30 minute lunch - Tomato, parsley & bread soup

Winter lunches are all about soup for me. I don't like eating salads when it's cold, I need that warm & full in the tummy feeling. Since making my own soups I'm more and more disappointed with the range in supermarkets here, and miss the delicious Covent Garden soups from the UK. Don't think Coles will be stocking them anytime soon though.

I modified this recipe from Marion Grasby's stunning new book, Recipes and stories from a hungry cook.  The layout is so enticing, and I'm enjoying reading about the thai recipes, and where they come from. She's incredibly talented, and I hope she is able to outgrow the Masterchef label that is placed on her.

Thanks Warringah library - I would be bankrupt without you supplying me with new cookbooks!

Surprisingly enough, I didn't have tinned tomatoes in my pantry today, so I used fresh.  I love that Marion suggests using tinned, this makes it a soup that would easily come from ingredients already in the kitchen, rather than needing to make a trip to the shops.

Ingredients:

1kg fresh tomatoes or 3 tins of tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves, finely diced
1 handful of basil or other fresh herbs (I used parsley)
2 slices stale bread
2 teaspoons white sugar
Parmesan to serve
Salt & pepper to taste

Method:

Heat the garlic in the olive for about a minute in a saucepan.  Then add the tomatoes and leave to simmer for half an hour or so to develop their flavour.
After this time, taste and add sugar and salt as necessary.  Then tear the bread and add it to the soup, then finally adding fresh herbs.
Can be served immediately with parmesan and fresh herbs to garnish.

Chicken soup for the soul

I've always muttered away to myself when Americans rave about chicken soup. I've seen more than a few self-help books with 'chicken soup' in the title too, it all seemed to take the idea of a healing soup a bit too far.

But having been under the weather for about 2 weeks now, with the slow coughs and colds, headaches and general tiredness I have been craving chicken soup.  In whatever format was available, and wishing there was a Vietnamese place for Pho a little close by.  The thing is with chicken soup, when you're feeling sick it's a little bit too involved to be making yourself, especially if you make the stock from scratch too.  If only my mum lived around the corner.

As the clouds of sickness were lifting at the weekend, I decided it was time to itch that craving. Not only was it my first batch of chicken noodle soup, but also, quite embarrassingly, my first chicken stock. The smell of stock through the house was wonderful, rich but soothing, I'll definitely be making it again.

I used a recipe from an old Sunday Life magazine, one of my many recipe clippings. Unfortunately there is no author.

Chicken stock - makes about 2 litres

1 chicken carcass (use after the meal)
2 carrots, chopped
1 stick celery, sliced
1 clove garlic, finely sliced
1 tsp peppercorns
1 tsp mixed herbs

Place the chicken carcass, carrots, celery, garlic, peppercorns and herbs in a large pot. Cover with 2 litres of cold water, then bring to a simmer over a low heat for 30 mins. Then strain.

Chicken noodle soup

Ingredients:
50ml olive oil
1 brown onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
3 sprigs thyme
2 stalks celery, finely sliced
1 carrot, chopped
80g butter
1.5L chicken stock (see above)
1/2 long-grain white rice
200g fine egg noodles (I used soba this time)
1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, diced

In a large pan over a medium heat, add the oil, onion, garlic and thyme and cook for 3 minutes, then reduce to low and add the celery, carrot and butter and cook for 20 minutes, and caramelised.
Then add the stock and rice, increasing the heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the noodles and cook for 10 minutes, finally adding the chicken meat to warm though.  Season to taste with salt & pepper.

Jerusalem artichoke & bacon soup

I'm a soup-a-holic the whole way through winter. I prefer to make my own, I like to know what's in my food these days, and that they aren't full of 'fillers.

This jerusalem artichoke soup is full of nostalgia for me, Mum used to prepare it for us whenever we saw jerusalem artichokes in the shops or supermarkets. They aren't really widely used, and are a little bit hard to get.  They also involve a bit of preparation - the are knotty and gnarly, quite like ginger, but as they are a root vegetable they can get quite dirty.  I washed them and focused on removing the darkest/dirtiest areas by peeling them.

I've just done a quick wikipedia search on them - truly enlightening! They are from the Eastern part of the United States and were first eaten by the American Indians. They are also sometimes called sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple or topinambour and are part of the Sunflower family. There is no connection to either Jerusalem or the artichoke family, and it is not fully known why the name Jerusalem has been given to this tuber.

Jerusalem artichokes have a beautiful nutty flavour, something that is so much more intense and sweet than a traditional or sweet potato. In fact, I'm sure this soup would be fairly bland if traditional potatoes were used. Bacon adds a lovely salty flavour to everything, but I'm sure it could be left out or replaced with extra parsley if you are after a vegetarian version. Keep your eye out for Jerusalem artichokes - they are a winter-only vegetable in Australia and won't be around for much longer.

Unwashed Jerusalem artichokes

Ingredients:
1kg Jerusalem artichoke, peeled and sliced
1 brown onion, chopped
2 rashers bacon, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
600ml chicken or vegetable stock
600ml milk
1 Tbs fresh parsley, chopped
50g butter
Salt and pepper to taste
4 Tbs cream (optional)


Method:


Melt the butter in a medium heat pan, then add the Jerusalem artichokes, onion, bacon and celery. Fry these off for about 8 minutes, making sure to keep them moving in the pan. Then stir in the milk, stock and parsley and simmer for half an hour. Using a stick blender, bring to a smooth consistency, and add the cream (if desired).
Serve with parsley and pepper.

Post washing & peeling

Frying off the core ingredients

My soup friend - Cuisinart stick blender