Minnie's Soup Kitchen

  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...

Double Delight This weekend Minnie's kitchen has been a hive of activity. I've made two soups: cotriade (a Breton fish soup) and French onion soup. The recipe for the cotriade is by Marie-Pierre Moine and I made it for the family dinner yesterday. It contains potatoes, onions, light fish stock, thyme, parsley, bay leaves, and mixed fish (the spouse bought a mixture of salmon, haddock, smoked haddock and cod). It was quite simple to make but, as usual, took longer than stated in The Soup Book . The onions are softened, then the stock, potatoes and herbs are added. The fish is put in later when the potatoes are almost cooked. While the fish is cooking, you prepare a dressing to spread on thick slices of country bread. The dressing (oil, Dijon mustard, seasoning, vinegar and parsley) is spread on the the bread and placed in the soupbowls. The soup is then ladled on to the bread. The three older members of the family really enjoyed it, with the bigger offspring saying he'd ...

Emmental and Beer Soup The weather has been really good for over a week - good for warmth seekers but not for soup-makers.  I was ready to make soup yesterday, it being Sunday and my habit being to make the soup at the weekends, but it was not to be. Too hot and I wasn't feeling up to the task. Not to worry - I made it this evening instead. Emmental and beer soup, a German-style cheese soup, calls for onions, garlic, chicken stock, German wheat beer (I substituted a Belgian beer), Emmental and Gruyere cheeses, and thyme (garnish). Obviously it's quite a rich soup. The thyme on top is the perfect tangy garnish, complementing the luscious cheese. The spouse and I enjoyed it, the younger offspring wasn't too keen and I've yet to hear the older offspring's verdict (yes, he's back). I would make this soup again when the weather is less hospitable and I look forward to trying out the other cheese soup recipes in The Soup Book : pear and stilton, cheddar and chive, an...