CUCUMBER SOUP.
Pare, split, and empty from eight to twenty[[38]] fine, well grown, but not old cucumbers,—those which have the fewest seeds are best for the purpose; throw a little salt over them, and leave them for an hour to drain, then put them with the white part only of a couple of mild onions into a deep stewpan or delicately clean saucepan, cover them nearly half an inch with pale but good veal stock, and stew them gently until they are perfectly tender, which will be in from three quarters of an hour to an hour and a quarter; work the whole through a hair-sieve, and add to it as much more stock as may be needed to make the quantity of soup required for table; and as the cucumbers, from their watery nature, will thicken it but little, stir to it when it boils, as much arrow-root, rice-flour, or tous les mois (see page [1]), as will bring it to a good consistence; add from half to a whole pint of boiling cream, and serve the soup immediately. Salt and cayenne sufficient to season it, should be thrown over the cucumbers while they are stewing. The yolks of six or eight eggs, mixed with a dessertspoonful of chili vinegar, may be used for this soup instead of cream; three dessertspoonsful of minced parsley may then be strewed into it a couple of minutes before they are added: it must not, of course, be allowed to boil after they are stirred in.
[38]. This is a great disparity of numbers; but some regard must be had to expense, where the vegetable cannot be obtained with facility.
SPRING SOUP AND SOUP À LA JULIENNE.
Throw into three quarts of strong clear broth, or shin of beef stock, or of consommé, half a pint each of turnips and carrots prepared by the directions of page [20], or turned into any other shape that may be preferred, with rather less of the solid part of some white celery stems, and of leeks or of very mild onions[[39]] mixed. The latter must, if used, be sliced, drawn into rings, and divided into slight shreds. When these have simmered from twenty to thirty minutes, add the leaves of one or two lettuces and a few of sorrel, trimmed or torn, about the size of half-a-crown. Continue the gentle boiling until these are tender, and add at the moment of serving half a pint of asparagus-points boiled very green, and as many French beans cut into small lozenges, and also boiled apart; or substitute green peas for these last.
[39]. Only a very subdued flavour of these is, we think, admissible for a delicate vegetable soup of any kind.
For the Julienne soup, first stew the carrots, &c. tolerably tender in a couple of ounces of butter; pour the stock boiling to them; skim off all the fat from the surface, and finish as above. Sprigs of chervil, spinach (boiled apart, and sparingly added), green onions, very small tufts of brocoli or cauliflower, may all be used in these soups at choice. Both the kind and the proportion of the vegetables can be regulated entirely by the taste. Bread stamped out with a very small round cutter, and dried a pale brown in the oven, is added sometimes to this spring soup, but is, we should say, no improvement. Winter vegetables should have three or four minutes’ previous boiling (or blanching) before they are put into the soup.
AN EXCELLENT GREEN PEAS SOUP.
Take at their fullest size, but before they are of bad colour or worm-eaten, three pints of fine large peas, and boil them as for table (see Chapter [XVII].) with half a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda in the water, that they may be very green. When they are quite tender, drain them well, and put them into a couple of quarts of boiling, pale, but good beef or veal stock, and stew them in it gently for half an hour; then work the whole through a fine hair-sieve, put it into a clean pan and bring it to the point of boiling; add salt, should it be needed, and a small teaspoonful of pounded sugar; clear off the scum entirely, and serve the soup as hot as possible. An elegant variety of it is made by adding a half pint more of stock to the peas, and about three quarters of a pint of asparagus points, boiled apart, and well drained before they are thrown into it, which should be done only the instant before it is sent to table.
Green peas, 3 pints: boiled 25 to 30 minutes, or more. Veal or beef stock, 2 quarts (with peas): 1/2 an hour. Sugar, one small teaspoonful; salt, if needed.