Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery. A. G. Payne
sometimes called, savoury herbs, and thyme. This is also very important if wine is added to soup, though, as a rule, vegetarians rarely use wine in cooking; but the same principle applies to the substitute for wine—viz., lemon juice. It is equally important to bear this in mind in using white and brown roux. If we make the soup too thick we spoil it, and it is necessary to add water to bring it to its proper consistency, which, of course, diminishes the flavour. The proper consistency of any soup thickened with roux should be that of ordinary cream. Beyond this point the cooked flour will overpower almost every other flavour, and the great beauty of vegetarian cookery is its simplicity, it appeals to a taste that is refined and natural, and not to one that has been depraved.
Stock.—Strictly speaking, in vegetarian cookery, stock is the goodness and flavouring that can be extracted from vegetables, the chief ones being onion, celery, carrot, and turnip. In order to make stock, take these vegetables, cut them up into small pieces, after having thoroughly cleansed them, place them in a saucepan with sufficient water to cover them, and let them boil gently for several hours. The liquor, when strained off, may be called stock. It can be flavoured with a small quantity of savoury herbs, pepper, and salt, as well as a little mushroom ketchup. It can be coloured with a few drops of Parisian essence, or burnt sugar. Its consistency can be improved by the addition of a small quantity of corn-flour. Sufficient corn-flour must be added not to make it thick but like very thin gum. In a broader sense, the water in which rice, lentils, beans and potatoes have been boiled may be called stock. Again, the water in which macaroni, vermicelli, sparghetti, and all kinds of Italian paste has been boiled, may be called stock. The use of liquors of this kind must be left to the common sense of the cook, as, of course, it would only be obtainable when these materials are required for use.
Brown and White Thickening, or Roux.—It is of great importance for vegetarians always to have on hand a fairly good stock of white and brown roux, as it is a great saving both of time and money. As roux will keep good for weeks, and even months, there is no fear of waste in making a quantity at a time. Take a pound of flour, with a spoonful or two over; see that it is thoroughly dry, and then sift it. Next take a pound of butter and squeeze it in a cloth so as as much as possible to extract all the moisture from it. Next take a stew-pan—an enamelled one is best—and melt the butter till it runs to oil. It will now be found that, although the bulk of the butter looks like oil, a certain amount of froth will rise to the top. This must be carefully skimmed off. Continue to expose the butter to a gentle heat till the scum ceases to rise. Now pour off the oiled butter very gently into a basin till you come to some dregs. These should be thrown away, or, at any rate, not used in making the roux. Now mix the pound of dried and sifted flour with the oiled butter, which is what the French cooks call clarified butter. Place it back in the stew-pan, put the stew-pan over a tolerably good fire, but not too fierce, as there is a danger of its burning. With a wooden spoon keep stirring this mixture, and keep scraping the bottom of the stew-pan, first in one place and then in another, being specially careful of the edges, to prevent its burning. Gradually the mixture will begin to turn colour. As soon as this turn of colour is perceptible take out half and put it in a basin. This is the white roux, viz., flour cooked in butter but not discoloured beyond a very trifling amount. Keep the stew-pan on the fire, and go on stirring the remainder, which will get gradually darker and darker in colour. As soon as the colour is that of light chocolate remove the stew-pan from the fire altogether, but still continue scraping and stirring for a few minutes longer, as the enamel retains the heat to such an extent that it will sometimes burn after it has been removed from the fire. It is important not to have the mixture too dark, and it will be found by experience that it gets darker after the stew-pan has been removed from the fire. When we say light chocolate we refer to the colour of a cake of chocolate that has been broken. The inside is the colour, not the outside. It is advisable sometimes to have by you ready a large slice of onion, and if you think it is dark enough you can throw this in and immediately by this means slacken the heat. Pour the brown roux into a separate basin, and put them by for use.
In the houses of most vegetarians more white roux will be used than brown, consequently more than half should be removed if this is the case when the roux first commences to turn colour. When the brown roux gets cold it has all the appearance of chocolate, and when you use it it is best to scrape off the quantity you require with a spoon, and not add it to soups or sauces in one lump.
Almond Soup.—Take half a pound of sweet almonds and blanch them, i.e., throw them into boiling water till the outside skin can be rubbed off easily with the finger. Then immediately throw the white almonds into cold water, otherwise they will quickly lose their white colour like potatoes that have been peeled. Next, slice up an onion and half a small head of celery, and let these simmer gently in a quart of milk. In the meantime pound the almonds with four hard-boiled yolks of egg, strain off the milk and add the pounded almonds and egg to the milk gradually, and let it boil over the fire. Add sufficient white roux till the soup becomes of the consistency of cream. Serve some fried or toasted bread with the soup. It is a great improvement to add half a pint of cream, but this makes the soup much more expensive. The soup can be flavoured with a little white pepper.
N.B.—The onion and celery that was strained off can be used again for flavouring purposes.
Apple Soup.—This is a German recipe. Take half a dozen good-sized apples, peel them and remove the core, and boil them in a quart of water with two tablespoonfuls of bread-crumbs; add the juice of a lemon, and flavour it with rather less than a quarter of an ounce of powdered cinnamon; sweeten the soup with lump sugar, previously having rubbed six lumps on the outside of the lemon.
Artichoke Soup.—Take a dozen large Jerusalem artichokes about as big as the fist, or more to make up a similar quantity. Peel them, and, like potatoes, throw them into cold water in order to prevent them turning colour. Boil them in as little water as possible, as they contain a good deal of water themselves, till they are tender and become a pulp, taking care that they do not burn, and therefore it is best to rub the saucepan at the bottom with a piece of butter. Now rub them through a wire sieve and add them to a pint of milk in which a couple of bay-leaves have been boiled. Add also two lumps of sugar and a little white pepper and salt. Serve the soup with fried or toasted bread. This soup can be made much richer by the addition of either a quarter of a pint of cream or a couple of yolks of eggs. If yolks of eggs are added, beat up the yolks separately and add the soup gradually, very hot, but not quite boiling, otherwise the yolks will curdle.
Asparagus Soup.—Take a good-sized bundle (about fifty large heads) of asparagus, and after a thorough cleansing throw them into a saucepan of boiling water that has been salted. When the tops become tender, drain off the asparagus and throw it into cold water, as by this means we retain the bright green colour; when cold cut off all the best part of the green into little pieces, about half an inch long, then put the remainder of the asparagus—the stalk part—into a saucepan, with a few green onions and a few sprigs of parsley, with about a quart of stock or water; add a teaspoonful of pounded sugar and a very little grated nutmeg. Let this boil till the stalks become quite tender, then rub the whole through a wire sieve and thicken the soup with a little white roux, and colour it a bright green with some spinach extract. Now add the little pieces cut up, and let the whole simmer gently, and serve fried or toasted bread with the soup.
N.B.—Spinach Extract.—It is very important in making all green vegetable soups that they should be of a green colour, such as the one above mentioned—green-pea soup, &c., and that we get a good colour, and this is only to be obtained by means of spinach extract. Spinach extract can be made at home, but it will be found to be far more economical to have a small bottle of green vegetable colouring always in the house. These bottles can be obtained from all grocers at the cost of about tenpence or