Quick Home-made broth from the French Frog’s Kitchen

ASPARAGUS BROTH

When I buy asparagus, I always break them in two naturally to remove the hard part. I keep those, wash them and cut off the usually dirty tip, then slice the lengths in 2 or 4 to get more flavour out, and put them to boil in about 1/2l of water for at least ten mns, until I’ve got all the juice out of them1. I then strain the juice through a sieve (I squash the bits in the sieve with a spoon to get as much juice as possible out).. I add to that the water I have cooked the asparagus in (I cook them in the microwave with very little water and a bit of salt).

I add more water to the broth if I don’t have enough (I tend to put little water to start with so I can easily freeze the concentrated juice if I want to instead of using it immediately), I bring it to the boil and add vermicelli. When the vermicelli is cooked and I am ready to serve the broth, I get one egg, break it in a small dish and beat it up slightly to break the yolk up, and add that to the broth.
I stir quickly to make the egg mixture spread through the broth. Season to taste.

If you’re having guests, you can add a few cut up bits of thin asparagus.
You can make this broth with the water from cooking green beans, too.

RADISH LEAVES BROTH

You need very fresh radish leaves for this, not tired ones.

When you prepare your radishes for eating, keep the leaves and wash them carefully, taking out the very wilted and damaged ones. Take off the stems if they are tough if you wish (I do), like you do with spinach, and drain.

Prepare a saucepan (big enough to make your broth up to the end, depending again on quantity of leaves and number of people you are cooking for) and put a big knob of butter or margarine at the bottom to melt. Don’t burn!

When the butter sizzles, add your radish leaves and keep stirring with a wooden spoon until the leaves are wilted and nicely dark green. Add about 1/2l water and leave to simmer for about 20-30mns without drying out. Put through the blender until you get a nice green paste (not too much water is a help).

You can now put the paste in the freezer for later, or put it back in the saucepan and add water to the quantity you need for your broth. Bring to the boil, add vermicelli until it’s cooked, then add an egg as in the asparagus recipe. Season to taste.

You can make this with the outside lettuce leaves as well, or sorrel leaves (just put a tiny bit of sugar to counteract the bitterness)

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From Helene