Souper!

I'm aware that the title of this post sounds like the title of a Jilly Cooper novel, but the similarities should end there. My daughter has recently been making soup at school, and I have been enjoying the results. She made a vegetable soup, and a pea and pancetta soup, and they were both delicious. The next week she made hedgehog bread, which was fab too.  I'm a big fan of soup, though my husband doesn't class it as any sort of  meal, more as a drink... but I disagree and think you can definitely class a hearty soup as a main course.

Also, last night I made a very special soup, for the starter of a family dinner with my parents today - using two (frozen) lobsters. Here is the end result:

 

 

It may not look like much, but it is the soup equivalent of understated glamour - 2 hours of cooking, brandy, wine, flambéing, double cream and a lot of love went into it!  It's the second time I've made it and it's definitely been the pinnacle of my new recipe project.

 

First I removed the meat from the defrosted lobsters and set it aside.  That part was fun, I used cherry stoners and poultry shears with a skewer to get the claw meat out. Then I broke up the lobster shells and cooked them with carrot and onion in butter, flambéing in brandy (Armagnac left over from the Christmas goose recipe) and then simmering in fish stock and white wine for 20 minutes.  Meanwhile I made a roux with butter and flour, adding boiling milk to make a thick white sauce.  This sauce was then added to the lobster and vegetables and simmered gently for an hour to allow the flavour of the lobster to go into the sauce.  After that, I removed the big pieces and sieved the rest, adding a bit more hot water as it was a bit too thick, and there wasn't very much of it for six of us! However, after reheating with a splash more Armagnac and some double cream and adding the chopped lobster meat it was perfect.

 

 

 

This is how much meat you get out of two smallish lobsters - shown in a cereal bowl - definitely quality rather than quantity.

 

 

Before the flambéing stage... I think next time I'll use a rolling pin to break the shells up a bit more. Note the bay leaves from my tree.
 

Nearly there...just the sieving to go. 

Last autumn half term, we went to visit my Uncle in North Lincolnshire, who is a keen gardener and he sent us home with a huge box of his home grown tomatoes, so after having eaten some just as they were, I set about turning the rest (three and a half kilos of them) into tomato soup. I made it in my massive stock pot (see below) and based it on a recipe from "A Celebration of Soup" by Lindsey Bareham - cooking the tomatoes (no need to bother skinning them as the skins will be sieved out later) with softened shallots, garlic and a bouquet garni with seasoning until mushy, then adding vegetable stock and simmering for 20 minutes, before sieving and reheating with a splash of cream and a pinch of sugar, which really brings out the flavour of the tomatoes.  There was such a lot I froze some for another day.

 

One of my other favourite soups was from celebrity Come Dine With Me - Linda Barker made cauliflower soup with goats cheese and truffle oil and I loved the sound of it - and I served it to my friends at my own CDWM night where it was deemed the highlight of the meal.  The goats cheese is passed through a tea strainer and mixed with truffle oil before a little dollop of it is placed in the centre of the soup and garnished with chives.

 

Another favourite started life as an Annabel Karmel baby puree but was so yummy that with a bit of extra seasoning and larger quantities became an adult meal - using red lentils and sweet potato.

 

I also love green soups, a fast and healthy one is maltese pea and cumin soup, made in minutes using frozen peas; also pea and tenderstem broccoli where you blitz half and not the other half to give it a bit more texture.

 

You can't go wrong with a nourishing chicken soup, made with the leftovers from the Sunday roast, or a miso prawn soup with noodles and spicy chilli, leek and butterbean soup with herb butter.. the list goes on.  Other soups I've made and enjoyed include beetroot & orange, fennel, pumpkin, celeriac, parsnip, and carrot & ginger.

 

Presentation can be fun too, okay it's just a liquid, but serving it in teacups or shot glasses, garnishes, fried onions, breadcrumbs, bacon bits, herbs, serving it with cheese toasts or interesting bread can make it look a bit more special.

 

 

 

One thing I've never tried making is a chilled soup, but I plan to give that a go when the weather warms up.

 

Thank you for reading,

 

Caroline :-)