Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Emmental and Beer Soup The weather has been really good for over a week - good for warmth seekers but not for soup-makers.  I was ready to make soup yesterday, it being Sunday and my habit being to make the soup at the weekends, but it was not to be. Too hot and I wasn't feeling up to the task. Not to worry - I made it this evening instead. Emmental and beer soup, a German-style cheese soup, calls for onions, garlic, chicken stock, German wheat beer (I substituted a Belgian beer), Emmental and Gruyere cheeses, and thyme (garnish). Obviously it's quite a rich soup. The thyme on top is the perfect tangy garnish, complementing the luscious cheese. The spouse and I enjoyed it, the younger offspring wasn't too keen and I've yet to hear the older offspring's verdict (yes, he's back). I would make this soup again when the weather is less hospitable and I look forward to trying out the other cheese soup recipes in The Soup Book : pear and stilton, cheddar and chive, an...

Hungarian Goulash Soup  On a lovely sunny day in June what else would you make but ... goulash soup! I was flicking through The Soup Book last Friday evening looking for my inspiration and the spouse plumped for goulash.  The recipe calls for a lot of onions thinly sliced, chuck (or rib) steak in pieces, paprika (2 tbs), caraway seeds, cayenne pepper, tomato puree, beef stock and sour cream.  The spouse set off yesterday morning to get the ingredients, checking with the butcher what chuck steak was. The butcher asked him what the steak was for, and approved the choice for the recipe! We don't come across it very often in these days of pre-packed meats and other items - the expertise of the butcher, the green grocer, the fish monger and individual acts of helpfulness and interest. Returning to the story, caraway seeds could not be obtained so we proceeded without them.  I sliced the onions thinly using our old mandolin, a wedding present all those years ago and sti...

Cream of Asparagus Soup The process of selecting the soup to be made at the weekend usually involves my making a unilateral decision on a Friday evening or a Saturday morning. On one occasion I decided on garlic broth because I had a lot of garlic in the fridge (see blog of 4th March) and last weekend I chose the chilled avocado and rocket soup because of the glorious weather. This week was unusual in that I let the spouse have the final say. I checked the inside cover of The Soup Book to see what vegetables are in season in June and asparagus caught my eye. I love asparagus, usually served with buttery Hollandaise sauce (the spouse's is pretty good). There are two recipes for asparagus soup in The Soup Book - cream of asparagus and asparagus and morel. The spouse said he lost interest at the mention of morels (did he think I was saying morals ?), so cream of asparagus it was for today. The other ingredients include milk, nutmeg, egg yolks and cream; chopped parsley is the garn...

Avocado and Rocket Soup  The introduction to this recipe on page 114 of The Soup Book states that "rich slightly nutty avocado works well with peppery wild rocket" and recommends the Hass variety.  I hadn't given much thought to the varieties before, but on reflection my earliest memories are of smooth green-skinned ones (possibly Fuerte or Gwen) rather than the rough-skinned purplish-black Hass. This avocado information comes courtesy of Wikipedia and the California Avocado Commission website, by the way.  I am not a fan of lettuce and was made to eat it as a child. As an adult I have to smother it in dressings in order to get it past my reluctant tongue.  In the last ten to twelve years I have found that restaurants in Dublin over-dress, over-decorate and over-garnish salads with lettuce - a cheap way of making a plate look full, I presume. Pleasant to look at but olfactorily repellent to the likes of me. So thank goodness for the arrival of rocket (Eruca sativ...