Done as the French do them, namely, fried in oil, they are also indigestible.
Potatoes are not only most nutritious, but are calmative to the nerves, and to some extent, narcotic, especially new potatoes.
A potato salad—lettuces included—is a most valuable adjunct to a supper dish.
We have to learn from the Scotch how to serve potatoes, and we must also cross the Border to find out the most delicious and digestible form in which to serve ordinary green vegetables. These include cabbages, curly greens, sprouting broccoli, savoys, turnip-tops, spinach, and kale of all kinds; and all these should be mashed for the delicate, the strongest portions of midribs being taken out, and a little butter and salt well mixed with them in the mashing. They should be served hot, and eaten off a hot plate with a little bread, as a dish, before any meat has been partaken of.
In this way we not only get their full flavour, but the greatest benefit to the blood from their use.
Next in point of value to the delicate come cauliflowers and Brussels sprouts. These need not be mashed, but ought to be used as a dish, with a little bread and butter. The same may be said of seakale.
No one should omit having half-a-dozen times at least during the early spring months a dish of nicely-cooked nettle-tops.
Nettle-tops should be very young and tender. Only those of a light spring-green colour are to be culled. They possess the same properties—of a blood-purifying order—that asparagus does.
Watercresses may usually be had all the year round, and are far more valuable than most people would imagine; but I desire to warn my readers against eating them unless very well washed indeed, as the eggs of certain parasites sometimes cling to their leaves.
Parsley is not over-digestible, but if it agrees it will do the blood good, and help to cool and sweeten the system.