Abercrombie & Feast

Oh, I am just so excited to tell you about this soup.  I know, I know… you’re probably sighing to yourself.  You’re saying, “But it’s hot outside and I don’t want to hear about soups and oh my GOD woman, could you lay off the soups for a while?”  Wow… you’re very worked up about this.  I think you might need a bowl of soup to calm you down.

Last week I was making a fairly boring dinner (baked chicken, roasted potatoes, steamed broccoli), and I had all these bits left over.  I looked at my counters, still covered with chopped up broccoli stalks and a few less-than-perky potatoes and I thought, “I bet I can make soup out of that.” 

I must admit that I do not have thoughts like that often.  I usually find a recipe that looks good, buy all the ingredients required, make the dish and throw away the bits that aren’t needed.  This sudden impulse to make soup from scraps was very unlike me.  But, sometimes you have to break your own patterns, if you know what I mean.

So, make a soup I did… broccoli stalk and blue cheese soup, to be exact.  It was satisfying on multiple levels.  Not only had I created something full of flavour and good to eat, but I had also created it from scraps, for free.  I think that made it taste even better.  I don’t mind telling you that I felt a bit smug as I sat down to eat my lunch the next day.  I looked out the window at all the people passing by, people who had to pay for their lunch, and I slurped my free and fresh soup with a feeling of pride. 

Ok, ok… now I’m done telling you about the soup.  I’ll move on to more seasonal, summery food in the next few weeks.  But admit it first… you’re a little impressed with my soup from scraps, aren’t you?  I thought so. 

Broccoli stalk and blue cheese soup
I am going to tell you what I did here, but please adapt this to whatever scraps you happen to have lying around. 

Serves 1

1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
stalks from 1 large bunch of broccoli, chopped
2 small potatoes, chopped
1 chicken stock cube
water
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbs blue cheese (sharp cheddar would also be excellent, I just happened to have blue cheese in the fridge)
sour cream and watercress, to serve

Add the butter and olive oil to a small saucepan over medium heat.  Once the butter has melted, add the onion.  Gently fry the onion for about 2-3 mins, then add the garlic.  Fry for another 2 minutes. 

Add the broccoli stalks and potatoes to the pan.  Stir until coated with the butter and onions.  Then add the chicken stock cube and enough water to cover the vegetables.  Put the top on the pan and reduce the heat to medium-low.  Allow to simmer until the vegetables are very tender. 

If you have an immersion blender, remove the soup from the pan, pour into a large bowl and blend until smooth.  If not, pour the soup into a blender and allow to cool before blending. 

Pour the soup back into the pan.  Taste and adjust seasoning.  Just before serving, crumble the blue cheese into the soup and allow to melt.  Top with sour cream and watercress and enjoy!

I know I have said this before on this blog… but I love soup.  I also love summer time.  In fact, the only thing better than soup or summer time is finding a soup you can eat in the summer time without melting into your bowl and broth. 

My options are limited.  I think the idea of cold soups is unnatural, so I have to rule out all chilled soups.  So, either I eat hot soups in hot weather in an un-airconditioned apartment (bad idea) or I forgo soups for 75% of the year (it’s hot in Australia).  Since neither of these options sounded good to me, I set out to try to find that elusive third option… a hot soup that I want to eat in the summer months.   

It was actually Andy who suggested that I make a Mexican chicken soup.  When we lived in Georgia he would eat chicken soup from the Mexican place near our apartment at least twice a week.  On my recent trip home to Georgia, I ordered a small cup of chicken soup at my brother’s favourite Mexican restaurant.  I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Oh, my.  This is a soup that would be good all year round, but is especially good in the summer, when all the ingredients are in season and at their freshest.  The heat of the broth and the jalapeno is offset by the cool crunch of coriander, the slick creaminess of the avocado and the tangy bite of the lime juice.  The shattering crunch of the fried tortilla strips provides a pleasant contrast to the softness of the rice and the chicken.  This soup has something for everyone… and every climate.

Mexican chicken soup
(Sopa de pollo)

Serves 4

1/2 white onion, very finely chopped
1 carrot, very finely chopped
1 stalk of celery, very finely chopped
1 jalapeno chilli, very finely chopped (seeds removed if you want a more mild broth)
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 chicken, roasted or poached, shredded
2 chicken stock cubes
2 cups water
1/3 cup medium grain rice
1 tomato, very finely chopped
1 lime
1/2 avocado, chopped
2 corn tortillas
3 tbs vegetable oil
1 handful coriander (cilantro) chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Mexican Chicken SoupI should start by saying that I used a roasted chicken from our grocery store for this soup.  I had planned to poach 2 chicken breasts, but we were busy this evening and by the time I got to the store, I knew I wouldn’t have time to cook the chicken myself.  So, I picked up a whole roasted chicken and it was delicious in this soup.   

 Heat 1 tbs of the oil in a large, heavy bottomed pan over medium heat.  Add the onion, carrot, jalapeno and celery and let cook until soft and the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute.  Add a pinch of salt. 

Add 2 cups shredded, cooked chicken meat.  Stir and let cook for about 2 minutes. 

Add stock cubes and water and stir together.  Bring to a boil, then let simmer for about 20 minutes. 

Add the rice to the soup.  Stir.  Allow to cook for about 10 – 15 minutes, until the rice is cooked.  The rice will absorb some of the broth, so you may need to add more water depending on the texture you prefer.

When the rice is cooked, turn off the heat.  Stir in the tomatoes and the juice of 1/2 of the lime and let sit for about 2 minutes. 

Taste and add more salt and pepper to taste. 

Serve the soup topped with chopped avocado, sprinkles of coriander and some fried tortillas with lime slices on the side.

Fried tortillas

Roll tortillas up into a cylinder and slice into thin ribbons.

Heat 2 tbs of oil in a small frying pan.  Don’t add the tortilla strips until the oil is hot… otherwise you’ll get soggy, greasy strips.  To test whether the oil is ready you can drop one tortilla strip into the oil.  If it immediately begins to bubble, it’s ready. 

Fry the strips in batches until golden brown.  Remove and drain on paper towels.  Sprinkle with fine salt and serve on top of soups, salads, casseroles, etc. 

We’ve just returned from a gorgeous long weekend away in Barrington Tops, NSW.  It was my birthday trip this year… all arranged and organised by my outstanding husband.  We stayed in an adorable little B&B, visited national parks with huge sweeping views and small towns with cozy country pubs. 

We enjoyed hot tea and peanut butter toast (my favourite!) for breakfast, cheese platters with crisp white wine in the afternoon, and simple hearty country dinners at night.  Nothing fancy actually.  Just lots of relaxing and enjoying the fresh air and amazing views… and the sunshine!  It is starting to look like spring may actually make an appearance this year and we got our first, long-awaited taste of it this weekend.  It was worth the wait.    

However, the fresh air and restful afternoons of a weekend away do tend to come to a screeching halt during the drive back into Sydney on a rainy Sunday afternoon.  We got back to our apartment in the late afternoon, which gave me enough time to hit the grocery store while Andy returned the car.  I wanted to make something fresh and exciting with enough zing to remind us of the exciting weekend and enough substance to gird us for the bumpy re-entry into city life. 

I know some people won’t think that soup qualifies as exciting… but those people are totally wrong.  And mean.  And probably hate kittens.  This soup was spicy and tangy, with hefty little meatballs and the tart, lip-tingling taste of roasted jalapenos.  This is exactly what I want to eat while I bask in the memories of our time away and enjoy the slow warmth of a spring evening in Sydney. 

Spicy roasted tomato soup with meatballs

Serves 4

For the roasted tomatoes
6 roma tomatoes
1 jalapeno chili (may substitute any spicy chili you like), finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
a handful of basil leaves, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbs olive oil

For the meatballs
200g (about 1/4 lb) pork mince
200g beef mince
3 shakes Worstershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste

For the soup
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup very small pasta

Preheat oven to 180C or about 350F.  Slice the tomatoes into quarters and arrange in a single layer in a baking dish.  Sprinkle over the jalapeno, garlic and basil.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Pour over the olive oil.  Place the tomatoes in the oven to roast for about 1 hour. 

Meanwhile, put the pork mince and the beef mince in a large bowl.  Add the Worstershire sauce and salt and pepper to taste.  Mix well.  Use this mixture to form small meatballs (about the size of a marble).  Drop the meatballs into a pan of cool water. 

Once you have shaped all the meatballs and added them to the pan, bring the water in the pan up to a boil.  Allow to boil for about 5 mins.  Then, place the top on the pan and remove the pan from the heat.  (This step isn’t strictly required.  I wanted the meatballs to have the very soft texture that they get when they are boiled, rather than baked or fried, but I didn’t want all the fat from the meat in the final soup.  So, by par-boiling them, I got a lot of the fat out first.  You can skip this and drop them right into the tomato soup if you want.  No worries.)

Once the tomatoes are roasted, scoop all of the tomatoes and their juices into a blender or food processor.  Add 1 cup of chicken stock and process for about 1 minute (be careful if it’s too hot!  It will explode!  Let the tomatoes cool for a min first.)

Add the processed tomato mixture to a large soup pot.  Add the remaining chicken stock.  Using a slotted spoon, remove the meatballs from the water they boiled in and add them to the tomato soup.  Allow the soup to simmer for about 20 mins.

About 15 minutes before you are ready to eat, add the pasta to the soup.  The soup is ready when the pasta is done.  The pasta will soak up a lot of the soup, so you might have to add a little more chicken stock or water to get the right consistancy.  I didn’t want it to be very watery, so I didn’t add anything else to mine.

This is great served with a big green salad and good toasted bread sprinkled with Parmesan.  You could also stir some Parmesan or pesto into the soup before you serve it. 

Picture this:  It’s a cloudy winter Sunday.  You’ve spent a lazy morning wandering through book stores in the city (and perhaps stopping off to buy a new dress??) and having a late breakfast at a really elegant little cafe near Town Hall. 

Then, you hop on the ferry with some mates and cruise through the Harbour over to Watson’s Bay- a little strip of beach with a huge view of the city skyline, a pub with lots of outdoor seating and a famous seafood restaurant.  So you have lunch- a plate of shared oysters to start, then the famous fish and chips and a cold beer to wash it all down.  You linger over a drink, enjoying the view and the breeze off the water.  You don’t even need a coat- just a cardigan and a scarf and you’re nice and cozy. 

View of the city from Watson’s Bay

You grab the bus back to your neighbourhood and pop into the grocery store on your way home.  You know you don’t want a big dinner (you’ve been eating all day!) but it’s only 5pm and you might want something to top you up before the night is through.  What do you do???  You make this soup. 

Soup is one of my all-time favourite foods.  When I was at Syracuse University there was a little cafe in the building where most of my public policy classes were held (that was my major, I was there a lot) and the cafe had a different soup every day.  I tell you what, there were times that finding out the soup was the highlight of my day.  The beef and barley soup days weren’t very popular with me, but a bowl of potato leek, chicken noodle or 5 bean soup could certainly make me forget looming paper deadlines or exam anxieties.  In short, soup makes me happy.   

So, after enjoying the activities described above on Sunday (you knew it was us doing all those things, right??) I decided to make this soup for dinner.  Since we weren’t starving, there was plenty left over for lunch the next day.  Which is great, because this soup is goooood. 

I’m going to do something a little different and give you pictures of the preparation process as well as ingredients and steps as we go along, rather than a big recipe at the end.  Just shaking things up here at Abercrombie & Feast.  Enjoy!

White bean, tomato and chorizo soup
(adapted from Bill Granger, Every Day)

 You start by cutting up 2 links of chorizo (spicy Spanish sausage- in America you could substitute kielbasa if you can’t find chorizo).  Saute the chorizo pieces in a large pot over medium heat until they begin to crisp up on the outside a little.  You don’t need to cook them for long- they are already cooked. 

While the chorizo is warming up, chop up one purple onion, 2 cloves of garlic and 1 chili pepper.  Remove the chorizo from the pot and drain it on a plate lined with paper towels.  Add the onion, garlic and chili along with a little olive oil to the pan and cook for 5-7 mins or until the onion becomes translucent.

Once the onions are translucent, add the chorizo back to the pot and tip in a can of plain, diced tomatoes and the leaves from 4-5 stalks of fresh thyme.

Let all this cook together for a few minutes.  It will smell so good that you’ll want to scoop it up and sample a bit on a piece of the bread that you bought to go with dinner.  That’s ok.  Sample away!

Here I am about to sample the mix.  Looks like I’m offering it to my kitchen Buddha, huh?

Next you add 1 litre (about 4 cups) of chicken stock and 2 cans of cannellini beans or white beans.  Stir all this together and allow it to simmer for about 20 mins. 

After the soup has simmered for about 20 mins, you can either eat it immediately (delicious!) or you can remove about 1/3 of the soup to a blender or a food processor and puree it for a few seconds (even MORE delicious- just make sure you let it cool off a bit so it doesn’t explode!!)  I pureed mine a bit and here’s the final shot:

Andy thought I was crazy to post pictures of soup.  I must agree, it’s not going to win Miss Photogenic at the Food Beauty Pageant this year.  But it will win Miss Congeniality, and that’s what’s most important to me!