LA BONNE CUISINE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 150, 26 June 1937, Page 27 (Supplement)

LA BONNE CUISINE.

Concerning Soups.

(By A FREXCH CHEF.)

THE French are supposed to be past masters in the art of soup-making,

and many are the tasty potages that the French menagere prepares for her husband on his return from office in the evening. Milk, pure and undisguised, is often popular with one's men folk and they will generally enjoy a soup of which milk is the foundation. "Velvet" or creme veloutee, as it is called in France, is a good example of this, and there is the additional advantage that it can be made at a moment's notice. Here it is: You take one pint and a half of milk, one teaspoonful curry powder, one heaped tablespoonful butter, one tablespoonful cooked rice, one level teaspoonful flour. You then melt the butter, and mix the flour and curry powder with it into a smooth paste. Add the milk, and stir carefully until it boils. If too thick, add a little more milk or water. Put in the rice, and season with salt. Serve very hot. Creme d'Artichaut. Ingredients: Two pints milk, 21b artichokes, loz butter, loz flour, seasoning. Boil the artichokes in water until they are tender. Strain and rub through a 6ieve. Add to the milk and boil up. Thicken with the butter and flour, which should be blended together first. Serve very hot with fried sippets of bread. Creme d'Epinards. Ingredients: Two pounds spinach, one pint stock, half pint milk, I6z butter, a little cream, half an ounce cornflour, seasoning. Prepare the spinach, cook with as little water as possible and rub through a sieve. Melt the butter in a stewpan and stir in the cornflour till smooth. Be careful not to bum. Add the stock, stirring all the time, and then the spinach. Bring to the boil, add the milk and seasoning. Cook for 10 minutes. remove any scum, and add a spoonful of cream. Serve very hot. Marrow Soup. The French are very fond of marrowsoup, and this is how it is done: Use 21b vegetable marrow, two large onions. If pints water, one pint milk, two tablespoons flour, 2oz butter, a teaspoon of sugar, seasoning. Peel and remove seeds from marrow. Slice onion and marrow thinly, place butter to melt in pan. Add supar and vegetables. Allow to simmer together five minutes. Add water and bring all gently to the boil. about 20 minutes. Pass through a sieve. Blend flour with milk and pour in soup. and boil all three minutes, stirring all the time. Season nicely. Cucumber and

lettuce soups are made exactly in the same way, using either of these vegetables, instead of marrow.

Creme 4e Cresson (Watercress Soup)

You take lib watercress, one pint mashed potatoes, lioz butter, li pints white stock, half a pint milk, seasoning, loz flour.

Pick and chop the watercress. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add to it tlie watercress and cook for a few minutes, then stir in the mashed potatoes. Mix together, dilute with the stock and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

Anchovy Savoury. You take one small tin of anchovy, one teaspoon of anchovy sauce, a teaspoon of tomato sauce, one beaten yolk of an egg, half an ounce of butter, a gill of milk, pepper to taste, and rounds of toast. Beat up the egg m a basin, add the milk, anchovy and tomato sauce, butter and season with pepper. Stand in hot water and stir until it thickens, but do not bod. Have ready hot buttered toast. Spread with the mixture, place the anchovies on top. and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Sardines may be used instead of anchovies if preferred. Spaghetti Savoury. Three good-sized tomatoes. 2oz of spaghetti, one tablespoonful "rated cheese, loz butter, 1 srill white sauce, a few grains of cavenne, 6 rounds of bread, a little dripping, and a dessertspoonful tomato sauce. Choose large, sound tomatoes, .?m them in halves across the fruit, pla a small piece of butter on each, bake i a hot oven for fire minutes, with t: outside uppermost. Break the spa. hetti into very small pieces, simmer t: tender, putting it in boiling wat i Drain thoroughly, mix with it the whssauce, cayenne, tomato , sauce <ii: grated cheese. Fry the' bread in little dripping, browning it slightlv •• both sides. Place a half tomato ••■ each piece of bread, pile on the *}<>■: hetti mixture, sprinkle a little prat" I cheese over. Then brown under a jjr:l! r I and serve very hot. A Savoury Omelet. An asparagus omelet is a chancre. a:ii if a few cooked green tip*, fre-li .: tinned, are left over from any o;'. dish, they can be folded into a omelet with a very happy re»u Asparagus salad i<* much beloved Parisians. You take some punk asparagus tops, half a pint of co.»k green peas, 12 younji sliced coo!-.' carrots, one crisp lettuce, one sma: tin of pineapple chunks, chopped small and mayonnaise sauce. Arrange the asparagus tops round a salad bowl and fill the centre with layers of the other ingredients. Cover each layer with a little mayonnaise sauce. Serve very cold.