Showing posts with label soup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soup. Show all posts

Monday, November 13, 2017

Master the art of great soup from six simple broths. Broth to Bowl by Drew Smith.

Master the art of great soup from six simple broths.

Broth to Bowl by Drew Smith.

“You might find your definition of the word soup somewhat stretched in these pages but that is the way of my kitchen.” 

So says author Drew Smith in the introduction to his new book, Broth to Bowl. The word soup is “stretched” here, in many delightful ways as he shows us how to master the art of great soup from six simple broths. 

And, by the way, Drew is adamant: “a stock cube will not do”. “For soup to be nutritionally optimal and full of flavour, you must begin with a solid foundation – a good broth.”

“Soup is the heart and soul of the kitchen. Menus invite you to think that a soup is a single event, which it is if you are running a restaurant. But at home, probably the last thing you want is 75 bowls of cauliflower cheese soup. 

What we want is evolution, so one recipe leads logically into the next and so on. Less work. One job = three or four or more, completely different meals, a vegetable tea becomes a chunky vegetable broth becomes a creamy soup. The same liquid can find its way into ragouts, stews, casseroles and all manner of sauces.” 
Ingredients I gathered for vegetable tea and vegetable broth

If you are on a budget, this book is for you. “It may seem at first glance that we are using humble, cheap everyday ingredients, but for the most part these are what our bodies need and crave. We have become very wasteful as a society. We like our meat to be neat little red fillets. 

But much, if not most, of the nutritional benefits of eating meat at all are to be found in and around the bones, the marrow, the collagen-rich elements like cheek and trotter. We buy breast of chicken and ignore the rest of the bird, despite knowing through history that a soup made from the carcass has always been given as a restorative. So too was beef tea.”

Vegetable tea, the basis..

Let us go through the section headings. We’ll start with Vegetable Tea. It is the first recipe you’ll see and that is the start, and also the basis, for many more, including Potassium Broth (“If you had to live on one simple recipe, then this might be a good choice”), Kale Vichyssoise, Laksa and Gazpacho (for when the temperature rises above 25 degrees!).

... for the broth
Now we move on to Chicken (Drew is not a fan of buying poultry in pieces) and other birds. Start here with chicken broth, roast or poached. Then hop around the world with Quick Tom Yum, Cockaleekie, and the French St Hubert’s Soup (pheasant with lentils).

The red meats are next, beginning with the Basic Beef Bone Broth and that can be the basis for so much more. There's a Proper Borscht, a Rich Man’s Pho, a French Potée (a soup, broth and stew all in one), and the legendary Italian bollito misto.

There is a shortish, but no less interesting, chapter under Fish, including Fish Chowder, Jane Grigson’s Lobster Bisque, Dalston Bouillabaisse, and a magnificent Oyster Soup!

And we stay with the sea as we turn the focus to Kombu. How about a Japanese Bonito Broth? Monkfish in dashi with ginger? A Tonkotsu Ramen? 

My chunky vegetable broth

It is much the same pattern all the way through. Start simply and build from there. So, in the end, it may be more to accurate to say that soup (the food that is), is expanded, enhanced, deepened, in this well laid out, well illustrated, book, while happily admitting that soup (the word) is well and truly stretched.

* In addition to the recipes, there is advice on buying your produce and on the equipment you’ll need. And a list of various garnishes too.

  • Drew Smith is the author of Oyster: A Gastronomic History with Recipes and translator of La Mère Brazier. The former editor of The Good Food Guide, he has been a restaurant writer for the Guardian and has won the Glenfiddich award three times.

* Broth to Bowl: Mastering the Art of Great Soup from Six Simple Broths by Drew Smith - Modern Books, published October 2017, Hardback, 4 colour with photographs, 160 pages, RRP: £20.




Vegetable Tea



This is a sequence. It starts out as a light tea, becomes a soup and then transforms itself

again and again. You can drink this first-stage broth as an alternative to tea and coffee.

Once you get the hang of it, vary the spices, vegetables and herbs with the seasons.

Put 4 litres of water on to boil in a deep pot or saucepan while you deal with the vegetables. Peel and trim the carrots and cut into thirds. Peel and quarter the onions. Dice the leek. Quarter the potatoes – you can leave the skin on. As the water comes to the boil, drop the vegetables in and add the spices. Trim the top leaves off the parsley, save for arnish, and throw the stalks in the mix. Cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Strain and discard the vegetables, keeping only the liquid. Warm through, garnish with a few leaves of parsley and add a slurp of olive oil if you like. Serve in a mug or glass or take a thermos to work.

COOK’S TIP: There’s nothing wrong with the leftover vegetables. You can have them for dinner, dressed with a little meat broth. Or take out the potato and carrot, dice and mix with mayonnaise for a cold salad.

Ingredients:

3 CARROTS
2 ONIONS
1 LEEK
2 POTATOES
6 BLACK PEPPERCORNS
1 BAY LEAF
Bunch of fresh PARSLEY
SEA SALT to taste
OLIVE OIL to serve (optional)
MAKES 4 LITRES

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Taste of the Week. Cully & Sully Lentil & Smoked Bacon Soup

Taste of the Week
Cully & Sully Lentil & Smoked Bacon Soup

The latest Taste of the Week is packed with flavour and makes for a great lunch after a rainy midweek morning. Full of goodness too as Lentils provide “plenty of protein, cholesterol-lowering soluble fibre and about twice as much iron as other legumes”. Cully & Sully provide lots of information on their packs and even a recipe on this one where you can combine chickpeas with the soup.


Cully & Sully have a big range of soups and also do Hot Pots and Pies, all widely available. Check it all out here, either before or after enjoying our Taste of the Week!

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Cully & Sully’s Heart Soup. Helping Ireland’s Little Hearts

Cully & Sully’s Heart Soup

Helping Ireland’s Little Hearts


You’ve got to love this: two good things in the one package from Cully & Sully.

First - they've come up with a Magic Bean Soup. It is good for your heart.

Second - it is good for someone else too. Cully & Sully have pledged a donation from sales of this limited edition to the Heart Children Ireland charity, a support group for parents and families of children with a Congenital Heart Disorder.

The Limited Edition Soup has just launched ahead of Valentine’s Day with Cully and Sully hoping, in this traditional time of love, to raise awareness of the charity who do their work nationwide with no government funding. So keep an eye open over the next while for the distinctive black and red package and spread the love!

And the soup? Well I’ve just had a sample and it is red, robust and warm, perfect for these end of winter days. Great flavours and texture and packed with healthy beans (cannellini and butter) in a tasty tomato broth.

So there you are, two good reasons to try this top notch soup.
First - you’ll enjoy the soup, and so will your heart.
Two - you’ll also enjoy helping Ireland’s little bravehearts.

Monday, October 29, 2012

In Praise of The Phoenix Park Tea Rooms


The Phoenix Park Tea Rooms

There are many attractions in Dublin’s Phoenix Park, the Zoo the most obvious and popular and perhaps also the biggest. But if you are in the area, keep an eye out for one of the smaller ones, the Phoenix Park Tea Rooms, on Chesterfield Avenue, just across the road from the Zoo entrance.

It looked gorgeous from the footpath last week, framed by the golden foliage of the many trees. So we walked in for a quick snack and right into a delightful spot and not just because there were a few squirrels frolicking in the immediate area.

They are open all day long and include some terrific organic stuff on the menu, including the coffee and tea. All the vegetables, salads and fruits are from Kinneden Organics in Roscommon, the chicken is from Cootehill in Monaghan. And their sourdough is by Arun Bakery.

I settled on a bowl of their terrific vegetable soup, served with a lovely tasty brown mini loaf by Arun, all for a fiver. Would have loved to have eaten more there but the soup and the bread fitted the bill at the time and I didn't get a chance to go back there.

But do put it on your list if you are in the area. It is hardly 15 minutes from Heuston Station and should be even more of a delight in the summer when you can sit out on a circle of rustic tables.

Telephone:             01 677 0090    

Saturday, October 29, 2011

SOUP RECIPES BY THE SCORE


 1000s of SOUPS!

Soups to cosy up to


That cool autumn air makes a mug of warming soup all the more inviting, and we’ve over 1000 Soup recipes to try!

Share your favourite soup recipe!

Soup recipe collections