Made-Over Dishes

Chapter 6

Mushroom Sauce

Where just a few mushrooms are left over, either fresh or canned, they may be chopped fine and added to a brown sauce and served with steak or beef; or they may be chopped fine and added to a cream sauce and served with chicken or sweetbreads.

Cold Meat Sauces

It is the fashion when one is serving cold meat to pa.s.s with it some condiment like Worcestershire sauce, mushroom, walnut or tomato catsup. Of course, these used in any great quant.i.ty are more or less injurious. A number of little left-overs in the house may be used to take their place, adding zest to the meat, and are more economical and more wholesome.

Chopped Tomato Sauce

Peel a good-sized tomato, cut it into halves and press out the seeds; chop the flesh of the tomato fine, add a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, or, if you have it, a little sweet pepper chopped fine; you may add also a little celery chopped very fine, or celery seed, and a teaspoonful of onion juice; rub your spoon with a clove of garlic, and mix the ingredients thoroughly; add a teaspoonful of lemon juice and dish.

Pa.s.s and use as ordinary catsup.

Grated Cuc.u.mber Sauce

Grate three or four large cuc.u.mbers; drain them on a sieve; to this drained pulp add a half teaspoonful of salt, a dash of red pepper, a teaspoonful of onion juice, a tablespoonful of lemon juice, and their stir in carefully two or three tablespoonfuls of very thick cream; if you can whip the cream a little first, so much the better. Cream may also be added to the tomato.

Chopped Celery Sauce

Chop fine sufficient celery to make a half pint; season it with a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of onion juice, a dash of pepper.

Rub the spoon with garlic, mix thoroughly, stir into it the yolk of an egg that has been beaten light with two tablespoonfuls of cream; add a few drops of lemon juice or tarragon vinegar and serve.

Cream Horseradish Sauce

This is one of the most delightful sauces to serve with left-over meats, especially beef. Press from the vinegar four tablespoonfuls of horseradish, add a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, and work in the yolk of an egg. Whip six tablespoonfuls of cream to a stiff froth, stir it gradually into the horseradish and dish at once.

Pudding Sauces

The simple method of making a pudding sauce is to add to a half cup of sugar, a tablespoonful of flour; mix thoroughly, and then add hastily a half pint of boiling water; boil for a moment and pour while hot into one well-beaten egg, beating all the while. This may now be seasoned with any flavoring, as orange, lemon or vanilla.

To change the character of this sauce, a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter may be added. Where b.u.t.ter enters largely into the composition of a pudding sauce, it is better that it should be beaten to a cream, the sugar added gradually, then the egg and last the liquor. Heat it over a double boiler just at serving time, or the froth will float on the surface and the liquid be rather dense at the bottom.

Melted sugar with lemon juice and a little water is called sugar sauce.

SALADS

There comes a time during the week, even in careful housekeeping, when there is an acc.u.mulation of little things, a few olives, a slice or two of beet, perhaps two or three pieces of cooked carrot, a cold potato, a tiny little bit of cold fish, or cold meats, and not more than a tablespoonful or two of aspic jelly; these may all be utilized in a

Russian Salad

Chop or cut carefully the vegetables; mix together, add two or three tablespoonfuls of toasted pinon nuts, and the meat and fish; dish on lettuce leaves, or, if you have tomatoes, peel and take out the centers, and fill the salad into the tomatoes. Serve with French or mayonnaise dressing; garnish with blocks of aspic jelly.

CEREALS

Cold boiled rice left over may be mixed with a small quant.i.ty of meat, and used for stuffing tomatoes or egg plant; or it may be re-heated or made into pudding, or added to the m.u.f.fins for lunch, or added to the corn bread.

A cup of oat meal or cracked wheat or wheatlet may also be added to the m.u.f.fins or ordinary yeast or corn breads. These little additions increase the food value, make the mixture lighter, and save waste.

Southern Rice Bread

Separate two eggs, beat the yolks until light, and add one cup (a half pint) of milk; add a tablespoonful of melted b.u.t.ter, a half teaspoonful of salt, and one and a half cups of corn meal; beat thoroughly, and stir in one cup of cold boiled rice; add a teaspoonful of baking powder; beat for two or three minutes; stir in the well-beaten whites of the eggs, and bake in a thin sheet in an ordinary baking pan.

Rice m.u.f.fins

Separate two eggs; add to the yolks one cup of milk and a cup and a half of white flour; beat thoroughly, add a half teaspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of baking powder and one cup of cold boiled rice; stir in the well-beaten whites, and bake in gem pans in a quick oven twenty minutes.

Rice Croquettes

To make cold boiled rice into croquettes, the rice must be re-heated in a double boiler with a gill of milk and the yolk of an egg to each cup; you may season with sugar and lemon or salt and pepper, and serve as a vegetable. Form into cylinder-shaped croquettes; dip in egg and bread crumbs, and fry in smoking hot fat.

Simple Rice Pudding

Put into a double boiler one quart of milk; allow it to cook for thirty minutes; then add two tablespoonfuls of sugar, a grating of nutmeg, and one cup of cold boiled rice; turn this into a baking pan, and bake in a quick oven thirty minutes. Serve cold. Raisins may be added when it is put into the baking pan.

Lemon Rice

Into one cup of cold boiled rice stir one pint of milk; beat the yolks of three eggs with a half cup of sugar together until light; add to them the rice and milk; add the grated yellow rind and the juice of one lemon. Turn this into a baking pan; bake in a moderately quick oven twenty to thirty minutes. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, add three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and beat again. Heap these over the pudding, dust thickly with powdered sugar; return to the oven to slowly brown; serve cold.

Paradise Pudding

Pare, core and grate three apples. Separate three eggs; add to the yolks four tablespoonfuls of sugar; beat until light; add a grating of nutmeg and a teaspoonful of lemon juice; stir in a half cup of cold boiled rice; mix with this quickly the apples, and beat well; add a half cup of milk; turn into a baking dish, and bake for thirty minutes. Make a meringue as in preceding recipe, from the whites of the eggs; heap it over the top, and brown. This pudding may be served warm or cold.

Compote of Pineapple

Throw a pint of boiling water over one cup of cold boiled rice; stir for a moment; drain, and stand at the oven door. Have ready, picked apart, one small pineapple; add to it a half cup of sugar; heat quickly, stirring constantly. Arrange the rice in the center of a round dish, making it into a mound, flat on top; heap the pineapple neatly on this; pour over the syrup, and send at once to the table. Small quant.i.ties or different kinds of fruits that have been left over may be blended and used in this way.