Recipe: Lettuce Soup (3) and Lettuce Bread - Some recipes for Barb in line with dear Cass's advice.

Chicken Velvet and Lettuce Soup

1 Chicken breast
1/2 cup Stock (see recipe)
1 Egg white
2 cup Lettuce
2 tbl Smoked ham
6 cup Stock
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Sugar

Skin and bone chicken breast; pound meat with mallet or side of cleaver, then mince fine, removing tendons. Blend in stock.

Beat egg white until fluffy but not stiff. Fold into chicken mixture.

Cut lettuce in strips. Mince ham.

Bring remaining stock to a boil. Add lettuce, salt and sugar. Bring to a boil again; remove at once from heat.

Stir in chicken mixture. Garnish with minced ham. Serve at once.

VARIATIONS:
For the chicken, substitute 1/4 pound pork or ham, 4 water chestnuts and 4 dried black mushrooms (soaked), all slivered. Combine with stock, but omit egg white in step 2. Add this mixture in step 3 before lettuce and seasonings. Simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Add lettuce and simmer, uncovered, 2 minutes more. Season with the salt, dash of pepper, and 1 teaspoon soy sauce, omitting the sugar.

For the lettuce, substitute 1/2 pound mustard cabbage, shredded. Then poach a Chinese salt egg and float on the soup as a garnish.
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Cream of Lettuce Soup

1/4 cup Butter
1/4 cup Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1 qt Milk
2 Bouillon cubes or 2 teaspoons meat extract paste
1/4 tsp Fresh onion juice
1 qt Finely shredded lettuce, (be sure to cut in chunks and not slices)
1/4 cup Finely diced radishes

In top of a double boiler, make a white sauce from the first four ingredients. Cook until thickened, stirring occasionally to keep smooth.

Add the bouillon cubes and onion juice and stir well. Add the lettuce and let cook over boiling water for 10 minutes. Just before serving, sprinkle the radishes over each bowlful. Serve promptly.

Serves 4.
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Lettuce and Courgette Soup

2 tsp Vegetable oil
1 To 2 garlic cloves crushed.
1 med Onion chopped.
1 lb 480 g courgettes trimmed and Sliced
1 pt 600 ml vegetable stock.
1 lettuce washed and Shredded
Few sprigs of parsley.
Half pt 300 ml skimmed milk
1 tbl Cornflour blended with a
Little water.
pn Nutmeg.
Salt and pepper.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan and saute the garlic and onion together for 3 to 4 minutes until softened. Add the courgettes and cook stirring for 2 more minutes.

Add the stock to the saucepan and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and add the lettuce and parsley. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Blend the soup in a liquidiser or food processor until smooth. Return to the saucepan and add the milk and blended cornflour, then heat gently until thickened slightly. Season with the nutmeg salt and pepper according to taste.

Serve one portion piping hot in a warmed soup bowl. Alternatively the soup may be cooled and served chilled.

To freeze the remaining soup cool quickly and divide between three rigid containers. Seal label and freeze for up to three months. Defrost and re-heat gently to serve.
Preparation 10 minutes. Cooking 30 minutes.
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Lettuce Bread

1 1/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Corn oil
2 Eggs
2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/8 tsp Mace
1/8 tsp Ginger
1 1/2 cup All-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 tsp Grated lemon rind
1 tsp Lemon juice
1 1/2 cup Finely chopped romaine or any dark green lettuce leaves
1/2 cup Chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine sugar, oil, and eggs, beating well.

Add dry ingredients, lemon rind, and lemon juice, mixing well. Remove spine from lettuce. Finely chop remaining green leafy part, and add it and pecans to mixture. Pour batter into a greased, floured nine by five inch loaf pan or into two to three smaller loaf pans.

Bake for one hour. If small pans are used, insert a tester in to the center of the bread after 30 minutes.

When tester is clean, the bread is baked. Cool ten minutes; remove from pan and cool until firm.

Yield: 1 large or 2 to 3 small loaves.

Planning: Must prepare ahead. Prep.
Time: 30 minutes
Baking Time: 1 hour.