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ENDIVE (French method)

Take half a dozen heads of endive for a dish, and choose those which are fresh and yellow. Strip away the outer leaves, and cut off the stalks to separate the other leaves, and wash the endive in several waters. This vegetable needs to be washed with scrupulous care, because it usually contains a good deal of grit. Throw the endive into a stewpan half filled with boiling water slightly salted, leave the pan uncovered, and boil quickly till it is tender. The endive will take about twenty-five minutes. Drain it in a colander, press all the moisture from it, and either chop it very finely or rub it through a wire sieve. The latter method is to be preferred. Melt half an ounce of butter in a clean stewpan, mix half an ounce of flour with it, beat it to a paste, add salt and pepper, a tea-spoonful of white sugar, and a gill of cream. Stir the sauce till smooth and thick, put in the endive, and keep stirring till the pulp is firm enough to be piled upon a dish, then serve with fried sippets round it. If liked, broth can be used instead of cream in making the sauce for the endive. Time to boil the vegetable, twenty-five minutes; to stew it with the sauce, about ten minutes. Probable cost of endive, 2d. per head. Sufficient for five or six persons.