The I Hate to Cook Book (11 page)

6 servings

(This is a mild curry which came from Indonesia via San Francisco, with a short but pleasant stopover in Grants Pass.)

1 cup chopped onion

2 apples, peeled and chopped

5 tablespoons butter

¼ cup flour

2 teaspoons curry powder

2 cans beef broth

1 cup water

juice of 1 lemon

2 cups diced leftover lamb

1½ cups uncooked rice

Sauté the onion and the apple together in a deep skillet until they’re tender, using two tablespoons of the butter. Then add the rest of the butter, and sift the flour and curry powder in, too. Stir all this until it’s comfortably integrated. Then add the broth and
the water, lemon juice, and cubed lamb. Simmer it all from half an hour to an hour, while the rice cooks.

This gives you a nice little breather. You may now put your feet up and have a highball, or else you may dirty up a lot of little dishes with

to serve as side boys with your curry. Take your choice.

     LAMB PEPPERS     

6 servings

(You can use leftover veal for this, too.)

Cut the stem ends off six pretty green peppers and take the seeds out, then parboil the peppers five minutes, or till they’re barely tender. Now mix together

¾ cup finely chopped lamb

½ cup bread crumbs

½ cup chicken broth

½ cup finely chopped tomato

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Stuff this into the peppers and bake them in a 350˚ oven for fifteen minutes, in a greased pan.

Now let us assume you’re about to grapple with a
HAM
, or what’s left of one. Nothing looks bigger. On the other hand, there are many things you can do with it—ham loaf, ham croquettes, ham-and-egg pie, et cetera—recipes for which you can find in your big fat cookbook. Here are three you probably can’t.

     HAM-LIMA SUPPER     

6 servings

4 whole green onions, sliced

¼ cup olive oil

½ green pepper, chopped

dash of cayenne

½ teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups canned lima beans

2 cups diced ham

3 good-sized tomatoes, sliced

¼ cup grated Parmesan

First cook the onions in the oil till they’re light brown. Add the green pepper, cayenne, sugar, salt, and the drained beans (and throw the juice out). Toss all this for three or four minutes in the pan. Then spread all the diced ham in the bottom of an ungreased casserole, cover it with the bean mixture, spread the sliced tomatoes on top of
that
, and sprinkle the Parmesan on top of everything. Bake it, uncovered, for thirty minutes at 350˚.

     JUDY O’GRADY’S HAM     

6 servings

For last step, have ready

1–2 tablespoons of bread crumbs

butter

First, cook 6 ounces of noodles till they’re tender. Next, grind up

½ pound leftover ham

½ pound sharp Cheddar

1 green pepper, diced

Then add to it

1 teaspoon horse-radish

½ teaspoon salt

1 can condensed cream of mushroom, chicken, or celery soup thinned with ¼ cup milk

Whistling cheerily, you may now mix everything together, including the noodles but excluding the bread crumbs and butter, and bake it, covered, in a buttered casserole at 350˚ for forty minutes. Then remove the cover, sprinkle some crumbs on top, dot with butter, and brown it under the broiler.

     THE COLONEL’S LADY’S HAM     

5–6 servings

1¼ cups uncooked rice

½ pound ham, cut in strips

2 tablespoons butter

½ cup chopped onion

2 teaspoons flour

1 cup sour cream

6.5-ounce can mushrooms

Start cooking the rice to serve it on. Then sauté the ham strips and onion in the butter till the onion is tender. Sprinkle the flour over it, stir it in, make sure the heat’s low, then gradually stir in the sour cream and the mushrooms. Stir this conscientiously for a few minutes while it all thickens, and that’s it.

Then there is always
LEFTOVER PORK
.

Remember, it’s very nice sliced cold, served with cold applesauce.

You can also make

     GUNG HO