Two soups that rate as favourites

Press, 11 July 1979, Page 14

Two soups that rate as favourites

Home & People

ALISON HOLST KITCHEN DIARY

Oyster soup tops the list of my favourite soups. I can’t work out the reason that it so seldom appears on New Zealand hole! and restaurant menus — I can’t ever remember seeing it listed. It isn’t hard, nor timeconsuming to make, and it is no more expensive than other foods which appear on these menus. But the fact remains — if you want it. you must make it yourself. The canned varieties, by the way, do not compare with the freshly made soup. Oysters not fresh enough to serve raw, make very good soup — in fact, their strong flavour makes more definitely flavoured soup. Frozen oysters may be used in soup, too, so if you develop a taste for it you should freeze a few small packets. This recipe makes four servings. Ingredients: 12 to 18 oysters 50 g butter 2 cloves game grating of nutmeg 1 cup flour 4 cups milk (approx.) salt and pepper lemon Drain the oysters, saving their liquid. Remove their beards. (The beard is the frilly bit around the edge, and the clear piece next to it.) Put the beards in a medium sized saucepan with the butter. Cook over a low heat for five to 10 minutes, taking care not

to let the butter brown. As the beards cook, add the chopped garlic and a grating of nutmeg.

Slice or halve the remaining parts of the oysters and put them aside for later addition. Add the flour to the cooked beards, and stir it over low heat for one to two minutes. Remove from heat. Make the oyster liquid up to one cup with milk, and stir this into the pot. Stirring constantly, bring to the boil. Remove from heat and add one cup of milk. Boil again, stirring all the time.

If you have a blender, whir the mixture until smooth. If you don’t have one. push as much as possible through a sieve, and discard the remains.

Add two more cups of milk and bring mixture back to the boil, stirring all the time. Simmer for one to two minutes then remove from heat and season carefully with pepper, salt, a grating of lemon peel and one to two tablespoons of lemon juice.

Stir in the sliced oy-. sters.

Do not reheat the soup until you are ready to serve it. Its flavour improves if it stands a few hours at this stage. Reheat, stirring all the time. Serve just before soup boils. Garnish with chopped parsley, or with whipped cream and a sprinkling of paprika. Variation: Fill cup containing oyster liquor with dry white wine instead of milk and omit lemon juice.

JOAN’S ONION SOUP My friend next door makes delicious onion soup. In a kitchen conversation recently we decided that onion soup would be the soup to choose if you decided to make only one soup. It is easy to make and requires no expensive or exotic ingredients; you can eat it 30 minute's after starting to make it; it is a good meal “starter” or can be a complete meal; it is warm and filling in cold weather, yet light enough for warm weather. However, the fact remains that you can’t make onion soup without peeling and chopping onions. Still, what are a few tears. This recipe makes six to eight servings, but you can “stretch” it by adding more instant stock and water. Ingredients: 6 medium (500 g onions IOOg butter 2 teaspoons sugar 1/4 cup flour 6 cups (H litres) hot water 2-3 tablespoons instant beef stock

1-2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce Pepper. Chop the onions finely and put them in a heavybased saucepan with the butter. Stir frequently over moderate heat. The onions should soften and turn an even golden brown colour without any pieces blackening at the edge. When the onions look like this, after 10 to 15 minutes, stir in the sugar. The sugar helps the browning but may blacken if not watched. Now stir in the flour and cook for two to three minutes longer. Add the hot water gradually, stirring all the time until the mixture boils and has thickened. Add two level tablespoons of instant stock, the Worcestershire sauce and pepper, simmer for two to three minutes, then taste it. I nearly always add the extra instant stock, but it depends how salty you like soup to be. Cover and simmer for 10 to 20 minutes more. Serve the soup topped with rounds of bread baked or toasted with grated cheese on top, or sprinkled with finely chopped parsley.