Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/51

more tomatoes again, and so on till the dish is full. Bake half-an-hour in a quick oven and eat with meat.

Stuffed Tomatoes.

Ingredients: Tomatoes, minced meat, seasoned with pepper and salt, half teaspoonful sugar, onion or eschalots.

Mode: Choose large sound tomatoes, not too ripe or they will break in the baking. Cut a lid, that is, a slice off the top, all but a tiny piece for a hinge. Now very carefully scoop out all the seeds, etc., into a basin. Do each tomato in this way. Have ready some minced meat seasoned to taste, and stuff your tomatoes with this. Close the lids or top and place in the baking-dish with some good dripping. Bake in a quick oven, basting frequently. With the seeds and pulp taken from the inside make a sauce by putting it on to stew in small saucepan, with salt, pepper, and sugar, and some onion shred fine, or eschalots. When the tomatoes are dished either pour the sauce round them or send it in in a sauce-boat.

Time: Half-an-hour.

Tomato Toast.

A Breakfast Relish.

Ingredients: Four large tomatoes, one green chili, three eggs, a small lump of butter, and a little milk.

Mode: Peel and chop up the tomatoes and chili, mix with the eggs well beaten, add the butter and milk, salt and pepper to taste, just bring to a boil and spread on toast, serve very hot.

Tomatoes Stewed with Gravy.

Ingredients: One basinful of tomatoes, gravy or stock, pepper and salt.

Mode: Remove the stalks, and skin the tomatoes, by pouring boiling water over them they will peel easily. Arrange them in a stewpan, and pour over them as much gravy or stock as will reach to half their height, and let them stew gently until they are quite cooked. Turn them once in the doing, being careful not to break them. When done place them on a flat dish with little squares of toast under them.

Thicken the gravy with a little flour, season with pepper and salt, and pour round the tomatoes.

Time: Half an hour.

To Cook Egg Plant.—Cut the egg plant in slices over night, and soak in weak salt and water. Before cooking dry on a cloth and then dip each slice in egg, roll in breadcrumbs, and fry in hot dripping or butter very slowly, as the plant requires to be well cooked. When a nice brown, serve as hot as possible.

To Cook Haricot Beans.

Ingredients: One pint of beans, one onion, pepper, salt, one pint of water, one pint of milk, one ounce of butter.

Mode: Soak the beans all night in cold water. In the morning skin them, put them into a saucepan with one pint of water, and the onion, pepper and salt, and let them boil till tender. Strain through a sieve, add the milk and butter, and pour back in the saucepan to get hot, and serve.

Time: Two hours, or more.

Carrots a la France.

Ingredients: A number of small carrots, one teaspoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of sugar, one pint of milk, two tablespoonsful of butter, one tablespoonful of flour.

Mode: Scrape and wash the carrots, put them into a stewpan with two quarts of boiling water, and cook them for an hour. Then strain off all but about half a cup of water, and add the salt and sugar, and boil again till all water has evaporated. Serve with the following sauce:—Put the milk into a saucepan, when it boils stir in the butter, beaten with the flour, add salt and pepper. Cook in three minutes, and pour over the carrots.

To Prepare Beetroot—This is a very delicate root to boil, for if broken in the least it bleeds, and so loses its beautiful color. For this reason I usually boil it without washing. It is more easily washed afterwards: Boil tender—then peel the skin off and slice into a stewpan with a cupful of