Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Potato Soup with Broccoli, Shallot and Mascarpone I think this is my one hundredth blog entry. Looking back over the soups I've made from the different sections of The Soup Book I realised I was falling behind in the Winter Vegetables section. A mere 31% of the forty-five recipes. I'd better get on with it and catch up. Hence last weekend's and this weekend's choices. Yesterday I made the potato soup with broccoli, shallot and mascarpone from Marie-Pierre Moine 's recipe. The ingredients include shallots, floury potatoes (I used Roosters), broccoli and mascarpone (Moine suggests Caerphilly or Wensleydale as substitutes). I got out the spouse's new saute pan and set about my task. I cooked the shallots and potatoes in butter and oil, then added boiling water and cooked for a further ten minutes. Next in were the broccoli florets. It took a further twenty-five minutes for these and the potato pieces to become tender (smaller potato chunks next time). Then ...

Wild Salmon Chowder Chowder is one of my favourite things to eat. Whenever I see chowder on a menu I choose it. In anticipation of its arrival at my table, I wonder what will be swimming about in the bowl: will there be a variety of fish?, will there be mussels?, will the stock be thick or thin? To eat chowder in different places is to take part in a big adventure. So, it was with some trepidation that I undertook Angela Nilsen 's recipe in The Soup Book . Wild salmon chowder: starring the spouse's new saute pan. The finished chowder absorbs the flavours of the dill and grated lemon zest. Among the ingredients are streaky bacon, spring onions, thyme, bay leaves, small waxy potatoes, fish or chicken stock, salmon fillets, cream, dill and lemon zest. You need a wide, deep saute pan (I wish I could insert diacritics!), and serendipitously the spouse had bought one during the week - a big beast of a pan! I started by crisping up the chopped bacon, then removed it and...

Spinach and Parmesan Soup with Creme Fraiche As I may have mentioned before, this September is a very busy month for me. Since coming home from my holiday last month, I have changed jobs more suddenly and with a greater degree of finality than I would have anticipated. The older offspring will be leaving home in a matter of days and I don't know whether to be upset at his departure or to relish the opportunity to tidy out his bedroom. The younger offspring is having extended birthday celebrations this weekend. I am finishing off one project before commencing a new course of study. The spouse and the younger offspring will be going to an international sporting event later this month, after which those of us still living in this house in Dublin will be hosting visitors from the far east. Roll on October, I say. I digress. Back to the soup. This weekend I chose spinach and Parmesan soup on the basis that it's supposed to be quick to make. Skye Gyngell's recipe gives the...

Classic Tomato Soup  September is turning out to be hectic month for all of us here in Minnieland so I was tempted not to make any soup today. Then I remembered it would take me years to get through The Soup Book if I didn't persevere. I thought about making a courgette soup, but having experienced a surfeit of courgettes while in Devon last month, I put the thought down and backed away. Well, I did check what courgette soup recipes were on offer (two, actually: whipped yogurt soup with sauteed courgette and courgette and potato soup), but moved on. Doorway to the courgette surfeit in Devon! Back to Soup No. 83. The introduction to the classic tomato soup recipe states that it's "easy to make from kitchen cupboard ingredients." I thought, "Great!" I read the ingredients list: olive oil, onion, garlic, celery, carrot, potato, canned tomatoes, stock, a bay leaf, sugar and seasoning. "Great!" I thought again, "I won't have to go ou...