The Belgian Cookbook | Page 9

large potatoes, pepper and salt. Add
sufficient water to cover it, with a dash of vinegar and six
dessertspoonfuls of brown or moist sugar. Let it simmer for four hours,
drain it and serve cold.
[Mme. Segers.]
VEGETABLE SALAD
The special point of this dish is that peas, beans, carrots in dice, are all
cooked separately and when they are cold they are placed in a large
dish without being mixed. Decorate with the hearts of lettuce round the
edge and with slices of tomato, and pour over it, or hand with it, a good
mayonnaise.
[Mme. van Praet.]
CHICORY
This excellent vegetable can be dressed either in a bechamel sauce, or
with butter and lemon-juice. It is gently stewed, first of all, and it
requires pepper and salt. The sauces can be varied with tomato, or with
some of the good English bottled sauces stirred with the bechamel.
[Mme. van Praet.]
CAULIFLOWER À LA REINE ELIZABETH
Simmer the cauliflowers till tender. Prepare a mince of veal and pork,
and season it well with a little spice. Butter a mold and fill it with
alternate layers of mince and of cauliflower broken in small pieces. Fill
a large saucepan three-quarters full of boiling water and place the mold

in this; let it cook for one hour in this way over the fire; turn it out and
pour a spinach sauce over it.
[Mme. van Praet.]
MUSHROOMS À LA SPINETTE
Make some puff pastry cases, wash and chop the mushrooms and toss
them in butter to which you have added a slice of lemon. Make a
bechamel sauce with cream, or, failing that, with thick tinned cream,
and mix with the mushrooms. Heat the cases for a few minutes in the
oven and fill them with the hot mixture.
[Mme. Spinette.]
DRESSED CAULIFLOWER
Simmer a cauliflower till it is tender. Pour out the liquor, and add to it a
bit of butter, the size of a nut, rolled in flour, a pinch of nutmeg, a
tablespoonful of Gruyère cheese and a little milk.
Bind the sauce with a little feculina flour. At the moment of serving,
pour the sauce over the cauliflower, which you have placed upright on
a dish. The nutmeg and the cheese are indispensable to this dish.
[V. Verachtert.]
BRUSSELS SPROUTS
(The best way to cook them)
Having cleaned and trimmed your sprouts, let them simmer in salted
water, to which you have also added a little soda to preserve the color.
Or, if you do not like to add soda, keep the pan firmly covered by the
lid. When tender, take them out and let them drain, place them in
another pan with a good lump of butter or fat; stir, so as to let the butter
melt at once, and sprinkle in pepper and a tiny pinch of nutmeg.
[Mdlle. Germaine Verstraete.]

RAGOUT OF MUTTON
Fry the mutton very well. Then place in another pan sufficient water to
cover your mutton, adding pepper, salt, a little nutmeg, a celery, and a
few white turnips cut in pieces. When they are well cooked, add the
meat and let all simmer for two hours.
[V. Verachtert.]
STEWED SHOULDER OF MUTTON
Put in a pan a large lump of butter or clarified fat, and place the
shoulder in it. Add two big onions sliced, and a very large carrot also
sliced, thyme, bay-leaf, two cloves, pepper and salt, and, if you like it,
two garlic knobs. Let the shoulder simmer in this by the side of the fire
for three hours. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve, and then add to it
either a glass of good red wine or a little made mustard with a
teaspoonful of brown sugar.
[Mme. Segers.]
SHOULDER OF MUTTON
Put a handful of dried white haricots to soak over-night and simmer
them the following day for two hours with some salt. Rub your
shoulder of mutton with a little bit of garlic before putting it in the oven
to cook, and when it is done, serve with the haricots round it, to which
have been added a pat or two of butter.
[V. Verachtert.]
MUTTON COLLOPS
Take some slices of roast or boiled leg of mutton, egg them, and roll in
a mixture of breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and a little flower. Fry till the
slices are brown on each side; serve with chipped potatoes.
SHOULDER OF MUTTON DRESSED LIKE KID

My readers have probably tasted a shoulder of kid dressed as mutton.
Let them therefore try the converse of the dish, and, if they really take
trouble with it, they will have a dinner of the most delicious. Put into a
deep dish that will hold your shoulder of mutton the following mixture:
A cupful each of oil, vinegar, white wine, red wine, an onion