Skip to main content

Classic Tomato Soup

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 out." What did I not have? Celery. So, off down to Stephen's (he wasn't there) for celery. Then I strayed further down the road to the better of the two local bakeries for bread and bagels. Home again, and it was lunchtime and no soup made. Not to worry. It was simple enough, even though it involved having to get the food processor out. It tastes better than I expected - quite rich. I think that's because I left the bay leaf in when I liquidised the soup (usually the recipes tell you to take it out).

P.S. I've just remembered that the mother of an old friend of mine used to make tomato soup cake. The secret ingredient? A well known brand of condensed tomato soup. I've just had quick look around on the internet and located several recipes for tomato soup cake, so someone somewhere has been making this cake and sharing the recipe.

Little Buzz

 Bees are thin on the ground, in the air and in my reading these days as autumn sneaks in. I could have dipped into my conveniently placed Collins Beekeeper's Bible, but decided to make a bit more effort. and look for bee references in a poetry book. The spouse has The Ring of Words - An Anthology of Poetry for Children (edited by Roger McGough). I flicked through the anthology and came across A Hot Day by A. S. J. Tessimond. It's a rather grey and overcast afternoon in Dublin but Tessimond's lines below evoke a hot summer's day:

Cotton-wool clouds loiter.
A lawn mower very far
Birrs. Then a bee comes
To a crimson rose and softly,
Deftly and fatly crams
A velvet body in.

In Michael Viney's Eye on Nature column in The Irish Times today there is a query about bees. Apart from that, I am bee-reft of suitable references. Groan.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
1 comment
Read more

Miso Soup with Tuna

Miso Soup with Tuna This weekend I made a soup from the soup and shellfish section of The Soup Book , mainly because I'm aware this is the section through which I have made least progress. Leafing through the fish soup recipes, miso soup with tuna was the first one I came across that I hadn't made (the last fish soup was the creamy scallop bisque in December 2012). I read through the ingredients listed by Carolyn Humphries : what is wakame ? where do I get it and dried shitake mushrooms and miso paste? Apart from those three items, it was easy enough to obtain a carrot, spring onions, ginger, fresh tuna and chives. The spouse made a detour from the usual shopping route to his f avourite fishmonger's shop  then went into town for dried wakame. So, at about 5.30pm yesterday evening, I set about making the soup. I made up chicken stock from a cube and left the shitake mushrooms and wakame soaking in cold water while I prepared the vegetables and diced the tuna. Next, I ...
1 comment
Read more

North Sea Fish Soup

Shaun Hill is the author of today's soup, North Sea fish soup, and he advises that as the seafood must be "just cooked", dense fish should be cut into small pieces or added earlier. It was a simple soup to make as there was no frying or whizzing. The only panicked moment or ten that I experienced was when I couldn't find the cod loins the spouse had bought. I am terrible when it comes to finding things and can usually rely on the spouse to find whatever it is I'm looking for. It's the main reason I married him. But even he was almost as useless as I was. I could remember riffing on the topic of cod loins earlier in the day. The older offspring had asked: "Why cod loins? Do cod have loins? Do they walk?" Fair point. I remembered asking was it a spelling mistake? Had the packager meant to write "cod lions", and so it continued.All very silly. North Sea fish soup: final addition of the tomato and parsley Ready to eat The ingredient...
Post a Comment
Read more