The Penny-Pinching Epicures Soup Kettle
(Page 5 of 9)
January/February 1973
By Marjorie M. Watkins
1/2 cup pumpkin purée
2 bouillon cubes dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon tarragon, dried
1/2 to 1 teaspoon curry powder
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
RELATED CONTENT
Blend all the ingredients and heat just to steaming but do not boil. Cover, remove from heat and let rest three to five minutes. Serves two, in cups.
For soups and stews featuring beef bones, the neck bones and shank rounds are number one. They have enough meat on them to provide the main course for a meal as well as to "beef-up" the soup stock. The shank rounds can serve as mini-pot roasts, yielding as a bonus a rich, gelatiny stock containing calcium and marrow from the bones' centers.
Beef loves spices (cloves, cumin seeds, coriander) and heartily flavored herbs (especially garlic, marjoram or oregano and bay). It also responds to the tenderizing and flavoring of red wine or wine vinegar.
BASIC BEEF STOCK & DINNER
2 lbs. each beef neck bones and shank rounds
2 onions, quartered
3 to 5 carrots, cut into 1" pieces
3 celery stalks, cut into 1" pieces
2 fat cloves of garlic, whole
2 bay leaves
4 to 6 cloves
6 peppercorns
1 teaspoon dried marjoram leaves
3 teaspoons salt
6 cups water
1/4 cup wine vinegar or 1/2 to 1 cup red wine
4 large potatoes, peeled and halved
Heat your largest, heaviest kettle or Dutch oven and grease the bottom by rubbing it with the fattest side of a shank round. Add a little oil if necessary and brown the shank rounds, then the neck bones. Then put in one-third of the vegetables (but no potatoes) and all the spices and herbs. Pour the water and wine over all.
As soon as the liquid boils, reduce the heat, add the remaining vegetables (except for the potatoes) and cook the rich mixture for three to five hours. By then the meat will have left the bones, the gristle melted into the broth and the calcium will have leached out of the bones and into the stock. During the last hour of cooking, add a potato and salt to the pot for each person expected for dinner.
When the potatoes are tender, take them out with a large spoon and use a slotted spoon to put the meat on a platter.
With three tablespoons of the fat from the top of the stock, three tablespoons of flour, a cup of the broth and about one-half teaspoon of additional salt, make a gravy to go with the potatoes.
Serve the remaining stock as soup, or reserve it—along with any leftover meat—to use in a future soup.
FAST BORSCH
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 carrot, shredded
1 onion, diced
5 or 6 young beets with tops, or 1 small can diced beets
2 cups beef stock or 1 can beef consommé
1 raw potato, finely diced
1 teaspoon marjoram
1 tablespoon fresh, chopped parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
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