Braise these for ¼ of an hour, keeping them well stirred. Wash and pare the artichokes, and after cutting them into thin slices, add them, with a pint of stock, to the other ingredients. When these have gently stewed down to a smooth pulp, put in the remainder of the stock. Stir it well, adding the seasoning, and when it has simmered for five minutes, pass it through a strainer. Now pour it back into the stewpan, let it again simmer five minutes, taking care to skim it well, and stir it to the boiling milk or cream. Serve with small sippets of bread fried in butter. Time.—1 hour. Average cost per quart, 1s. 2d. Seasonable from June to October. Sufficient for 8 persons.
BOILED ASPARAGUS.