Try this Vegetable Soup

So, yesterday I made the French Vegetable Soup that Cecile Heatley made with our ethnic cooking class several weeks ago and that is included in her book, "In Grandmere's Kitchen."  (reviewed elsewhere on this blog). This has to be the easiest soup in the world to make and it is so delicious. I call it basically a "chop and drop" recipe for into a large soup kettle of salted water, you drop chunks of peeled potato, carrots, celery, turnips and leeks. Trader Joe's sells a package of frozen cut up leeks and you only need to use part of the bag. Cook the soup for about an hour or until the vegetables are all soft. Then let it cool just a bit before you take the immersion blender to it to make a lovely puree. If you don't have that very useful tool, you can process by batches in the food processor. Check for seasoning...I like black pepper...and you have yourself a lot of really good vegetables. I'm inclined to drop in a glob of butter at this point or a swirl of cream, just to make it richer. But the soup can stand easily on its own. Cecile reminded me that you could also add any leftover veggies that are hanging around your fridge.

Vegetable cookbook from the "Good Old Days"

I've downloaded a very intriguing cookbook on my Kindle  and have enjoyed reading it, if not taking the recipes into my own repertoire. Published in 1919, "Vaughan's Vegetable Cook Book"  offers to tell us how to cook and use Rarer Vegetables and Herbs, "a Boon to Housewives" and published by Vaughan's Seed Store. Vaughan evidently operated out of New York and Chicago and he said he had greenhouses, nurseries and trial grounds in Western Springs, Illinois.  The delight of this book is the language and the delivery of recipes, using words like "gill"  (four ounces), "half teacup full", and other handy measurements not usually found on your  Pyrex glass cup, but still they work for me. I noticed also with the very complete listing of vegetables along with some I've never heard of, he used lots of butter, cream and eggs. Certainly if one were a vegetarian who eats eggs and cheese, this cookbook offers lots of ideas...albeit maybe not very healthy ones since many of the recipes are so rich.

What interests me is that here we have a cooking culture of the early twentieth century that is virtually out of fashion right now with our preference for steamed and roasted veggies. One wonders if many people are still cooking in the same way. I may just have to try a few recipes for a special event, not as a regular practice, to see how they go over with my diners. I would bet the amount of butter in itself would guarantee enthusiastic good reviews. All of the spinach recipes included hard boiled eggs in one way or another.

Ethnic Cooking Series half way through

Now that we've accomplished four classes in the ethnic cooking series, I'm happy to report it is going well. Last Monday, Cecile Heatley taught us how to make crepes and French mayonnaise and this week she returns for new culinary surprises. The final three classes will include my Norwegian family's favorite recipes and then we have contributions from our Korean and Lebanese friends. With such an assortment of cultures contributing, the class is very rich in so many ways.  We've managed to fill all twelve seats each week since those who must miss a class have been faithful in letting me know in advance so I can get someone from the wait list to fill in.

Perhaps we can do this again if we find some new cultural backgrounds among our members who will be willing to share.

Less work for me too.