Chelsea & Me: Soups

Chelsea Winter. Winner of Masterchef NZ in 2012, author of three cookbooks, and my go-to gal when I’m in a recipe funk. At My Table and Everyday Delicious are the most-used and most-recommended cookbooks in my kitchen, so I’m making it my mission to try every recipe. And of course, her new book, Homemade Happiness, is on my Christmas wish-list!
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On a cold winter or autumn night, there’s nothing more warming than sitting down for a bowl of soup served with bread hot from the oven. We all like soup, and as long as there’s enough buttery bread to go with it, no one in this household complains that soup isn’t a meal.

We’ve tried all of the soups in At My Table and Everyday Delicious, and all have been hearty, warming and delicious.

My Chicken Laksa
I don’t quite know what to say about this one…it was bloody marvellous! Making the curry paste from scratch added so much depth of flavour; I finally found shrimp paste and what a difference it made to that depth! I hoped this wasn’t going to be too spicy for my boys, but I needn’t have worried – they ate it all, and asked for seconds (in fact, Pickle ended up finishing mine, cheeky monkey). I only used two fresh chillies, but garnished mine and Tall’s with another, which added a great amount of extra zing.

Leek & Potato Soup with Gruyere Crust
Yum. I’ve never been too fond of leek & potato soup, but this was a winning recipe. I over-cooked the spuds slightly so we ended up with a thicker soup than expected, but the taste was definitely up there. I pureed it for the boys and they really liked it. I didn’t have any gruyere, but made the wee cheesy toasts using my favourite Mainland Noble cheddar, and they were a great accompaniment. You can find the recipe here.

Mushroom Soup with Buttery Garlic Mushroom Toppers
As the boys don’t like mushrooms, I’ve made this as a date night in dinner a few times. The recipe says it serves 3-4, but…..it doesn’t. It’s such a gorgeous soup, and the crunchy, garlicky mushroom toppers are so delightful, that hubs and I finish the whole pot between us. The combination of flavours is so simple but so magical…I’d go so far as to say that this is one of my favourite soups everrrrrrrrr.

Pea & Ham Soup
Hearty, filling and tasty, this soup (Chelsea’s Oma’s recipe) reminds me of my nana. It’s a bit old-fashioned, but with every spoonful, you feel like you’re eating good health. It’s a great way to use up the that leftover ham hock from Christmas, too!

Tomato & Meatball Soup
The idea of this might seem a little strange, and to be honest, this is my least favourite of Chelsea’s soup recipes. It felt like we were eating spaghetti and meatballs but without the spaghetti and with way too much sauce. The flavour of the soup was good; the meatballs were quite plain. This is one I’ve only made once, and I doubt I’ll make it again given my husband’s lukewarm response.

Soul Chicken & Vegetable Soup
Any soup recipe that starts with making your own stock is going to be pretty tasty, and this definitely was. I mixed up the vegetables to suit my little men’s taste, and used alphabet soup pasta, and it went down a treat. It has that taste of goodness about it; I can imagine eating a big bowlful if I wasn’t feeling very well, and instantly feeling better.

Chicken, Corn & Kumara Soup
This recipe is very similar to the chicken soup above, but the flavour is lighter and reminds me more of autumn and spring than winter. It was quick and easy to make, but still very tasty.

Easy Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup
Tiny has asked me to make this soup several times – both boys love it, which surprised me a little given they profess not to like half the vegetables in it! I loved that the mushroom stalks were used to flavour the broth, and how clean the flavours were (typically South-East Asian), and that Chelsea gives us the power to adjust the flavours of hot, sweet, salty and sour to suit our own palates.

Perfect Creamy Seafood Chowder
Seafood chowder is one of those dishes that everyone thinks they can make, but only certain recipes are actually any good. This is one of those – the seafood is the hero of the chowder, with the creamy base hanging subtly back in the shadows. Tall is a big seafood chowder fan and critic, and this recipe got his approval from the first taste. Delicious.

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Book Review: Digby Law’s Soup

Digby Law’s Soup – Digby Law
(published by Hachette – June 2015)

As soon as the weather starts to get cooler, my thoughts turn to soup in all its warming glory. During the winter months, we eat a lot of soup for dinner; I find it’s a great way of getting different vegetables into my boys, and an easy meal to prepare early in the day, ready for reheating when it’s time for dinner. As long as I serve it with plenty of hot-from-the-oven bread, everyone is happy.

Problem is, my soup repertoire is severely limited. I tend to buy a whole lot of winter vegetables (pumpkin, kumara, carrots, parsnips…), chop ’em up, throw ’em in a pot with herbs and stock of some kind, and hope for the best. Usually, this method results in a tasty enough concoction, but it always tastes kinda the same.

Enter Digby Law’s Soup cookbook, first published in 1982. Chapters range from the standard Meat, Vegetable and Seafood soups, to the more interesting Chilled, Herb, Nut and Cheese soups. Just from looking at the contents page, I was intrigued. Each chapter begins with a quote about soup (who knew there were so many?!), and an introduction, full of history, explanation and suggestions.

There are also chapters on various garnishes (which should be “…compatible with the soup in colour, flavour and texture.”) and accompaniments (which should be “…the same style as the soup: for a light soup, a dainty accompaniment; for a heavy soup, a hearty accompaniment.”). Delicious.

So far, I’ve only made the “classic Chinese soup”, Long Soup – a delightful broth featuring pork, cabbage and egg noodles that my boys loved – and Kumara and Pumpkin Soup – a thick, hearty soup that again, my boys loved (despite neither of them liking pumpkin or kumara, tee hee), but I have bookmarked so many more.

Some of the recipes scream “RETRO” (bisques, various tripe, liver and veal options), but many of them are timeless in their appeal and ingredient lists. Law also provides suggestions of additions to various soups, allowing the cook to create their own masterpiece from one of his basic recipes. For example, under the recipe for Pumpkin Soup (which provides no quantities), there is a list of variations, including: add a can of shrimps, or finely grated lemon rind, or pureed peaches, sour cream, fried onions…

Digby Law’s Soup is a great resource if you are a soup-fiend like me, and I’m sure that by the end of the winter (who am I kidding? It’ll be spring), my copy will be dog-eared, splattered and well-used.

Thank you to the kind folk at Hachette NZ for providing me with this review copy.