Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

Puree of Pearl Barley, or Creme d’Orge. — Boil and simmer five ounces of pearl barley in a quart of water and half an ounce of butter till it is quite soft. Then drain, pass it through a hair-sieve, put it into a stewpan, and add by degrees three pints of uncoloured stock. Bring the Puree to 6o VEGETABLE PUREES the consistency of thin cream ; let it come to the boil once, then simmer for fifteen minutes. Skim, stirring into it off the fire the yolk of an egg, thoroughly freed from the white, and beaten up with a gill of hot milk and an ounce of butter. Garnish if possible with four tablespoonfuls of cooked green peas. Serve with croutons soaked in the stock and then crisped in the oven. [ Wyvern.] Puree of Tapioca can be made in the same way, using from three to four ounces of tapioca. Groult’s French preparations of tapioca, pea-flour, pearl barley, sago, potato-flour, and chestnut-flour, can always be got at any first-rate shop. They make excellent Purees with the addition of eau de cuisson, second stock, or common stock made from scraps and trimmings. Celery Soup. — ( American Recipe .) — Take the white part of two large heads of celery, and grate it. If you cannot grate it, chop it very fine. Set it to boil in a quart of milk, and throw in from three to four ounces of rice. Let the celery and rice slowly stew till they can be rubbed through a coarse sieve. Add more milk if they get two thick. Then add an equal quantity of good chicken or veal broth, with white pepper and salt to taste. Be careful not to use too much pepper and salt. Potage Paysanne. — Cut one large onion into dice, put them into a stewpan with two ounces of butter, and fry a nice golden colour. Then take a half-inch-thick slice of bread, toasted to the same colour ; break it into small pieces, and put them into the stewpan with a pint of good stock. Simmer gently for thirty-five minutes, then serve. Quantity for four persons. [Mrs. C. W. Earle.'] FISH SOUPS. Sir Henry Thompson’s Fish Soup.— Put three ounces of butter into a stewpan ; add two carrots sliced, one onion and a shallot in thin slices, three cloves, a little thyme, and some parsley. Fry them gently till of a reddish tint, then add three pints of cold water. Let it boil, skimming occasionally. Then add a small fresh haddock, bones and all, cut up into pieces, SIR HENRY THOMPSON’S FISH SOUP +■ and the head and bones of two whitings, reserving the fillets. (A cod’s head, or that of a turbot, or the fresh bones, head, and fins of two large soles, the fillets of which are required for another dish, may take the place of the foregoing.) Add some salt and a little pepper. Let all simmer together for two hours gently at the corner of the fire ; take out the bones and pass all the rest through a coarse strainer. Divide the fillets of whiting into two or three small portions each, boil for a few minutes in some of the stock, add a little fresh green parsley and chervil chopped, not too finely, and serve all together in a tureen. [Food and Feeding.'] Sir Henry Thompson wisely considers that Eish Soups do not require clarifying. Captain Marryat’s Fish Soup. — (Recipe given by him to the Countess of Blessington, February, 1833) : —