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Bohemian Barley Soup
1/4 cup rice or barley 1 diced carrot 1 diced potato 4 dried mushrooms 1 qt. water 1/2 sliced onion parsley 1 minced clove garlic 1 1/2 tablespoons butter or margarine 1 tablespoon flour salt and pepper Cook rice or barley in boiling salted water. Cut up the carrot, potatoes and mushrooms and boil in the part of water. When almost finished, add the sliced onion, parsley and garlic, which has been cut exceedingly fine. Add the barley or rice. Melt the shortening and brown the flour in it, then add it slowly to the soup. Serves 6.
A thin, thrifty vegetable soup thickened at the end with a browned-flour roux. The whole thing hinges on that roux and on the dried mushrooms, which supply nearly all the depth of flavour.
- The roux is the dishMelt the butter, stir in the flour and cook it over moderate heat until it smells nutty and turns the colour of light caramel — three to five minutes. Whisk a ladle of hot soup into it before returning the mixture to the pot, or you will get lumps.
- Dried mushroomsThe recipe names no variety; in Central European cooking dried boletus (porcini) would be the usual choice. Soak them in warm water for 20-30 minutes, slice, and add the strained soaking liquid to the pot as part of the quart of water; that liquid carries much of the flavour.
- "Boil in the part of water"The original divides the quart of water between the grain and the vegetables without saying how. Simplest approach: cook the barley or rice separately in salted water, and simmer the vegetables and mushrooms in the full quart, adding the drained grain at the end.
- Barley timingPearl barley needs 35-45 minutes at a simmer; rice needs 15-20. Neither is interchangeable in time, only in role, so start the barley well before the vegetables if you want them all ready together.
- Garlic and parsley go in lateBoth are added near the end deliberately. Long boiling flattens garlic and turns parsley grey; five minutes in the pot is enough.
- YieldA quart of liquid for six is a small first-course serving of about 5 oz each. For a main course, double everything or serve with bread.
- SeasoningWith no stock, salt does the work. Season the cooking water, then taste again after the roux goes in.
Barley soup with dried forest mushrooms, garlic and a browned-flour thickening is a staple of Czech and Central European home cooking; the browned roux is the jíška, the standard thickener of that kitchen. Dried boletus were the pantry ingredient that let a household put mushroom flavour into winter soups, and the recipe calls for only four of them. The offer of butter or margarine without comment suits an era of American menu-planning books built around cheap, filling, meatless dishes drawn from immigrant home cooking.