Soup of the Evening, Beautiful Soup

I tend to agree with the Mock Turtle. Soup is one of the best things you can eat in winter. Phoebe has Scholarship maths at 7 on Monday night & Harriet is staying & has French until 8.30. Because I needed to serve meals at 3 different times, we have been having soup Mondays. The soup just sits on the stove in the dutch oven. It is so popular it may become a permanent fixture. We have some old standbys in our house. Basic pumpkin soup is a must. I roughly chop a whole pumpkin - allow plenty of time if you have forgotten what hard work this can be. Add to a large pot with several onions, several carrots, a large potato & I often add a swede - all roughly chopped. You can add bacon bones if you like. Just cover with water, bring to the boil & simmer until all the veg are cooked, especially the carrots. This is your base. I freeze most of it at this stage, in batches. When you're ready to use dress it up as you fancy. This year I've been making a paste with a little curry powder & adding to the base with a little cream. This is one of the few times when I use curry powder - we buy Empire Madras hot. The others are devilled eggs & kedgeree. Try grating in some nutmeg or chopped herbs, and thin with yoghurt or cream. Another favourite in our house is Digby Law's carrot soup which involves gently sweating chopped onions & carrots in thyme with fresh time until soft, then covering with chicken stock & adding 4 tbsp rice. Simmer until rice is cooked, puree in the blender & serve with cream. The rice is deliciously nutty. Or try simmering 4 chopped kumara in chicken stock until almost cooked. Add 1/2 head diced celery & cook a further 5 mins. Puree & serve with cream & a crushed garlic clove. Try a delicious cauliflower soup. Cauliflower can be deceptively smooth, almost velvety. Cook a thinly sliced leek until softened. Chop the cauliflower into small florets & saute most (reserve a cupful for garnish) & add to leek with some chopped garlic. When the cauliflower has softened slightly, add a litre of vegetable stock & simmer 20 mins until the cauliflower is very soft. Puree until very creamy & add more stock if it is too thick. Make croutons according to my method in previous post. Steam the reserved cauliflower until al dente then saute in a little oil with 3 tbsp capers, until golden. If you want a richer soup add a little cream. Serve with croutons & capers. What about a carrot & parsnip soup? In a large bowl mix 4 or five carrots & 2 parsnips, peeled & diced into 2 cm pieces, 1 onion thinly sliced, 2 roughly chopped tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic crushed & some olive oil. Tip onto a large roasting tray & roast at 180 about 40 mins. Turn occasionally. Process half the vegetables & 2 cups of chicken stock until smooth, then tip into a saucepan & add the remaining vegetables & another 2 cups of stock. Simmer for 10 minutes then stir in juice of 1/2 a lemon, 3tbsp cream & chopped parsley to serve. Finally I have saved the best for last. Finely chop in the food processor an onion, 2 carrots, a stick of celery and whatever else you like the look of in the fridge. I used a bit of fennel, some capsicum, 1/2 a red onion. I have taken to using the food processor to finely chop my vegetables for sofrito because I get improved consistency and, let's face it, it just saves a lot of time & effort. Just chop them into rough chunks first. Soften the vegetables in a large saucepan with a few chilli flakes. Add 4 cups boiling water & 3/4 cup pearl barley. I bought this to make a barley & meatball dish I haven't got around to, but this soup is now on my list of must repeats. Simmer about 1 1/2 hours until barley is tender. Stir in a tin of chopped tomatoes & a can of creamed sweet corn. Must be creamed. Simmer 20 minutes or so & serve with chopped parsley. Season to your taste. You can freeze the left overs. Watch this space for more soup Monday ideas. What are the favourites in your house?

Moorish

I was given Greg Malouf's book Moorish for Christmas and was inspired to a week of Middle Eastern delights in the kitchen. First we had lamb steaks with a lentil risotto. He seems to use risotto as a side dish quite a bit. This was a basic risotto - just onion, rice, stock & Parmesan. The lentils were just boiled with a finely chopped onion & a bayleaf then added to the rice near the end before the Parmesan was added. Top with caramelised red onions and serve with a carrot salad.

Shred a carrot or 2 and serve with a dressing comprising:

1 clove garlic crushed

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp chilli powder

juice of lge lemon

drizzle of honey

2 tbsp olive oil

splash of orange blossom water

The real find was labne. Wrap about 500g yoghurt in a piece of muslin. Suspend over a deep vessel, supported by a wooden spoon. If your dish is too shallow the yoghurt will rest in the dripping whey. Leave in the fridge overnight. I only had about 6 hours but it worked satisfactorily. You will end up with a thick curd. Blend about 100g of ordinary youghut with a handful each of fresh mint & flat leaf parsley leaves until you have a pale green paste. Season the curd ball with a tsp dried mint & a little salt. Swirl through the green paste so that there are streaks of green - not mixed right through. This is so delicious you will be looking for reasons to eat it.
The next night Phoebe was out and this is always an excuse to have shellfish. We made a mussel soup with a preserved lemon risotto. Saute onion, garlic & leek until soft then add the cleaned mussels & 1/3 cup white wine, turn up the heat & steam until they have all opened. About 3-4 minutes. Remove the mussels from their shells & add the meat back to the pan. Add a teaspoon each of turmeric, chilli, coriander, cumin, ginger and a good bunch of chopped parsley with 2/3 cup of cream. Bring to the boil & mix well.

Meanwhile prepare a basic risotto (you'll only want a small quantity) adding a preserved lemon (peel only) thinly sliced half way through. Put a spoonful of risotto in a soup bowl & pour over the mussel soup.

I served this with a sort of vegetable fattoush. Tomatoes, Lebanese cucumbers. spring onion, yellow capsicum, baby fennel, black olives and croutons of Turkish bread, tossed with a vinaigrette of oil, lemon & garlic, then sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds.
I had most of a loaf of Turkish bread left over so the next night we had Turkish burgers. I made mini lamb rissoles - 500g lamb mince, 50g soaked bulgar wheat, 4 tsp each dried mint & oregano, 1 clove of crushed garlic & lemon zest. We toasted the Turkish bread on the grill & served with labne, hummus, and other accompaniments I found in the fridge. We each made our own version.

The next night I made a Spanish omlette with left over potato, chorizo & prawns. Saute the filling items, then remove & wash out the pan. Lightly whisk the eggs with saffron & season. Mix with the potato mixture & pour back into the pan. Cook on a high heat for a few minutes until the egg has started to set then add some crumbled feta and either turn down & cover until cooked or finish under the grill. You want this to be quite thick & sliceable so don't use too wide a pan. Finish with a sprinkling of parsley.

Then I got a fancy for lamb with pomegranate. When we don't get our lamb from our butcher - Bill at Gipps St Butchery, we buy Wai-ora lamb at the market. You can order ahead & pick up on the day. It is beautiful. We substituted turkey stock for the pomegranate juice and used Pukara Estate Pomegranate balsamic vinegar which we bought at the Food Show. We sprinkled pomegranate seeds over the cooked, sliced lamb and served the pan juices as gravy. We served with roasted potatoes from the garden & baby kumara. And the first crop of peas with baby carrots. Washed down with a glass of rose. The perfect end to the holidays. Back to work tomorrow.

Phoebe filled tartlet cases with the last of the caramel & some chocalate icing. These are known as Chocolate Caramel Delights.