All kinds of cooked fish can be served in salads. Lettuce is the best green salad to use with them, but all green vegetables, when cooked and cold, can be added to the fish and dressing. The sardine and French dressings are the best to use with fish.
Very often you will find that you cannot use all your lettuces, that they have begun to bolt and are no good for salad. This is the moment to cook them. Discard any bad leaves and wash the others carefully. Boil them for twelve minutes, take them off the fire, drain them and dry them in a clean cloth so as to get rid of all the water. Mince them finely, then put them into a saucepan with a lump of butter, pepper and salt. Stir till they begin to turn color, then put in a thimbleful of flour melted in milk. Stir constantly, and if the vegetable becomes dry, moisten with more flour and milk. Let it simmer for quarter of an hour, and turn it out as a vegetable with meat.
A mixture of celery and beet-root makes a very nice winter salad. The beet-root, of course, is boiled, and the celery generally sliced up thin in a raw state. It is a great improvement to boil the celery till it is nearly tender. By this means you improve the salad, and the celery assists in making vegetarian stock. WATER-CRESS.--Water-cress is sometimes mixed with other salad, but when eaten alone requires no dressing, but only a little salt.
1 cup cooked potatoes 1 cup cooked carrots 1 cup cooked peas 1 cup cooked beets
Make a French dressing of
1/2 cup oil 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons vinegar 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
Mix dressing thoroughly and pour over the vegetables. If vegetables are kept in different bowls instead of mixed together, the flavor of the salad is improved. Any vegetable may be used in this way. Let stand 30 minutes. When ready to serve, place each portion in a nest made of two lettuce leaves or other salad, green. If desired, cooked dressing may be mixed with the vegetable in place of French dressing, or may be served with it.
Slice up some cold boiled potatoes. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and chopped parsley. Mix the oil and vinegar together in the proportion of two of oil to one of vinegar; pour this over, let it stand for an hour, and serve.
Prepare the asparagus as before directed. Season a quart of cooked salmon with one teaspoonful of salt, one-third of a teaspoonful of pepper, three table-spoonfuls of oil, one of vinegar and two of lemon juice. Let this stand in the ice chest at least two hours. Arrange the salmon in the centre of the dish and the asparagus points around it. Cover the fish with one cupful of mayonnaise dressing. Garnish the dish with points of lemon. Green peas can be used instead of asparagus.
Two eggs, three table-spoonfuls of vinegar, one of cream, one teaspoonful of sugar, one-fourth of a teaspoonful of salt, one-fourth of a teaspoonful of mustard. Beat two eggs well. Add the sugar, salt and mustard, then the vinegar, and the cream. Place the bowl in a basin of boiling water, and stir until about the thickness of rich cream. If the bowl is thick and the water boils all the time, it will take about five minutes. Cool, and use as needed.
Two table-spoonfuls of bacon or pork fat, one of flour, one of lemon juice, half a teaspoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of sugar, one of mustard, two eggs, half a cupful of water, half a cupful of vinegar. Have the fat hot. Add the flour, and stir until smooth, but not brown. Add the water, and boil up once. Place the sauce-pan in another of boiling water. Have the eggs and seasoning beaten together. Add the vinegar to the boiling mixture, and stir in the beaten egg. Cook four minutes, stirring all the while. Cool and use. If corked tightly, this will keep two weeks in a cold place.
