Four seasons cookery books

Broad beans, cauliflower florets, potatoes, celery, leeks, mushrooms and carrots can all be used as a soup basis. Avocado pears also make a good soup, particularly overripe ones which are not suitable to serve as a starter. The method for avocado soup is slightly different. Peel the avocados, halve and remove the stones. Mash to a purée (if the avocados are soft they can be mashed in a bowl with a fork) and add seasoning, and lemon juice to prevent discolouration. Freeze in poly- thene containers. To make the soup, reheat the purée gently, stirring to avoid sticking, and add sufficient milk and chicken stock to make the required consistency. Serve with a swirl of cream in each portion. Avocado soup can also be served chilled. This way it makes a good starter, particularly if you are serving hot second and third courses. Most vegetable soups, in fact, are delicious served chilled. Purées of root vegetables: Now that root vegetables are in season it makes good sense to freeze them down for future use. A purée takes far less space in the freezer than prepared, blanched vegetables. Pre- pare the vegetables (young parsnips and turnips, carrots) according to type and cook in boiling, salted water until tender. Drain well and mash to a purée, adding more seasoning, if liked. Ground black pepper goes well with parsnips, turnips and carrots. Alternatively, try a sprink- ling of ground nutmeg. Sautéed chopped onion blended to a purée is a useful standby in the freezer for use in stuffings. Jerusalem arti- chokes, which are available at this time of the year, may also be pre- pared as parsnips etc. and stored as a puree. When storing purées, remember to leave a small headspace in the container. To serve the vegetables, transfer to a pan and reheat over a low heat, with a knob of butter, stirring to prevent sticking. Vegetable purées go well with roast meats, poultry and game. They may also be served with casseroles, but in order to give a contrast of textures to the meal do not serve creamed potatoes as well. Boiled or jacket potatoes would be better in this case. LE 85 af How to freeze nuts Shelled almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, brazils, peanuts and cashews all freeze well and you will be surprised at the good results. However, it is better to add salt on defrosting rather than freeze them with the salt added. They may be frozen whole, chopped or slivered for use in teabreads, cakes and scones. Another method is to sauté them in heated butter with a little oil added to prevent the butter from burning. Drain on absorbent paper and allow to cool before packing and sealing in polythene containers. The different varieties can be frozen in separate containers or frozen together as mixed nuts. For salted nuts, toss the defrosted nuts in salt, or sprinkle generously with sea salt. Coffee and nut ice cream Imperial/Metric 2 eggs 4 tablespoons sieved icing sugar 2 tablespoons coffee essence 4 pint/14 dl. double cream 2 0z./50 g. walnuts or hazelnuts, coarsely chopped American 2 eggs 5 tablespoons sifted con- fectioners’ sugar 3 tablespoons strong black coffee 3 cup heavy cream 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or hazelnuts Date and walnut teabread Iimperial/Metric 12 0z./350 g. self-raising flour z teaspoon mixed spices 4 oz./100 g. butter or margarine 2 0z./50 g. castor sugar 2 0z./50 g. walnuts, chopped 2 0z./50 g. dates, chopped 1 egg 4 pint/12 dl. milk 1 tablespoon black treacle 86 American 3 cups all-purpose flour sifted with 3 teaspoons baking powder teaspoon mixed spice cup butter or margarine cup granulated sugar cup chopped walnuts cup chopped dates egg 3 cup milk 1 tablespoon molasses at AIH NIH AJ NJ AI