Potage cressonnière à la crème (Cream of watercress and potato soup)

From Elizabeth David On Vegetables, Elizabeth David, Quadrille Publishing, 2013.

Elizabeth David is precise about how things ought to be cooked. There are no short cuts if you are to follow her procedures. She says ‘even so elementary a dish as potato soup is all the better for attention to the small details’. This is one of those, I guess, elementary dishes.

Firstly I picked the leaves off a bunch of watercress until I had a cupful of them. The stalks went into a pot with 500g potatoes, peeled and cut into not too small pieces. Into the pot also went 2.5 litres salted water. This was brought to the boil and then simmered for 25 minutes. This mixture was now sieved.

Now a little of the liquid was mixed with a tablespoon rice flour. This was mixed into the potato mixture and the liquid now went back into the saucepan and was simmered for another 25 minutes. This mixture was now sieved again, this time through a finer sieve.

Back into the saucepan went the soup. Now it was tested for seasoning, some salt and pepper added and a touch of freshly grated nutmeg. The watercress leaves were chopped and added with about ¼ cup cream. The soup was ready.

David comments that this was the type of cooking that firstly attracted her into French cooking. It was certainly a finely made soup but for tastes that have been influenced largely nowadays by Asian and Middle Eastern cooking from the influx of different cultures into Australia this had a subtlety of flavour that, while admired, I would see as a bit bland.  It was enjoyed but, for me, not one I would take the trouble to make again. I did, however, learn techniques that would be used again.

Taste: ✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔ 

Mario Batali’s Almond & Jalapeño Relish

From The Vegetarian Option, Simon Hopkinson, Quadrille Publishing, 2012.

Jalapeños are aplenty in the markets at the moment so it seemed the time to make this relish.

It was all very easy. All that had to be done was to measure out the ingredients, put them in a blender and churn them into a rough paste, not too fine. I used 50g ground almonds, 150g jalapeños, a small chopped red onion, salt, a pinch of sugar and sufficient extra virgin olive oil to ease the mixture into a paste.

This is a comfortable chilli relish. It is hot—but not too hot due to the modifying influence of the almonds.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔

Green Soup (Zuppa di vercolore)

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: ✔✔✔