In the Modern Kitchen

How many a housewife finds that the hardest thing facing her every morning is answering the question: what shall we eat today? Especially in these cold days, when green vegetables are scarce compared with the summer season, and when found are expensive, beyond the reach of the poor family and even the middling one. So I thought I would offer you, my sister, from this corner two dishes made of what is plentifully available in this season.

The first dish: potato fingers
And this is how it is prepared

(1) We boil a quantity of potatoes. We peel them and mash them, or pound them well.

(2) We melt a spoonful of ghee over the fire, then add the mashed potatoes to it and stir them well.

(3) We take it off the fire and leave it until it cools, then add an egg yolk with the necessary salt and pepper — and if the quantity is large, we use two yolks.

(4) We beat the mixture well for five minutes, then shape it into fingers and stuff them with minced meat with onion and pine nuts, as one stuffs kibbeh or sambousek. To overcome the stickiness of the potato paste, we dust the fingertips with a little flour.

(5) The potato fingers are coated with egg, then with pounded rusk, and set over the fire to brown in ghee.

(6) They are served hot and garnished with parsley.

The second dish
is purée of spinach

(1) The spinach is washed well and boiled, then strained until it becomes smooth, either with the special vegetable strainer or through a sieve.

(2) A thick white sauce is made: a spoonful of butter is browned, a little flour is added to it, and afterward the milk is added gradually and boiled over the fire until it is of medium thickness.

(3) The white sauce is added over the spinach, seasoned with salt and pepper, and left three minutes over the fire.

(4) It is placed on a dish and garnished with triangles or rectangles of toasted bread.

(5) It is served hot with pieces of roast meat or beefsteak.

(6) The toasted bread and the meat may be replaced by fried eggs, arranged carefully on top of the spinach and served hot.