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Sea Kale, Boiled

When fresh and delicately cooked, sea kale resembles and will serve a substitute for asparagus. Carefully wash and brush the sea kale to remove the sand and grit, cut out the black part of the roots, and tie the shoots in small bundles. Throw these into plenty of boiling water slightly salted, and keep them boiling quickly until tender. Take them up, drain them, untie the bunches, and serve the kale on toast, with all the heads in one direction, and with plain melted butter or white sauce poured over it, or, if preferred, without the toast, and dry. If required to be served on toast, the latter may be soaked in the water in which the kale was cooked, that is provided the liquor remains colourless; otherwise it will impart a bitter taste to the toast. Time--the better the kale is, the quicker it will be done; if young and fresh, it will be done enough in from twenty to thirty minutes; if stale and discoloured, it will need from forty to fifty minutes. If there is any suspicion that the kale is stale, the water should be poured off when it is half done, and fresh water substituted. Probable cost when plentiful, 10d. to 1s. per basket. Sufficient, twelve heads for three or four persons.