THE COOKING OF VEGETABLES. 



59 



overdone. When cool divide it into branches. Then beat up a 

 couple of eggs, and turn each branch of the cauliflower in the 

 beaten egg, so as to smear it all over with egg, and fry it in 

 lard, turning each piece in the frying-pan, till it is of a golden- 

 brown ; serve hot. I do not know any vegetable dish nicer than 

 this one when well done. White broccoli is not half so good as 

 cauliflower, which, when nicely cooked, is of a marrowy con- 

 sistence. The sprouting purple broccoli is a totally different 

 thing. Simply steamed it is very nice, eaten with pepper and 

 salt as a meat accompaniment ; but there is a nicer way of 

 cooking it. Steam the sprouting broccoli, fry some chopped 

 onion in lard or butter, add some minced parsley, and toss the 

 broccoli gently in it without mashing it ; serve hot. 



"Chouneur au gratin " is sufficiently known, but there is 

 usually one great omission in this dish. It should have a good 

 deal of grated Parmesan cheese mixed up with it ; and grated 

 cheese should be sprinkled over the surface before baking it. 

 This dish requires a good deal of butter. There is one other 

 way of using steamed cauliflower which is not generally known. 

 Divide one or more cauliflowers into branches and steam them 

 till quite tender ; serve quite hot with lemon juice, olive oil, and 

 pepper and salt, as a sort of hot salad. 



Steamed cauliflower divided into branches makes a capital 

 accompaniment to a fish-pie, with olives (with the stone cut 

 out) fried, chopped onions, and parsley, pepper and salt. This 

 in Italy is called " pasticcio di pesce." The paste of this pie 

 should be kneaded with oil and red wine instead of with water ; 

 salt should never be omitted in the paste. 



Onions. — There are two kinds of onions, viz., the flat white 

 onion, which, when boiled, has a marrowy consistence ; the 

 other is the large Spanish onion, which, when boiled, has the 

 consistence of leather. Why growers try to produce the largest 

 onions, sometimes as large as a cannon-ball, as if they were 

 meant for feeding cattle, I do not know. I think onions should 

 be boiled, not steamed, because the boiling water washes out a 

 good deal of the rankness of the onion. There are two nice ways 

 of using whole onions. 



(a) Boil some white flat onions to marrowy tenderness, 

 squeeze them slightly between two plates, and serve hot, to be 

 dressed with oil and vinegar, pepper and salt, and eaten as a 



