leek, potato and bacon soup

1 large leek

1 carrot

1 parsley root (failing that a piece of celeriac)

350g potatoes

125g bacon (lardons or speck)

1 large onion

1 large clove of garlic

Chicken stock (or vegetable stock, I had some chicken stock left from the weekend)

1 bay leaf

1 sprig of thyme

1 sprig of origano

Freshly crushed pepper

Salt to taste, beware if using stock powder or cubes this may well have enough salt in it)

Slice the leek into 4 length ways and then cut into small dice, grate the carrot, dice the parsley root, cut the potatoes into cubes and roughly chop the onion, crush and chop the garlic.

The claw

Sauté the onion and bacon in a little oil until translucent, add the garlic, carrot, leek, sweat a little to soften then add potatoes, herbs and crushed pepper



Plenty of crushed pepper



Cover with chicken stock, bring to the boil, skim, lower the heat and simmer until the vegetables are soft.

Remove the bay leaf and blend (for a chunky soup remove 1/3 of the vegetables, blending and return to the soup afterwards)

Serve with fresh crusty rolls, a filling, hearty soup for the winter, great after a shoot or midway through a one



Put a in good dollop of

Crème fraîche



This is a very well spiced soup (loads of pepper) As I used a chicken stock that was already well seasoned it needed no further adjustment, but if using a stock less well flavoured, it may need added salt.

By forgoing the bacon (It does add a lot of flavour) and using vegetable stock powder or cube (Marigold is the best I know), this is a vegetarian soup, for those that way inclined!!!

Pea Soup - Erbsen Eintopf

Pea Soup.


A few months ago I had bought a ham bone from one of the stalls at Kiel Wochenmarkt, it was a monster and had been languishing in Linda’s freezer ever since. She had been doing a bit of a re-formatting (nice word that) of her drawers (freezer ones) and had asked about it, I said put it out I shall make a big pot of pea soup at the weekend.

So here it is.

You shall need:

For the stock

1 ham bone (it may be from Holsteinische Katenschinken or if down South a good old Westfalisches Schinkenknocken)
A couple of onions studded with cloves and bay leaves
1 Carrot roughly diced
Green of a leek
A couple of slices of celeriac chopped
5 litres of water
Teaspoon crushed pepper corns

Bring the bone to the boil a couple of times discarding the water, (These ham bones and residual meat can be very salty). Then put the bone with the veg into a large pot with 5 litres of water (cover the bone),

bring to the boil and cook for about an hour, remove the bone ( you can shred the meat and add it to the soup, beware it can be very salty and have a strong smoky taste, some like it some don’t)

1 kg of whole dried peas, steeped overnight (or better still 24 hours)

White of 1 leek cut down the middle and chopped
2 carrots diced
Parsley root diced
1 medium onion diced
¼ of a globe of celeriac, peeled and diced
1 teaspoon of pepper corns (crushed)
1 teaspoon of dried marjoram.

There is a myth, nah, a fairy story about that you don’t add salt or seasoned stock to pulses before cooking, this is a load of poppycock, It has been proven as nonsense and I have once again done this!

Put the peas into a large pot, pour over the stock and cover with water, bring to the boil and cook until soft (it is quicker using a pressure cooker, but harder to judge when cooked). When they are just soft add the veg, pepper and marjoram, bring to a rolling boil, if too thick add some more water check that it doesn’t set on to the bottom.

When cooked, you can add some shredded ham, or cooked pieces of kassler.

I like to puree about 30% of the finished soup and then stir all together, you can add more stock or water if you wish to have a thinner soup, but I like the real rib sticker stuff!!!

Serve piping hot with fresh crusty bread (this is smashing Guy Fawkes night grub).

An onion soup, French or otherwise

There had been a discussion on the www.wildfood.info website about caremalisation of onions for a onion soup in a slow cooker, I had never tried this so arriving back from an outing (boys weekend). I had followed this while away (the hotel complex had a full PC suite with full www connection and free) and while out on Saturday happened upon the Saturday market in Sudenburg, this is a not one of the most exciting sectors of Magdeburg.


But I came away with a small sack of onions and 2 kg of soup bones and breast, I think the rest of the lads did find it a little strange, touched their heads the forefinger and said "Die Spinnen die Briten"! (A saying from Asterix and Oberlix).

We had a fridge in our apartment, very nice indeed 3 double bedrooms and full lkitchen and living room with Sat Tele. I think that during the summer and school holidays these are family apartments (we had all inclusive). We had arrived on the Sambazug, this is a fantastic way to start your weekend, these weekends are done in the main for kegel, football clubs etc. The Sambazug has a bar and a dance compartment and it collects the weekend jolliers along the route, before eventually arriving at the Magdeburg Hbf (Main station).

But that has little or nothing to do with my onion soup other than that is where I got my ingredients and am now thought more of a crack-pot than before.

Ingredients.

2kg of onions
90-100g of butter
2 tablespoons of oil (neutral vegetable)
2 teaspoons of herbal sea salt (if you have any, if not table salt will do, at a pinch LoL)
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
a few sprigs of thyme
1 (level) teaspoon mustard powder
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Enough good beef stock to bring it to the consistancy that you wish (see below for recipe)

Caramelising the onions.

So on Sunday afternoon, I got home, unpacked my case and started to peel the onions, out came the moulinette and I shredded the onions into the base of my Cuisinart 6.5ltr slow cooker, I had put some oil into the base along with half of the butter (45g), I then picked some thyme added that along with some herbal sea salt from the Ile de Noirmoutier that I had got from the saline’s of Vendée last year. A sprinkling of brown sugar on top, the rest of the butter, the lid on and the SC switched on low and the timer onto 10 hours.



The onions and the moulinette



a bowl full of shredded onions

Adding the Sel de Mer with herbs

Topped with butter and thyme, lid on and leave to caramelise down.

Making the beef stock

I fried the beef bones before transfering to the oven to roast along with a browned onion, halved and the skin still on.

I sliced the white of a large leek a couple of carrots, some parsley stalks and teaspoon of pepper corns, put these into my pressure cooker. On top of this went the roasted bones and a slice of shin (the pressure cooker was pretty full) I poured 300ml of vegetable stock  over this and filled up with cold water, brought to the boil and skimmed, I did this at regular intervals, then put the lid on, brought up to blood and cooked for 1.5 hour. Cooled and left over night.



Giving the beef bones a quick brown along with the onion halves



The bones and onion halves into a roasting pan and into the oven



The leek, carrots, parsley stalks and a slice of leg



top up with water and add the herbs



pour in 300ml of vegetable stock (this one should be before the last photo)





Heat and when it comes to a rolling boil skim the scum as it rises to the top



Next day I decided that the onions could do with a little more browning so I switched the SC on for another 2 hours.


The final caramelised onions



Next morning I took the hardened dripping from the top of the cold stock and poured it all through a strainer, though I did make a nice beef sandwich with some of the shin meat, it had lost most of its flavour as it was meant to.

Remove the hardened dripping when cold

I next put the stock into a clean pot and added some more beef breast as I was also going to make some beef soup for the freezer. I boiled this up and lowered the heat allowing to simmer, skimming the scum off as it came to the top.

Making the soup

I washed the Pressure cooker and added the caramelised onions to the bottom, poured on a glass of Pinot Grigio (I happened to have a half a bottle in the fridge, I don't anymore) and let the alcohol boil off.

I slowly added the hot beef stock from the pot bubbling next to it; I now added a good bit of pepper and a 1/2 teaspoon of mustard powder (I will see later if it can take a bit more) (note, it did;-)).

I now had a wonderful Onion soup and a fantastic Beef soup. I fried a slice of sour dough rye bread in a little goose fat until crisp, piled it with a topping of Edam and Parmasan, quickly under the grill to melt a little and floated this on top of the soup.

Boy did it taste good and I found a use for the remainder of the pinot grigio

N.B. The soup can be made as thick or as thin as you wish the choice is yours, also the caramelisation of the onions can be done on top of the stove over a low heat, but in this case I wanted to see if they could be done successfully in the slow cooker. The 2 kg reduced down quite considerably (I did not weigh it afterwards and if the truth be known I didn't weigh it before, the 2kg  was a bit of a guess).

The quality of the beef stock makes all of the difference and it is really worth while making your own and concentrating it down.The use of the pressure cooker did speed up the making of stock and by adding another load of beef breast to the clarfied stock made this even more flavoursome. After making the onion soup, I stripped the breast meat of fat, gristle, sinus, fried a shredded leek and 2 carrots in a little oil, added this to the remainder of the stock and cooked for a few minutes, then added the breast meat and that was another smashing soup for the freezer. (I had to thin it down with water as the concentation had made it really powerful).

Here is a link to friend of ours website with his classic French Onion soup recipe.

http://souvigne.pagesperso-orange.fr/recipes/start230.htm

If your ever at a loss for a recipe, try having a look at Ians website (he also does a fantastic B&B, well worth a visit, it is one of the best in France (I would actually say the best that I have had the pleasure to stay at).

I would also like to thank the wildfood board members for sending me on this exploration into the unknown, it's always warming when something you have never tried before actually works!

Tom Yam (or Yum) Gai - Thai spicy (very) chicken and prawn soup

I have made lots of this type of soup from various recipes over the years (I think the best one was from a fellow foodie on the BBC food board called Josh, he traveled a lot in SE Asia and collected a lot of Asian Recipes, his was really authentic.

I have adapted parts from various recipes so I don't know how near a real one it is?

So I started by making a hearty chicken broth, first the base stock was made from:

Stock ingredients

1000g of chicken remains, these are called Hühnerklein in Germany; these are the parts that are left after the chicken farmer has removed the breasts, thighs and wings. I would have got fresh from the market, but it was Tuesday and no market on, this meant frozen !!

1 handful of freeze dried vegetables (Suppengemuse)
1dessert spoon of pepper corns (mixed)
1 piece of mace
1 star aniseed
6 cloves
3 dried bay leaves
a piece of Cinnamon bark

1 piece of ginger (about 1 inch sliced but not peeled)
2 garlic cloves crushed
2 teaspoons of Marigold vegetable stock (or a jar or 2 of pre-cooked hühnerbrühe)
The dark green from a bunch of spring onions (the light green and whites go into the finished soup)

Put the lot into a pressure cooker and pour on enough boiling water to cover, lid on, put on high until it comes up to pressure and then reduce for 1 hour.

Strain through a sieve. This is one very nice Chicken stock and with very little adjustment can be used as the base for many soups, stews, curries and fricassee (it also freezes very well and lends itself to be concentrated) or even freeze into portions (cup size for drinking in winter or ice cube size in freezer bags).

To make the chicken soup

1.5kg boiling fowl (or old cockerel if you can get a one)

Boil the  fowl in the stock, this can be done at a rolling boil skimming the scum from the top, or as I did in the pressure cooker.

When done remove the hen from the liquid, this is one of the best chicken stocks that you will have ever tasted. When cool strip the meat from the hen, discarding all of the skin (we are being healthy), the bones and nasty bits of gristle and feathers.

Strain once again through a fine seive. I got about 3 ltrs of fantastic Chicken soup


Making the Tom Yam paste

This makes a 250ml glass jar
2 stalks of lemon grass, outer hard skin removed, bashed and chopped
2 red chillies deseeded & sliced, (take your pick hot, very hot or seriously mind blowing)
2 Tspns of galangal paste (I couldn't get any fresh)
2 Tspns of coriander paste
3 cloves of garlic
1 shallot, diced
3 kafir lime leaves
Zest of 1 lime
1 piece of palm sugar or a few cubes of raw cane sugar
1 desert spoon of dried shrimps
1 desert spoon heavy soy  sauce
1 Tspn of oyster sauce
1 Tspn of light fish sauce
1 Tspn of Tamarind  paste
1/2 to 1 Tspn of shrimp flavoured chilli powder

Put all into a blender and blitz until it is all a nice fine paste, transfer into a clean sterilised jar, this will keep in the refridgerator for a couple of weeks, when it gets a fur coat on the top sling it!

For the Tom Yam soup

For 2 people as a main course or 4 as a starter:

1 litre of your home made super-dooper chicken stock

2 Tspns of your home made Tam Yam paste ( try it at 2 to start with, you can always add a bit more to suit your taste)

10  shelled large prawns (better if you can get fresh, but frozen will do at a push)

1 cup full of diced meat from the chicken oops hen (the rest can be put into the remaining stock and frozen for a rainy day)

2 stalk of lemon grass white only, husked, crushed and very finely sliced

1 clove of garlic sliced
1 piece of galangal (about 2,5 cm) sliced ever so fine (mandolin is good, but watch those fingers)

The remainder from the bunch of spring onions (keep some as a garnish for later)

2 smallish chillis de-seeded and finely sliced

1 bunch of coriander leaves chopped (you can use the stalks and roots in the stock)

140g shiitake mushrooms (if fresh are unavailable try preserved, I did, or use brown cap)

50g of rice noodles,the flat ones (soaked)

6 small red tomatoes, cut into quarters and de-seeded

A small knob of shrimp paste (size of a finger nail) don't worry if you don't have any

Juice of 1 lime (if needed, only add if you think it is not sour enough)

The making of: (I have heard about this malarky in films)


In a clean pan (or better still a large wok with a burnt bottom) heat a little corn oil,  add the garlic along with two tea spoons of the Tom Yam paste (or more you hero) heat through to release the natural oils (don't burn),

add the whites of the spring onions, the lemon grass and the sliced galangal, soften and add 1 litre of the chicken stock, heat through to just below boiling.

Add the shiitake’s, some of the chilli's and tomato's. Add the noodles, the cooked chicken pieces and the shrimp paste. Now the prawns, when heated through (just a couple of minutes, don’t cook for too long they go tough and aren’t all that nice) taste and adjust seasoning with more soy, fish sauce, chilli flakes or lime juice if needed. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves, spring onions, sliced chillies.

Serve either in individual soup bowls with spoons or in a terrine for everyone to help themselves ( I often serve side dishes of more chilli flakes, coriander and diced spring onions. As some people (not I) have an aversion to coriander (don't tell them it is in the paste) you can serve the chopped coriander totally as a side dish :-(

I personally think that chopsticks are a must and ideally one slurps from the bowl (bib required). But Chinese porcelain spoons can be used for those not proficient in the use of chopsticks and slurping.

I had my first real taste of Tom Yam in a Hawkers Market below one of Singapore’s department stores! I got my bowl of Tam Yum complete with piles whole prawns, I being young innocent and completely naive (some would say daft), I sprinkled a large amount of crushed dried chillies over the top of what I later discovered was an already well spiced soup, aagghhh *%%!!@@ it almost blew my head off, the Asian Gentleman sitting opposite, look at me in amazement, as the sweat streamed out of my head (and the rest of my body), he kept shaking his head and continued eating his soup, which I must add had far more added chillies than mine. BUT I did finish it, it was another few months before I tried it once again, this time I did not add any extra chillies and found it rather nice, I have now increased my pain level to a point of now being able to eat my Tom Yam soup with a decent amount of fire without causing embarrassment to myself and others:-D