Choice of vegetables

 When  buying vegetables it is necessary to consider price and quality. Vegetables are generally cheaper when they are in season for then there is a copious supply of them. Only frozen vegetables have stable prices – and these are usually quite high. When planning meals, try to include 

Vegetables and fruit that are at their cheapest and avoid those that are out of season for these are likely to be expensive and of poor quality. Always look for freshness and quality when buying fresh vegetables.

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Corn-starch or Corn-dough

1 Soak the corn for 2 days, changing the water daily

2 Strain out water on the third day and wash the corn

3 Pound in a mortar or have it milled

4 Mix the corn-meal with a little water to make a stiff dough, pack tightly in an enamel bowl or calabash and leave covered till next day. This keeps for about 3 – 4 days if it is covered tightly. If the meal is required immediately then proceed without first making it into a dough.

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Left-over boiled rice and chicken casserole

Pieces of cooked chicken.                1 tablespoon butter or margarine

2 cups boiled rice.                             300 ml milk

2 eggs

1 Bone the pieces of chicken and cut into small pieces

2 Put alternate layers of rice and chicken into a well greased casserole, beginning with the rice.

3 Beat eggs, add milk and seasoning. Pour this over the rice and chicken and dot with butter or margarine.

4 Bake in a moderate oven until well browned.

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How to make chocolate sauce

50 g plain chocolate.                         1 tablespoon icing sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla essence

Grate the plain chocolate; put it in a small saucepan and add the vanilla essence, icing sugar, and one tablespoon of water. Stir over gentle heat until it melts.

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Dough cake

250 g flour.                                                       Grated nutmeg

25 g margarine.                                               15 g mixed peel

25 g granulated sugar.                                   A little tepid milk

1 egg.                                                                  Pinch of salt

50 g currants.                                                   15 g yeast

1 Sieve the flour and salt. Rub in the fat.

2 Cream the yeast and sugar; mix with a little tepid milk. Add to flour.

3 Add the rest of the ingredients and mix to a soft dough with the remaining liquid. The dough should be slightly softer than for bread.

4 Beat well with the hand.

5 Half-fill a greased warmed loaf tin, put in a warm place to rise until the dough reaches the top of the tin.

6 Bake in a moderately hot oven for 30 – 40 minutes.

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Sweet potato biscuit

250 g flour.                                                           ½ teaspoon salt

125 g mashed cooked sweet potato.                125 g margarine

25 g sugar.                                                            150 ml milk to mix

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 Sift all the dry ingredients together

2 Melt the margarine in a saucepan and beat well into the mashed sweet potatoes. Stir in the milk and mix thoroughly.

3 Add the dry ingredients to the potato mixture and stir until well blended. Add a little more milk if necessary, to make a soft but wet dough

4 Prick and cut with a biscuit cutter and arrange on a greased baking tray.

6 Bake in a hot oven for 15 minutes.

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Cheese aigrettes or cheese fritters

50 g flour.                                     150 ml water

50 g grated cheese.                     1 tablespoon grated cheese (for sprinkling)

1 whole egg and 1 yolk.             Salt, pepper, and pinch of cayenne

15 g margarine 

1 Warm and sieve flour

2 Bring the water and margarine to boiling point.

3 Draw the pan aside; add all the flour immediately and beat until smooth and cool slightly.

4 Beat in the yolk and beaten whole egg a little at a time. Add seasonings and 50 g cheese. Beat well

5 Drop the mixture in small teaspoons into a bath of deep fat which is just beginning to smoke.

6 Cook for about 10 minutes until golden brown. Drain well and pile on a hot dish. Sprinkle with grated cheese.

7 Serve very hot.

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Varieties of yeast

1 Compressed yeast can be bought by the ounce. It should be kept perfectly fresh. It does not keep well in hot weather, therefore buy a small quantity at a time and always keep in a cold place.

2 Dried yeast keeps well and is used when it is difficult to obtain or to store fresh compressed yeast.

3 Preserved yeast is the froth which rises to the surface of beer when it is fermented, but it is not so dependable.

Fried fish with tomatoes

6 fillets of sole.           Brown bread crumbs

1 egg.                            Lemon

3 tomatoes.                 Parsley

1 Prepare fillets. Season with salts and white pepper

2 Coat with egg and breadcrumbs.

3 Heat the fat and fry the fish to a golden color. Drain and keep hot

4 Grill or fry quickly the halved tomatoes. Make slices of lemon into the shape  of lemon butterflies.

5 Arrange the fish on an oval dish, put tomatoes round the fish and garnish with lemon butterflies and parsley.

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Black cap pudding

 250 ml plain butter.                 50 g currants

1 Prepared batter and stand for half an hour

2 Place cleaned currants at the bottom of a well-greased mould

3 Pour in batter and cover mould with greased paper.

4 Steam for 1 – 11/2 hours or bake for 30 – 40 minutes.

5 Serve with custard sauce.

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Important points in cheese cookery

1 Divide cheese finely (grate or sieve). This breaks up the coating

2 Additional extra seasoning to a cheese dish will excite the flow of the digestive juices to deal with the concentrated food, e.g mustard, cayenne pepper.

3 Serve generally in small quantities. Serve often.

4 Mix with starchy foods, which will absorb the fat, e.g bread, macaroni, flour.

5 Cook over a gentle heat for as short a time as possible to prevent hardening of protein.

Cheese for cooking should be kept covered to prevent it becoming hard and dry.

How to prepare groundnut paste

This is a substitute for almond paste, and may be used to cover the outside of a fruit cake which is to be coated with Royal icing, e.g. wedding Cakes, etc.

50 g groundnuts 500 g icing sugar Whites of 2 eggs

1 Roast groundnuts. Grind or pound into fine powder. It should not be oily.

2 Put into a bowl, add the sifted icing sugar and mix well.

3 Add the lightly beaten egg white. Mix all together to a stiff paste which will form into a ball.

4 Knead thoroughly until smooth but not oily.

5 Roll out into required shape.

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Chocolate moulds

50 g plain chocolate.                                    15 g cornflour

750 ml milk.                                                   25 g sugar

Vanilla essence.                                            Whipped cream

1 Grate chocolate into a small saucepan. Add 2 tablespoons of milk and dissolve slowly over gentle heat.

2 Mix cornflour into a smooth paste with a little of the milk.

3 Heat the remaining milk and pour over blended cornflour, stirring all the time.

4 Pour on to the melted chocolate and boil for 5 minutes stirring all the time. 

5 Pour into wet individual moulds and leave in a cool place to set.

6 Turn out on a round, flat glass dish; decorate the top of each with whipped cream and a sprinkling of grated chocolate on the cream. Serve more cream separately.

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Wholemeal bread

500 g wholemeal flour                                   25 g margarine or lard

15 g yeast.                                                         250 ml tepid water

1 teaspoon sugar.                                            1 teaspoon salt

1 Add salt to wholemeal flour. Rub in the lard or margarine.

2 Cream yeast and sugar and add the tepid water and strain this into the flour.

3 Mix and knead thoroughly until smooth.

4 Put in a warm place to rise, then knead again slightly on a floured board.

5 Press in a prepared loaf tin and leave to ‘prove' in a warm place for 15 minutes.

6 Bake in a hot oven for 45 minutes reducing the heat after 15 minutes. A lighter loaf is made with half plain flour and half wholemeal flour.

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Beef pies

250 g short crust pastry.                        Salt and pepper to taste

500 g minced beef.                                 1 onion

2 tablespoons cooking oil.                    1 tablespoons tomato paste

1 Chop up onions. Fry in hot oil. Add minced beef and season to taste. Cook for 5 minutes.

2 Roll out pastry ½ cm thick.

3 Use an 8 cm biscuit cutter and cut out 16 rounds.

4 Put 8 rounds in greased patty time (reserve the best 8 for covers).

6 Press the edges together and flake with a sharp knife.

7 Make a small hole in the centre to let out steam.

8 Bake in a hot oven for 20 – 30 minutes.

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Currant bread

500 g flour.                                                           25 g yeast

50 g margarine.                                                   250 ml milk

50 g granulated sugar.                                       1 teaspoon castor sugar

1 egg.                                                                      Large pinch of salt

75 g currents

1 Mix the salt with the warmed flour and sieve. Rub in the fat. Stir in the sugar and the currants. To make the currants plump, pour a little boiling water over them, strain, and dry them in a clean cloth.

2 Cream the yeast with the castor sugar. Beat the eggs and add both the egg and tepid milk to the creamed yeast.

3 Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture. Pour in the liquid. Cover lightly with a little of the flour and leave in a warm place for 20 minutes to set the sponge.

4 Beat with the hand until thoroughly mixed. Put in a floured bowl and leave in a warm place for 1 hour to rise.

5 Put in a warmed greased loaf tin and ‘prove’ until dougjh rises to the top of the tin.

6 Bake in a hot oven for 15 minutes and reduce heat o moderate until thoroughly cooked.

7 Remove from oven and brush the top with sugar glaze. Return to oven for a minute or two to dry the glaze.

Note: To make sugar glaze, dissolve 50 g sugar in about 3 tablespoons of water. Bring to the boil and boil for 4 minutes without stirring. Cool before using.

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Beans cakes

1 cup white beans.                                                             1 medium onion

2 large tomatoes or 1 teaspoon tomato paste.             1 egg

2 large peppers.                                                                  Salt to taste

1  Cook beans until soft, grind or mince to a paste.

2 Grind or mince onion, peppers and tomatoes.

3 Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix well. Add salt to taste.

4 Add the lightly beaten egg to bind the mixture.

5 Form into balls or flat cakes, and toss lightly in seasoned flour.

6 Fry in deep fat until crisp and brown. The cooked beans must be well drained and the consistency stiff enough to allow for easy handling and shaping. If too soft, add a little bean flour if available, or put the mixture in a refrigerator before shaping.

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Uses of eggs

1 Eggs are used to increase food value and to improve the flavor of foods to which they are added, e.g. doughnuts, banana pancakes, egg and corned beef stew.

2 As a binding medium, e.g fish cakes, yam balls, etc.

3 For coating foods for frying, e.g. fish, yam balls, etc.

4 As thickening agents, e.g. in sauces, custards, etc.

5 As a raising agent in cake-making.

6 For garnishing: hard-boiled eggs are sliced or wedged and used for garnishing salads, etc. The yolk may be sieved and the white chopped for garnishing meat or fish dishes.

7 For glazing pastry, bread dough, biscuits, etc, before baking.

8 Eggs are valuable in the diet especially in that of growing children and invalids because they are rich in nourishment and are easily digested.

Corn pie

6 fresh corn cobs.                                          225 ml milk

2 eggs.                                                              1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon butter or margarine.            Salt and pepper to taste

 Scrape corn grains from cobs to make about 2 teacups. Pass through a mincer.

2 Make a white sauce with the butter, flour and milk. Add salt and pepper.

3 Remove from fire and add the well-beaten eggs.

4 Stir in the minced corn and pour mixture into a greased pie dish.

5 Bake in a moderately hot oven until firm and brown.

Bon appetite!

Canary pudding

125 g margarine.                                ½ teaspoon baking powder

125 g sugar.                                         Grated lemon rind

2 eggs.                                                   Milk to mix if necessary

125 g flour.                                          A pinch of salt

 Cream the fat and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat well after each addition. 

2 Sieve flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the grated lemon rind. Fold all into the creamed mixture.

3 Add milk if necessary to give a dropping consistency.

4 Put mixture into a greased basin and cover. Steam for 11/2 hours.

5 Serve with custard sauce or jam sauce.

Bon appetite!