Читать книгу Luncheons: A Cook's Picture Book - Mary Ronald - Страница 5

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With very few exceptions, vegetables should be served au naturel. Meats require all the aids of skilful handling and tasteful adornment. Vegetables, on the contrary, have great beauty in themselves, and the art of the cook cannot rival that of nature. Therefore a few sprigs of parsley so arranged as to give a finish to the dish are ordinarily sufficient garnishing. In those cases, however, where the vegetables lose form and color in cooking, the skill of the cook may be employed to restore these qualities as far as possible. The more a cabbage can be made to look like itself, the more attractive it will be. This, at first thought, may seem a difficult thing to do, but the boiled vegetable can easily be placed in a cup made of the outside green leaves of the cabbage, and so, in a measure, present its own beautiful form and color. Illustration No. 4 shows a plain boiled cabbage mixed with a white sauce and so arranged.

NO. 4. SAVOY CABBAGE LEAVES HOLDING CREAMED BOILED CABBAGE.

The color of this vegetable in its natural state appeals to the esthetic sense of every artist, and many a beautiful picture has been made of a field of cabbages; yet the farmer who sees a man sit down with canvas and brush before his cabbage patch usually regards him as a crank, for to his untutored mind cabbages are associated only with their utility. Many housekeepers are equally mistaken in their views about this vegetable, and consider it coarse food fit to serve only garnished with apologies. Such opinions are based on error, however, for the cabbage is both beautiful to look at and delicious to eat. There are many receipts for cooking cabbage which make it as delicate a dish as cauliflower.

NO. 5. SPINACH GARNISHED WITH WHITE OF HARD BOILED EGG AND CROUTONS.

In the case of spinach, since the form cannot be preserved, recourse is had to molding; the color also may be heightened by contrast with other colors. Illustration No. 5 shows spinach molded by being pressed into a basin decorated with the whites of hard-boiled eggs, and with croutons placed around the form after it is unmolded. Both the eggs and the croutons improve the taste of the spinach. The basin was first buttered to hold the egg in place while the design was being arranged. Crumbed yolk of hard-boiled egg sprinkled over spinach is another garnishing for this vegetable which enhances its green color and gives the dish a better appearance.

NO. 6. ASPIC OF GREEN PEAS.

There are many ways of cooking any vegetable. These various ways may serve for change, but few of them are better than the simple one of boiling and serving with a suitable sauce. Attention should be given to dishing vegetables so that there is no appearance of their having been turned carelessly on to the platter. A neatly folded napkin can be used under dry, unseasoned vegetables, like asparagus, artichokes, or corn. The napkin gives daintiness to the dish, and in the case of corn, when folded over it, helps to keep it hot.