The starter dish is always soup. Good
soup. Instead of bowls, Hungarian soup is served in “soup plates” that look
like large pasta bowls. There are various types of soups, loaded with robust flavour
or creamy or delicate featuring a single vegetable. Such as this one.
Use good
quality, homemade meat stock. Not replaceable with vegetable stock. If you clean your freezer or fridge don’t make stock from old meat scraps or wilting vegetables. The bouillon cube or flavour packet is not your friend either. If you have no stock, use water
instead. But be sure to reduce the water to four cups or increase the asparagus. Too
much water makes for lame soup. Always simmer slowly, never boil soup.
CLEAR BROTH ASPARAGUS SOUP
6 cups chicken broth1 pkg. fresh asparagus
Salt and ground pepper
• Wash the asparagus.
• Snip off the woody ends.
• Set aside the tender asparagus tips for use later.
• Place the woody ends and the chicken broth in a pressure cooker.*
• Pressure cook for 20 minutes.
• Remove pressure cooker to the sink.
• Open only when pressure gauge is deflated.
• Pour most of the stock through a sieve into a clean soup pot.
• Puree the remainder in a blender and pass it through a sieve squeezing out all the juices.
• Discard the stringy parts.
• Cut the reserved asparagus stalks into 1 inch pieces.
• Add to the pot.
• Bring to simmer and slowly simmer until asparagus is tender.
• Make soup dumplings from one lightly beaten egg, flour, salt and water.
• Spoon the dumpling batter into the simmering soup.
• Slowly cook until dumplings have floated to the surface.
• Cover the pot and remove from heat to steep for 10 minutes before serving.
* Without pressure cooker the woody ends should be slowly simmered in 3 cups of water for a couple of hours. Puree and put it through a sieve before adding it to the chicken stock.
