MODERN SOUP

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 219, 3 September 1943, Page 19

MODERN SOUP

HE day of the "Stock-pot" is long-past, and most present-day house-keepers have never even known it. It had its advantages in the day of the big, ever-hot kitchen range, when for hours, day after day, the huge oval iron pot could be kept simmering, and into which went most of such left-overs as the bones from the joint, outside leaves of vegetables, and remnants of gravies and sauces, as well as good fresh shins of beef and soup bones. It had some obvious disadvantages, too, besides the big present-day one of the use of fuel, whether gas, electricity or coal. Modern soups are quickly made, with due regard for maximum value, and a substantial soup, in which tiny savoury dumplings have been boiling for the last 20 minutes, is now quite fashionable as a main dish, followed by a mixed salad of raw vegetables and fruit, and "topped off" with a cup of coffee and.a sweet biscuit or hot scone. Clear, thin -soups are really only appetisers, stimulating the flow of digestive juices, but we may make good, nourishing vegetable soups with or without meat, besides fish-soup and cream (or milk) soup. Here are some suggestions for vegetable soups, A dash of sugar brings out the flavour of all vegetable soups. Leek Soup Melt loz. butter in a saucepan, add 2 medium-sized potatoes, washed and sliced, but not peeled, and 4 good-sized leeks, cut up small. Cook in butter with lid on saucepan for a few minutes, without browning. Add 1% pints of hot water, and boil for three-quarters hour. Strain through sieve, pressing well; add equal quantity of hot milk, and 2 tablespoons fine sago. Season to taste. Simmer till sago is cooked, and serve. Cream of Parsnip Soup Lightly take the outside skin off 3 medium parsnips, and mince them. Simmer for half an hour with 1 cup of water. Press all through a sieve and return the pulp and liquid to the saucepan. Add salt to taste, and 1 pint of milk, Thicken with cornflour (or flour), add 1 or 2 tablespoons finelychopped parsley, and serve very hot. Vegetable Soup Without Stock Two large potatoes, 1 small cauliflower, 1 small turnip, 1 onion, 2 sticks of celery, 2 pints of water, 1 pint milk, loz. butter, 2 level tablespoons cornflour, salt. Wash and cut the potatoes into thin Slices, wash and break the cauliflower into small pieces. Cut the other vegetables and boil all in the water till tender. Push through sieve and return to the saucepan with the milk, butter and salt. Add the cornflour, previously mixed with a little cold milk, and boil for five or six minutes, stirring all the time. Another Vegetable Soup Peel and slice an onion, scrub and cut up 6 fair-sized potatoes, a turnip, a parsnip, the white part of some silver beet, 2 carrots and a good-sized piece of pumpkin. Cook all these for a few minutes in sufficient butter or margarine,

but do not brown. Season with pepper and salt. Then cover with water, and boil till tender. Mash the vegetables, and’ return to the water in which they were cooked, add an equal quantity of milk, or enough to make the required

thickness, or thicken with a little cornflour. Simmer for a few minutes, May flavour with a little meat-extract for a change. Serve with very thin, dry toast. Artichoke Soup Melt loz, butter in stew-pan, add 2 onions cut up, and simmer a few minutes without browning. Add about 2 pints water and 6 or 8 artichokes, cut up finely. Cook all gently till very soft. Strain through sieve, pressing well. Return to pan, add equal quantity of milk, bring to the boil, and thicken with flour or cornflour. Season to taste. MORE SOUPS NEXT WEEK