Fannie Farm

Cream of Carrot Soup

/ sandramervillehart

The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, originally published in 1896, has a lot of great recipes. This cream of carrot soup is surprisingly light and delicious.

Stock, water enriched by the food cooked in it, is an important ingredient in numerous soups. Homemade stock brings full-bodied flavor to recipes. The recipe for the chicken stock used in this recipe is found  here.

To make cream of carrot soup, chop 1 onion and 1 celery stalk with leaves. Peel and slice 4 carrots.

Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan. Stir in onion, celery, and carrots. Cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While those vegetables are cooking, peel and dice 2 medium potatoes. Chop 2 sprigs of parsley.

Stir potatoes and parsley into the vegetables just until coated. Pour in 5 cups of chicken stock or chicken broth. (I didn’t have enough chicken stock so I used half of each.) Cook, partially covered, for about 20 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.

Puree the vegetables and broth in a food processor or a blender.

Pour the pureed liquid through a colander into a medium mixing bowl to catch anything the blender missed.

Rinse out the saucepan and then pour the soup back into it. Stir in 1 cup of heavy cream. Salt and pepper to taste. I used a teaspoon of salt.

Heat the soup over a medium heat until hot. Do not boil.

Garnish the creamy soup with a parsley sprig if desired. This delicious soup was worth the extra steps. I plan to make it again to serve to dinner guests.

This recipe makes 7 one-cup servings and can be served hot or cold.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Revised by Cunningham, Marion and Laber, Jeri. The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, Alfred A Knopf Inc., 1983.

 

 

Cabbage and Beet Soup

/ sandramervillehart

I recently ran across The Fannie Farmer Cookbook in an antique store. This book was originally published in 1896.

Stock, water enriched by the food cooked in it, is an important ingredient in numerous soups. Homemade stock brings full-bodied flavor to recipes. The recipe for the beef stock used in this recipe is found  here.

To make this soup, peel and dice 2 cups of raw beets. The beet juice briefly stained my hands, my counter, and my cutting board, but it washed off easily with dishwashing liquid.

Chop 1 onion. Coarsely chop 2 cups of cabbage. Place all three ingredients in a pot with 4 cups of beef stock or 4 cups of beef bouillon. (I used two cups of each, which worked very well. You may also use beef broth in place of the beef stock.)

Bring this to a boil. Lower the heat to simmer the soup for about 30 minutes. Cook a little longer if the beets are not tender. Replace liquid that evaporates during cooking with additional water or beef stock.

Remove from the heat. Add freshly ground pepper to taste and 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar. Salt to taste. (I added ½ teaspoon of salt and thought that was the perfect amount.)

When serving, you may add a teaspoon of sour cream to garnish. I tasted the soup with and without the sour cream. If there is no sour cream, another tablespoon of vinegar is needed. When I ate the soup with the sour cream, all the ingredients worked well together.

This is a delicious soup that I will make again.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Revised by Cunningham, Marion and Laber, Jeri. The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, Alfred A Knopf Inc., 1983.