Sorrel Soup (Potage a l'Oseille)

Ingredients

• two large handfuls of sorrel
• a medium-sized spring onion
• an ounce of butter
• a quart of water
• a slice of stale white bread
• a teaspoonful of salt
• half one of pepper
• the beaten yolks of two eggs

Method

1. 1

   Wash and chop sorrel and onion.

2. 2

   Melt butter and stew them in a covered stewpan for half an hour.

3. 3

   Boil water, add bread, and let it boil until the sorrel is ready.

4. 4

   Add sorrel mixture, salt, pepper, and egg yolks.

5. 5

   Boil once and pour into a tureen.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The profession of cookery, from a French point of view (1894) by Lucy H. Yates, page 45. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

an ounce of butter in a small stewpan, 136 SOME LITTLE USED VEGETABLES. put- in tlie cooked spinacli^ add a little pepper, heat well through, beat lightly with a fork, then fill the croustades, and chop a little cooked beetroot to garnish the top. A puree of spinach with a garnish of poached eggs, or an q^^ boiled hard, then cut into strips, and a few strips of beetroot interspersed to give colour, is a great improvement to the vege- table plainly boiled. Some thin slices of ham frizzled and placed as a border round a puree of spinach, also makes a very nice dish. Excellent also is Spinach a la Crenie. After melting a small lump of butter in the stewpan, and putting in the spinach to simmer, stir in the beaten yolk of an egg, twopennyworth of cream, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Let it nearly boil, then pour into a rather deep dish, and place fingers of toasted bread round the edge. This is one of the daintiest dishes known. It has been mentioned before that French cooks often make a " fond '^ or foundation to a dish of meat with a puree of spinach or sorrel ; but it must be remembered that no cream or eggs should be used then, and less butter, sub- stituting the gravy from the meat instead. SOME LITTLE USED VEGETABLES. 137 Among tlie lesser known vegetables we may also place watercress. It may sound paradoxical to say that no people consume watercress more largely tlian do Londoners^ and yet to call it a little known vegetable ; yet apart from eating it in its natu- ral state, its capabilities are almost unknown. Watercress Soup is undreamt of by many people, but it is simple and nourishing, and meets with the approbation of all who try it. As a salad, too, it is much appreciated, either alone or with lettuce, and as a sauce to accom- pany roast mutton it is frequently used in French houses. Chopped small and laid be- tween thin slices of bread and butter for sand- wiches, it is getting to be much favoured at the afternoon tea-table. Be it remembered, however, that although watercress is most valuable as a medicine, beingr a gentle stimulant, and strengthening to the nerves, yet from the nature of its growth it requires most careful cleansing, or we may imbibe more harmful properties than we gain good from eating it. The expressed juice of fresh watercress taken by a teaspoonful at a time, has been found in- valuable in cases of throat disease. The Ger- 138 SOME LITTLE USED VEGETABLES. man pliysiciau, Haller, said tliat he liad seen patients in deep decline cured by Hying almost entirely on tliis plant. The best specimens are those with the bronzed leaves. During the winter and early spring is perhaps the best season for water- cress, but they are good and acceptable all the year round. Full directions for making the watercress soup will be found at the end of this chapter. Watercress sauce is made by stewing chopped watercress in butter for ten minutes^ then add- ing a pinch of salt, the same of pepper, the same also of mustard, and a spoonful of vin- egar. Beat till quite smooth with a wooden spoon, then add the gravy from the roasting joint. This is served in a sauce-tureen, and is a pleasant change from ordinary gravy. Almost all the dishes mentioned might come under the category of kitchen-physic, — for one of the first essentials in sickroom diet is to please the eye as well as the palate. Sorrel Soup {Potage a VOseille), Having carefully washed two large handfuls of sorrel, dry it, then chop it finely. Chop also a medium-sized spring onion. Melt an SOME LITTLE USED VEGETABLES. 139 ounce of butter, stew tlie oniou and sorrel in this (in a covered stewpan) for about half an hour. Meanwhile, bring a quart of water to boiling point in the soup-pot, throw into it a slice of stale white bread cut into dice (no crust), and let it boil till the sorrel is ready. Add that next, then a teaspoonful of salt, half one of pepper, and the beaten yolks of two eggs

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.