Spicy Tomato Soup - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 ounce butter
1 medium onion
1 carrot
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 lb ripe tomatoes
1 pint water or 1 pint vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons sugar
1 pinch ground mace or 1 pinch nutmeg
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon arrowroot (optional)
3 -4 tablespoons cream (optional)

Preparation

Slice tomatoes, onion and carrot.
Melt butter in a medium size saucepan.
Add the onion and carrot, cover, and allow to soften for 5-6 minutes.
Remove from the heat, stir in the plain flour, add tomatoes, stock or water, bay leaf, sugar, mace or nutmeg and seasoning.
Stir until boiling, simmer for 20-30 minutes.
Rub soup through sieve, pour back into rinsed saucepan, and reheat.
Adjust seasoning, and thicken slightly if necessary with a teaspoon or more of arrowroot blended with a tablespoon of cold water.
Reboil to cook the arrowroot if used to thicken the soup.
Add cream if used.
If cream is added do not boil the soup.
If required, a teaspoon of tomato paste may be added to the tomato soup for extra colour and flavour.
Serve with crusty bread, the kind that you have to break apart with your hands.
Feel free to dip your chunks of bread into the soup.