PIPING HOT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 July 1939, Page 10

PIPING HOT

SOUP IS WARM AND CHEERING. SOME TASTY RECIPES. Chillier evenings make the thought of a warm dinner a ver/ comforting one, and there is nothing more cheery at the end of a cold day than a bowl of soup, tasty and steaming hot. Hints on Soupmaking. The best base for soup is lean and uncooked meat in the proportion of a pound to a quart of water. Meatbones well broken up and added lend a very delicate flavour. With a combination of meats such as beef, mutton, veal, and ham-bones you ' will have a higher-flavoured soup than by using any one meat. It is well to remember that it is the meat and bones from the legs that are .rich in gelatine, and these should be purchased in preference to all others for soup-making., Soup should have merely the flavour of salt, and there should be in it the warm tone which the judicious use of pepper gives. Other flavourings are sage, thyme, mint, parsley, bay-leaves, mace, cloves, celery-seed, and onions. Many of these may be used in one soup, but they should be so delicately blended that no one is conspicuous. Ten-Minute Soup. Take 2oz. margarine, 2oz. flour, 2-J pints milk and water or milk and white stock, 3 or 4 tablespoonfuls tomato ketchup, seasoning. Melt the margarine, add the flour, and mix them until well blended. Stir in the milk and water or stock and stir until the soup boils and thickens. Let it boil gently for a few minutes, then add tomato ketchup and seasoning to taste. If liked, a few drops of cochineal may be added to improve the colour of the soup. If too thick, thin the soup down with a little more liquid. This makes an excellent emergency soup.

Vegetarian Tomato Soup. Take 21b. tomatoes, 2 pints water, loz. butter, a few celery seeds, or a small piece of celery, 1 carrot, 2 onions, cornflour, salt and pepper, sugar, 1 clove garlic. Prepare the carrot and onion and cut them in slices. Melt the butter and cook the vegetables in it for a few’ minutes without letting them brown, then draw the pan aside and add the tomatoes cut in slices, the wafer, garlic, and celery. If using celery-seeds tie them in muslin. Cook the vegetables until tender, then remove the garlic and celery-seeds, and rub the soup through a sieve. Return it to the pan, season with salt and pepper, and a little sugar if liked, and thicken it with a spoonful of cornflour mixed to a smooth paste with cold water. Boil the soup for a few minutes and serve it with croutons.

Mulligatawny Soup. Take IJlb. scrag of mutton, 3 pints cold water, about l|oz. dripping, 2 carrots, 2 onions, 2 small apples, a few mixed herbs, a small piece lemon, 3 dessertspoonfuls flour, 3 teaspoonfuls curry-powder, 2 or 3 dessertspoonfuls rice, seasoning. Scrape, wash, and slice the carrots. Peel and slice the onions. Peel and quarter the apples and remove the core. Melt the dripping in a saucepan, add the carrot, onion, and apple, and fry until lightly browned. Stir in the flour and curry-powder and fry again for a few minutes, then draw aside. Cut the mutton into small joints and add to the vegetables, with the water, herbs—tied in muslin —and seasoning to taste. Bring all slowly to the boil, remove the scum, and simmer for about two and a half hours. Take out the meat and herbs and rub the soup through a sieve. Skim off any fat from the top, then re-heat the soup. Squeeze in a little lemon juice and serve. Have ready the boiled rice and serve separately. If necessary, add a few drops of browning to the soup just before serving. To prepare the rice, wash it well. Put it into a saucepan of boiling water, with a little salt added, and boil untik tender —it will take about fifteen minutes. When cooked, strain it through a colander, pour cold water through it to separate the grains, then place on a dish in a warm oven to dry, and reheat. Potato and Leek Soup. Take 4 leeks, li pints stock or vegetable water, i pint ipilk, 4 large potatoes, seasoning. Cook the vegetables, together with the salt and pepper to taste, in water for half an hour. Strain off the water and keep one and a half pints for thinning, if there is no stock. Pass the vegetables through a fine sieve, and add the stock or vegetable water and lastly the milk. Cook gently for a few minutes. A little cream may be added instead of, or in addition to, the milk but the soup must not be cooked after the cream has been mixed with it.