Fennel Soup with Beans, Thyme and Chorizo

Fennel Soup with Beans, Thyme and Chorizo

It's been all go in Minnie's kitchen in the last hour. The plan was: go to shop for ingredients, make soup, wait for younger offspring to come home from after-school activities, bring him to a training session, come home later, warm up soup, have dinner and prepare for going away for the weekend. I went to the shops, arrived home, started chopping the vegetables for the soup and then the phone rang. I asked the older offspring to answer it and to tell anyone who was looking for me that I'd ring them back. It was the spouse ringing to let me know the younger offspring was at a friend's house and had hurt himself. By this time I was starting to cook the onion and fennel. I set the older offspring to stirring while I tried to phone the mother of the younger offspring's friend. It took three calls to establish that my child was not seriously injured and the older offspring was dispatched to bring him home (the spouse is away).

Crisis under control, let's return to The Soup Book. The recipe is by Marie-Pierre Moine and calls for dried haricot beans (I've substituted canned beans), onion, fennel, fennel seeds, parsley, thyme and chorizo. I was able to find quite a large fennel and the smell as I chopped it was quite pungent but not unpleasant - a mix of aniseed and onion. The vegetables and herbs are cooked together, then lightly whizzed in a food processor. Meanwhile you chop up the chorizo and fry it separately, to be scattered on top of the soup when you're just about to serve it up. As the soup was simmering away I peeped into the pan a couple of times and wasn't impressed by what I saw. I groaned as I lifted and poured the mixture into the food processor and I sighed as some of the mixture leaked out during the whizzing process. Then I reheated it, ladled it into the warmed soup bowls, dotted it with the chorizo and let my boys eat. It was much better than I expected. "Very nice," said the younger offspring. That's good enough for me.

Busy Bees

Last night I was watching some of the coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show and there was plenty of news for bee enthusiasts.The Royal Horticultural Society was promoting its Get Your Garden Buzzing campaign and Sarah Raven was advising on the types of plants that attract bees for the Perfect Pollinators project. Apparently bees are attracted to blue flowers. When I was out shopping for fennel, "Young Stephen" and I got chatting about the Chelsea Flower Show. He didn't see the programme, but he told me that several customers referred to it, one even going so far as to leave behind some plants because they had had double flowers (bees and other insects can't gain access to the pollen). I was pleased that Stephen remembered my quest for chervil. Neither of us have found any chervil plants. He has offered to get me a packet of this elusive herb if I need some. How kind. I'll update you on the Great Chervil Chase.

Tuscan Bean Soup

Tuscan Bean Soup This recipe calls for canned beans (borlotti, flageolet or cannellini) and as I have been tidying and cleaning out our cupboards I've used cannellini beans. I have to mention that the younger offspring has done an impressive job on the cupboards. That's enough about him. Back to me and my soup! Other ingredients include onion, carrots, leek, garlic, tomatoes, tomato puree (I substituted sun-dried tomato paste as there was an open jar of it in the fridge), chicken stock (I had to use a cube as my home-made reserves have been used up) and spinach.When ready it's served with ciabatta bread, grated Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. So it's quite a rich soup. We've just had the Tuscan bean soup for lunch. All enjoyed it. The adult males were particularly forthcoming in their praise. The spouse liked the "tomato-ey sharpness" and mused that ham stock should be considered as an alternative to chicken stock. Bees' Cheese and other recipes H

Lovage Soup

Lovage Soup Today I made lovage soup, the second recipe by Sophie Grigson in The Soup Book that I have used in the last four days. She introduces the recipe with these remarks: "If you don't grow this old-fashioned herb yourself, ask around among your gardening friends or head down to the nearest garden centre to see if they sell it. " As I mentioned in my last blog entry (18th May), lovage now features among the herbs in my front garden. As the spouse left the camera at home, I took some photographs. Parsley, sorrel and lovage in Minnie's garden. Rosemary, parsley and lovage in Minnie's garden. I had hoped to add chervil to my collection of herbs - there's a recipe for vegetable and chervil soup in The Soup Book - but "Young Stephen" wasn't able to source any for me. At least he tried. Just while I'm mentioning Stephen, I have to reveal that the spouse and the older offspring claim that he has been mention

Mulligatawny Manoeuvres

Mulligatawny I see it's only been six months since I last made mulligatawny. The first time was back in May 2011 when I followed Roopa Gulati's recipe in The Soup Book ; last September I used The Essential Asian Cookbook . Today I used Rick Stein's India , a Christmas present from the spouse. It's one of those luxurious recipe books with thick paper and beautiful, vibrantly colourful photos. We had all been impressed by Roopa's recipe, less so by the second book, so how would we fare today? Well, those two recipes both involved apple. Rick's did not, so I felt that this must be a more authentic recipe. If Anglo-Indian cooking has any authenticity these days. Still, Rick states that his recipe is on the menu at the Madras Club in Chennai. It involves making a spice paste first and then the soup. Ingredients: The paste called for coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns, curry powder, turmeric, garlic, ginger, and fresh coriander, curry and mint leave

Minnie's Soup Kitchen

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