Zupa Koperkowa - Polish Dill Soup

I had some friends who went on holiday to various East European countries, and when they returned, the brought back tales of culinary horror.  Not only was it nigh-on impossible to get a decent vegetarian meal in Latvia, but in Poland - horror of horrors - they put dill on EVERYTHING.  And my friends REALLY couldn't stand dill. Now I can't vouch for the veracity of these stories, but I'm pretty sure my friends would hate this soup...

This is a really simple soup that is really all about the dill, although it is really filling and creamy and would be good as a winter warmer, or as a summer soup.  Of course, the recipe I really wanted to do this week was a Polish Tripe soup, but the supermarket seems to have stopped stocking cow's stomach linings, so I will have to take a trip to Leeds Market to procure some.  You have been warned...

Ingredients
1 Carrot
1 Potato
2 Parsnips
250ml Sour Cream
150g White Rice
1.5l Chicken Stock
1 Bunch of Fresh Dill
2 Bay Leaves
Salt and Pepper

Method
1. In a large pan, heat your chicken stock.  Add the bay leaves and the carrot, potato and parsnip, all peeled and cubed.  Bring to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes

2. After 20 Minutes, add the rice and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes, until the rice is cooked and the vegetables are soft.

3.  Finely chop the dill and add to the pan, along with the sour cream. Heat through

4.  Adjust seasoning to taste and serve with some extra dill for garnish.  Enjoy!

Fazolová Polévka : Czech Bean Soup

This is the second recipe suggested by the lovely people who have been sending me postcards via the rather wonderful Post Crossing website.  Today's soup is a Czech recipe and was suggested by Anna (Who also sent me a postcard with a picture of the Bohemian forest on it, but not a rhapsody to be seen, I'm afraid...)

One problem I encountered when putting this recipe together was that during the research phase - it's like NASA round here when I get on a soup tip - that most of the websites I looked at for inspiration were in Czech.  Now, in the 21st Century, you wouldn't think that this would be a problem.  Except that Google Translate, whilst being pretty amazing, can sometimes throw up some weird things.  For instance, does adding basil to a recipe reduce flatulence?  Or did the original Czech mean something entirely different.  And what exactly is White Bone Stock?  (I suspect this may be a real thing, as I've come across recipes for Bone Soup before)

So after some struggling, I came up with this approximation of Czech Bean Soup, with added smoked sausage that I initially bought for another soup, the making of which was thwarted by the fact Morrisons butchery department has stopped stocking pig's trotters (Can the fact that Morrisons plc just published lower than expected sales figures be in some way related to the vanishing pigs feet?)

However, fear not, as a trip to Leeds Market will hopefully furnish me with the required bits for next week.  In the meantime, enjoy this simple but delicious soup, which is probably great for all those of you on a post xmas diet (especially if you leave out the sour cream, or substitute some natural yogurt instead)

Ingredients
2 Tins of Cannellini Beans  
1 Small Onion
1 Carrot
2 Stalks of Celery 
2 Cloves Garlic
1 Bay Leaf
Chicken Stock
6 Sage Leaves
Olive Oil Smoked Sausage
250ml Sour Cream
Salt
Black Pepper 

Method
1.  Finely chop the onion, carrot, celery and garlic.

2.  Heat some olive oil in a pan.  Add the vegetables and cook gently for 5-7 minutes, until they start to go soft.

3. Add the stock.  Rinse the beans and add them too, as well as the bay leaf and sage.  Bring the soup to the boil and then simmer for 30 minutes, until the beans have gone soft.  Take the pan off the heat and leave to cool for 15 minutes.

4.  Blend the soup until smooth, then return to the pan.  Adjust seasoning and then reheat gently.  Stir in the sour cream at this point, but don't let the soup boil.

5.  Grill or fry some thin slices of smoked sausage.  Pour the soup into warm bowls and then garnish with the slices of sausage.  Serve with crusty bread.  Enjoy!

Kartoffelsuppe : German Potato Soup

Happy new year everyone! Hope your hang-over has subsided and that you are looking forward to the new year as much as I am.  I've got some exciting things planned for the blog this year, starting with today's recipe.

It's often hard for me to come up with inspiration for soups - either using whatever is at hand, or when that elusive soupy muse strikes.  The easiest inspiration is when someone else suggests it, but where could I find a willing source of people around the world to tell me what kind of soups they like?

I happened to stumble across a website called Post Crossing, which is a postcard exchange site (And if you are looking for something to do in the new year, you could do worse than sign up - it's fun getting snail mail from all over the planet!)  Anyway, I set up a profile and asked for people who were sending me a postcard to include their favourite soup recipe from their home country.  And today's soup is the first result - a humble but hearty potato soup recipe from Germany. 

I used nice waxy potatoes, and was quite happy with the consistency - potato soups can have a tendency to get quite thick and glue-y.  If yours is going that way, add a bit more stock after blending.  Also, substituting some sausage for the bacon would work brilliantly.  So thanks to donnerkugel from Germany via Postcrossing for suggesting it!

Ingredients
750g Potatoes
1 Large Onion
1 Carrot
150g Smoked Bacon
1.2l Beef Stock
200ml Sour Cream
1tsp Thyme
Grated Nutmeg
20g Butter
Salt
Pepper

Method.
1.  Heat up the butter in a soup pan.  Fry the cubed bacon until it browns.  Using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon and set aside

2.  Thinly slice the onion. Fry them in the butter and bacon fat until they start to go golden.

3. Peel and cube the onions and carrots.  Add these to the onions in the pan, along with the thyme and nutmeg.  Allow them to cook for 4-5 minutes in the butter along with the onions, until they start to colour slightly.

4.  Add the stock to the pan, bring to the boil, cover and then simmer for 40 minutes, until the potatoes are just starting to break up.  Take the pan off the heat and leave to stand for 15 minutes.

5.  Using a stick blender, blend 2/3 of the soup and then return to the pan, stirring well.  You could alternatively use a potato masher to break up the vegetables - or use a mixture of the two.  As long as you don't have too many large chunks of vegetable floating round in the pan.

6.  Return the pan to the heat, adjusting seasoning, and heat through.  Just before serving, stir in the sour cream.  Ladle into heated bowls and garnish with the bacon that you set aside earlier.  (I warmed my bacon through under a hot grill for a few minutes before serving too)  Enjoy!

Sidvudvu - Olympic Food Challenge : Swaziland

At least one member of Team Soup is from South Africa, which made finding a dish to cook from Swaziland (A tiny little country that borders SA, also birthplace to Richard E Grant, if memory serves) a bit difficult.  Every website we looked at for inspiration, I was informed that all the nice-looking dishes were South African.  Grrr, I gritted my teeth and pressed on.

Pretty much every African country seems to have a version of this dish - made with maize or other starchy floury thing, which can be prepared in a number of ways, from a soupy paste through to a solid dumpling to accompany other things.  I held off making any of these as they looked, well, a bit boring.  But as the Olympic Food Challenge barrelled to a close (One more dish to go after this one...) I finally gave in and made Sidvudvu, which we served with, ummm, boerwors (Yes, I know this is South African, but my search for Impala steaks bore no fruit, so to speak...)

Also on the sadly non-authentic side is the sour cream, which I am reliably informed should really be something called amaas, a fermented milk product.  I hope you will forgive these small inaccuracies as it's been a long 19 days and I am now hallucinating foods of the world...

Mushroom Stroganoff

 

It seems to have been a weekend of rich foods and many meats, with Cheese club on Thursday, where I consumed my own body weight in cheeses (I ate 14 different kinds...) then exciting meats over the next few days (including Goat, which is a first for me, and some amazing pork pies - one with black pudding (hurrah) in it - from Leeds Market) so I thought that I would do something more or less vegetarian tonight by way of giving my body a bit of a rest.

Whilst in Leeds market at the weekend, we got a huge bag of mushrooms (but no canned hominy - if anyone knows where I can get some, feel free to let me know, although the recipe I needed it for will be coming tomorrow, so be quick!) so I decided to have a go at mushroom stroganoff.

I love this stuff - although a confirmed meat eater I can't get enough of mushroom dishes, they can often taste as meaty as actual meat dishes, and this dish is so quick and easy to put together, why don't you give it a try!

Ingredients
400g Mushrooms
2 Onions
3 Cloves Garlic
100ml White Wine
150ml Chicken Stock
75ml Sour Cream
2tsp Paprika
1tsp Worcestershire Sauce
Chopped Parsley 

Method
1. Heat some oil in a large pan.  Slice the onions and fry them for about 5 minutes, until they start to turn a nice golden brown colour.

2.  Add the chopped garlic and paprika and cook for another minute

3.  Add the chopped mushrooms, turn up the heat and cook for 5 minutes, trying to keep the lid on the pan as much as possible, until the mushrooms start to soften

4.  Add the stock, wine, salt and pepper and bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes, until the liquid has reduced a bit.

5.  Remove from the heat and stir in the sour cream, garnish with parsley and serve with rice, potatoes or chips! Enjoy