Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Mulligatawny I see it's only been six months since I last made mulligatawny. The first time was back in May 2011 when I followed Roopa Gulati's recipe in The Soup Book ; last September I used The Essential Asian Cookbook . Today I used Rick Stein's India , a Christmas present from the spouse. It's one of those luxurious recipe books with thick paper and beautiful, vibrantly colourful photos. We had all been impressed by Roopa's recipe, less so by the second book, so how would we fare today? Well, those two recipes both involved apple. Rick's did not, so I felt that this must be a more authentic recipe. If Anglo-Indian cooking has any authenticity these days. Still, Rick states that his recipe is on the menu at the Madras Club in Chennai. It involves making a spice paste first and then the soup. Ingredients: The paste called for coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns, curry powder, turmeric, garlic, ginger, and fresh coriander, curry and mint leave...

Cherry Soup   I had been wondering recently how I could even out my progress through the different recipe sections in The Soup Book . It had also occurred to me that I hadn't made a fruit soup for a while (there are only six recipes for fruit soups in the book). Today, serendipitously, a solution presented itself, literally on my doorstep. A friend, "Bella", called around for coffee bearing a punnet of morello cherries! I remembered that there is a cherry soup recipe in The Soup Book and hence today's blog entry. In his introductory note, Shaun Hill states: "This Hungarian soup is meant to taste fresh rather than sweet." The ingredients are morello cherries (fresh or canned), white wine, water, sugar, lemon and soured cream. I simmered the cherry stones and stalks in the wine and water, strained out the debris, and then heated the fruit, sugar and lemon in the cherry stock. The final addition was the soured cream and now the soup is being chilled. It'...

Avocado, Cucumber and Sorrel Soup   It's a beautiful sunny June bank holiday here in Dublin and despite the recent cucumber scare I decided to make a cucumber soup. There are five soups in The Soup Book requiring cucumber and this recipe by Sophie Grigson calls for "a ripe, buttery avocado, ... a generous handful of sorrel leaves", a quarter of a large cucumber, Greek yoghurt and garlic.  I'm still not sure what exactly a handful is, generous or otherwise, but I seemed to have enough sorrel in the front garden for this soup. It has continued growing since my last raid.There is no cooking involved in this soup: just blending. The mix turns out a rich shade of green and is very tasty. The younger offspring like it but couldn't finish his portion. Cold soups are an acquired taste, but a taste definitely worth acquiring. Blooms and Buzzes   The spouse and I are planning to go to Bloom 2011 tomorrow. I mentioned in my last blog entry that the County Dublin Beek...

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...

Spicy Spinach Soup There are three spinach recipes in The Soup Book and Darina Allen 's spinach and rosemary soup was the first soup I made at the commencement of this project (see my first blog of 28th December, 2009).Today's soup was appetisingly alliterative and as spicy as its name suggests. At this stage in my project, I have come to expect spiciness from the author Roopa Gulati. Skinned and boned chicken thighs are left to marinate for an hour or two in a mix of finely chopped garlic and root ginger, garam masala, lime juice, yoghurt and salt. The meat is then cooked on a griddle pan and left to cool before being chopped up (it's added to the soup later).  The ingredients for the next stage are onion, green chillies, garlic, ground almonds, chicken stock, a piece of root ginger, baby spinach, and coriander and mint leaves. Before adding the chicken pieces, the cooked mixture is liquidised and the soup turns a vivid shade of green that I would hardly believe was natu...

Mixed Fungi Soup Today The Soup Book opened practically unaided at this soup recipe! I had planned to make a soup using the stock the spouse made last month from the left-over crudites from our party. (Parsimony or good house keeping?) The ingredients include onion, garlic, flat-leaf parsley (I used the curly-leafed variety available in my garden. I'm a rebel, me. It's there, it's free and the slugs haven't dragged themselves out of the compost bin to feast on it yet), mixed wild mushrooms and nutmeg. The spouse had expressed an interest in going to the farmers' market up in Marlay Park (www.dublintourist.com/details/marlay_park.shtml) and I reminded him about the Dublin Food Co-op (see my blog of 4th March; www.dublinfood.coop/). So then a discussion ensued about which market to go to. The spouse, the younger offspring and I ended up heading into Newmarket Square, me armed with my copy of The Soup Book in case I couldn't get a mix of mushrooms and needed t...

Green lentil soup with lime This weekend's offering from The Soup Book contained home-made chicken stock, fresh thyme, green lentils, and the grated zest and juice of a lime (I can't claim it was the organic lime required by the recipe). The recipe is from the Pulses and Nuts section of the book. I made it for our lunch today. The slight tang of the lime contrasted with the stock. It was somewhat thicker than I expected - more eating than drinking in it - but very tasty. I wonder should I use more stock or let the lentils cook longer if I make it again. Nettles A friend kindly sent me a booklet from the RTE Guide , entitled The Restaurant Recipe Collection . She had marked Michael Healy Rae's recipe for nettle soup for my attention. The Soup Book also has a recipe using nettles, which are in season from March to October inclusive. The two recipes are quite different. Rae's recipe calls for a wider range of ingredients including butter, onions, leeks, celery, po...