Iced Vegetable Creams.—Cook the vegetables very gently till tender enough to pulp through a fine sieve, in either milk, white, or brown stock, according to the vegetables used; using, for instance, milk, or white stock, for peas, cucumbers, artichoke
bottoms, etc., and brown stock for tomatoes, etc. When pulped, season the purée to taste, adding to each pint of vegetable purée, a gill of good sauce (thick Allemagne, béchamel, or velouté for the white ones, and Espagnole, or curry for the dark ones), and rather over a gill of stiff aspic jelly; when this is all cool, stir into it quickly a couple of tablespoonfuls of whipped cream, and, if necessary, a few drops of vegetable colouring. Then mould and put aside to set. Of course, these creams can be served in a variety of ways, and garnished to taste. One of the most usual is to prepare two or three purées of con-trasting colours, and place these in layers in a Neapolitan ice mould, which is then put into the ice cave for one and a half to two hours (or bury the mould in ice and salt for about the same time); then remove the lid from the mould, and run a little, just liquid, aspic jelly, meat jelly, or tomato aspic (if the dish is to be uncompromisingly vegetarian) over the whole, and replace the covered mould in the cave till the jelly is firmly set. Then dip the underside in cold water, and slip the cream out, leaving the jelly uppermost. The iced vegetables can then be served as a whole, or sliced down to show the different colours, like Neapolitan ices. Otherwise they can be served in little shapes, as, for instance, in fonds d'artichauts à la crème de tomates, glacés. For this, turn out some nicely shaped, rather small artichoke bottoms (either fresh-cooked or canned), and set them on ice or in the ice cave; prepare a tomato cream; rub sufficient ripe red tomatoes through a sieve to produce one and a half gills of purée,
stir into this a good spoonful of mayonnaise, a very few drops of carmine if necessary, and a full gill of stiffly whipped cream, add a little tarragon vinegar to the purée, if liked, set the whole in some little bombe moulds, and leave these in the ice cave for an hour. Then turn out and dish each little mould on one of the artichoke bottoms, and serve garnished with chopped aspic jelly. The Neapolitan ices can also be made into a pretty dish by turning out the brick of iced vegetable, and then with a plain round cutter stamp out the block into little cylinders about an inch and a half in diameter, and serve garnished with tomato salad, which has been stood in the cave, or on ice, till perfectly cold. Almost any vegetable can be made into a purée for icing according to the directions given above for tomato cream. A very pretty vegetable Neapolitan ice may be made with a layer of artichoke purée (kept as white as possible), a layer of cucumber or pea purée (coloured a faint delicate green), and a layer of tomato purée, or a layer of curried purée may be used instead of the tomato. For this, mince down two large peeled onions, and fry them to a delicate golden brown with 1oz. of butter, a grain of salt, and a pinch each of powdered bay leaf and parsley; when nicely coloured add to it a saltspoonful of curry powder, a dust of coralline pepper, the strained juice of a lemon, two large fresh and minced mushrooms, a teaspoon-ful of chutney, half a coffeespoonful of curry paste, and half a pint of water, and cook it altogether till tender, dissolving in it two or three sheets of best leaf gelatine; then rub it all through a sieve and