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...

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...

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 ...

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...

Creamy Swede Soup Swede soup in the making Having been busy outside and away from my kitchen I just wanted to make a fairly simple soup this weekend. Another factor influencing my choice of recipe was the need to make more progress through the winter vegetables section of The Soup Book . I chopped my onions, trimmed and cubed my swede, made up my vegetable stock from bouillon mixture and lined up my honey, nutmeg and cream. Then I started to cook, frying the onions in butter before tipping in the swede. Ten minutes later I poured in the stock and eased in the honey. While this mixture was coming to a boil I sprinkled in a teaspoon of nutmeg powder (not the grated half of a nutmeg called for in the recipe). This was then left simmering until the swede was soft, at which point I left it to cool while I went off for a shower and some retail therapy. Revived by a new dress, I whizzed the soup in the liquidiser ready for reheating later that evening. Swede soup and messy c...

Curried Parsnip Soup I do not like parsnips . There. It's out in the open. I don't like them boiled and mashed with or without carrots, nor do I like them coated in Parmesan cheese and roasted. Just in case you missed it the first time, I don't like parsnips. Imagine my surprise, therefore, when twenty years ago I reluctantly ate curried parsnip soup served as the first course of a wedding meal and I liked it. So I had great expectations of yesterday's soup. According to Sophie Grigson 's introduction to it in The Soup Book , Jane Grigson created the recipe in the 1970s and it was deemed "radical at the time". The ingredients include coriander seeds, cumin seeds, chilli flakes, ground turmeric, ground fenugreek, an onion, garlic, parsnips, stock and cream, with either chives or parsley to garnish. I ground up the spices in my pestle and mortar before peeling and chopping the onion, garlic and parsnips. Then I cooked the vegetables in butter, adding t...

Mussel and Saffron Soup  Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! Yes, yesterday's soup was a triumph! The recipe by Rosemary Shrager , from the fish section of The Soup Book , was easy to follow and didn't require extraordinary ingredients: dry white wine, mussels, saffron, onion, garlic, leek, carrots, celeriac, butter, cream and curry powder. The spouse kindly sorted out the mussels for me, claiming they were surprisingly noisy. Chills ran down my murderous spine at the thought of the helpless little beasts. Mussel and saffron soup My own preparation involved slicing and chopping the vegetables and deciding whether to use double or light cream in view of this household's concern about cholesterol levels. There's no point in holding back when making a luxury soup, so double cream it was. The first part of the cooking involved - the faint-hearted should look away now - killing the mussels in white wine and stock. They were set aside while I gently cooked the vegetables. ...

Cream of Tomato Soup   Yesterday I had intended making smoked tomato soup as my 120th from The Soup Book . The spouse dutifully went out and bought lots of tomatoes. He then read the recipe more closely than I had and observed the instructions about smoking the tomatoes on a rack over barbecue chips in a frying pan or wok. Change of plan. We had lots of tomatoes so I stayed in that section of The Soup Book . All I had to do was go out and buy sun-dried tomatoes and then I could start cooking. The first step was to roast twelve plum tomatoes. I did this at lunch time to expedite matters that evening. Just as well I did. I started preparing at about 5.15pm and the soup was ready to to eat at 7pm - much longer than the seventy minutes indicated in the recipe by Sofia Larrinua-Craxton . I chopped onions and celery, I diced carrots, I minced garlic, I skinned and chopped another eight tomatoes, and I chopped the sun-dried tomatoes. Then I sauteed the onions, later adding the cele...

Courgette and Potato Soup   I've had a cooking fest this Easter weekend. It began in anticipation of the older offspring's arrival home last Thursday. One of his favourite cakes is banana gingerbread which I make to a recipe by Paul Flynn  cut out of The Irish Times many years ago. I baked the gingerbread the night before he was due home and offered the batter bowl to the younger offspring to lick out. "No, thanks," he replied. "I only like to lick it when [my big brother] is here." When the older offspring arrived home, he complained about not getting mentioned as often as his younger brother in this blog. Sibling rivalry and psychological button-pressing is alive and well chez Minnie. We were having guests for Easter lunch (Juno, Mervyn and Steed) and our menu was to be a shellfish starter, roast beef and trimmings for the main course, and a choice of plum and almond tart and simnel cake for dessert. The spouse took charge of the starter and main co...