Ingredients
- salt
Directions
The Legumes. AS we have seen, the food value of the dried bean, pea and lentil, is great, but as usually cooked a large per cent, of it is lost to us.
In the process of cooking, the cellulose part must be broken up, softened, and as much as possible entirely removed. These vegetables, if they cannot be obtained ground, must be soaked in cold water some time before cooking, cooked till very soft and then mashed and sieved. No form of cooking that does not include sieving can be recommended except for very hardy stomachs. See pages 55 and 117.
This vegetable must also be treated with care. The starch grains of which it is so largely composed swell in the process of cook- ing, and burst the cellulose walls confining them, but when this stage is reached the potato is too often spoiled by being allowed to absorb steam and become sodden. As soon as tender, boiled potatoes should be drained, dried out a few moments, then sprinkled with salt, and the kettle covered close with a towel, until they are served. They should then be put into a napkin and sent to the table.
Other garden vegetables are cooked
Other vegetables. ,., & , . , , .,.
more or less alike; put into boiling water and kept at a rapid boil until tender, and no 115
116 Cooking of Vegetables.
longer, — the length of time varying for any given vegetable according to the freshness, size, and degree of maturity. When done or nearly so, they should be seasoned and served as soon as possible.
A welcome variety in the serving of 8* vegetables can be found in skillful mixture of two or more kinds. A few of these mix- tures are, green corn and shelled beans, or succotash, green corn and tomatoes, green corn with stewed potatoes, potatoes and turnips mashed together, green peas with a quarter as many carrots cut very small, potatoes with same proportion of carrots and seasoned with fried sliced onions poured over, vegetables and There are also mixtures of vegetables fruits. and fruits that are very successful, as
lentils or beans with a border of stewed prunes.