Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Crab Gazpacho I'm trying to catch up in the fish and shellfish section of The Soup Book. I've made less than 60% of the fish soups so far (the same goes for the meat soups) so I chose crab gazpacho for this weekend's effort. The spouse had brought home some cheap pre-packed crab during the week and I thought I'd use it up. The recipe is by Marie-Pierre Moine and a little on the fiddly side. The ingredients include clams or mussels (I chose the latter), shallot, spring onions, garlic, dry sherry, parsley, fennel seeds, piquante pimenton (which I discovered is a type of paprika after I had substituted a type of whole chilli), tomatoes, boiled eggs, sherry vinegar (never heard of it before), and crab meat. The brown meat is, strictly speaking, not an ingredient of the soup as it is mixed with oil and chopped egg, then spread on croutes and served floating on the soup. I'll come to the crab meat presently. The spouse was working outside Dublin yesterday, so I ha

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.

Creamy Pistachio Soup I have yet to be disappointed by any of Roopa Gulati 's recipes in The Soup Book  and today's effort was no exception. It's been an erratic day weather-wise on this May bank holiday - heavy rain interspersed with lovely sunshine. We had most of the ingredients in the house: pistachio nuts, cardamon pods, mace, coriander seeds and leaves, garlic, spring onions, root ginger, garam masala, vegetable stock and cream. All I had to do was dash out between showers to buy a green chilli from Young Stephen. This was not a soup to be hurried as there was a lot of preparation involved. I got the younger offspring to to shell the nuts for me - he only really got into when I handed him the meat tenderiser so that he could bash open the more reticent shells. I then cooked the shelled pistachios in boiling water for a couple of minutes and then spent more time than anticipated removing the skins. Sensing fiddliness, the spouse volunteered his skinning skills. Th

Widow's Soup A quick search on the internet comfirms Sophie Grigson 's introductory remarks about widow's soup, namely that it is a Maltese soup. That search also throws up lots of recipes, all with different ingredients, so for now I'll stick with those listed in The Soup Book . You'll need onion, potato, cauliflower florets, carrots, a small lettuce (I used gem), fresh or frozen peas, tomatoes, tomato puree, sugar, red wine vinegar, eggs and ricotta or goat's cheese (I used the latter). There was quite a bit of preparation involved, certainly not the seven minutes Sophie suggests. Who are all these fast peelers, skinners and choppers? Despite nearly two and a half years of soup making, I still haven't speeded up. So, after I had prepared my vegetables, I got cooking. I fried the onions until they were soft. Next into the pan were the potato, cauliflower, carrots and lettuce (if you were using fresh peas, you'd throw them in too at this point). I