Haggis, Kidneys and Kievs. A Week of Meals 004

Week four of 2013 - A Stomach Odyssey brought us foods from around the world, exciting new ingredients and a rare food-fail.  How, what and why?  Keep reading as the answers lay within...

Friday - Haggis, Tatties and Neeps

Friday was Burns Night.  Not being Scottish in any way, shape or form, I nonetheless wanted to get in on the action, as I am a big fan of sheeps lungs boiled in their intestines, oh yes!  To go with the haggis, I made its traditional accompaniment, Tatties and Neeps.  There was some discussion on twitter about whether the Neeps in question should be Turnips or Swede.  I war reliably informed by someone what is an actual Scotsman that true Tatties and Neeps should contain swede, so with that rutabaga based question resolved, I whipped up a batch and t'was delicious

Saturday - Mole Poblano de Pollo (Chicken in Chili and Chocolate Sauce)

This was my recipe picked from a cookbook called 'A Mexican Celebration', full of festive foods from Mexico.  Predictably, I picked it because it sounded weird and wonderful, but I was worried that the chocolate that I got (80% cocoa solids) would still be too sweet when put into the sauce.  I shouldn't have worried because it turned out a great recipe - a little like a Mexican Korma.  If you are interested in making it, there's a recipe here that is very similar to the one I followed

Sunday - Chicken Kiev

Mrs Soup had a go at making the old 70's dinner party classic from a cookbook that I got way back when I was a student.  It was a first for me as I've only ever had those nasty ones that are made of mechanically reclaimed chicken.  Having them made fresh was a bit of a revelation, and I was impressed that the garlic butter staying in its meaty pocket during the frying process...

Monday - Kidneys in Sherry

A recipe from my Offal Cookbook "The Fifth Quarter".  Apart from Steak and Kidney Pie, I've never cooked kidney before.  Even after soaking in water and lemon juice to cleanse them, the kidney had an odour that could only be described as 'urine' or, as Mrs Soup put it "Like an old people's home" - an evil old people's home run by bad people , I should add.  There was at least one plate that wasn't cleared at the end of the meal, which is a rare occurrence, and I suspect that it will be a while before I try kidney on it's own again...

Tuesday - Thai Noodle Soup with Fish Balls

See the blogpost here

Wednesday - Chicken and Celeriac Stew with Harissa

This was a random, thrown together stew, using some veg from the veg box and the harissa paste that we recieved as part of a foodie pen pals box a while ago.  No dumplings with this stew, you may notice, and the Harissa was unexpectedly spicy, which almost overpowered the dish.

Venison Soup with Bilberry Relish

Everything seems upside down this week - after a long spell at work with irregular breaks, I don't know what day it is - I'm assuming it's a Tuesday because I'm making soup.  Also, it really feels like autumn is just around the corner - where has the summer gone?  As such, I'm making a sort of autumnal game soup this week.  It also features a tangy and fruity bilberry relish, but you could use red or black currants if you don't have bilberries.

The ingredients for this soup came from a variety of sources.  The venison mince came from a stall at Kirkstall Deli Market, the Bilberries were picked on The Chevin, shallots from a friend's garden, onions, celery and carrots from a veg box and the stock from Essential Cuisine (okay - they sent me a few trial pots after reading the blog, which are rather brilliant and you can get you hands on them from their website)

As a measure of how my brain has seemingly stopped functioning, I had made some stock from scratch to use in this soup before a) I remembered the stock I was sent, and b) I made chicken stock when this soup needed Beef stock...  Maybe I should just go back to bed and wake up when my head is back to normal eh?

Recipe after the jump...

Swede Soup

I know it's a little bit late (or early) in the year to be talking about Halloween, but when I was younger (or when ah' were a' lad) a Halloween trick-or-treating trip was not lit by a pumpkin carved with a ghoulish visage - I don't think I ever even saw a pumpkin until about 10 years ago (so the classic Charlie Brown specials on TV made absolutely no sense as well..)

Instead of a pumpkin, we carried turnip lanterns, which were made of... ummm... swede, lit from inside with a candle, and with a face crudely carved into it.  And it's very hard to carve a swede.  And now the smell of burning swede is hugely evocative of knocking on old ladies doors and being given Blackjacks, Wam bars, Yorkshire mixture and Palma violets.  Not that burning swede is a common smell round our way.

Swede seemed to feature a lot in my childhood diet - usually mashed with carrots, and I think it's given a bad reputation as being a bit useless.  I think it has a flavour at least as nice as sweet potato, and really should be given some more love.  I also don't think it helps that our colonial cousins call it 'rutabaga' which sounds like it should be a character in an eastern European folk tale.  Possibly about a witch who turns unwary children into root vegetables.

So without further ado, Swede soup...


Ingredients
2 Swede, cubed
2 Stalks Celery, chopped
1 Onion, diced,
2 Cloves Garlic, crushed
1.4l Chicken Stock
Some fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
Oil
200ml Single Cream
Some Butter
Nutmeg

Method
Heat the over to 180ºc.  Put the cubed swede in a roasting dish and drizzle with some oil, season and then roast for 30-40 minutes, until the swede starts to turn a lovely golden colour.

In your soup pan, heat some more oil and then cook the onion, celery and garlic for 4-6 minutes, until it starts to soften and colour, then add the stock and the roasted swede.  Bring the soup to the boil and then simmer for 40-45 minutes, until the swede is nice and soft.

Blend the soup until it is smooth - pass it through a sieve to get rid of any lumps and give it a more creamy texture if you don't like your soups too thick.  You can also add a bit more stock or water to give it a better consistency if you want.  I prefer my soups to have a more liquid consistency and not resemble semolina from the school canteen (do kids today still eat semolina at school?  And more importantly, do they still stir a spoonful of jam into it and make it turn bright pink before eating it?)

Return the blended soup o the pan, reheat and add a knob of butter and stir in the cream.  Check the seasoning and then serve.

Grate some nutmeg over the top and serve with hearty fresh bread for a lovely winter soup! Enjoy!