useful Vitamin C vegetable. When lettuce is unobtainable, and you want a change from grated cabbage, try young celery leaves in your winter salads. Fresh or dried, they also make good flavouring for casserole and stews.
The best way to serve celery raw is to separate the cleaned stalks, selecting the centre crisp stems for salads, and the “heart” for table use. The outer sections are good braised, served as a vegetable accompaniment, or included in a casserole.
Prepare celery by washing well in a bowl of cold water, then splitting the head and separating the stalks for similar treatment. Leave to crisp or curl in ice-cold water, the shorter stems in a jug or deep basin. Cut celery stalks, trimmed and left in cold water, will curl attractively for serving in a celery vase, or chopped in the salad. Fine curled shreds look most inviting arranged with other, more colourful, vegetables.
CREAMED CELERY
1 good head of celery.
A few browned breadcrumbs.
Pepper and salt.
3/4 pint milk and water.
3/4 oz. fat.
3/4 oz. flour.
Wash the celery, trim it into lengths, dice and place in a casserole or deep pie dish. Cover with the milk and water, add salt, and simmer until tender.
Drain, saving the liquid for the sauce.
Prepare the sauce as in recipe, p. 115. Simmer for three minutes, then add a generous sprinkling of pepper and salt (if necessary) before replacing the cooked celery. Return to the casserole, sprinkle with browned breadcrumbs, heat through and serve hot.
FRIED CELERY
1 head of celery
A little fat for frying.
A little flour and water for a thin batter.
Wheatmeal breadcrumbs.
Prepare the celery and trim into short lengths. Simmer these in salted water until tender, then drain, saving the liquid for soup. Make a thin frying batter of flour and water, dip each portion into this, drain, roll in crumbs and fry until lightly browned. Three to four minutes’ frying should be sufficient, turning the pieces until they colour and crisp.
Serve with a light shaking of vinegar.
CUCUMBER
Not only is cucumber useful as a sandwich filling, or as raw vegetable in salads, but it is excellent steamed or fried. Don’t peel the cucumber; the outside skin makes it more digestible.
Made into small “cups”—by trimming the cucumber into small lengths and scooping out one end—the vegetable can be stuffed, or par-cooked, and used to hold small quantities of sauce-bound foods—meat or fish.
A very attractive effect is obtained by stripping off the skin at regular intervals to a width of 1/3 inch, so that the cups appear to be striped. If time is short, it is best to keep the skin on the vegetable entirely, rather than remove it and cause waste by careless cutting. When stuffed, steam for about 30 minutes.
STEWED CUCUMBER
Slice the cucumber thickly and cook for about 10 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain, and thicken the liquid with a little flour to make a sauce, as described on p. 115. Return the cucumber to the sauce, heat up and serve as a green vegetable.
ROASTED CUCUMBER
Cut a medium-sized cucumber into 2-inch lengths and boil for 4 to 5 minutes in a little salted water. Roll in breadcrumbs, put in a baking tin with a little fat and bake until golden brown (about 5 mins.).
CUCUMBER SAUCE, see p. 115, SAUCES.
LEEKS
(See also p. 108, SOUP.)
To prepare leeks—trim off the roots, the outer tops and the sheath coverings. Split them down the centre and wash very thoroughly, as they hold grit between the folds. Allow them to soak for 20 minutes to half an hour in cold salted water, to ensure they are clear. Then drain, and cook until tender in a very little boiling salted water, from 20–30 minutes according to size.
Drain them well, and serve with a simple white sauce.
LEEK PUDDING
POTATO SUET CRUST PASTRY
8 oz. flour (self-raising)
2 oz. finely chopped suet.
2 oz. grated raw potato.
Filling—2–3 large leeks, or six small ones.
Pepper and salt.
Trim the leeks, cut in four lengthwise, wash thoroughly and slice finely into 1-inch lengths.
Make up the pastry, and line a pudding basin with two-thirds of it, leaving the remaining piece to form a lid, rolling it to a round the exact size.
Fill up the basin with the cut leeks, seasoning at each layer. Lay the lid in position, damp the edges, and seal together. Cover with a greased paper, place in the steamer and cook for about 2 hours. Serve with a good brown gravy.
Another method.—Form the pastry into an oval about 1/4 inch thick. Spread the chopped leeks over the pastry and sprinkle with seasoning. Dampen the edges of the pastry and roll up firmly. Wrap tightly in a margarine paper, and steam for an hour and a half.
LETTUCE
Lettuce is at its most valuable when served raw (see p. 60, SALADS). These recipes for cooked lettuce may come in useful when you want to vary the vegetable course.
LETTUCE AS A GREEN VEGETABLE
Wash and quarter the lettuces, and cook in a very little salted water until tender (about 10 minutes). Drain well, saving the liquid for soup.
LETTUCE AND SPINACH
Lettuce and spinach, cooked together, half and half make a pleasant change.
BRAISED LETTUCE WITH PEAS
4 small
