Chicken Waterzooi

As promised last time, today we have the first of a few Belgian soup recipes, inspired by my recent visit to Brugge.  Sadly, as we were only there for one night, we didn't have time to sample a huge array of Belgian foodstuffs - Flemish Rabbit Stew, Frites and deep fried gravy were about the limit of what we had time for (and the obligatory waffles, chocolates and beers, of course...) but everywhere we went in the city (and we did go ALL over...) there were little restaurants selling wonderful food.

Other things we saw on menus all over were Moules (mussels) and Waterzooi.  Waterzooi is a stew or soup (Ahhh the age old question - when does something stop being a stew and start being a soup...) which can be made with chicken, mussels or other fish.

Like a lot of Belgian food, it's very rich and creamy and totally delicious. It's a sort of Flemish Cock-a-leekie, with a lot of recipes recommending using a whole chicken, although I have just stuck to using thighs which are both cheap and really tasty.  I tend to substitute them for breast in almost every recipe I cook, but you could use breast or chicken quarters in the soup.

If you have never been before, I highly reccomend a visit to Brugge - it's a beautiful place, and we had a brilliant tour round by a local gentleman who told us (amongst other things) that one ruler of the city was called Baldwin Iron Arm, who scared a bear to death*, and that they chopped off the head of a finance minister who raised taxes after promising not to (A strategy I think many people would be in favour of re-introducing...)

* This may not be entirely true - it was cold and I was tired so I may have mis-heard...

Ingredients
6 Chicken Thighs
2 Carrots
2 Leeks
2 Stalks of Celery
1 Onion
1 Sprig Thyme
2 Bay leaves
Chicken Stock
20g Butter
250ml Double Cream
2 Egg Yolks
Pinch of Nutmeg

Method
1.  Peel and chop the onion, leek, celery and carrots.  Heat the butter in your soup pan and then gently sweat the vegetables for 5 minutes, until they start to soften

2. Add the stock, thyme, bay leaves and chicken thighs.  Bring the soup to a gentle simmer and then cook for 10-15 minutes, until the chicken poaches. Check that the chicken is cooked through and there is no pink left in the meat, then removed the chicken from the soup and set aside.  Let the soup cool for 10 minutes.

3.  Strip the meat from the bones and remove the skin, then cut the chicken into small pieces and return to the pan.

4.  In a bowl, mix the cream and egg yolks thoroughly, then put this in the soup pan over a gentle heat, stirring quickly, so that the mixture thickens the soup. Be careful that th egg and cream mixture doesn't cook too quickly or scramble! Taste and adjust seasoning, adding a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg, then serve with crusty white bread.  Enjoy!

Weekly Bake-Off : Cappuccino Cake

Cake, we've missed you!

After a summer-holiday induced hiatus, we're back this week with the Weekly Bake-Off! This is a Good Thing, as there had been a couple of comments at work about it being a while since there had been cake!

As I'm now cycling to work, and a ride on a bike is not particularly conducive to cake-staying-togetherness, I made this on Tuesday evening to take in on the bus on Wednesday (after my Orange Wednesday movie night I prefer not to cycle home). The recipe for this week was Cappuccino Cake (p20), and it was very easy to throw together on a work night - the mix was made all in one bowl, and baked in 2 deep 20cm tins (I only have 1 deep tin, so did 2 batches, but I think just making 1 deep cake and slicing it would have worked as well).

I'm not a big fan of cream for icing, but decided not to mess with the recipe - and am very glad I didn't! Flavouring the cream with coffee (no sugar added) made for a light, tasty, slightly bitter (to offset the sweet cake) icing without the heaviness I normally associate with cream cake. The cake itself was light and moist - this might become my go-to chocolate sponge recipe in fact.

Mr Soup is more of a savoury man but even he absolutely loved this cake - when I was getting ready to take it to work I was told to leave 2 slices for him! Everyone at work enjoyed it too - a very good introduction back into the Weekly Bake Off routine.

Courgette, Ginger and Orange Soup

 This week, doing our bit to support local producers, as well as doing the whole 'organic' thing, we at Soup Towers signed up to get a vegetable box delivered each week.  I like the whole 'pot-luck' aspect of getting one of these boxes of produce, but it does make for an interesting experience of conjuring up a new soup every week...

For instance, this week, in the box, we got broad beans (which went into a risotto with some bacon and chorizo), onions and new potatoes (which made a fine accompaniment to some pork steaks and caramelised apples) and some locally sourced butter (Lemon drizzle cake!) which just left come fine looking courgettes, which meant that I had to make, you guessed it, courgette soup.

So I tried to make it both summery (because, well... it's at least meant to be summer) and healthy (as in - no bacon, black pudding or random bits of offal) because yet again, disease is stalking Soup Towers in the form of a rather nasty summer cold that Mrs Soup picked up at the weekend whilst *shudder* glamping...

So here is what I came up with, a citrusy and creamy, light courgette soup, hopefully packed with enough vitamin C to clear off the most virulent of summer colds...

Creamy Turkey, Mushroom and Sage Soup

So Easter came and went, and was declared by all and sundry to be a bit of a damp squib, but life goes on and so does the soup making.  And here is a bit of a cracker - more of a winter soup than a light, summery thing, but once you've tasted it, I think you will forgive me.  Oh, and the way the wether is at the moment, it will go down a treat!

You could use left-over turkey for this one, especially if you've had one for Sunday roast (I'll have to remind everyone of this soup come December when people are moaning about what to do with surplus xmas dinner - not me, however, I love turkey and I'm always a little bit sad when it's all gone...)

Also in this soup, I've used red rice, which has a really nice nutty flavour, but if you can't get that, just use brown rice instead (I think I own way to may types of rice.  At present, we have Arborio, Paella, Thai Jasmine, Brown, Red, Black, Long grain, Pudding, Sushi and Basmati.  Is that too much rice?)

250g Turkey Breast
250g Chestnut Mushrooms
75g Red Rice
20 Sage Leaves
1 Onion
1 Leek
1.2l Chicken or Turkey Stock
250ml White Wine
200ml Double Cream
3tbsp Plain Flour
Butter
Oil
Salt and Pepper

1. If you are using fresh turkey instead of left overs, dice the turkey and fry in a little oil until it starts to colour slightly.  Drain and set aside.

2.  Finely chop the onion and leek, then finely slice the sage leaves.

3.  Heat some more oil in your soup pan and fry the onion, leeks and sage leaves until the onions start to soften.  Add the flour and cook for another minute or two, stirring constantly

4.  Slowly add 200ml of stock and the white wine, stirring all the time, making sure no bits get  caught on the bottom of the pan and burn.  This should start to thicken nicely

5.  Add the rest of the stock, season to taste and then add the rice.  Bring the soup to the boil and then simmer for 30 minutes, until the rice is cooked through.

6.  Slice the mushrooms.  In another pan, heat some butter and fry the mushrooms gently until they start to brown on the edges.

7.  Add the mushrooms and cream to the soup, along with the turkey, and simmer for a further 10 minutes. Check the seasoning one more time

8.  Serve and garnish with fresh sage leaves.  Enjoy!

Asparagus Soup

Summer is here, with all the associated trappings - my hay fever playing up again, the English guy losing at Wimbledon (or has he gone back to being Scottish again yet?)

But most excitingly, as soon as the sun starts shining properly, we get to enjoy all the summer fruits and vegetables in their glory, especially asparagus.  It really is the perfect soup for a day when the sky is blue and the bumble bees are buzzing.  Goes well with a glass of Pimms, I can tell you

Leek & Potato Soup

This is a pretty simple, but hearty and tasty recipe.  I use chicken stock in this, but you could use vegetable stock, or just water.  Similarly, you could substitute the butter for vegetable oil and even miss out the cream if you are watching the calories