Feasting on Romantic Comedy – Aunt Fanny’s Special Tomato Soup from Five Have Plenty of Fun by Enid Blyton

This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.

Aunt Fanny is a real brick. Seriously. She is amazing. She puts up with a difficult and short-tempered husband, a scientist called Quentin, who is inclined to forget meal times. At the meals he does manage to turn up for, he ends up doing something daft, like putting mustard on his toast instead of marmalade. She also has a daughter who is just as short-tempered as her father and refers to herself as a boy instead of a girl – then insists her dog sleeps on her bed every night.

As well as this, Aunt Fanny invites her niece and nephews to come and stay almost every holiday they are back from boarding school. Having four children instead of one increases the workload, despite having help from Joanna the cook, and the five also have a tendency to get involved in worrying adventures. 

One such worrying adventure involves her husband. He is working on a top secret project with an American scientist. This man, Elbur, has heard about a plot to kidnap his daughter in order to obtain the secrets of his experiments. He insists, much to Uncle Quentin's disgust, that he will tell all to get his daughter back. So it is decided that Berta, for the sake of her safety and the top secret scientific research, will come and stay with the Famous Five to hide away from potential threats. She will have her hair cut short and dress like a boy. It is a foolproof plan. Or is it?

Berta arrives by boat, in the dead of night. Profoundly seasick, Aunt Fanny removes the bundles of clothes she has on, gets her ready for bed, and heats up some homemade tomato soup. Soup which Dick had declared earlier in the day to be Aunt Fanny's special tomato soup, with real tomatoes. Berta feels better immediately and sleeps well.

Tomatoes are everywhere at the moment. And with the late summer days starting and ending with a little chill, a hint of the autumn to come, this is the perfect recipe, whether you have seasickness or not.

Equipment

One large pan.

Ingredients

• 1kg ripe tomatoes
• 2 onion
• 2 carrot, peeled
• 1 stick celery
• 4 rashers bacon (omit if vegetarian, obviously)
• 25g butter
• 2 pints chicken/vegetable stock
• 1 bouquet garni
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. First you need to skin your tomatoes. You can find a foolproof way of doing this here. 
2. Chop the tomatoes, onion, carrot, celery and bacon.
3. Heat the pan, add the butter and cook the bacon gently. Do not allow to brown.
4. Add the vegetables. Again, do not allow to brown.
5. Add the stock, bouquet garni and season.
6. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
7. Taste for seasoning.
8. Sieve then re-heat.
9. Serve.