No. 146 — Fresh Cucumber Purée Soup
Complete English translation of Molokhovets recipe No. 146 from the 1901 Russian cookbook, retaining original quantities, preparation and source.
Prepare a vegetable stock from a bunch of greens, celery, parsley and leek, and 1 Russian pound of potatoes. Add other pickling herbs to taste, such as tarragon, chervil, currant leaf, thyme or rosemary. Strain.
Peel 2 Russian pounds of pleasant-tasting cucumbers and wash their skins; the skins may be boiled in the vegetable-and-potato stock. Quarter the peeled cucumbers and remove their seeds. Put them into a saucepan with two onions and two or three cloves.
Add one spoonful of flour lightly fried with ½ spoonful of butter and previously boiled with a glass of strained stock. Cook, rub through a sieve and dilute with the remaining broth. Add pearl-barley purée No. 94, two egg yolks beaten with ½ glass of cream, another ½ spoonful of butter and salt. Heat, stirring from the bottom upward, until very hot.
Separately peel another Russian pound of cucumbers and scoop out the seed-bearing middles. Cut into slices, boil in salted water, drain and rinse with cold water. When dry, transfer them to the tureen. Serve chopped fresh dill and pepper separately.
To provide
A bunch of greens and 1 Russian pound of potatoes Other pickling herbs named above if desired 1 Russian pound of fresh cucumbers, as printed in the ingredient list 2 onions and 2–3 cloves | ½ spoonful of butter and 1 spoonful of flour ¼ glass of pearl barley 2 egg yolks and ½ glass of cream Another ½ spoonful of butter, dill and pepper |