Cauliflower Canapes boiled cauliflower thick white sauce grated cheese

seasoning of powdered mustard white pepper fried bread croutons

Cut out some of the sprigs of the cauliflower very carefully, to avoid breaking them up, and separate each little "flower" head as neatly as possible with a sharp pointed knife.

Season the white sauce very well with the mustard and pepper, add enough grated cheese to give a good flavour, and reheat In a double saucepan, stirring well until the cheese dissolves. Leave to cool slightly, then mix In the prepared cauliflower. Cover the pan with a cloth wrung out of hot water, and leave to become cold. With a small teaspoon put a heap of the mixture in the centre of each crouton, cover with grated cheese, and place under a hot grill just long enough to brown the top lightly.

N.B. This method of preparing Vegetable Savouries may be adopted with almost any cooked vegetable, but asparagus, leeks, murunga, a mixture of peas with diced carrots and turnips, and cabbage are, perhaps, the most suitable.

Egg Boats

3 hard-boiled eggs about 2 rounded teaspoonfuls butter

2 dessertspoonfuls . cream cheese

gherkin to garnish ovals of bread and butter

white pepper salt

Remove the shells from the eggs very carefully, cut into quarters, and put the yolks through a fine sieve to powder them. Wipe out the yolk-cavities with a damp cloth, and allow the egg cases to chill in a covered dish.

Mix the cheese and butter with the yolks until a veiy smooth paste is formed, season to taste. Cut the gherkin into long strips, very thin, and cut into angle-shaped pieces to

form the "sails" Pipe a small round of the yolk mixture in the centre of each piece of bread, and fix the egg-quarters rounded side down, to look like

small boats. Fill In the cavities with the piped mixture In a neat, very small pattern, carrying the decoration up to the two pointed ends of the egg. Press In the gherkin sails, and chill1 until wanted.

When cream cheese is not available use any soft cheese. Grate very finely, or press thin slices through a fine sieve, then pound to a smooth paste or mash against the sides of a basin with the back of a wooden spoon. If the cheese is not quite smooth, the mixture will stick in the icing tube, the grains of cheese creating a blockage. SL