Hot Potato, hot potato....hot potato, hot potato

Those Wiggles sure know what they're talking about...I may not agree with the cold spaghetti or the mashed banana... but Hot potato certainly is the thing. Particularly in Autumn and Winter as it is here down under. While those of you in the Northern Hemisphere are complaining of heatwaves and hot days, down here (particularly right down here in Melbourne) we are getting chilblains.

So what better to warm up with than a hot potato...
or in this case POTATO SOUP.

INGREDIENTS. - 2 lbs. of potatoes
1 leek
1 stick of celery
1 1/2 pints of milk
2 oz. of butter
2 oz. of sago or tapioca
salt and pepper
2 quarts of water



MODE. - Cut up the vegetables, using only the white part of the leek, and put them in a lined saucepan with the butter.
Let them cook for about 10 minutes but not take colour; then add the milk and water and boil about 3/4 of an hour, or till it is soft enough to run through a fine sieve.
Boil it again, adding more milk if necessary, and the sago, which should simmer, till transparent.

TIME. 1 1/4 hours or rather more. Average Cost, 10d. SUFFICIENT for 6 persons. SEASONABLE in winter.

I thought this was quite tasty. My husband did not. Still, there's no accounting for taste. Requires some salt.

Soup-er!

Why don't you just stock me?

well, post my roast chicken fantastico, I had a chicken carcass that just begged to be stocked...

So I did.

Two and a half hours later I have 3 litres of chicken stock suitable for making white soups with.

And yes, my kitchen setup looked exactly like this as well.

BONE STOCK.

Any kind of bones, cooked or uncooked, may be used to make bone stock. Put them in a small stewpan or small stock-pot, add enough water to well cover, and bring to the boil. Skim, add a peeled onion, a carrot and a bay leaf (I also added 1 stick of celery and some peppercorns), simmer for about2 or 3 hours. Season to taste with salt. This stock may be used in place of water for making gravy, soups and sauces.

All frozen into handy 500ml containers for whenever I need 2 cups of chicken stock

Mrs Beeton vs. the Vegetarian

Last night I had my sisters over for dinner...and because of my new obsession, I wanted to cook something from Mrs Beeton. Trouble is, my sister is a vegetarian.

Now from a cookbook that recommend Calf's Feet Stew for invalids or Bullock's Heart stuffed with Veal forcemeat I thought my chances of devising a suitable menu may be slim. However, I should not have been so hasty. While I believe the original Mrs Beeton was probably not in favour of vegetarian ( I think somewhere she wrote that it would be quite bad to omit one entire food group, and meat at that!), my new and updated version desiring to "give useful information to all housekeepers" has a whole chapter(!12 pages!) added "for the benefit of those who do not eat animal food, or prefer an alternative diet."

And now with out any further ado, may I present MOCK HARE SOUP

INGREDIENTS - 1 litre Vegetable Stock
1 carrot (diced)
1 onion (diced)
1 stick of celery (diced)
1 tomato (diced)
2 cloves
1 bay leaf
1 tsp of chopped parsley
1 tbsp of flour
30 g of vegetable butter
salt
pepper

METHOD - Melt the butter in a casserole, cut up the vegetables into neat pieces, and cook them slowly in the butter for about 15 mins - with the lid on. Stir in the flour and brown it a little, then add the stock, cloves, bay leaf and seasoning, stir until it simmers; then cook gently for about 20 mins. Meanwhile make forcemeat balls about the size of a cherry, and fry them. Put them into the soup tureen, pour the soup on, scatter the chopped parsley over, and serve immediately. Hand the red currant jelly separately. When in season a few mushrooms added to the vegetables are an improvement.

TIME - About 45 minutes. SUFFICIENT for about 6 or 7 persons

My recommendations: Not much - this is a pretty good vegetable soup. BTW - these recipes have been converted to metric measurements.

FORCEMEAT BALLS (For serving in Soups, etc.)

INGREDIENTS - 120 g fresh bread crumbs
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp chopped pine kernels
1 tbsp chopped vegetable butter
1/2 tsp chopped parsley
1/2 tsp mixed herbs
1/2 tsp lemon peel
1 medium egg
pepper and salt
fat for frying

METHOD - Mix all the ingredients well together - using the egg to form a stiff paste. Roll into balls, fry a golden brown in either deep or shallow fat and serve as required.

TIME - About 15 minutes. SUFFICIENT for about 1 dozen balls.

My recommendations: Well, I had to add some extra water (actually quite a bit of extra water) to get the balls to stick. My paste was just too dry... although this may have been because I used dried breadcrumbs not fresh ones. And I made my balls too big, next time they'll be smaller.

Over all, I found the entree to be quite tasty, and everyone agreed that this is one you could make again...

Tomorrow...the main - Mock Goose