Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Pottering and Potting I'm still cooking away and trying out new recipes, perhaps not as frequently as I might. My excuse: it's August and everyone's on holiday. That said, I made potted shrimps and strawberry ice cream with shortbread biscuits from the Norfolk cookbook for a family lunch earlier this month. I loved the potted shrimps and the ice cream wasn't bad. Would you be surprised to learn there was freshly ground pepper in it? Strawberry ice cream in preparation A former colleague presented me with homegrown courgettes quite unexpectedly. They're not my favourite vegetable so I knew I'd have to make something interesting with them: charred courgette with tomato and bean salad from the Riverford Farm Cook Book helped to brighten things up.  A couple of days ago I got home from work earlier than I'd anticipated and so had time to make a mushroom tart from a Martha Day recipe. (I strayed from Martha's path by making wholewheat pastry and...

Peanut butter brownies Party Pieces While sorting out recipes cut from magazines recently, I came across one for marbled peanut butter brownies. Having been off chocolate in January, I decided that I would reward my abstemiousness with a chocolate treat. My self-imposed rule when I haven't given up chocolate in January is not to eat chocolate except on Fridays and Saturdays ... and perhaps a sneaky bit on Sundays. Back to the brownies recipe. When would I get to try it out? The occasion arose. Two colleagues were moving on and in the time-honoured tradition of showing affection for people who are always on diets or lamenting their weight, a group of us marked their departure by going out for lunch and then having a tea party about an hour and a half later! I baked, of course. First I made good  old-fashioned cup cakes using the batter and glace icing recipes from Mary Norwak's Breads, Cakes and Biscuits , which was published in 1978. Then I made the marbled peanut but...

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...

White Bean Soup Two milestones achieved yesterday (22nd February): soup number 170 from The Soup Book and the last of the soups from the Pulses and Nuts section. I'm getting there, slowly but surely. Finishing touches: pancetta and shallots   Ingredients:  onions, garlic, cannellini beans (I used canned rather than dried), celery, a bay leaf, parsley stalks (no leaves!), lemon juice, vegetable stock, shallots, pancetta and Taleggio cheese (you could also use fontina). Cooking method:  I first fried the onions over a low heat then added the garlic. Next into the pan were the cannellini beans, celery, the bay leaf, parsley, lemon juice and stock. I left the mixture simmering for about an hour before blending. I then left the soup sitting while I watched the Low Charioteers beat the Boys in Green (13-10). Separated at birth? The younger offspring signalled that he would be home by 7 o'clock so I went back to the kitchen to finish the soup. I had sliced t...

Winter Minestrone with Barley and Beans This weekend I have something to prove, namely that this blog is regularly updated. The older offspring was lonely and sad in his temporary accommodation so the spouse and I phoned him. During our conversation he mentioned that my blog was more regular than my spouse's, which led to my decision to make soup sooner rather than later. I chose a book given to me by my brother-in-law "Tod" and his wife "Sal" a couple of years ago: the Riverford Farm Cook Book   by Guy Watson and Jane Baxter. The spouse, younger offspring and I were staying with them and they had a glut of courgettes, which they had cooked using various methods. On leafing through the book I came across a recipe for chocolate and courgette cake. I baked it for them: you couldn't taste the courgette at all, smothered as it was by the cocoa. I digress. Back to the minestrone. The recipe in the Riverford book lists leek, celery, carrots, turnips, garlic, ...

Pause for Thought A month has passed since I last made a soup from The Soup Book but it seems like many more. Christmas and the associated festivities, preparations, socialising and recuperation have all intervened, all requiring their own investment of time and effort. The preceding months had been emotionally fraught as my family dealt with a serious health issue. Other events of significance included the younger offspring's initiation into the business of secondary school, a family wedding and adapting to the demands of a new role at work. And all the while I was trying to keep up with my self-imposed soup-making schedule. So this year calls for a new approach: less frequent soup-making and more experimentation with other recipe books. The spouse and I have a lot of cookery books, a few of which were my parents' and date from the 1970s. I flicked through one of these yesterday: Alison Burt's The Gourmet's Guide to French Cooking , first published in 1973. Its r...

Cannellini Bean and Carrot Soup It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't made a soup from the Pulses and Nuts section of The Soup Book for a while, not since March in fact. The recipe is by Livia Firth , wife of the actor Colin ( Pride and Prejudice - great series!), who uses leeks as the base of her soups because they are sweeter than onions. The ingredients are leeks, olive oil, butter, canned cannellini beans, carrots and curry powder (optional; I used garam masala). It took me over two hours to prepare, what with slicing, chopping, simmering and whizzing in the blender, rather than the hour and ten minutes stated in the book. The final soup is tasty but bordering on bland. A reasonable warmer-upper on a cold winter's day rather than a meal for a mild summer's day. Where the Bee Sucks While I was away, the oregano and/or marjoram in my back garden flowered and I have noticed bees buzzing around. Meanwhile in the front garden the lavender is also a-buzz with b...

Sausage and Bean Soup I started writing this entry yesterday evening (Saturday 9th October) after I finished making sausage and bean soup from the Poultry, Game and Meat section of The Soup Book . It was for the two sons' dinner - the spouse and I were going out to dine.  The recipe is suggested by Eric Treuille of Books for Cooks (I have to admit I haven't heard of him before). The main ingredient is, of course, sausage meat. The other ingredients are cherry tomatoes, garlic, chilli flakes, cannellini beans, stock, balsamic vinegar and parsley or basil.  It didn't take too long, but it did involve roasting the tomatoes before starting the saucepan work, and liquidising a cupful of the beans and tomatoes for the final stage of cooking. There were a number of options for this sausage and bean soup. In his introduction, Eric Treuille writes, "We use chicken, honey and herb sausages in this dish, but other types work just as well." Then the ingredients state: ...

Rosemary's bean soup with Italian cheese chips Today I made my thirtieth soup! Before I start writing about this soup, I'll tell you a little bit more about the contents of The Soup Book . It's divided into these sections: Techniques ; Recipe Choosers ; Summer Vegetables ; Winter Vegetables ; Pulses and Nuts ; Fish and Shellfish ; Poultry, Game and Meat ; Fruit ; Cheese ; and Breads . Techniques covers making stock, preparing vegetables, herbs, spices and pulses, pureeing, thickening, enriching, rescuing, garnishing, storecupboard essentials, and making use of leftovers.  The other sections contain just what their titles indicate! I have made eleven summer vegetable soups, five winter vegetable soups, five from Pulses and Nuts , three from Fish and Shellfish , four from Poultry, Game and Meat , and two from Cheese . It's obviously going to take me a while to get through The Soup Book . I have no idea why this soup is called Rosemary's bean soup. It contains ros...

Tuscan Bean Soup This recipe calls for canned beans (borlotti, flageolet or cannellini) and as I have been tidying and cleaning out our cupboards I've used cannellini beans. I have to mention that the younger offspring has done an impressive job on the cupboards. That's enough about him. Back to me and my soup! Other ingredients include onion, carrots, leek, garlic, tomatoes, tomato puree (I substituted sun-dried tomato paste as there was an open jar of it in the fridge), chicken stock (I had to use a cube as my home-made reserves have been used up) and spinach.When ready it's served with ciabatta bread, grated Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. So it's quite a rich soup. We've just had the Tuscan bean soup for lunch. All enjoyed it. The adult males were particularly forthcoming in their praise. The spouse liked the "tomato-ey sharpness" and mused that ham stock should be considered as an alternative to chicken stock. Bees' Cheese and other recipes H...