Minnie's Soup Kitchen

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...

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...

Fish Soup with Fennel  Let me begin by saying this soup was gloriously successful! No false modesty here, and I have MH (the only liberal in the French village where she spends some of her time) to back up my claims. Described in The Soup Book as "rustic", "Mediterranean-style", "robustly flavoured" and "sure to please", the verdict in this house was that it was a great soup. The ingredients include fennel, garlic, leek, plum tomatoes, brandy, saffron, orange zest, bay leaf, fish stock, potatoes, white wine, mussels, monkfish (you can substitute another firm white fish) and tiger prawns, so it's something of a luxury and you should share it with friends. As usual, the spouse trotted off last Saturday morning to do the shopping and obligingly went to his favourite fishmonger for the fish.  Then he walked down to Young Stephen's for the fennel - there's surely a tonguetwister there: Favourite Fishmonger is Fine for Fish but Fai...

 Bean and Rosemary Soup   Yesterday morning (Saturday 5th March), just as the spouse was getting ready to go shopping, I thought about what soup I would make and when. We've had a busy weekend - gardening, a post-confirmation party, more gardening, a voucher from M&S to spend and more gardening - so I also had to think about when I would get around to making the soup.  This morning seemed the most likely time, so I forewent a long leisurely lie on for the sake of the blog. In the course of my recent review of what soups I had made, I observed that I hadn't made anything from the pulses and nuts section for a while - since last October, in fact - so plumped for bean and rosemary soup on the basis that I wouldn't have to soak beans overnight. The ingredients for this soup include onions, chopped fresh rosemary and sage leaves, celery, garlic, tomato puree, canned borlotti beans, chicken stock and 2.5kg potatoes. It took me about half an hour to get the ingredients ...

Portuguese Haddock Soup   Today finds me in the middle of a cooking blitz and it's not all going to plan.  Last week I thought I'd make oxtail soup. The spouse and I had the tails freezing in preparation for two recipes ( The Soup Book's oxtail soup and oxtail braise from Nigel Slater's Appetite ) but as I was browsing through The Soup Book I noticed that I haven't made too many fish soups; in fact, I've made only three out of the thirty-two in the Fish and Shellfish section. So I decided to make a fish soup and the Portuguese haddock caught my eye. Its ingredients include cavolo nero/kale/Savoy cabbage, onion, garlic, potato, milk and smoked haddock fillet. The spouse duly did the shopping, coming home with a Savoy cabbage and haddock fillet, the latter bought at Feeney's Fish (see blog of 14th August). Because there was plenty of cabbage and twice the weight of haddock needed, I decided to make double the quantity. The plan was to freeze the soup that ...

Celery and Celeriac Soup Yesterday (Saturday 13th March) was the day for making soup. I've realised, by the way, that as I tend to prepare this blog over several days, I need to put in dates for the various activities or events I report on. During the week I spotted celeriac in the local green grocer's. As I've never cooked celeriac before I thought it might be a good choice for this weekend's soup. On arriving home I got out The Soup Book and checked the possibilities: Camembert and celeriac, celeriac and hazelnut, the intriguingly titled "soup of the first and last", and celery and celeriac. So, being one for a little alliteration, I chose the last. The ingredients include the eponymous vegetables, potato, and vegetable or chicken stock. The suggested accompaniment is walnut bread. Apparently, celeriac ( Apium graveolens rapaceum ) is also known as 'celery root,' 'turnip-rooted celery' or 'knob celery' (see Wikipedia). An article en...