HOME MAKERS CORNER

White Ribbon, Volume 19, Issue 6, 1 July 1947, Page 8

HOME MAKERS CORNER

By “LYNETTE.”

SOUPS To the French, the stock-pot is almost the equivalent of the English teai*)*, for what may be regarded as their national dish is “Pot-au-feu” (literally “pot-on-the-fire”). It used to be that the peasant women always had the pot hanging over their fires, and the delicious liquid was always there to welcome and warm those entering the home. Bourgeois families now serve pot-au-feu at least once a week. Beef bones are boiled from three to fifteen hours, the stock strained and cooled to remove all fat. A piece of top-side (about 2\ lbs.) is added and brought slowly to the boil. All scum is very carefully removed and then are added carrots, parsnips, turnips, celery, leeks, onions, cloves, a bouquet of herbs and salt This is simmered for about three and a-half hours. The meat is served at table; and the liquid strained for a delicious clear soup. We can find many occasions for soup

—as a main dish for luncheon or tea, or a light sotip as an appetizer for dinner. Invalids benefit from beef tea or broth, perhaps more from the appetizer point of view than from the nutritious, for the meat juices in the soup cause the digestive juices to flow’, and thereby promote appetite. Hot soup can be a very effective stimulant, too, and on a cold winter’s night it does much to cheer departing guests on their homeward way.

Modern food manufacturers have made sotms a simple and time-saving dish for the housewife—the food value of tinned and packet soup is not to be despised Many people like something “cmnchy” to relieve the bland texture of some soups, and croutons (little cubes -of bread, toasted in the oven), or sippets (bread cubes fried in a little butter or dripping) are often used, but chopped and fried parsley, or bacon can be added at the last minute, or grated cheese sprinkled or? the top of the soup, and crisped in a hot oven.

Here is a nutritious “Cream of Lentil’ soup:—

i cup of lentils well washed. Chop 1 small carrot, parsnip, and onion; put all into two cups of stock, or water, with seasoning, and cook all till tender, rut through a sieve. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan, add 1 tablespoon of

flour, and one cup milk. Bring to the l>oil and serve all hot.

An Italian soup, “Minestra di due colori” (soup of two colours), is an unusual dish. Melt 2$ ozs. butter, add J lb. flour, 1 pint milk, pinch salt, and pinch nutmeg. Work to a smooth consistency over a slow fire. Cool and add two whole eggs, two yolks, and 2 ozs. cheese. Divide paste in half, and mix one half with either boiled sieved spinach, or J cup chopped parsley. Drop small piece of alternate yellow and green paste into ltoiling stock, and serve all hot.