Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Pea and Sausage Soup  Yesterday (Saturday 27th November) I made pea and sausage soup for our dinner. The spouse was in a hurry to get out early to do the shopping because we needed to be in Dublin city centre on time for the protest march against the forthcoming austerity measures (figures for the numbers attending vary from 50,000 to 100,000 ). I had to think quickly: we would want something substantial and warming. One of the handy features of The Soup Book is the recipe chooser section which lists the recipes under these headings: Vegetarian , Chilled , Hearty , Healthy , Spicy , Main Meals , and Quick . Pea and sausage soup is listed under Hearty , Main Meals and Quick , so it seemed like an apt choice for three people who would return home cold (and one of whom would be cooking) and for a fourth who would be returning from a rugby match. The ingredients for pea and sausage soup include carrot, leek, celery, potato, parsley, dry white wine, chicken stock, Toulouse sausage...

Onion and Almond Soup This weekend I made my thirty-fifth soup from The Soup Book - onion and almond.  It caught my eye several months ago, but I was put off by one of the listed ingredients, namely nigella seeds (Nigella sativa).  I didn't know what they were and I hadn't seen them any where in the course of my shopping, but eventually I looked them up. They are also known as black cumin, onion seed or nigella and are used in curries.  A suggested substitute is mustard seeds and that's what I used.  The recipe is by Roopa Gulati and listed among its ingredients are onions, almonds, chicken stock, red chilli, muscovado sugar, balsamic vinegar and cream. The preparation takes a little time and that's just the garnish. Preparation consists of finely slicing an onion, sprinkling it with sea salt and setting it aside for at least two hours before deep-frying it. We don't possess a deep fat fryer, so I had to use a small frying pan with about half an inch of oil. Late...

Oxtail Soup  At long last I have made the oxtail soup I pledged to make last month! The ingredients are relatively straight forward - oxtail (obviously), onion, carrots, celery, tomatoes (out of a can), parsley, a bay leaf, fresh thyme, flour, butter and dry sherry - but it required some effort to track down oxtails and the soup takes a long time to prepare. You need  to simmer the tails and onion for four hours, then add the other vegetables and herbs before simmering for a further thirty minutes. Eventually the stock is strained and chilled for at least an hour before finishing. Just as well I started cooking before midday in time to have it ready for the evening meal.  After four hours of simmering (during which time I prepared apple dumplings), I removed the herbs and meat. The meat is taken off the bones and then blended with the vegetables. I used the liquidiser part of my food processor and by the time I'd finished, smoke was rising from that hard-working machine...