Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Zuppa di Pesce Yesterday (13th September) it was my turn to do the shopping so I pondered what I might make for dinner and glanced at our kitchen bookshelves. For some reason Sonia Allison and Ulrike Bielfeldt's The Gourmet's Guide to Italian Cooking caught my eye. Published in 1973, this book found its way into my parents' house but I don't remember them ever using it. The soup recipes include minestrone, tomato soup, haricot bean soup, pea soup, and a few broths. I chose the fish soup. Among the listed ingredients are tomatoes (skinned and chopped), parsley, onion, celery, dry white wine, smoked cod, white fish fillet, a choice of prawns, shrimp, and pieces of lobster or crab, and anchovy fillets. What's not to like? I couldn't get smoked cod so I substituted smoked haddock. One of the things that struck me about how old the recipe book is is the reference to parsley and how the type of leaf (flat or curly) isn't specified. Back in the 1970s there ...

The Secret Great Dublin Bake-Off My improv group have continued to meet at my house and other venues, which gives me lots of opportunities to try out new baking recipes. I have begun to work my way through Martha Day's Baking . Two weeks ago I made farmhouse biscuits and crunchy oatmeal biscuits, most of which I brought to a different event. The ingredients for the farmhouse biscuits include butter, light brown sugar, crunchy peanut butter, an egg, flour, cinnamon, muesli, raisins and walnuts.  My baking trays are not quite big enough, so the finished biscuits did not look like the neat rounds pictured in the book. It was the same story with the crunchy oatmeal biscuits. Never mind. The reaction to the farmhouse biscuits was particularly gratifying and so I have promised to make them again for the Hospice Coffee Morning at work. Biscuits good, but muffins better. Three weeks ago I made oat and raisin muffins and maple pecan muffins. The former were not exciting, but the latte...

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...

 Baking is one of my favourite things. I like the process (usually) and I like the end product (more often than not). My mother didn't bake so I definitely didn't pick it up from her. I can remember the first time I tried to bake a cake. Was I nine? Ten? Did I need a recipe? No. Intrepidly I gathered ingredients and mixed them all together willy nilly: flour, sugar, margarine, dried fruit, glace cherries, milk. No weighing, no measuring, no recommended temperature setting. There must have been a baking tin in the house because I remember putting the mixture into a round tin. I probably kept opening the oven to check the progress. The cake was edible and I thought I'd try baking again. In those days certain shops gave out Green Shield stamps  with purchases, the quantity depending on how much you spent. My mother would distribute her stamps between my siblings and me, and when we had each had filled our first book, she brought us off to the nearest depot where we exchan...

Clafoutis: cherries ready Every now and then during the last couple of months my conscience has pricked me. I haven't made soup during that time nor have I formally said goodbye to any remaining loyal blog readers. Goodbyes are difficult. Decisions cause me stress ... or anxiety ... I can't make up my mind which word to use. I have been otherwise occupied. Soup-making was a diversion from my academic pursuits, but I abruptly called a halt to those pursuits earlier this year. While waiting for certain matters to resolve themselves so that I could finally decide about returning to university or not, I undertook a comedy improv course. I had previously done occasional workshops but this was the first time I was able to give some sort of commitment to a continuing course. The course was different to my previous improv experiences in that there were more men, I was now among the oldest students and a group dynamic was nurtured. Then in late spring this year I leaped into a le...

Nearly Nettled Yes, it has been a long time since I last blogged. No, I didn't make any soups in that time but I was on the verge of making soup at Easter. The younger offspring and I were in Norfolk as guests of the sibling J-Zo and sibling-in-law G-Cro. They have a large garden that provides them with apples, rhubarb, figs, herbs and other vegetation, despite the only sporadic attention they give it. The main crop that I could have used was nettles! I offered to harvest and cook; I even found recipes on the internet. I was quizzed by my various relations and in-laws. All I could say was that I made nettle soup last year and it was tasty enough. I could sense their reluctance. I didn't make nettle soup but I did bake: rhubarb crumble, gooseberry tart, and asparagus and cheese flan. I have eaten soup in the intervening weeks since my last blog. While in Norwich J-Zo and I ate a delicious red pepper soup in a quaint cafe. Yesterday I ate a really good carrot and mint soup ...

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...