From Elizabeth
David on Vegetables, Quadrille Publishing, 2013.
Elizabeth David is one of the legends of
cooking. She managed to change the cooking habits of Britain with her books and
her articles largely based on the cuisine of European mainland. She wrote
beautifully and even her recipes maintain her style, writing as though she is
instructing rather than just given directions. This book is a collection of her
recipes gathered together to celebrate the centenary of her birth. Interspersed
among the recipes are some of her essays that are a pleasure to read. I
thoroughly enjoyed reading the essay on the uselessness of garlic presses in
which, as well, she expresses the thought that vegetable soups can be spoiled
by stocks, and using water is better as it allows one to properly enjoy the
flavours of the vegetables. After reading that I wanted to try one of her soup
recipes.
In a saucepan I browned a sliced onion in
some olive oil. While it browned I chopped half a carrot and a small potato, peeled
2 large tomatoes and chopped them, diced a zucchini, sliced some mint leaves
and picked off the leaves of some watercress. These were added to the saucepan for
a minute or two. Then a litre of water was added together with some French
beans cut into 5cm lengths. The soup was now simmered until the vegetables
were cooked.
Meanwhile the leaves of a bunch of parsley
were placed in a mortar with a peeled garlic clove. They were pounded into a
paste. Just prior to the soup being served, the garlic paste was stirred in.
This was quite a delicate soup despite all
the ingredients and, as David had commented, the vegetables could be enjoyed
almost individually. I had been tasting the soup during the cooking and had
found it to be rather bland but the addition of the parsley paste soon altered
that.
Taste: ✔✔✔
Ease of
cooking: ✔✔✔
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