Category: soup

chorizo and chestnut soup

A stomping Winter warmer here, inspired by a posting by Food Urchin, in turn plucked from the pages of the Moro Cookbook.

Food Urchin is a jolly good blogger. Very entertaining, passionate about his food and nothing if not pragmatically resourceful, as he attempts to be fed daily by generous foodsters. A post of his popped up containing Two Soups, and one in particular caught my eye. It’s earthy, it’s Wintry, it’s warm and has two of my favourite things in: chorizo and chestnuts. Reminds me a little of another chorizo soup I did, though it sounds a little more interesting.

It’s a fairly simple (and quick) soup, of the bung-it-in-a-pot-and-simmer variety, which is endearing. A couple of tweaks I made though: not so fussed about chilli in my house so left that aside and instead added a measure of smoky sweet paprika. Then as I was about to serve I thought a couple of dressings would really lift the final bowl: a swirl of seasame oil to remind of the rich nuttiness, and a drizzle of sweetest balsamic vinegar to give a nice acid finish. It’s a really lovely bowl of soup, and served with some brown bread it’s perfect for these dark October evenings. Thanks Food Urchin 🙂

Chestnut and chorizo soup:

1 large onion, diced

1 medium carrot, diced

1 celery stick, thinly sliced

120g chorizo, diced

2 garlic gloves, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 tin tomatoes

500g cooked peeled chestnuts (fresh or vacuum-packed), roughly chopped

20 saffron threads, infused in 3-4 tbs boiling water

1 ltr water

sesame oil and balsamic vinegar to serve

Fry the onion, garlic, carrot, celery, chorizo and a pinch of salt for about 10 minutesuntil browned.

Add the cumin, thyme and paprika and cook for 1 more minute, followed by the tomato and chestnuts.

Give everything a stir and then add the saffron-infused liquid, the water and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Season well with salt and pepper and lightly pulse it with a hand blender. Serve with a drizzle each of oil and vinegar, with breadsticks or bread on the side.

food onion soup

onion soup

You can’t go wrong with a rich brown bowl of onion soup, with deep beefy flavours and soft sweet onions. And for me it isn’t complete without a crisp crouton bobbing on top, with a layer of melted cheese. Gruyere is best, but I’ll settle for cheddar. Just the thing when the nights draw in.

The milk powder isn’t essential but is packed with proteins and sugars; when heated they brown up really well adding colour and the sugar and butter give a beautiful shine to the finished soup.

The stock is crucial to this. It’s the body of the flavour and has nowhere to hide so get the very best you can.

Onion soup:

50g butter

1 bay leaf

Pinch each of dried thyme, sage and rosemary

6 onions, peeled and finely sliced

1 heaped tablespoon milk powder

300ml white wine

2 pints of your best beef stock

Toasted bread and cheese, to serve

Melt the butter in a large pan. When it starts to foam, add the herbs and tip in the onions with a pinch of salt.

Allow the onions to caramelize on a low heat. You need to allow them to catch on the bottom of the pan, as this gives the finished soup it’s colour. After ten minutes of this add the milk powder and cook away for another 3-4 minutes.

Add the wine and turn the heat up, allowing this to bubble away and reduce to almost nothing.

Add the stock and simmer for 20 mins. Adjust the seasoning, then top with toast and melted cheese.

carrots chicken food soup

matzo ball soup

Yet again another Jewish recipe from the Gentile! There’s an honesty and heartiness to the Jewish kitchen that I keep coming back to. I was in part spurred on by Comedinewithcathy’s recent attempt, though I luckily had no such genuine benchmark against which to be measured. My version, like hers, comes from Jamie Oliver’s recent book Jamie’s America which he refers to as Jewish Penicillin. Matzo isn’t something I’ve ever knowingly had before, nor found easy to obtain from my local Tesco’s. I used cream crackers pounded to dust instead, so I hope I at least captured the essence of the staple soup dumpling.

I’d already used the breasts and wings of a whole chicken for a tray bake earlier in the week among other dishes, so the remainder of the carcass and went in a pot of cold water for half an hour. I skimmed off a great deal of scum then piled in chopped carrot, celery, garlic, thyme and bay. After an hour there was golden chicken fat floating to the surface, so I skimmed that off too for the dumplings later. After anhour and a half I strained off the contents to police for skin, bones, thyme stalks and lacklustre veg, and tore the meat from the bones before returning it all to the pan.

Then came the matzo balls (Jacob’s balls, I guess I should call them): powdered crackers, 2 beaten eggs, water, salt and pepper and a little of the skimmed chicken fat beaten together until thick, then left for a few minutes to firm up. I then scooped into balls and added to the bubbling soup. After twenty minutes they had doubled in size, then for a final ten minutes I added broken up vermicelli, parsley and dill.

I can see why this would be a great meal when you’re down – it’s dense with robust flavour, and the tender vegetables give you a warming feeling inside. The herb lend a freshness while the ‘noodles’ and dumplings give you sustenance. It’s very filling, and easy to see why it can be a family favourite. Another time I’d be tempted to pull it in another direction – with little fiddling it could end up as a lhaksa, and a dash of tabasco or fish sauce, topped with spring onions could really give it a final zing.

Tags jamie oliver

basil cauliflower courgettes food pasta soup tomato

minestrone soup

I saw Oliver’s Twist the other day, a TV programme of Jamie Oliver’s created for syndication all over the world. It’s little seen in the UK until recently, when the Good Food Channel started running them. In this one, he was making food for his then-14 month old daughter Poppy. The minestrone soup he made really caught my eye, and my tongue!

I found his recipe for minestrone on his site. ‘Minestrone’ loosely means “the big soup” and has no set recipe; it’s an Italian staple designed to use whatever vegetables are in season and stretch them out for soup. I had some cauliflower and courgette leftover from yesterday’s curry so they were definitely going in, along with some tomatoes and asparagus tips I had.

I started by sweating down a diced onion and some crushed garlic, along with some finely chopped basil stalks. I find the stalks of basil plants infuse your soffritto with such perfume, it’s really delicious backnote. I wasn’t impressed with the quality of my tomatoes so I added a squirt of tomato puree here too. I then added the diced veg as above, spaghetti snapped into 2 inch pieces and vegetable stock. I let it simmer until the pasta was al dente, then scooped into deep bowls topped with shredded basil. The final genius touch by Jamie was a generous dollop of pesto; it sounds a bit odd but the powerful ingredients seep gently into the broth and infuse it with sunny flavours. Very tasty, and one that will stay with me all year depending on what’s in the cupboard!

Tags jamie oliver