Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Lobster Bisque If you've read my previous blog entry, when you see the words "lobster", "brandy", "white wine" and "cream" you may immediately think "fire" and "burnt hair". Surely I can't have made another lobster soup so soon? Well, I have. Don't forget that I mentioned having bought two lobsters from the nearby German discount store. (By the way, the spouse and I have called in a couple of times and managed not to be tempted by telescopes and tambourines.) My one hundred and sixty-eighth soup from The Soup Book was lobster bisque and the listed ingredients include lobster, onion, carrot, celery, leek, fennel, bay leaf, tarragon, garlic, tomato puree, tomatoes, brandy, dry white wine, and cream. What's not to like? I had to make a couple of substitutions: fennel seeds for fennel bulb, dried tarragon for fresh, a mix of tomato puree and sundried tomato paste, and a mix of cream and creme fraiche. The b...

Crab Gazpacho I'm trying to catch up in the fish and shellfish section of The Soup Book. I've made less than 60% of the fish soups so far (the same goes for the meat soups) so I chose crab gazpacho for this weekend's effort. The spouse had brought home some cheap pre-packed crab during the week and I thought I'd use it up. The recipe is by Marie-Pierre Moine and a little on the fiddly side. The ingredients include clams or mussels (I chose the latter), shallot, spring onions, garlic, dry sherry, parsley, fennel seeds, piquante pimenton (which I discovered is a type of paprika after I had substituted a type of whole chilli), tomatoes, boiled eggs, sherry vinegar (never heard of it before), and crab meat. The brown meat is, strictly speaking, not an ingredient of the soup as it is mixed with oil and chopped egg, then spread on croutes and served floating on the soup. I'll come to the crab meat presently. The spouse was working outside Dublin yesterday, so I ha...

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...

Chilled Melon and Ginger Soup   Chilled soup hesitators, look away now! I was chatting to "J-Zo" (a sibling) about the soup I made yesterday, but once I said the word chilled, she pursed her lips and said, "Urrgh." (By the way, has anyone noticed that no one writes "urrgh" or ""ugh" any more? It's all "ee-uu" with an upward inflection now.) So, anyway, chilled soups are not to everyone's liking. But if you can cope, read on. Ginger is the spiciest ingredient in this soup. Unusually for a recipe by Roopa Gulati , it's the only spice.  Fennel seeds are also used but I'm not sure if they count as a spice - fennel is a herb, isn't it? The other ingredients are a ripe Galia melon, fresh root ginger, white seedless grapes (white? I used good old-fashioned green grapes), the juice and grated zest of a lime, dried mint, Greek yoghurt and a garnish consisting of fresh mint and crystallised ginger. There's no cooki...

Roasted Red Pepper, Fennel and Tomato Soup   The recipe for roasted red pepper, fennel and tomato soup in The Soup Book is by Roopa Gulati so expect spice. The ingredients include fennel, a red onion, red peppers, tomatoes, garlic, rosemary leaves, fennel seeds, nigella seeds (I substituted cumin seeds for nigella seeds), passata, vegetable stock and a red chilli. I didn't have some of the ingredients so I called down to Young Stephen's greengrocery. As soon as he saw me he said, "I've got something for you.!" "Chervil?" I guessed. "No," he replied, "I can't find chervil. It's this - summer savory ." There was no way he could have known I'd be calling to his shop today, but he had the savory in a pot ready to go. It wasn't a gift - I had to buy it but did so willingly. Back to the stove. The fennel, onion, peppers, tomatoes and garlic were sprinkled with sugar, olive oil and the rosemary leaves before being roa...