How to Make Palestine Soup — The Victorian Way

Season's greetings. You find me making Palestine soup, a popular dish at Christmas time and the perfect way to start a festive dinner. For this recipe you will need Jerusalem artichokes, onion, celery, ham, mace, sugar, a good meat stock, butter, flour and cream. Annie Chase has already peeled and started to chop the artichokes which she's put in water with plenty of lemon as they do brown easily. I'm going to finish chopping them by cutting them into equal pieces so they cook evenly. These are Jerusalem artichokes. They're not for everyone on account of them having an effect on your digestive system but I think they have a delicate flavour and when they're cooked in a soup like this the effect is a mild one. I think I've made this soup every Christmas dinner that I've cooked which is a lot. They're not from Jerusalem. I was once told that they come from North America and used to be called Canada potatoes. They have a lovely flower which follows the sun and in Italy they are called Gerasole which I suppose sounds a little bit like Jerusalem and apparently that's what they're named after. Now I'm going to put all of this in a pan with my other ingredients. The celery, onions, ham, a little bit of mace, teaspoon of sugar and finally my stock. We have different qualities of stock here in this kitchen. As this is for the family's Christmas day I've chosen the finest. It's a veal stock which is very flavoursome. There aren't many ingredients in this soup so it's important that they are the finest. Now we're going to bring this to the boil and then let it on a rolling boil for three quarters of an hour to an hour until the vegetables are soft. I'll get Mary-Anne to keep an eye on it so that it doesn't reduce too much. While my vegetables are boiling I'm going to mix some flour and butter together to thicken my soup. You can thicken soups in different ways and I like my girls to know about them all. You can add egg yolks which makes the soup velvety but it's very easy to make it curdle if you're inexperienced. You can use arrowroot which makes the soup look glossy but it's very easy to overcook it or the easiest is cornflour but then you need to make sure it's well cooked out. I think this method is my favourite. There, now this needs to be kept cool so I shall go and put it in the lava. Now that my artichokes are done I'm going to puree the soup by pushing it through this sieve here to make sure it's the right texture. That's going to take a long time but it's much easier when the vegetables and ham have been well cooked. One of the first things a scullery maid learns is how to pound meat and puree it to make forced meat through a sieve like this but more robust. It's difficult but it creates the stamina and strength for lots of the kitchen tasks. Now I'm going to add my flour and butter mix. I'll return this to a clean pan and the heat and keep stirring it so the butter will melt and the flour will thicken the soup nicely. Now the soup is done I'm just going to taste it. I think it could do with a pinch of salt, a little pepper, and some cayenne pepper for flavour. Some people add almonds and I'm going to serve it with these sippets. There we are, Palestine Soup.