Yam Soup

I have been turning everything into soup these days (other than the odd freaky salad for lunch) as it's autumn. I want to cook things that will warm us up. It's especially a welcome home for hubby after a long day at work who has to then take the train back usually in the cold and wet these days. We got excited when we saw Yam at our local green grocer and just had to buy a piece. I have to be honest that it is something I have eaten from when I was young but have never attempted to cook it myself so was on the hunt immediately for a recipe. I was pleased to find a rather simple soup on line for which I pretty much had all the ingredients! You will find the source here. 

Ok so I did have some variances. Firstly we were all out of wild rice...or admittedly I never buy wild rice. Then I tend to prefer creamy to chunky soup. Hubby thinks I just like to hear the sound of the blender. I also started by softening onions with fresh garlic before adding the yam and stock. Then of course hubby likes it spicy so I added a touch of cayenne pepper as well as the curry powder to give it a kick. After it simmered for it's appointed time into the blender it went. OMG!!! How was I to know that it would turn out so thick. I guess that is what yam does and had I known I would definitely have added more stock than had been advised!  I ended up adding some milk in the vain attempt to thin it out a bit (the vain effect is evidenced in the picture below).

Anyway it still tasted rather nice and what a filling experience it was. I use the word filling literally here as a bowl of this soup certainly leaves you feeling extra stuffed. An experience definitely to be repeated.

A small piece of yam was reserved and is now being roasted with my chicken in the oven as we speak!

Something like a Blumenthal look-alike

So I have tried twice recently to cook chicken soup. The fist time did not turn out so bad considering I did not have half the ingredients but the second time was close to perfection (well perfection for me and hubby anyway) considering I had a few more of the ingredients. I was very pleased with the end result and especially with hubby's responses...'I love when you cook like this'....'I was dreaming of this kind of chicken soup'.

So this fabulous recipe came from the BBC food recipes website and it's by Heston Blumenthal.

Chicken Soup

Recipe:

1kg/2lb 4oz chicken wings 

100g/3½oz unsalted butter

2 large onions, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

3 large carrots, finely chopped

1 small head of celeriac, finely chopped

250g/9oz button mushrooms, finely sliced

200ml/7fl oz dry white wine

bouquet garni (thyme, bay leaf and celery leaves)

4 whole star anise

3 sticks of celery, finely sliced

3 leeks, finely sliced

a small piece of fresh ginger 

salt and freshly ground black pepper 

large bunch of fresh parsley

Method:
Put the chicken wings into a casserole, pour over cold water just to cover and bring to the boil on a high heat. As soon as the water boils, skim off any impurities that may have risen to the surface, lift out the wings and cool them under running water. Pat dry. 

On a medium heat, melt the butter, add the chicken wings, onions, garlic, carrots, celeriac and mushrooms, and cook for 15 minutes.

Turn the heat up, pour in the wine, bring to the boil and reduce by half. Pour over cold water to cover by 5cm/2 inches, bring to the boil and skim off any impurities that may have risen to the surface. Add the bouquet garni and star anise, and simmer very gently for 30 minutes.

Add the celery, leeks and ginger and continue simmering very gently for another 15 minutes. Turn off the heat; season if necessary, add the parsley and leave to stand for 20 minutes.

Strain the soup through a fine-meshed sieve and then, if you have some, muslin. It can be eaten straight away, or left to cool and kept in an airtight container in the fridge.

Now it sounds good right! Definitely great considering the weather is changing and we are seeing less and less of Mr Sunshine. I learnt a new Italian word for it as well...uggioso. Of course I love following recipes exactly but sometimes when certain ingredients are missing you have to make do. Especially when it's the ones that you don't use regularly as well. 

Well first adaptation was the fact that I only had chicken thighs...but at least they still had the bone in them  which I think makes it better to form a sort of stock base or for flavour (I'm guessing by the way). Celeriac is also never in my house so that was missing. I used a bit of stock instead of the wine (which is probably cheating when it comes to flavours...oops). Then I had the right herbs just not the fresh ones so dried versions of the thyme had to do so it wasn't a bouquet garni. Ahmmm and I had no star anise either. Now I guess you understand that it was only a look-alike and not exactly the same thing! I never bothered to strain the soup either....hehehe.

Anyway...it still tastes great and a definite recommendation for you to try it!

Winter Warmer

Yes it is strange talking about it being winter at the end of May,but that is what you get when you live on the other side of the world. In Auckland there was actually a weather warning because of all the expected rain! Well I guess it can't be nice here all the time. The point is though when the weather gets colder I always feel for food that is going to warm me up. One of my favourites is a big bowl of soup...on the menu last night:

Pumpkin Soup

Most of the recipes I found doing my usual trawl through cookbooks and on line had similar recipe, mine was heavily influenced by Annabelle White and her presentation on the breakfast show which you can view here

I melted a lob of butter with some olive oil and added a large onion and 3 cloves of garlic both chopped obviously. Then I added a tsp of ginger and some coriander. Fresh is probably best but I was working with what I got which was ginger in a jar and dried coriander which ain't that bad to be honest. Then I added the pumpkin. Then I think my favourite bit which really adds a kick to this recipe is a tbsp of curry powder...heat and flavour galore! Once it softened I added a few cups of chicken stock, all depending really on how much soup you are aiming for. And no I did not make my own chicken stock but go for it if you are so inclined and it will probably make a huge difference. Then you let it simmer till the pumpkin is nice and soft. I am a fan of smooth soups but I do not own a hand held blender so out came the potato masher...hence the lumps in the picture ( hubby thought it was lentils....hmmm possibly an interesting addition?). At the end I lobbed in some parsley and serve.

Tada...a winter warmer that goes down a treat!