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. 
“Choufleur 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 piq 
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 
