Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Piedmont Chestnut Soup The Christmas Song starts with the lyric "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire."  The first time I ever heard that song was at a studio recording of The Mike Yarwood Christmas Show in London many years ago (Mike Yarwood - where is he now?). When planning the Christmas menus with the spouse, I thought, "Mmmm, chestnuts." There are two recipes for chestnut soup in the  The Soup Book , the first of which was my choice for Christmas day. I started preparing it on Christmas eve, the spouse having had to go out to get another bag of chestnuts. The recipe for Piedmont chestnut soup is by Sophie Grigson, who warns that you need to allow time for peeling. I'd like to follow that up with a nail health warning: the nailbeds of my thumbs are very sore from peeling the chestnuts! I even put nail varnish on to hide the tear marks. Enough moaning - it's Christmas. The ingredients for the soup include chicken stock (home-made), thyme, bay leave...

Porcini Mushroom Soup I think it's been a while since I made a tomato-based soup from The Soup Book . This weekend's effort is porcini mushroom soup, described as a "hearty Italian country soup [with] deep, earthy flavours." The ingredients are dried porcini, olive oil, rosemary, thyme, garlic, chestnut mushrooms, celery, chopped tomatoes, vegetable stock, seasoning and ciabatta. Once I had the ingredients out on the worktop, I left the porcini soaking while I chopped the herbs and other vegetables. Then I started to cook the onions in the olive oil, but became sidetracked by another activity and the spouse had to rescue the onions. My hero! The next ingredients into the pot were the herbs, garlic, chestnut mushrooms and celery. The smell of the herbs was intense. The celery having softened, I put in the tomatoes, porcini, stock and the soaking liquor from the porcini (it's suggested that you strain this through a fine sieve as there may be bits of straw or dir...

Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Saffron and Thyme Our plan this weekend was to go to the Dublin Food Co-op for something to eat before heading to the market in the crypt of Christ Church Cathedral . As I wasn't sure which soup to make, I decided to bring my copy of The Soup Book with me and to make my choice based on the available vegetables. First, though, the spouse, younger offspring and I made different choices for our lunch - falafel wrap (the spouse), vegetable curry (the offspring) and lentil soup (me). Then I inspected the vegetables. I haven't cooked with Jerusalem artichokes in years and the ones on display looked clean and fresh, so that was my vegetable choice made. There are two Jerusalem artichoke recipes in The Soup Book : one involving scallops by Shaun Hill , the other by Celia Brooks Brown . I had no intention of buying scallops, so Celia's recipe it was. The ingredients include onions, garlic, artichokes, carrots, vegetable stock, thyme, saffron and...

  Onion and Garlic Soup  Regular readers will spot immediately that the spouse has done what he's good at and found the camera connector that I misplaced. Below is his photograph of yesterday's soup from the The Soup Book .  It was onion and garlic soup by Marie-Pierre Moine . The ingredients include a Spanish onion, a banana shallot, a small head of garlic, dry white wine, vegetable stock, milk, egg yolks, double cream and Dijon mustard.  Trying to avoid the onion fumes, I used a handheld blender to chop the onion and shallot together. These were then cooked until the water had evaporated. Onion and garlic soup with croute Meanwhile, I boiled the unpeeled garlic cloves until they were soft enough to squeeze the flesh from the skin. I added the wine, stock and milk to the onion mix before dealing with the garlic flesh. To this I added the egg yolks, mashed them together then spooned in the cream. This mixture was stirred into the onion mix, and finally...

Kichidi It's been over three months since I last made a soup from the pulses and vegetables section of The Soup Book , and I still have more than half of the recipes to go, hence my choice this weekend. Also, we were having friends over and making an Indian meal, so kichidi was an appropriate choice.  The recipe is by Roopa Gulati , of course. Despite my Anglo-Indian culinary experience and heritage, I had never heard of kichidi before and a quick search on the Internet revealed a large variety of recipes. Roopa's recipe calls for a butternut squash, garam masala, basmati rice, pink or red lentils, root ginger, ghee or clarified butter, cumin seeds, chilli flakes, lime juice and chopped coriander. There are three main stages to making this soup. The first involves baking the butternut squash, having first sprinkled the two halves with garam masala. The suggestive-looking beast that I was using was much bigger than required so took longer to reach the "meltingly tend...

Fish Soup with Fennel  Let me begin by saying this soup was gloriously successful! No false modesty here, and I have MH (the only liberal in the French village where she spends some of her time) to back up my claims. Described in The Soup Book as "rustic", "Mediterranean-style", "robustly flavoured" and "sure to please", the verdict in this house was that it was a great soup. The ingredients include fennel, garlic, leek, plum tomatoes, brandy, saffron, orange zest, bay leaf, fish stock, potatoes, white wine, mussels, monkfish (you can substitute another firm white fish) and tiger prawns, so it's something of a luxury and you should share it with friends. As usual, the spouse trotted off last Saturday morning to do the shopping and obligingly went to his favourite fishmonger for the fish.  Then he walked down to Young Stephen's for the fennel - there's surely a tonguetwister there: Favourite Fishmonger is Fine for Fish but Fai...

Celeriac and Hazelnut Soup   My first choice of soup yesterday was actually German potato soup and I would have made it if Young Stephen had had chanterelles in stock. The first time I ever saw these mushrooms was when I was a teenager on holiday in Normandy. The family I was staying with brought me out to pick mushrooms and I was astonished to discover that this bright yellow fungus was edible. As far as I can remember, the chanterelles were cooked in an omelette. Anyway, I brought my copy of The Soup Book with me to Stephen's. His assistant "Marek" apologised for not having any chanterelles (I think they had dried ones), so I whipped out the book to find a different recipe. Don't ask me why I thought of celeriac. I reminded Marek about when I talked to him about tomato borscht (see my blog of 2nd July 2011) and showed him the recipe. (I wonder how many other customers show him their recipe books.) By this time Stephen had appeared and told me that when all t...

Saffron Soup  This week's recipe from The Soup Book is by Shaun Hill . According to the introduction, it's a variation on leek and potato soup and was a regular item on the menu at Robert Carrier 's restaurant in London where Hill worked in the 1970s. The ingredients include onion, leeks, potato, saffron, cumin, chicken stock, dry white wine, cream and lemon juice. I fried the onion before adding the other vegetables, the spices (is saffron a spice?) and the stock. The next step was to transfer the mix into the blender, after which I poured in a splash of the wine. Finally I stirred in the cream and lemon juice. Only the younger offspring and I were at home: the spouse is away and the older offspring is nominally at home in Dublin for a long weekend. Anyway, the two of us ate our soup for lunch today and it was really quite tasty. The tang of the lemon juice and cumin worked really well. Honey Show Honey show at Christ Church, Rathgar, Dublin At last I have ...

Pumpkin Soup Hallowe'en was upon us last weekend, so the obvious choice for a soup was pumpkin. Last year I made Jeanette Orrey 's pumpkin and apple soup (see my blog of 30th October 2010 ), leaving only Monty Don 's recipe to make this year. (By the way, did you see his series Italian Gardens ? Great stuff!) The spouse bought the pumpkin so that the younger offspring could have a Jack o' lantern. I picked out two designs (one cheery, the other spooky), drew them on opposite sides of the pumpkin, and let the child cut out the shapes. Then I had to scoop out the flesh for the soup and for a cake recipe . The other ingredients were potatoes, vegetable stock, tomatoes, fresh sage leaves and seasoning. I have tried various pumpkin soup recipes over the years and have usually been disappointed by how bland they were. The spouse suggested that I use a chilli from one of his plants that are growing on our kitching window sill. I thought, "Why not?" Good decisio...

French Country Soup Today's soup was French country soup from a recipe by Marie-Pierre Moine . I made it yesterday, having chosen the recipe on the basis that I need to make more progress through the winter vegetables section of T he Soup Book . Also, the ingredients were simple (leeks, potato, carrots and stock) and wouldn't take too long to prepare. I was having a busy weekend and was trying to use my time well. Leeks, potatoes and carrots According to the introduction, this mixed vegetable potage is "traditional family fare [and] is ladled out of a tureen into wide shallow bowls as a starter all over [France]." The spouse, younger offspring and I ate our soup this evening and while they liked it, I was not overly impressed. I think I like richer, more flavoursome soups. I didn't use a tureen, but I don't think it would have made any difference to the taste. Having checked on line, I find that other recipes include meat: chicken, beef shanks, etc....

Pot au Feu I followed Marie-Pierre Moine 's recipe for pot au feu yesterday and the spouse, younger offspring and I had the resulting soup for our dinner this evening. The introduction says: "This classic French soup takes time to make, but is well worth waiting for." The listed ingredients include braising steak, a carrot, turnips, a waxy potato, a Spanish onion, garlic, cloves, a leek, celery, bay leaves, thyme and parsley. It is also suggested that you use beef bones, "if possible." The spouse asked for some at his usual butcher's and was given a solitary piece. I went out looking for more at a shop closer to home and the butcher kindly gave me a small selection. I continued along the road, this time in search of white turnips (we had only swede turnips) at young Stephen's. He didn't have any. Never mind. I engaged in a conversation about borscht with Stephen's assistant, and told him about the tomato borscht  I made a few months ago (se...

Mussels in a Ginger and Chilli Broth October was the eighth month of the year until it was shifted back by July and August (I blame the Roman Empire). On the eighth day of what was formerly the eighth month of the year I made my eighty-eighth soup from The Soup Book . Another recipe by Roopa Gulati (the eighth time I've mentioned her), and it was another culinary and olfactory triumph! The main ingredients are mussels, butter, onions, bird eye red chillies, root ginger, garlic, lemongrass, ginger wine, fish stock, coconut milk, coconut cream and coriander leaves.You heat the butter and throw in the onions, chillies, ginger, garlic and lemongrass. I forgot the ginger, so had to fry it separately then added it to the broth when I added the mussels at a later stage. Dishing up the broth I wasn't sure where I'd get mussels. The spouse said he'd try his favourite fishmonger . It's been a several months since his last visit, but the fishmonger remembered him ...