White Vegetable Soup

Vegetable soups and clear bouillons make a regular appearance as the first course for dinner at Phryne's St Kilda mansion. 

The recipe for this "inexpensive and quickly-made white vegetable soup" is from Household Notes in the Sydney Morning Herald on 5 May 1928. I'm not sure about boiling the vegetables for 40 minutes and  thickening the finished product with flour though. Instead I've updated the cooking time to 20-30 minutes and enriched it with a little cream.

White Vegetable Soup

3 large potatoes

1 white turnip

1 parsnip

1 onion

1 small head celery

25g butter
4 cups water

1 small blade of mace

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon pepper

1 cup milk

50ml cream

Peel the vegetables and cut up in small pieces. Melt the butter in a saucepan; add vegetables, and cook, stirring, until all the butter is absorbed. Add salt, pepper, sugar, mace, and water; simmer till vegetables are soft enough to rub through a sieve (20-30 minutes cooking should be sufficient).  

Sieve (or puree) the soup; add milk and return to the saucepan. Add cream; let it come to the boil. Serve in a warmed tureen and bowls. Serves 6.

Episode 13 - Memses' Curse

The final episode of the series is not based on any Kerry Greenwood novel, but it will - presumably - complete the narrative arc of the introduced back-story of the abduction of Phryne's sister by the abominable Murdoch Foyle. 

The ABC-TV website gives this synopsis: "Murdoch Foyle is at large and has been connected with the mysterious death of Albert Monkton, antique dealer. In investigating the murder, Phryne discovers Murdoch Foyle’s involvement in a bizarre reincarnation cult, inspired by Ancient Egypt". 

Has Foyle mummified Phryne's missing sister? And does he plan to make a pair of matching female book-ends?

With no novel to provide menu ideas, tonight's dinner is white vegetable soup, tender young roast pork with sage and onion stuffing, apple sauce and gravy followed by a raspberry souffle. Apart from anything else, I want to use the leftover roast in a traditional Australian curried pork on Sunday night - complete with Keen's Curry Powder, apples and sultanas.

Episode 3 - The Green Mill Murder

I've lashed out and bought the novel this time, so with six days to research and plan the menu Friday's 1920s dinner should have a less tenuous connection to the action. There's a dancehall, and a death, so while it could be a late night supper it's really time Phryne had a proper meal. And in the novel, at least, she doesn't go hungry.

After an unpleasant encounter, Phryne treats herself to a "large and indigestible" luncheon of lobster at the Ritz, a restaurant or cafe that fortunately does not seem to have existed. A few pages on her cook, Mrs Butler, produces vegetable soup and breaded veal cutlets for dinner, followed by apple pie and cream.

But the meal that appeals most of all is a clear soup followed by Mrs Butler's "masterpiece", a steak and kidney pudding, made especially for Phryne's sidekicks, Bert and Cec, returned soldiers and red-raggers. Much as she disapproves of their politics, Mrs Butler is impressed by their requests for more: "One [helping] is politeness, two is hunger, but three is a true and cherished compliment".

Mrs Butler makes her steak and kidney in a large, light-filled kitchen with every modern appliance, but other cooks would have made do in flats with a tiny kitchenette and a Primus stove. If they could turn out a velvety stew perfectly encased in suet in those conditions, it can't be that hard.