Page:The Boston cooking-school cook book (1910).djvu/354

 Spinach à la Béchamel

Prepare one-half peck Boiled Spinach. Put three tablespoons butter in hot omelet pan; when melted, add chopped spinach, cook three minutes. Sprinkle with two tablespoons flour, stir thoroughly, and add gradually three-fourths cup milk; cook five minutes.

Purée of Spinach

Wash and pick over one-half peck spinach. Cook in an uncovered vessel with a large quantity of boiling salted water to which is added one-third teaspoon soda and one-half teaspoon sugar. Drain, chop finely, and rub through a sieve. Reheat, add three tablespoons butter, one tablespoon flour, and one-half cup cream. Arrange on serving dish and garnish with yolk and white of "hard-boiled" egg and fried bread cut in fancy shapes.

Spinach (French Style)

Pick over and wash one peck spinach, and cook in boiling salted water twenty-five minutes. Drain, and finely chop. Reheat in hot pan with four tablespoons butter to which have been added three tablespoons flour and two-thirds cup Chicken Stock. Season with one teaspoon powdered sugar, salt, pepper, and a few gratings each of nutmeg and lemon rind.

Squash

Summer squash, which are in market during the summer months, should be young, tender, and thin skinned. The common varieties are the white round and yellow crook-neck. Some of the winter varieties appear in market as early as the middle of August; among the most common are Marrow, Turban, and Hubbard. Turban and Hubbard are usually drier than Marrow. Marrow and Turban have a thin shell, which may be pared off before cooking. Hubbard Squash has a very hard shell, which must be split in order to separate squash in pieces, and squash then cooked in the shell. In selecting winter squash, see that it is heavy in proportion to its size.