Fresh Vegetables : Part 1

Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery: A Manual of Cheap and Wholesome Diet
By A. G. Payne

(Page 9 of 19)

Artichokes, French, Plain Boiled. - Put the artichokes to soak in some well salted water, upside down, as otherwise it is impossible to get rid of the insects that are sometimes hidden in the leaves. Trim off the ends of the leaves and the stalk and all the hard leaves round the bottom should be pulled off. Put the artichokes into a saucepan of boiling water sufficiently deep to nearly cover them.

The tips of the leaves are best left out; add a little salt, pepper and a spoonful of savory herbs to the water in which they are boiled. French cooks generally add a piece of butter. Boil them till they are tender. The time depends upon the size, but you can always tell when they are done by pulling out a single leaf. If it comes out easily the artichokes are done. Drain them off and remember in draining them to turn them upside down. Some kind of sauce is generally served with artichokes separately in a boat, such as butter sauce, sauce Allemande, or Dutch sauce.

Artichokes, Broiled. - Parboil the artichokes and take out the part known as the choke. In the hollow place a little chopped parsley and light-colored bread-rasping soaked in olive oil. Place the bottoms of the artichokes on a gridiron with narrow bars over a clear fire and serve them as soon a they are thoroughly hot through.

Artichokes, Fried. - The bottoms of artichokes after being boiled can be dipped in batter and fried.

Artichokes A La Provencale. - Parboil the artichokes and remove the choke and put them in the oven in a tin with a little oil, pepper and salt and three or four heads of garlic, whole. Let them bake till they are tender, turning them over in the oil occasionally; then take out the garlic and serve them with the oil poured over them and add the juice of a lemon.

Artichokes, Jerusalem, Boiled, Plain. - The artichokes must be first washed and peeled and should be treated like potatoes in this respect. They should be thrown into cold water immediately and it is best to add a little vinegar to the water. If the artichokes are young, throw them into boiling water and they will become tender in about a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. It is very important not to over-boil them, as they turn a bad color. If any doubt exists as to the age of the artichokes, they had better be tested with a fork. Immediately they are tender they should be drained and served.

Old artichokes must be treated like old potatoes, put originally into cold water and when they come to the boiling point allowed to simmer till tender; but these are best mashed. When the artichokes have been drained, they can, of course, be served quite plain, but they are best sent to table with some kind of sauce poured over them, such as Allemande sauce, Dutch sauce, white sauce, or plain butter sauce. They are greatly improved in appearance, after a spoonful of sauce has been poured over each artichoke, if a little blanched chopped parsley is sprinkled over them and a few red specks made by coloring a pinch of bread-crumbs by shaking them with a few drops of cochineal.

Another very nice way of sending artichokes to table is to place all the artichokes together in a vegetable-dish, and, after pouring a little white sauce over each artichoke, to place a fresh-boiled bright green Brussels sprout between each. The white and green contrast very prettily.

Jerusalem Artichokes, Fried. - Peel and slice the artichokes very thin; throw these slices into smoking hot oil in which a frying-basket has been placed. As soon as the artichokes are of bright golden-brown color, lift out the frying-basket, shake it while you pepper and salt the artichokes and serve very hot. They can be eaten with thin brown bread-and-butter and lemon-juice and form a sort of vegetarian whitebait.

Artichokes, Mashed. - These are best made from old artichokes. They must be rubbed through a wire sieve and the strings left behind. It is best to mash them up with a little butter and a spoonful or two of cream is a very great improvement.

Asparagus, Boiled. - Cut the asparagus all the same length by bringing the green points together and then trimming the stalks level with a sharp knife. Throw the asparagus into boiling salted water. Time, from fifteen to twenty-five minutes, according to thickness. Serve on dry toast and send butter sauce to table separate in a tureen.

Beans, Broad, Plain Boiled. - Broad beans, if eaten whole, should be quite young. They should be thrown into boiling water, salted. They require about twenty minutes to boil before they are tender. Serve with parsley and butter sauce.

Broad Beans, Mashed. - When broad beans get old, the only way to serve them is to have them mashed. Boil them and remove the skins, then mash them up with a little butter, pepper and salt and rub them through a wire sieve, make them hot and serve. You can if you like boil a few green onions and a pinch of savory herbs with the beans and rub these through the wire sieve as well. This dish is very cheap and very nourishing. Very young beans, like very young peas, are more nice than economical.

Beans A La Paulette. - Boil some young beans till they are tender and put them into a saucepan with a little butter, sugar, pepper and salt and sufficient flour to prevent the butter cooking oily; stew them in this a short time, till they appear to begin to boil, as the water from the beans will mix with the butter and flour and look like thin butter sauce thicken this with one or two yolks of eggs and serve.

Beans A La Bourgeois. - Place the beans in a saucepan, with a piece of butter, a small quantity of shouldot chopped fine and a teaspoonful of savory herbs; toss them about in this a little time and then add a little water, sufficient to moisten them so that they can stew; add a little sugar and when tender thicken the water with some beaten-up egg.

Cassell & Company, Limited: London, Paris & Melbourne. 1891.