Butternut Squash, Ginger and Orange Soup

Disease and illness have been stalking the Soup household for weeks now.  Every room in the house is strewn with discarded boxes of potions pills and medicines.  Enough cough sweets have been bought to make the pharmacist think that I may be making crystal meth in my kitchen.  Far from that, I have in fact been labouring to produce the perfect vitamin laden soups to aid in cold-recovery.

As we hit the new year, everyone's  thought turn to feeling and eating a little more healthy.  And that's where it is soup's turn to shine.  Just think - pretty much every bowl of soup is just a whole heaping pan full of vegetables, with added garlic, ginger, turmeric and other things that science may or may not have decided are good for you.  And even if they don't possess any actual medical or restorative qualities, they certainly make you feel like they do, when served in a bowl of soup.

So the first soup I made in this bright and shiny year of our lord 2015 was this healthy and tasty butternut squash soup.  Its a perfect combination of vegetables, sweet and spicy bits. To be honest, you could make a brilliant soup by cooking pretty much any vegetables, adding some chilli and coconut milk (except sprouts) but then if you all did that, there would be no reason to come back and visit this blog, would there.

So remember, freestyling soup is dangerous.  Only attempt to make soup recipes that have been prepared by a soup professional.  You have been warned...

Ingredients
1 Butternut Squash
1 Onion
2 Stalks Celery
1 Orange
1tbsp Ginger Puree
1tbsp Garlic Puree
1tsp Dried Chili Flakes
1tsp Cumin
750ml Vegetable Stock
250ml Coconut Milk
Salt and Pepper
Chili Oil

Method.  
1.  Heat the oven to 180ºc.  Peel and de-seed them squash, then cut into chunks.  Put the chunks in an oven proof dish and toss in olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper then put in the oven and roast for 45 minutes, until the squash is soft and the edges are starting to go a golden brown.  Remove from the oven and set aside

2.  Finely chop the onion and celery.  In your soup pan, heat some oil and add the onion and celery,  Gently fry until the onion is soft and staring to brown.

3.  Add the Ginger and garlic and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes.  Then add the cumin, chili and roasted butternut.  Stir it round so the spices cover everything then add the stock and juice of the orange.  Bring the soup to a simmer, put the lid on and cook for 20 minutes.

4.  Remove the soup from the heat, let cool and blend until smooth.  Add the coconut milk, adjust seasoning to taste and re-heat, then serve with a swirl of chilli oil.  Enjoy!

Indian Lambs Liver Soup

I love offal.  Two of my favourite meals of all time are Steak and Kidney Pie and Liver & Onions (Is this the diet of an old man?).  If I'm in a restaurant and there's a dish containing any form of offal at all, I'm all over it.  Of course, I'm aware that I'm in a minority in this love, but there it is.

For me, the question isn't 'why would you eat that?' but rather 'Why WOULDN"T you eat that'?  Offal - and all those other overlooked bits like tongue and cheek - are tasty, unusual and cheap.  In a world where people are going crazy over such boring fare as pulled pork and gourmet burgers, I'd rather have a bit of Lamb's Liver or Ox Heart Ragu any day.  In fact, could there be a market for an offal-based fast food outlet on every high street? I'd eat there, for sure.  Although I may be one of the only ones.

What am I, chopped liver?

Despite this love of all things offal, I haven't done too many soup recipes that show this off - there was Menudo, a tripe soup, that I blogged a while ago, and while I've had quite a few in my to-soup list for a while, I haven't gotten round to making them.  Until I found this little gem of an Indian soup recipe.  Like the Beetroot Rasam that I blogged recently, it should be cooked in a pressure cooker, but as I still haven't extended the kitchen, I made this in a pan.  Many of the recipes I found for this soup used just water, not stock, but I found that just a little bland, and if there's one thing I can't abide it's a bland soup...

If anyone has any other suggestions for soup recipes containing offal of any kind, I'd love to hear them, and maybe put them on the blog for the rest of the world to enjoy.  Also, if you think you don't like offal, dig out a cool sounding recipe and give it another go, you might be surprised!

Ingredients
350g Lambs Liver
2 Onions
4 Tomatoes
1.2l Stock
2tsp Ground Cumin
2tsp Ground Coriander
1tsp Ground Black Pepper
1tsp Turmeric Powder
1tsp Red Chilli Flakes
2tsp Garlic Purée
1tsp Ginger Purée
1/2tsp Garam Masala
Coriander Leaves

Method
1. Place the tomatoes in boiling water for 5 minutes, then remove the skins, de-seed and finely chop them

2.  Heat some oil in your soup pan.  Peel and finely chop the onions.  Gently fry them for 5 minutes, until they start to colour.

3.  Wash and thinly slice the lamb's liver.

4.  Add the chopped tomatoes, liver, garlic and ginger puree and fry for another 5 minutes

5.  Add the stock, bring the soup to a boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, until the liver is soft

6. Taste and adjust seasoning.  Serve garnished with some chopped coriander leaves.  Enjoy

Chakalaka Soup with Boerewors Meatballs

I went away to the wilds of Wales for the weekend, and after a weekend of drink, cheap burgers and white-water rafting, I really needed something healthy, not to mention the fact that I'm coming down with (another) cold, but this time I'm blaming it on the cold water from the rainy mountains of Bala (or the fact I was screaming like a girl when I went down the rapids...)

That's me, in the front, on the right of the picture, thinking about soup...

I may have mentioned before that Mrs Soup hails from South Africa, and so I thought I would make a signature South African soup, so I asked her what I should make, and she suggested this.  Now apparently, proper Chaklaka (another soup name, like Albondiga, that makes you smile whilst saying it!) is a sort of stew, although some variations of it seem to be more like relish, but I know for sure that Knorr (vendors of packet soups) make a Chakalaka Soup, as I've seen it in the dinky little shop that sells South African stuff in Leeds market, which is where I also got the Boerewors from.

So without further ado, here is Chakalaka soup, which, by the way, makes a good vegetarian soup, if you skip the meatballs and use vegetable stock.  You could also swap the canelini beans for a tin of baked beans (which I understand is a little more traditional, but as I can't stand baked beans, then I swapped them out)

Ingredients
For the Soup
2 Carrots
1 Red Pepper
1 Green Pepper
2 Onions
1 Red Chili
1tsp Minced Garlic
2tsp Minced Ginger
3 Tomatoes (Peeled)
1 Tin Chopped Tomatoes
1 Tin Canellini Beans
1.2l Stock
2tbsp Tomato Puree
1tsp Curry Powder
1tsp Cumin
Handful of Chopped Fresh Coriander


For the Meatballs
250g Boerewors Sausage
1 Onion
1tsp Cayenne Pepper
1tsp Turmeric

Method 

1. Make the meatballs.  Chop the onion very finely and combine with the de-skinned boerewors (Or you could use another type of sausage if you can't get the proper stuff).  Add the spices and mix everything together and then roll out into small balls, about 3cm across.  Put these in an airtight container and then refrigerate for about an hour

2. Slice the onion, red and green pepper, carrot and chili.

3.  In your soup pan, heat some oil, then add the vegetables, as well as the curry powder, cumin, ginger and garlic.  Fry for 5 minutes, until the vegetables start to soften and are thoroughly coated with the spices

4.  Add the tinned tomatoes, beans, puree and stock then bring to the boil and simmer for 30  minutes

5.  After 20 minutes, heat some oil in a frying pan and then cook the meatballs until they are nice and brown.

6.  Add these, as well as the skinned chopped fresh tomatoes to the soup and cook for 5 minutes, then serve.

7.  Garnish with a handful of chopped coriander or flat leaf parsley

Spicy Octopus Soup

So it's the new year, and as I write this, it's raining cats and dogs, and already most of those good intentions that I had on New Year's eve are starting to evaporate.  One that hasn't however, is the desire to keep up to date on the blogging front, as I slipped a bit towards the end of last year, although the delightful Mrs Soup has been taking up some of the slack with her wonderful baking - of which I hope we shall be seeing more this year.

So to this week's soup recipe (as it is Tuesday, and this blog is still called Soup Tuesday, and I don't want to let you down...)

I've always been a B-Movie geek.  One of my earliest memories is watching the 1953 version of War of the Worlds and being terrified of the Martian creature, and yes, I did hide behind the sofa, although never at Dr Who - I never found that too scary (Peter Davison was my Doctor, although on reflection, I always found Adric a bit un-nerving, and let's not mention Turlough...)

(Bare with me - I'm getting to the soup btw...)

King amongst the B-Movie makers was Ray Harryhausen - you will know him from the fighting skeletons of Jason and The Argonauts and the (original and good) Clash of the Titans.  But my all-time favourite of his films was It Came From Beneath the Sea, in which a giant Octopus, mutated to gigantic proportions by the evils of Atomic Power! attacks San Francisco. (Also, I got this film on DVD for christmas, courtesy of Mrs Soup)

Ever since then, I have been repulsed and fascinated in equal measures by the Octopus.  And so, by way of revenge for countless childhood nightmares, I give you - Spicy Octopus Soup!

Octopus should either be cooked very quickly (fried) or long and low, like in this unusual but tasty soup.  I got mine from the local supermarket, where they were only too happy to clean and dress it, so all I had to do was cut it into chunks

Ingredients
1kg Octopus
1 Onion
2 Stalks of Celery
1 Carrot
3 Cloves Garlic
120ml Tomato Puree
100g Bulgar Wheat
1tsp Chili Powder
1tsp Caraway Seeds
1tsp Coriander / Ground Coriander Seeds
1/2tsp Cayenne Pepper
Handful of chopper Coriander Leaves

Method

Finely chop the onion.  Heat some oil in a large, heavy pan.  Gently fry the onions until they start to colour.  Next, add the chopped carrot, celery and minced garlic and cook over a low heat for 10-15 minutes, until all the vegetables have softened.

Add the tomato paste an cook for another 5 minutes, then add seasoning to taste.

Cut the octopus into 3cm chunks, and add this to the pan, with the stock and spices, bring the pan to the boil and then simmer for 1 and a half hours, until the octopus is nice and tender.  Add the Bulgar wheat and fresh coriander, check the seasoning again and cook for another 20 minutes then serve.  Enjoy!

Tomato and Chilli Chutney

A random childhood memory.  When I was about 8, playing hide and seek in our back garden, being told off for using the best hiding place I had ever worked out. This hiding place, I feel safe in revealing 30 years later, safe in the knowledge that a) most people have stopped looking for me, and b) the location in question is long gone, was in our greenhouse.

Not being all that well off when I was growing up, our greenhouse was a rather unconventional structure, fashioned from off-cuts of wood and heavy-duty plastic sheeting in place of glass; a wonky door secured by a latch being all there was in terms of security, and the plants inside made the best hiding place for the aforementioned game of hide and seek, if one could wriggle round behind them without crushing too many of them.

I still remember the smell inside this greenhouse, the smell of plastic and tomato plants, the stifling heat on a July afternoon, trying to remain motionless as Paul Mitchell or Ian Nelson stalked me as mercilessly as a big game hunter stalks a vicious predator.

But what has all this got to do with recipes I hear you ask as you stare at your watch and tap your feet impatiently. Well... 30 years later I find myself in the position of being the one growing the tomatoes, rather than hiding behind them, and although our plants didn't fair too well this season, being by turns baked in unforgiving heat and then drowned by unseasonal weather, the rather straggly looking plants still yielded a rather respectable crop before finally giving up the ghost.

Crab Apple and Chilli Jelly

This recipe is one of my girlfriend's favourites.  I never really 'got' blue cheeses until just recently - I blame it on a saturday job when I was a teenager working at the deli counter of a super market and selling many varieties of blue cheese, all of which seemed to smell horrible and upset my delicate constitution.  On reflection, my constitution was probably delicate due to the copious amounts of beer I used to drink on a Friday evening before starting work first thing on a Saturday morning.

Anyway, once I discovered my love of blue cheese (current favorites - Yorkshire Blue and Smelly Apeth) I couldn't get enough of them.  I used them in cooking, but the best and most simple way of eating them is with crackers and Crab Apple and Chilli Jelly.  Oh, and some decent red wine and possibly a bowl of olives.

It just so happened that when we moved into our new flat, there was a Crab Apple tree growing in the car park, which was quickly stripped of its fruit, and then found their way into the jam pan to be made into this sweet golden jelly, with just a hint of chili heat.

Crab Apples can be found growing wild all over the place - they look like little apples and have a bitter taste.  As always, check before you eat!

Ingredients
2kg Crab Apples
1.5l Water
Sugar (Depends on the amount of juice, but about 1.5kg)
6 Chillies

Method
Wash the Crab Apples and then chop roughly, then put in a large pan with the water and bring to the boil and simmer until the apples are cooked to a pulp.

Once this is done, transfer the pulp to a muslin bag and strain.  This is best done by suspending the bag from a cupboard handle or chair, with a bowl underneath.

Don't squeeze the bag! This makes the jelly cloudy because it lets starch from apples squeeze out, and you don't want it to spoil the clear finshed jelly.

When most of the liquid should has collected in the bowl (ours was left hanging overnight), you will be left with a rather nice rose pink liquid.  Put this into a measuring jug to check the quantity and then return it to your pan.  Now add the same amount of sugar as you have liquid - our apples produced 1.4l of liquid, so we added 1.4kg of sugar - and put the pan back on the heat.

At this point, add the chillies - finely chopped - to the pan and bring the mixture to a rolling boil, stirring constantly, until it starts to set. You will also want to skim the foam off the top of the jelly when it's cooking, or it will set into an unpleasant skin once the jelly is in the jars.  You might need to do this a few times during the cooking.

As usual, you can check this by putting a saucer in the fridge to chill.  Drop a teaspoonful of jelly onto the saucer.  Let it cool.  If you can push a jellied trail through it with you fingernail, it’s ready.  Transfer the jelly to sterilized jars and store in a cool dry place.

The jelly goes great with cooked meats or cheese and crackers!