This is an example of a vegetable puree.

Required: Two pounds of spinach. Half a pint of milk. One and a half pints of white stock. One ounce of butter. One ounce of flour.

One teaspoonful of chopped shallot or onion. Salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste.

Pick over and stalk the spinach, then wash it very thoroughly in several waters, otherwise it is apt to be gritty. Put it in a pan with a dust of salt, but no water except what remains on the leaves after washing it.

Put the lid on the pan and cook the spinach gently until it is tender; stir it occasionally, and if it seems too dry add just one or two tablespoonfuls of water. Melt the butter in

G a stewpan, stir the flour in smoothly, add the stock, and stir until it boils and thickens.

Drain off any liquid there is with the spinach, add it and the chopped shallot to the butter, etc. Let all boil gently for ten minutes, then rub it through a hair sieve. Put it back in the pan, add enough milk to make it the consistency of good cream. Season it to taste with salt, pepper, and a few grains of nutmeg.

Serve it in a hot tureen.