Food Facts for the Kitchen Front. Литагент HarperCollins USD

For the Filling—

       4 oz. browned breadcrumbs.

       2 oz. minced meat.

       Salt and pepper.

      Peel the onions and simmer in a little salted water until tender. Drain (saving the water) and scoop out the centres. Chop the centres and mix with the stuffing ingredients, moistening with a little onion water if necessary. Fill the onions with the mixture and bake them on a lightly greased baking tin until brown on top. A few browned breadcrumbs sprinkled over the top helps to crisp them.

      BAKED ONIONS

      If you have a cottage kitchener, try baking onions in their skins. They take rather a long time, about 2 hours in a moderate oven, but they have a splendid flavour and are particularly comforting in cold weather.

      To bake onions more quickly, first steam for about ten minutes then place in the oven for 1 hour.

      ONION SKINS

      Dry all the outside onion skins in a moderate oven until crisp enough to crumble. Store in an airtight tin and use for flavouring soups and stews.

      PARSNIPS

      Like carrot, parsnip is a root with good sugar content. For this reason it is delicious when cooked in a very little fat—either baked beneath the meat or fried.

      A good way to cook parsnips is to boil them whole (30 to 40 minutes), after careful washing, keeping on the skins. These can then be rubbed off quite easily when the vegetable is tender.

      A little finely shredded raw parsnip adds a new and delicious flavour to a mixed vegetable salad. Cooked parsnip, cut into neat dice, can also be used in salads.

      STUFFED PARSNIPS

      Parboil or steam the parsnips, divide into two lengthwise and remove the centre cores. Fill with forcemeat made of breadcrumbs seasoned with mixed herbs, salt and pepper, and bound with a little milk. Put the halves together again and secure with string. Dot with dripping and bake in a moderate oven until golden brown, basting frequently.

      PARSNIP CROQUETTES

       1 lb. (cold) cooked parsnips.

       1 gill vegetable stock or milk.

       1 oz. flour.

       1 heaped teaspoon vegetable extract.

       1 oz. dripping or cooking fat.

       Salt, pepper.

      Sieve, or mash the parsnips with a fork, till creamy. Then make a thick sauce with the fat, flour, and stock (in which the vegetable extract has been dissolved, see p. 115). When cooked and thick, work in a few breadcrumbs if liked.

      Add the parsnips, and season to taste. Then set aside to firm on a plate. Divide into 10–12 pieces, and form into croquettes.

      Roll in browned breadcrumbs, or dip in a flour and water batter (mixed very thinly) and coat in crumbs, patting them on well. Fry in a hot fat till golden brown on both sides. Alternatively—the cakes could be baked.

      PARSNIP PIE