POTAGE AUX HERBES (Sorrel, Lettuce, and Chervil Soup)

"HERBES" in France does not mean only herbs, as we understand the word, but also includes sorrel, lettuce, etc.

Ingredients :

• 1/4 lb. of sorrel
• 1/2 a small lettuce (outer leaves not be used)
• 1 1/2 tablkespoons of chervil
• the yolks of 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 pints of good STOCK
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• croutons of fried bread
• salt
• pepper

Method :

1. Pick and wash the sorrel and the lettuce and cut in thin strips.
2. Pick the chervil from the stalks and chopped coarsely.
3. put all in a saucepan with a little butter and simmer very slowly for 30 minutes, till the vegetables are quite tender.
4. Now add the STOCK, cover the saucepan and simmer for another 1/2 hour.
5. Ten minutes before serving, mix the yolks of eggs in a bowl with a little cold STOCK.
6. Remove the saucepan from the fire, and add gradually a few spoonfuls of the warm STOCK to the eggs, then add the egg mixture gradually to the soup, stirring well.
7. Replace the saucepan on the fire.
8. Put in a small pat of butter just before serving.
9. Small dice of bread --CROUTONS-- fried in butter, are served with this.

BRUNOISE (Vegetables Soup)

The brunoise is an excellent soup, and is usually made with STOCK. But the recipes given below is that of Brunoise Maigre made with water instead of STOCK.

Ingredients :

• 2 large carrots
• 1 large onion
• 1 small leek
• 1 stick of celery
• 2 turnips (when in season)
• 2 or 3 tablespoons of peas
• 8 or 10 kidney beans
• butter
• salt
• pepper
• 3 3/4 cups of warm water

Method :

1. Cut all the vegetables in neat little dice, and put these (with the exception of the peas and beans) in a saucepan with little butter.
2. Simmer very gently on a slow fire, stirring occasionally, till the vegetables are well browned.
3. Then add the water, season with salt and pepper, bring to the boil and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.
4. Add the peas and beans 3/4 hour before serving.

GARBURE (Cabbage and Salt Pork Soup)

This is more or less a rustic soup, but is very delicious. Every district in France has a slightly different version of it, and the one I give hails from Gascony.

Ingredients :

• 1 cabbage
• 1 lb. of salt pork
• 1/2 pint of kidney beans, previous soaked
• 3 or 4 large potatoes
• 2 large carrots
• 1 large turnip
• 1 or 2 leeks
• 2 onions
• 1 clove of garlic (Optional)
• a sprig of thyme
• salt
• pepper

Method :

1. Blanch the cabbage, and quarter it.
2. put it in a saucepan with the kidney beans, previously soaked, the potatoes, peeled and halved, the sliced carrots, turnip, leeks, onions, garlic, and cover with cold water.
3. Season highly with salt and pepper.
4. Simmer gently for 1 1/2 hours.
5. Then add the pork, and simmer for another hour, or till the pork is quite tender.
6. Put in each soup plate a slice of bread, previously fried in a little butter to a golden color, and pour the puree of vegetables over it.
7. The pork is usually served seperately.

BOUILLABAISSE (Provencal Fish Soup)

Ingredients :

• A small lobster
• fresh haddock
• turbot or brill
• gurnet
• brearn
• whitting
• eel
• crab (the total weight of the fish should be 2 lbs., when the meat has been removed from the lobster)
• 2 large onions
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 tomatoes
• a sprig of thyme
• 1 of fennel
• parsley
• 1 bayleaf
• a strip of orange peel
• 1/2 cup of oil
• salt
• pepper
• a good pinch of saffron
• sufficient boiling water to cover the fish
• slices of bread

Method :

1. Cut the fish into 2 inch lengths, keeping the coarse and the more delicate fish on separate plates.
2. Put the chopped onions, the garlics, well crushed with the blade of a knife, and the chopped tomatoes, in a saucepan with the oil, the herbs, and the orange peel.
3. Add the coarser varieties of fish, cover with boiling water, and cook for 5 minutes on a very quick fire.
4. Then put in the remaining fish, continue boiling fast for another 5 minutes--10 minutes hard boiling altogether.
5. Remove from the fire, strain the liquid into soup plates on slices of bread, arrange the fish on a hot dish, sprinkle it with chopped parsley, and serve at the same time.
6. The fish is sometimes put on the bread in the soup plates.
7. The object of this very fast boiling is to blend the oil and water thoroughly.
8. In slower cooking, the oil would not mix properly and would rise to the surface.
9. And if the fish is cooked any longer, it will break and spoil in appearance and flavor.

LE POT AU FEU (The Stock Pot)

The POT AU FEU is as much of a national institution in France as tea-drinking is in England. It is made at least once a week in every bourgeois household. The French peasant's principal meat dish consist of the meat from the STOCK POT, and the chef gives us a supreme version of it, which goes to making of the most perfect of all clear soup--THE CONSOMME. But to obtain a really good POT AU FEU, both time and patience are required--hours of slow and steady boiling will alone extract all the substance from the bones, and at least three-quarter of an hour's careful and continuous skimming will alone give us STOCK free from grease.

Those are the two fundamentals, and however fresh and good the bones or meat, we shall get a poor POT AU FEU unless these rules be observed. The French peasant deliberately refrains from skimming the soup, in the belief that it is more nourishing and satisfying, but all good French cooks or chefs recognize the importance of both processes, and do not shirk the task of careful skimming. In the kitchen of large restaurant, the bones intended for making STOCK, chopped in small pieces, are put in cold water, which is brought to the boil, and then simmer for 12 or 15 hours. And the next day, this bone STOCK is used for cooking the soup meat. If this meat is to be served at table, as it is in most French households, it is left whole, and only cooked for 2 1/2 to 4 hours, according to the weight. If, however, its sole purpose is the actual making of a strong STOCK, it is then chopped up and cooked for the maximum length of time, when all its substance has been extracted, and it is no longer good for eating purposes. The best cuts to use are the shin of beef, the thin flank, the brisket--and a choice piece, if the meat is to be served at table as BOUILLI, is either the topsider or fresh silverside. The STOCK is greatly improved by the addition of the neck, liver, gizzard, heart of a fowl, or by chicken bones, but neither game, mutton, pork, or ham should ever be added to the POT AU FEU. The proportions is given in the following recipe will make about 2 quarts of excellent STOCK, and I give the "family' recipe, in which the meat can be served separately as the BOUILLI--a somewhat glorified version of plain "Boiled Beef".

Ingredient :

• 2 1/2 lbs. of topside of beef
• 1 lb. of bones
• 2 small carrots
• 1 medium turnip
• 3 leeks
• 3 onions
• 1 of which should be stuck with 2 cloves
• 1 small parsnip
• 1 small stick of celery
• a bouquet of mixed herbs
• salt
• 3 quarts of water

Method :

1. Put the bones in a large saucepan with the cold water, bring to the boil gradually and, when the scum begins to rise, skim carefully.
2. Simmer gently for as many hours as possible--the longer the better.
3. In cases where economy of fuel has to be studied, the time has to be curtailed, and not more than 3 to 4 hours can be spared for this process of boiling the bones alone.
4. When done, strain the bone stock into a bowl through a cloth wrung out in cold water.
5. Keep the stock in a cold place, and the next day remove carefullyany fat that has set on the surface.
6. Put the meat in a saucepan, add the warm bone stock, bring slowly to the boil, and skim until the stock is free from all scum.
7. During the process of skimming, a few tablespoon of cold water may be added occasionally, as this makes the scum rise to the surface.
8. The sliced vegetables are then added, and the salt and herbs.
9. Cover the saucepan, but tilt the lid, so that there will be an opening of about 1 1/2 inches to let the steam escape.
10. This helps to keep the stock clear.
11. Simmer very gently for 3 1/2 hours, till the meat is quite tender.
12. When the meat is removed from the saucepan, again strain the stock through a wet cloth into a bowl.
13. The stock is then ready for use, but it is preferable to wait until it is cold, when a little grease may still rise to the surface and can be removed.

The alternate and quicker method is to cook both bones and meat at the same time, but the above method undoubtedly gives the best result.