French Provincial Cooking (38 page)

A useful stand-by soup. Stock is needed, and if necessary this can be from either a meat or chicken
bouillon
cube, but the ideal is stock made from the carcase and giblets of a duck. For each pint of stock the other ingredients are
oz. of dried cèpes (usually called dried mushrooms; Italian are the best), a tomato and a crushed clove of garlic. Cream or eggs or Parmesan cheese or parsley and ham.

Soak the dried cèpes in cold water to cover for 10-15 minutes; drain them, put them with the garlic and chopped tomato into the stock, cover the saucepan and simmer very gently, preferably in the oven, which will cause less evaporation of the liquid than direct heat, for about an hour, until the cèpes are absolutely soft. Strain the soup and discard the cèpes; their flavour has all gone into the stock.

The soup can now be enriched with three or four tablespoons of cream or with grated Parmesan cheese stirred into it just before serving, or with a thickening of egg yolks beaten with a little lemon juice. Or it can be served as it is with the addition of a little finely chopped ham and parsley.

To skin and peel chestnuts, score them across on the rounded side, and put them in a baking tin in a gentle oven (gas No. 3, 330 deg. F.) for 15 to 20 minutes, or else drop them in boiling water and boil them for about 8 minutes. Extract a few at a time, so that the rest do not get cool, for then they become difficult to peel. Squeeze each chestnut so that the shell cracks, and then with the aid of a small knife it is quite easy to remove both skins. For this soup you need 1 lb. of chestnuts.

Prepare a vegetable broth from 2 carrots, 2 leeks, a small head of celery with the leaves, 1 onion, 2 or 3 sprigs of parsley, all cleaned, sliced and melted in 1
oz. of butter in a heavy saucepan. When the vegetables soften and begin to look transparent pour in 2 pints of cold water, season with salt, cover the pan, and simmer very gently for one hour. Now pour off half the liquid, and in this stew the shelled and skinned chestnuts until they are quite soft. Sieve, then thin the resulting purée with the rest of the strained vegetable broth. When heating up add a teacupful of hot milk, and see that the seasoning is correct. Serves four.

Although all this may sound a lot of fuss to make a chestnut soup, it is well worth the trouble.

The vegetables cooked for the stock should not be wasted. Sieved and thinned with milk, a lump of butter and some chopped parsley added immediately before serving, they make an excellent soup for next day.

Make a chicken broth in the usual way with a chicken carcase, the feet and giblets, an onion, a carrot and a heart of celery cut into small pieces. Simmer very gently with water to cover for about an hour. Strain. Measure the broth, and allow 1 egg yolk to each
pint. Beat the yolks very well in a bowl, with a few drops of lemon juice. Pour a little of the heated broth over the eggs, whisking all the time with a fork. Return this to the rest of the hot broth in the saucepan and heat again, stirring all the time until the soup is hot and slightly thickened, but do not let it boil.

Those who like the aniseed flavour of fennel will find that Florentine fennel instead of the celery makes a most delicious and unusual soup.

Scrub a celeriac weighing
to
lb. and boil it until tender (about 45 minutes: test with a skewer, which should go in easily). When cool, peel and sieve it, mix it thoroughly with a purée made from
lb. of potatoes cooked in 2 pints of salted water and sieved with their liquid. Heat up, thin with a cupful of milk, season well, add either a good lump of butter or a little cream before serving. Enough for four.

In France, after the 14th of July, a great many people take advantage of their holidays to give their livers, about which the French are so obsessed, a little rest. The watering places are filled with people taking cures and in seaside, mountain and country establishments the meals, at any rate the evening meals, are apt to be composed of light and refreshing soups, plainly cooked meat or fish, and only a moderate amount of salads and fruit; and just before bedtime a tisane or infusion of lime flowers or some other scented, calming herb.

The two following recipes are typical of the sort of soups which one might get under these circumstances. The habit of serving soup iced, except for consommé, has not really spread to the country places of France. But even in hot weather a hot soup, so long as it is not too substantial, can be quite refreshing.

Slice 2 lb. of ripe juicy tomatoes into a saucepan; add half an onion finely sliced and 2 teaspoons of salt. Cook with the lid on the pan, but without any liquid or butter, for 10 to 15 minutes, until the tomatoes are quite soft. Put through the food mill. In a bowl dilute 1 tablespoon of ground rice with a little cold milk. Stir this into the purée. Heat gently, and gradually add about 1
pints of hot milk, or half milk and half light chicken or veal broth. Cook very gently, stirring often, for about 15 minutes until all traces of the little white globules formed by the ground rice have disappeared. It should be quite smooth, but if it is not, press it once more through a fine sieve. Stir in some very finely chopped parsley or chervil. Properly made, this very simple soup is most refreshing and delicate, but it can, if you prefer, be enriched with a little cream or a lump of butter stirred in before it is served, though it should remain on the thin side. Makes four to six helpings.

The Père Tranquille seems to have been a somewhat mysterious Capuchin monk, but the name of this soup is also a reference to the supposed soporific effects of lettuce. It is a trouble to make but useful for those who have more lettuces in their gardens than they can eat as salads. Ordinary round or cabbage lettuces are the best ones to use.

Two large whole lettuces, or the outside leaves of 3, about 1 pint of mild chicken or veal broth and 1 pint of milk, seasonings, a little butter or cream.

Cut the carefully washed lettuce leaves into fine ribbons; put them in the saucepan with just enough broth to cover them. Let them simmer gently, adding a little more liquid, until they are quite soft. Sieve them, or purée them in the electric blender. Return the purée to the pan, gradually add the rest of the broth and enough milk to make a thin cream. Season with salt if necessary, a lump or two of sugar and a scrap of nutmeg. Before serving stir in either a small lump of butter or a little thick fresh cream. Makes five or six helpings.

Both these soups can be, and usually are, poured over thin slices of French bread baked pale golden in the oven, but personally I prefer them without. To make a smoother soup, sieve it again after the liquid has been added.