Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Cotriade From my "make again" list Last Saturday I made cotriade again. I first followed this recipe by Marie-Pierre Moine in July 2011 and put it on my list of soups to make again. I went about it in a labour- and time-saving way, buying frozen pieces of cod and haddock rather than fresh fish, and using fish stock cubes. The spouse and I enjoyed the soup, but the younger offspring struggled to get through his portion. He eventually admitted he didn't really like fish, only shellfish. I can understand that. Cherry tomatoes ready for roasting Today I made Eric Treuille's sausage and bean soup for the second time (see 10th October 2010 ). The weather wasn't really suited to a spicy soup, but I went ahead anyway, only to be told by the younger offspring that he was going to his friend G-Banger's house when there was only twenty minutes' cooking time left. Grumpy face. Well, let him go off to the cinema with his friend. All the more for the...

Creamy Scallop Bisque I hadn't planned to make soup at the weekend of the 8th-9th December but the older offspring was at home, keeping his room tidy, and I let myself be persuaded. The recipe is by Marie-Pierre Moine and calls for dry white wine, onion, shallot, a tomato, prawns, cod or pollock, scallops, parsley, dill seeds, brandy, cream, chorizo or black pudding, and chives. One of the factors driving this choice of soup was the presence of some delicious black pudding which the spouse had bought at the National Crafts and Design Fair the previous Friday. White wine, prawns, scallops, brandy and cream can be pretty persuasive, too. Scallops, prawns and blossom fish with the younger offspring's spatula! On the Saturday morning I prepared my list. There was a little breakdown in communication regarding the type of scallops needed for the recipe but we overcame any difficulties. The spouse headed off to his favourite fishmonger 's where he was told that pollock ...

Puy Lentil Soup I am very pleased with myself. It's three years since I started this blog and I have made 150 soups from the 200 recipes in The Soup Book . The latest recipe is by Marie-Pierre Moine . I made it on Monday (3rd December) with the assistance of the spouse. While I was on my way home from work he chopped the onion and crushed the garlic. When I arrived home I took over, rinsing and draining the lentils and gathering the herbs. The other ingredients included gammon steaks, thyme (from the garden, of course) and fresh parsley. I can't remember when I last ate gammon and I wondered if it was still available. Obviously it is! So I fried the onion and garlic, then stirred in the lentils. I have to admit I couldn't find canned puy lentils so I used green lentils. Having seasoned this mixture I lay one of the two gammon steaks on top of the lentils and added the herbs. A covering of water and I was ready to leave the pot simmering. About twenty minutes later ...

Soup Review Mixed mushrooms Since my last post on 13th November I have made three soups: mushroom soup (on the 17th), Thai chicken soup (18th November) and garbure (25th November). All that activity has meant I've now completed 149 soups since I started working my way through the recipes in The Soup Book back in December 2009. Nearly three years after I made spinach and rosemary soup I can hardly believe I'm three quarters of the way through the book. I am not sure that I will get through all the recipes and so will change my approach to making soup. I may make it less frequently and try out soup recipes from other cookery books that the spouse and I own. We'll see. Mixed mushrooms: chopped and cooking The spouse and I now have a new favourite vegetable shop . It's not cheap nor is it especially convenient to get to from where we live, but the selection of fresh fruit and vegetables and other produce is impressive. The spouse has been talking about this p...

Waterzooi I hadn't heard of it before but apparently waterzooi is a classic Belgian dish . In her recipe Marie-Pierre Moine lists the ingredients as potato, carrot, courgette, asparagus, monkfish, sole, fish or chicken stock, dry white wine, spring onions, mussels and cream. Oh yes, and chopped tarragon to garnish. A quick internet search tells me that these are not typical ingredients. What do I know? I'm just following The Soup Book 's orders. Ingredients for waterzooi Anyway, I wanted to make a special soup to celebrate the older offspring's presence. We don't often splash out and buy monkfish, sole and mussels. The spouse was assigned to fishing duty. He headed up to his favourite fishmonger 's shop and did the necessary. Mr Fishmonger kindly advised him that the mussels were from a different supplier and that we should give them a good wash. The prep time for this soup was given as twenty minutes and the cooking time thirty minutes. Not for this...

French Cabbage Soup This weekend's foray into soup-making involved Savoy cabbage, onion, garlic and lardons (I used ordinary rashers). When I was out at the supermarket I spotted pre-chopped cabbage, which I eventually bought when I couldn't find a whole head. Incidentally, after my long search last weekend for turnips, what did they have this week in the supermarket? Only white turnips!!! I thought I'd buy them for the remaining turnip soup recipe in The Soup Book (turnip soup with pimento, chilli and noodles). Could I get my phone to work so that I could ring the spouse at home and get him to check the ingredients? No, of course not. It was one of those mornings: I thought I'd lost my house keys and went into every shop looking for them, only to find them at the bottom of an empty shopping bag when I got home. It's all sorted now. Deep breath. Anyway, I started to cook yesterday evening at about 5.30pm. The pre-chopped cabbage saved a lot of time, so all...

Traditional Chicken Soup The weekend just gone was another busy one but for happy reasons. The younger offspring has just become a teenager. Fortunately there were no tantrums, no sulks, no studied indifference. The excitement was occasionally muted but for the most part he was unselfconscious in his enjoyment of the celebrations. I made him white chocolate brownies which are one of his favourite home bakes. The celebrations meant delaying the preparation of the soup. It was a two-staged recipe anyway which meant I could make stock in advance. We had lemon-roasted chicken for dinner yesterday so I saved the carcass to make stock for the soup. The ingredients for the stock were the chicken carcass ( Marie-Pierre Moine suggests this as an alternative to using a whole chicken), carrot, leek, garlic, dried mushrooms (which the spouse bought but which I forgot to put in the pot), celery, parsley and thyme. When I got home from work this evening I got stuck into making the soup. T...

Potage St Germain What would I make this weekend, I wondered. I hadn't made a soup from the Pulses and Nuts section of The Soup Book since early May, and I'm trying to get at least seventy per cent of each different type of soup made by the end of the year. I've made all four of the cheese soups, and as of last week I've made seventy-two per cent of the summer vegetable soups. The winter vegetable and fish soups are the laggards. Potage St Germain: lettuce and peas added to the stock Potage St Germain is a kind of pea soup, in case you're wondering, and the recipe is by Marie-Pierre Moine .  The ingredients include butter, large spring onions, split green peas, peas (I used frozen ones), lettuce, egg yolk, creme fraiche, and Madeira or port. Much to my surprise, it took me two hours yesterday to prepare the soup, forty-five minutes longer than I expected. I should be used that by now. Anyway, I started by lining up the ingredients and then I used blades ...

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...

Bigos Nestled in the Winter Vegetables section of The Soup Book is Marie-Pierre Moine's recipe for bigos , a meaty Polish stew rather than soup , according to many internet sources. I identified the recipe last weekend and thought it would be a substantial "soup" for sharing with others, but only sent out invitations yesterday afternoon. We had two guests to share our meal with and there was a substantial portion left over. The ingredients include Savoy cabbage, sauerkraut, smoked bacon, smoked Polish sausage, duck breast (you can substitute venison), a red onion, garlic, brown mushrooms, smoked paprika, a bay leaf, juniper berries, marjoram, caraway seeds, red wine and beef stock. Getting all the ingredients together was the fiddliest part of a fiddly soup. The spouse might as well have gone to Poland when trying to find the smoked sausage and sauerkraut. Or so he said. I went out yesterday evening after the rugby match had started to buy a bottle of red wine and...

Traditional Lamb Broth Just in case you were wondering why there was no new blog entry last weekend, I was away in the Savoie region of France. It wasn't a soup-making-free zone: I made a leek and potato soup for my hosts from a recipe I found on a dedicated leek and potato soup website ! This weekend we've been travelling home, unpacking, washing dirty clothes and trying to get ready for the school and work week ahead. I decided I would try and squeeze in a soup, if only to round the number made up to one hundred and ten! The recipe from The Soup Book for traditional lamb broth is by Marie-Pierre Moine . The ingredients include middle neck lamb cutlets, celery, parsnip, carrot, potato, spring onions, parsley, cabbage and allspice berries. It being a Sunday, the spouse did not have much luck with middle neck lamb cutlets and was rather disappointed by his preferred butcher's lack of interest. Never mind! A couple of packets of shoulder chops have had to suffice.  ...

Since my last blog entry I have made two soups from The Soup Book : smoked cauliflower cheese and black-eyed bean. The former was a mid-week dinner; the latter our weekend dinner.   Smoked Cauliflower Cheese Soup The spouse was going to make cauliflower cheese (love it) but I proposed Sophie Grigson 's recipe as an alternative. He screwed up his face and declined. Then he changed his mind. I thought mind-changing was my prerogative. Anyway, smoked cauliflower cheese soup calls for cauliflower, onion, a floury potato, garlic, a bouquet garni, butter, stock, smoked Cheddar and garnish. Sophie suggests cayenne pepper, chopped parsley or chives, croutons or soured cream to garnish.  I sweated the vegetables, garlic and bouquet garni with the butter before adding the stock. When the cauliflower and potato were tender, I took out the bouquet garni and gave the mixture a whizz in the blender. Next I reheated the soup, jumping back from the bubbles that flew in all di...