Grønnsaksretter

A base recipe from Erken (1914): cucumbers and squash are treated the same way — peeled, halved, seeded, salted, and blanched, then given a boil-up in white sauce or fried and glazed. Used especially as a garnish on a platter.

Sugar snap peas are washed and boiled in salted water (originally 1/2 hour, in modern terms a few minutes), arranged at once on a warm platter with a warm napkin and served with asparagus butter. Erken 1914.

Asparagus gratin: cooked asparagus is arranged in rows on a buttered dish, sprinkled with grated cheese, doused with 125 g nut-brown butter mixed with 25 g rusk crumbs and quickly gratinated under the broiler (originally a salamander).

Asparagus pudding of a thick milk sauce (100 g butter, 100 g flour, 1/2 l milk) with 6 eggs and cooked asparagus layered in a buttered mold, baked in a water bath about 1.5 hours and served with melted butter.

Eggplant quartered, marinated 1 hour in salt, pepper and oil, breaded in egg and rusk crumbs, fried in butter and served in tomato sauce.

Aubergines aux œufs pochés: eggplant halves are cooked tender, filled with a warm mixture of butter, tomato purée, finely chopped ham and breadcrumbs, warmed in the oven and topped with one poached egg per half. Garnished with parsley.

Eggplant cooked like asparagus: peeled eggplant is quartered, the cores removed, cooked tender in salted water and served on a warm napkin with drawn butter.

Erken's eggplant soufflé from 1914: cooked, hollowed-out eggplant halves are filled with a batter of chopped eggplant flesh, béchamel, Parmesan, egg yolk and stiffly beaten egg whites, baked about 20 min in a hot oven and served at once with whipped butter.

Aubergines à la tyrolienne: thin eggplant slices are browned in oil, cooked further with crushed tomatoes and butter for 10 minutes, seasoned with salt, pepper and nutmeg and sprinkled with 100 g grated sharp cheese. Served at once.

Erken's basic recipe for boiled cauliflower: two heads soak 1 hour in cold vinegar water, boil about 30 minutes in salted water (or half milk) with a cut in the stalk, and are served with melted butter and parsley or hollandaise.

Cauliflower with grated cheese (Erken 1914): boiled cauliflower gratinated in an ovenproof dish with 80 g sharp grated cheese and melted butter, served with lightly browned butter over. Erken recommends grating cheese rinds rather than costly parmesan.

Cauliflower with tomato sauce (Erken 1914): cauliflower is boiled tender, topped with a slightly thick tomato sauce and sprinkled with finely chopped parsley. Served as a light middle course.

Cauliflower patties (Erken 1914): 250 g boiled cauliflower is mixed with 75 g grated white bread, half an egg, 100 g boiled potatoes, 25 g butter and seasonings, formed into small patties, breaded in egg and breadcrumbs and fried in butter or lard.

Cauliflower ring from Erken's Stor kokebok (1914): a thick butter batter of 125 g butter, 125 g flour and 2.5 dl milk with 5 eggs, mixed with boiled cauliflower, cooked in a ring mold in a water bath for 1 hour or baked in the oven.

Erken's basic recipe for endive: 1 kg of endive is drawn for 15 minutes in lemon juice, salt, 60 g butter, and ½ dl water, and can then be stewed, puréed, or made into a soufflé like spinach.

Peas boiled with a head of lettuce, parsley, salt and sugar, pressed through a sieve into a purée and stirred with 125 g butter per liter of purée plus reduced cooking stock.

Green peas boiled in a little salted water, shaken dry and stirred together with plenty of butter, parsley and a pinch of sugar; dried peas may be used after soaking.

Erken 1914: cucumbers are peeled, halved, filled with a meat farce, wrapped in pork fat and cloth, steamed tender in the oven, and cut into pieces. Served with brown sauce or as a garnish.

Erken 1914: cucumber pieces are peeled, parboiled, hollowed into little cups, finished in butter, filled with raw chicken farce, and baked about 10 minutes in the oven.

A short Erken recipe: bell peppers are peeled, cleaned of stem and seeds and filled halfway with half-cooked pilaf rice, then baked to finish.

Erken's recipe for stuffed artichoke bottoms from 1914: the bottoms are cleaned, rubbed with lemon, boiled in meat stock, filled with a mixture of chopped mushrooms, butter, onion, parsley, tomato stock-sauce and white wine, sprinkled with rusk crumbs and gratinéed for 10 minutes in a hot oven. Served with Madeira or Maltaise sauce.

Erken's stuffed eggplants from 1914: eggplant halves are boiled tender and hollowed out, and the flesh is combined with onion sautéed in oil and finely chopped cooked mutton. The shells are filled, drizzled with oil and baked about 30 min, garnished with tomato slices and parsley.

Stuffed Tomatoes I from Erken's Stor kokebok (1914): 6 peeled tomatoes are halved and hollowed out, filled with finely chopped button mushroom sautéed in butter and mixed with the tomato pulp, seasoned, sprinkled with grated cheese and melted butter, and baked 10–15 minutes in a hot oven in a dish set in a pan of coarse salt. Served with roast meat.

Erken's stuffed tomatoes II from 1914: hollowed-out tomatoes filled with ground meat mixed with parsley, mushroom and chives, steamed in a water bath in the oven for 15–20 minutes and served with lemon juice on top.

A festive vegetable dish of cauliflower, asparagus beans, carrots, green peas, and asparagus boiled separately in salted water, arranged hot on a napkin with cold parsley butter (100 g butter, 2 tbsp parsley), garnished with root-vegetable fringes, and served with asparagus butter on the side.

Whole roasted onions after Erken: 1 kg onions are blanched for 10 minutes in boiling salted water, drained, and then fried under a lid in 60 g half-browned butter with 1 tsp sugar until the onions are brown and tender.

Erken's 1914 recipe for battered Jerusalem artichokes: boiled Jerusalem artichokes dipped in a batter of 250 g wheat flour, 3 eggs, 50 g vegetable fat, 1/4 l milk and salt, and deep-fried in vegetable fat.

Cabbage with butter (choux au beurre) from Erken 1914: a head of cabbage is boiled with an onion as in the recipe for stewed cabbage, pressed dry, finely chopped, and fried for 10–15 minutes in 60 g butter with salt and pepper.

Rutabaga prepared like sauerkraut: shredded rutabaga is boiled until tender in salted water for about 1 hour, brought to a boil in a thickening of 50 g butter, 30 g flour, and 2–3 dl meat stock, and seasoned with salt, vinegar, and caraway.

Mashed rutabaga after Erken: boiled rutabaga is mashed and combined into a boiled white sauce of 50 g butter, 30 g flour, and 3–4 dl milk, seasoned with salt and pepper. A variation with half potatoes boiled in the salt-meat pot and mixed with meat stock and fat.

Erken 1914: cardoon stalks cut into 6 cm pieces, rubbed with lemon, placed in acidulated water, blanched 15 min, the outer skin rubbed off, boiled tender in salted water and served with a white sauce.

Erken 1914: cardoon stalks cleaned, blanched and boiled tender about 1 hour in veal broth. A sauce of onion reduced with red wine, gravy, blanched beef marrow, lemon juice, cold butter and parsley is poured over the cardoons, which are arranged in a pyramid with puff-pastry vol-au-vents filled with marrow.

Erken 1914: cardoons boiled plain, served covered with white sauce, hollandaise, mousseline sauce or gravy; the sauce can be glazed, and gravy can optionally be sprinkled with Parmesan and glazed quickly.

Classic boiled asparagus from Erken's Stor kokebok: 1.5 kg asparagus is peeled, bundled, and boiled in salted water until tender, served on a warm napkin with asparagus butter, creamed butter, or maltaise sauce. The trimmed stalk ends are boiled down for stock.

Erken's recipe for boiled artichokes from 1914: cleaned artichokes are rubbed with lemon, soaked in vinegar water for half an hour and boiled tender in salted water for ¾–1 hour. Served warm on a napkin with stirred butter or hollandaise sauce.

Erken 1914: fresh corn cobs with the husks on are boiled about half an hour in salted water, covered; the husks are pulled back and the cobs served hot in a napkin with creamed butter, salt, and pepper – one cob per person.

Boiled corn from Erken's Stor kokebok (1914): kernels from 6 boiled cobs are folded into a roux of 30 g butter, 30 g flour, and 4 dl milk, seasoned with salt and pepper. Variation: add an equal amount of peeled tomatoes and simmer for half an hour, with butter stirred in at the end.

Erken's simple 1914 instruction for roasting whole corn cobs on a rack in a hot oven until golden and plump, then serving the kernels on a warm napkin or the cob whole.

Corn soufflé from Erken's Stor kokebok (1914): 1/2 kg corn purée is dried with 40 g butter, combined with 1 dl cream and 3 egg yolks, stiffly beaten egg whites are folded in, baked in a buttered mold for about 1 hour in a hot oven, and served with creamed butter. Can be seasoned with chopped onion and paprika.

Chard in Erken's Stor kokebok 1914: the leaves are stripped from the stalks, blanched in salted water, cooled, pressed dry, finely chopped, and stewed like spinach in a milk sauce. Erken recommends chard as a hardy garden plant.

Chard stalks from Erken 1914: the stalks are cut into 8 cm pieces, boiled tender in salted water up to half an hour, and served piping hot with melted asparagus butter.

Creamed turnips from Erken's Stor kokebok (1914): turnips boiled tender in salted water, cut up and warmed in a white sauce of butter, flour, turnip water and milk/cream with parsley and a pinch of sugar.

Creamed nettles: fresh spring nettle leaves are dipped in boiling water, chopped and creamed like spinach/sorrel in a butter-and-flour roux; cooked a little longer and seasoned with lemon juice or vinegar.

Above-ground kohlrabi is cut into coarse strips, boiled tender in salted water, and served with asparagus butter, maître d'hôtel butter, or brown sauce; it can also be stewed like turnips.

Purslane (pourpier) can be prepared either raw as a salad or boiled and treated like spinach.

Erken's simple recipe for boiled leeks in bundles, served on a warm platter with parsley and melted asparagus butter.

Boiled leeks layered in a baking dish with a cooked milk-and-cream sauce with egg yolks and stiffly beaten egg white, baked in the oven about 30 minutes and served with melted butter.

Erken's beetroot steaks from 1914: 6 large beets boiled whole (unpeeled and unpierced so they don't "bleed out"), skinned, cut into ½ cm slices, briefly steeped in vinegar, dredged in flour, salt and pepper, fried in butter and served with nicely browned onion on top.

Erken 1914: boiled beets are sliced, fried in butter, and served piping hot with a small knob of maître d'hôtel butter (parsley butter) on each slice.

Celery ragout from Erken (1914): stalk celery is blanched, simmered tender in veal stock with onion, and served in a roux-based sauce of butter, flour, milk, and stock, enriched with cream and parsley. Garnished with mushrooms; can also be arranged in rows on toasted bread.

Scorzonera from Erken's Stor kokebok (1914): the roots are scraped, placed in water with vinegar/lemon so they don't darken, cooked tender in salted, sugared water and warmed in a white sauce of butter, flour and cream or milk. Alternative method: cook the roots unpeeled, scrape them afterward and put them in boiling milk thickened with cold creamed butter and flour.

Erken's short 1914 variation where finished creamed spinach is mixed with mushrooms lightly sautéed in butter; served as a small course or as a side to roast meat.

A quick breakfast dish from Erken 1914: grated white bread is warmed in butter, mixed with boiled chopped spinach and cleaned anchovies, seasoned, mounded high on a platter, and garnished with hard-boiled egg slices and anchovies.

An oven-baked spinach cake from Erken's Stor kokebok (1914): flour, eggs, and boiling milk into a batter, mixed with butter-fried chopped spinach, baked in a deep omelet pan, and cut into squares or points as a side around a roast.

Celery a l'espagnole from Erken 1914: blanched celery is simmered in bouillon with onion and bay leaf, mushrooms are sauteed in butter, and a brown flour-butter sauce thinned with the celery stock is seasoned with sherry, lemon, parsley, and ham and poured over the celery.

Boiled celery after Erken 1914: the stalks are cut into finger-length pieces, tied in bundles, blanched, boiled about 1 hour in salted water with butter or in vegetable stock, and served hot with pepper, nutmeg, and asparagus butter or white sauce.

Braised celery from Erken's Stor kokebok (1914): celery stalks in 8 cm pieces are blanched, tied in bundles, and steamed in a pot lined with pork, carrot, and onion, then cooked tender in bouillon about 1 hour. The stock is strained and mixed with brown sauce poured over at serving.

Aubergines frites: thin slices of peeled eggplant dredged in flour and fried until brown in hot oil, served at once.

Erken's "Fried Celeriac / beignets de céleri" (Stor kokebok 1914, p. 376): celeriac is boiled tender in salted water, cooled, and cut into ½ cm thick slices. The slices are breaded in egg and sifted rusk crumbs and fried golden brown in butter – or dipped in fritter batter and deep-fried in lard.

Erken's recipe for boiled sea kale (havkål): cleaned and kept under a tight lid, boiled in salted water with lemon juice or in milk, served hot with asparagus butter blended with chopped cress, or in a brown sauce.

Stewed endive from Erken's Stor kokebok (1914): endive is blanched 10 minutes, pressed and chopped, and stewed in a thickening of 30 g butter, 30 g flour, and 4 dl meat stock with lemon juice, salt, and pepper until tender.

Creamed cabbage (choux à la crème) from Erken 1914: a head of cabbage is quartered, pre-boiled 8 minutes in salted water with baking soda, boiled tender in fresh water, pressed dry, and combined into a white sauce of 40 g butter, 40 g flour, 2 dl cabbage stock, and 2.5 dl cream. Served with salted and roasted meat.

Black radishes (raves noires) from Erken 1914: peeled, cut into thin slices, salted, and served as an appetizer. Hollowed out and filled with sugar, they yield a juice used against colds after one day.

Erken's sorrel purée (1914): 1 kg meadow sorrel is cooked about 20 minutes in lightly salted water, pressed and passed through a sieve, and the purée is stirred hot with butter, cream or pan drippings and thickened with a little flour.

Fried tomatoes from Erken's Stor kokebok (1914): 6 peeled tomatoes cut in 2–4, seasoned with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper, fried in 35 g browned butter and sprinkled with 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley. Served with fried meat and fish dishes.

A simple tomato gratin from Erken 1914: peeled, cut tomatoes simmered in a cocotte with onion, parsley, butter, salt and pepper, topped with grated bread and served in the dish.