Minnie's Soup Kitchen

As I write I'm listening to Summer Breeze sung by the Isley Brothers . Makes me feel fine.  Salted coffee, pecan & lime rocky road Lots of baking since my last blog entry. At the end of June I revisited a couple of lemon and lavender combination recipes - Bronte Aurell's blondies and Paul Hollywood's loaf cake. But an absolute triumph was Ottolenghi's salted coffee, pecan and lime rocky road . Oh yes. Make it. Make it soon. Make it often.  Now I'm listening to July by Mundy. Oh my my, July.   July is baking competition time.  The baking competition is just one section of a local horticultural society's annual show. It took place last Saturday. In preparation, I made sticky gingerbread using Doreen Fulleylove's recipe (Country Fare published in 1972) on the previous Wednesday and set dried fruit soaking in chai for my tea brack which I baked on the Thursday evening.  Pistachio shortbread I took a half day on the Friday and set to with m...

Okay. So I haven't been a conscientious correspondent. I admit it but I am not making a new year's resolution about being a more consistent and regular blogger. In the interests of catching up, here's an entry I started writing last October (three months ago!) and forgot about: A few weeks ago a recipe for chicken with fennel and clementines in Yotam Ottolenghis' Jerusalem  (2012) caught my eye. All I needed was Pernod or a similar aniseed-flavoured drink. Then, as if they'd guessed, the older offspring and his wife returned from Greece bearing ouzo for the younger offspring. I'm not sure how delighted he was with it. Let's just say he wasn't unwilling to let me have some for the chicken recipe. The spouse and I are trying out a new shopping regime: we're no longer driving the mile or so to the supermarket we've patronised for years. Instead we're popping over the road to the nearby German discount stores. While we're saving money, w...

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...

I've made two soups from The Soup Book so far this month: creamy kidney bean by Roopa Gulati (7th December) and brandied lobster chowder by Carolyn Humphries (yesterday - 21st December). Creamy kidney bean soup The kidney bean soup was the 166th from The Soup Book and the first soup from the Pulses and Nuts section in six months. With ingredients such as fresh root ginger, green chillies and lime juice to counteract the kidney beans and tomatoes, I expected my tastebuds to be tingling with delight. Unfortunately, they weren't. As Eamon Dunphy might have said, it was a good soup but not a great soup. The older son was the food critic on that occasion and I think he was a little disappointed. I brought the remainder into work for my lunch the following Monday and thought it had improved slightly. It's not on my "make again" list. Brandied lobster chowder   Now this is my sort of soup! Lobster , white wine , shallots, brandy , tomato, anchovy essence ...

Salma's Chicken and Yogurt Soup with Chili and Lemon Yes, it's been a while since I last wrote a blog entry but I have been making soup. We had a lovely October bank holiday weekend here in Dublin. The two offspring were away at different events, so the spouse and I relaxed and had plenty of time to cook. I made this soup using Salma Hage's recipe from The Lebanese Kitchen . Ingredients: leek (sliced), garlic (crushed), a bay leaf (picked from the garden), chicken stock (home-made and thawed out), chicken breasts (cut into strips), cornflour, yogurt, canned chickpeas (drained and rinsed), chili flakes, lemon juice, chopped coriander, and a pinch of paprika. I sweated the leek in butter and olive oil, before adding the garlic and bay leaf. In went the chicken stock and then the chicken strips, which were then left to simmer. I took out the chicken strips (difficult to separate out the leek slices) and then tried to thicken the soup with a little cornflour paste. This...

Mango and Curry Leaf Soup Yesterday was a sunny Saturday afternoon - our second hint of summer in six days. I had spent the previous evening baking Ottolenghi's marzipan muffins  (adapted - I didn't make the plum compote) and making fudge and  Nigella's rocky road  for a parish  fête . My teeth were on edge from checking that everything was up to standard and I had spent yesterday afternoon manning (personning?) a stall. But, I still wanted to make soup. I hadn't made anything from the fruit section of The Soup Book for a long time - since the 15th March 2012, in fact.  The recipe for mango and curry leaf soup is by Roopa Gulati , of whom I usually expect great things. I gathered together the ingredients: Alfonso mangoes  (I'm not sure that mine were Alfonso), black mustard seeds, curry leaves, red chilli, dark muscovado sugar, turmeric, coconut milk, lime juice and coriander. Roopa gave the preparation time as fifteen minutes: a huge un...

Turkey Broth Turkey? No, I'm not mixing up my religious festivals. Yesterday (31st March) was Easter Sunday and the spouse marked the occasion by cooking turkey and ham. There was lots left over. I used some of it by making sandwiches for unexpected visitors. Today I made the turkey broth from a recipe by Roopa Gulati . This soup was my 153rd from The Soup Book . It's been about three months since I made a soup from the book that kick-started this blog. I missed it! I missed the clear lay-out and the listing of the ingredients. The ingredients are simple enough: leek, celery, carrots, parsnip and turnip. Of course, turnip is never as simple as it should be. I couldn't find any so I used an additional parsnip (even though I don't like them) and threw in a few mushrooms. All the vegetables had to be finely diced, as did the cooked turkey meat. I defrosted some home-made chicken stock and brought it to the boil with a good dollop of dry white wine (the cheapest I coul...

Harissa and Chickpea Soup A couple of week's ago the spouse expressed an interest in making this soup from The Soup Book . Well, it's my blog and I make the soups. That said, I let him make the harissa that's needed to flavour the soup I made last Saturday (10th November). The recipe is by Roopa Gulati so I expected spice and richness. We weren't disappointed. The spouse is becoming a collector of harissa pastes and enjoyed making this one, which called for a red pepper, olive oil, seeds (coriander, cumin and caraway), tomato puree, garlic, red chillies, smoked paprika and lemon juice. I don't know how this was made as the spouse was the boss of the harissa. I needed only a couple of tablespoons for the soup, but we can use the rest with couscous (a favourite with the younger offspring). By the way, we now have three jars of smoked paprika due to inadequacies in our spice filing system. I hope that binding them together with a rubber band will help prevent any m...

Hot and Sour Chicken Broth Open a book, any book. Ready? Is it a cookery book? Is it a book with soup recipes? Is it The Soup Book ? Now, open it and find a recipe, one you haven't made before and one that won't require too much effort to find the ingredients. It's getting trickier, isn't it? Let's look in the Poulty, Game and Meat section. Aah! There's one and it's by Roopa Gulati , so there's a good chance we'll all enjoy the finished product. I looked at the ingredients: ginger or galangal, lime leaves, garlic, coriander (the stems!!!), lemon grass, chicken breasts, bird's eye chillies, shallots, lime juice, fish sauce, sweet chilli sauce, pak choi and bean sprouts. Yes, I could get anything I didn't already have at home. Off to the shops and then home. I spent yesterday afternoon (20th October) baking for a cake sale: apple and fig cake, lemon and ginger cake, banana, coconut and walnut cake, and fudge. Phew! I was exhausted. An...

Keralan Prawn Soup I have been longing to make this Keralan prawn soup by Roopa Gulati! It needed a special occasion and the occasion was the older offspring's last home-cooked dinner before returning across the water. In her introduction to the recipe Roopa writes: "This fragrant soup takes the best ingredients from a cottage garden in the southern Indian state of Kerala." I'm not sure that you'd find king prawns or coconut (milk and cream) in your Keralan cottage garden, but perhaps you would find mustard seeds, coriander (seeds and leaves), fenugreek seeds, red chillies, garlic, root ginger, curry leaves, onions and lime. For everything else, go to your Keralan shops. Keralan prawn soup This was one of those recipes where most of the effort goes into the preparation. I had to roast then grind peppercorns with the three different types of seeds. After that I chopped and processed the red chillies, garlic and ginger. Then the real cooking began: the cur...

Whipped Yogurt Soup with Sauteed Courgette Two days ago I was a little disappointed with Roopa Gulati . Today her reputation is being rehabilitated. I had a day off work and was in the mood for making soup. I've had my eye on this yogurt soup recipe for a while. And now that I have tamarind pulp and curry leaves, I was good to go. The other ingredients include dried red chillies, fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, gram flour, turmeric, Greek yogurt, coriander leaves, onion, courgette and a green chilli. So I lined up my spices, diced the onion and courgette, and finely chopped the green chilli. Then it was time to start cooking. When the oil was hot I threw in the chillies and mustard seed. Next in were the fenugreek, cumin and curry leaves. I remembered reading somewhere that curry leaves will spit when thrown into hot oil: I was not disappointed by the miniature firework display in my wok. Next in was some gram flour followed by turmeric. The next stage was tricky because I did...

Pork Vindaloo Broth Making Roopa Gulati's pork vindaloo broth from The Soup Book has been a two-day event. It began yesterday morning with my ruling out recipes because I didn't know where to get curry leaves or kaffir lime leaves . Eventually I decided upon pork vindaloo broth because I knew where I'd be able to obtain the necessary  tamarind pulp  if it wasn't available at the supermarket we use most frequently. The spouse was working outside Dublin so I had to take up the supermarket shopping slack. And what did I find in the spice section? Only dried curry leaves and kaffir lime leaves! Later on I had to accompany the younger offspring to a party in town and I planned to call into the Asian shops near the city centre in search of tamarind pulp or paste. I bought the tamarind on Drury Street before heading off to Lower Clanbrassil Street to see if I could buy fresh curry leaves or kaffir lime leaves. First I stopped into an Indian sweet shop the spouse had told ...

Creamy Pistachio Soup I have yet to be disappointed by any of Roopa Gulati 's recipes in The Soup Book  and today's effort was no exception. It's been an erratic day weather-wise on this May bank holiday - heavy rain interspersed with lovely sunshine. We had most of the ingredients in the house: pistachio nuts, cardamon pods, mace, coriander seeds and leaves, garlic, spring onions, root ginger, garam masala, vegetable stock and cream. All I had to do was dash out between showers to buy a green chilli from Young Stephen. This was not a soup to be hurried as there was a lot of preparation involved. I got the younger offspring to to shell the nuts for me - he only really got into when I handed him the meat tenderiser so that he could bash open the more reticent shells. I then cooked the shelled pistachios in boiling water for a couple of minutes and then spent more time than anticipated removing the skins. Sensing fiddliness, the spouse volunteered his skinning skills. Th...

Carrot and Orange Soup Yesterday I set out to buy ingredients for spicy spinach soup (from a Roopa Gulati recipe in The Soup Book ) and when I got home I realised that I had already made it about a year ago. So I thought quickly. I knew I had a lot of carrots in the fridge, and on checking the summer vegetables section of The Soup Book , I came across the recipe for carrot and orange soup. The ingredients include leeks, which I had just bought, and orange juice, a carton of which we were slowly working our way through. I also needed ground coriander, cumin, stock, a potato and a bay leaf. The sliced leek and carrots were the first ingredients into the pot, cooking gently until the leek softened. Next in were the potato, the ground spices, orange juice, stock and the bay leaf. About forty-five minutes later the soup was ready to be liquidised. There were just the two of us for lunch - the younger offspring and I. The boy tucked in and was particularly enthusiastic about the soup. W...

Minted Pea and Ham Soup I didn't get a chance to make soup at the weekend. Sometimes life gets too complicated to make soup. Not to worry. I made some this evening. Although the recipe is by Roopa Gulati , no spice was used in its making. The ingredients include shallots, butter, potato, stock, peas, mint and cooked ham. When I arrived home from a busy day out, I had a cup of tea then got stuck in to making the soup. We had ham stock in the freezer (I'd left some out to thaw before going out this morning), and the spouse had cooked a piece of ham yesterday so I diced up the leftovers. The chopped shallots were softened in the butter, then the chopped potato was thrown into the pan. When this was tender I poured in the stock. While the stock was simmering I cooked the peas, adding mint for the last twenty seconds. When ready I added them to the stock then whizzed the lot in the blender. I reheated the soup and stirred in the diced ham. The younger offspring and I ate the so...

Kichidi It's been over three months since I last made a soup from the pulses and vegetables section of The Soup Book , and I still have more than half of the recipes to go, hence my choice this weekend. Also, we were having friends over and making an Indian meal, so kichidi was an appropriate choice.  The recipe is by Roopa Gulati , of course. Despite my Anglo-Indian culinary experience and heritage, I had never heard of kichidi before and a quick search on the Internet revealed a large variety of recipes. Roopa's recipe calls for a butternut squash, garam masala, basmati rice, pink or red lentils, root ginger, ghee or clarified butter, cumin seeds, chilli flakes, lime juice and chopped coriander. There are three main stages to making this soup. The first involves baking the butternut squash, having first sprinkled the two halves with garam masala. The suggestive-looking beast that I was using was much bigger than required so took longer to reach the "meltingly tend...

Mussels in a Ginger and Chilli Broth October was the eighth month of the year until it was shifted back by July and August (I blame the Roman Empire). On the eighth day of what was formerly the eighth month of the year I made my eighty-eighth soup from The Soup Book . Another recipe by Roopa Gulati (the eighth time I've mentioned her), and it was another culinary and olfactory triumph! The main ingredients are mussels, butter, onions, bird eye red chillies, root ginger, garlic, lemongrass, ginger wine, fish stock, coconut milk, coconut cream and coriander leaves.You heat the butter and throw in the onions, chillies, ginger, garlic and lemongrass. I forgot the ginger, so had to fry it separately then added it to the broth when I added the mussels at a later stage. Dishing up the broth I wasn't sure where I'd get mussels. The spouse said he'd try his favourite fishmonger . It's been a several months since his last visit, but the fishmonger remembered him ...

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...

Curried Broth with Peppers  Today is a lovely sunny day in early June but I have chosen to make a hot curried soup. I was pondering what to make for dinner this evening and the spouse said that we had a lot of vegetables in the fridge. I knew there were quite a few peppers so checked in The Soup Book to see how I could use them up. This soup is based on yet another recipe by Roopa Gulati and contains star anise , nigella seeds , fennel seeds, fenugreek seed s, onions, root ginger, an orange pepper and a yellow pepper, basmati rice , turmeric, garam masala , vegetable stock, date palm sugar , lemon and coriander leaves. If you can't find nigella seeds, there are a few spices or herbs you can substitute for them. I didn't use a substitute for the nigella seeds, but I did for the date palm sugar - I just used dark brown sugar and hoped for the best. The different seeds smelled delicious as I fried them together before adding the onion and ginger. Star anise is a new addition...