SOUP

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 318, 27 July 1945, Page 22

SOUP

RESENT-day soups have to be made both quickly and intelligently, so as to combine as much food value as possible with the minimum use of fuel. Bones and shin of beef, cooked with plenty of cut up fresh vegetables, as well as lentils, dried peas, or beans, dnd pearl barley, make good soup, and can even form the main dish of a winter meal, unstrained, and with some tiny savoury dumplings, about the size of ping pong balls, dropped into the boiling soup the last. 20 minutes. Good milk may be added to the whole quantity; or may be poured in cold by the individual, to cool or thin the soup to suit the taste. Some American restaurants serve such soups under the name of "Bubbling Bowl Luncheons." A_ green salad, a hot roll or biscuit, some fruit, and a cup of good coffee may complete the meal. Very easy to serve. Let. us consider some good soups which will not greatly strain our ration books. Kidney Soup (special) This is an original recipe from a Link in the Daisy Chain, and is especially recommended, Mince half a beef kidney and put into a smallish basin (or a double boiler) with a knob of butter; cover with butter paper, and steam for an hour, Slice, up a fair-sized leek, and a big potato, and cook them in about a quart of water (or water saved from cooking vegetables). Then mix all together, beating smooth with an egg beater, and season with pepper and salt. Thicken with cornflour and milk and add a sprinkling of chopped parsley. Serve, Fish Soup Some fish heads and bones bought cheaply from fishmonger, cover well with water and boil with a cut-up onion for about half an hour, Strain through fine sieve into clean saucepan (to make sure there are no scales). Add an equal quantity of milk, a little grated onion and carrot (to taste), chopped parsley, pepper and salt. Thicken to required consistency with cornflour mixed with a little milk; just before serving add a good knob of butters which makes a smoother soup. Pick out any good bits of fish from among the strained bones, and put back into the soup. A little cooked rice may be added to the soup after straining. Serve very hot. Mulligatawny Soup (Indian) Rice is needed for this soup, but in these days we must just substitute macaroni broken up small. Melt some good dripping in a big saucepan, and in it fry 2 or 3 sliced : onions, a sliced carrot, and a green apple peeled and chopped. Next should be added a small chicken, boned and cut up small; but we may use a young rabbit, or about 1441b, of lean neck of mutton, Let all brown slowly, adding pepper and salt to taste. Next, sprinkle over about 114 tablespoons of good curry , powder (or more or less, to taste), and continue to fry and stir for about 10

minutes, Then add about a quart of stock, made by boiling the bones of the chicken or rabbit or neck of mutton; also 2 tablespoons of .rice and 2 potatoes cut small. Simmer all slowly for about an hour. Allow to cool, and skim off the fat. Heat up again and serve, adding sugar to taste. A good nourishing meal. Artichoke Soup : Scrub ;half-a-dozen artichokes and a large potato and cut up small, leaving skin on. Peel and slice 2 onions, Cover all with water, boil till tender, then strain through sieve, pressing through as much solid as possible. To this purée add an equal quantity of milk, pepper and salt to taste, and a teaspoon of sugar. Thicken with flour or cornflour, mixed to a paste with a little milk. Serve sprinkled with finely chopped parsley. Shin of Beef Soup Cut the meat off the shin (or halfshin) into neat pieces. Take the marrow out of the bone, make it very hot in big saucepan, and in this simmer the meat-for a few minutes. If necessary add a little good dripping. Then cover well with water, after putting in the bone, and adding 2 cut-up onions, a carrot or two, 2 good tablespoons of pearl barley, pepper and salt to taste, Stir all well, and bring slowly to the boil. Then simmer gently about two hours. Oyster Soup R ~ Two dozen fresh oysters, bearded and cut in half, and their liquor; 144o0z, butter, 1440z. flour, % pint milk, 1 dessertspoon chopped parsley, pepper and salt. Melt the butter, add the flour, stir till smooth, cooking a little. Add the hot milk, gradually, and the oyster liquor, stirring well, Cook till it thickens. Then put in oysters, pepper and salt to taste. Do not cook any longer, only allow oysters to heat through on very low heat. Add chopped parsley, and serve, Scotch Broth Cut up 2lb. neck of mutton into small pieces, and put into saucepan with about 3 pints of cold water. Bring slowly to boil. Add a turnip, a carrot, an onion, 2 or 3 leeks, and a small cauliflower or half a small cabbage, all cut up mall; also, 3 tablespoons of pearl barley, Simmer all gently for 2 or 3 hours with the lid on, Season with pepper and salt, add chopped parsley, milk if liked, and serve with toast or bread. 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 good cooking fat, 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. -_