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The art of soup
The history of soup is probably as old as the history of cooking itself. Food historians tell us that soup evolved according to the availability of local ingredients and the palates of the local population. For Italians, it was minestrone while the Russians developed borscht and the French had a penchant for onion soup.
The technique of boiling various combinations of herbs, vegetables and meat in one pot probably didn’t take root until waterproof and heatproof containers were developed around 5000 years ago.
This was something of a revolution in food preparation as it meant people could extract maximum nutritional value from animal bones and other foods that could not otherwise be easily used.
The modern word ‘soup’ is derived from the old French word sope or soupe. The underlying meaning is to do with the notion of ‘soaking’ (as in to soak a piece of bread in liquid or pour broth on to bread). In fact, to cooks in the Middle Ages, soup was primarily a piece of bread soaked in liquid. Diners would use the bread instead of a spoon to sop up the remaining liquid. Generally consumed at the end of the day, this meal became ‘souper’ or ‘supper’.
In our house, any time of day is wonderful for soup. This week I’d like to share our family Farmhouse Vegetable Soup recipe which is laden with winter vegetables.
Naturally, home-made stock is far better, but if time is a little short, a pre-made liquid stock will do the trick.
Farmhouse Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 Small onion roughly chopped
½ Small fennel bulb cubed
1 large carrot sliced thick
1 stick of celery thickly sliced
10 Beans cut 2cm pieces
50g Peas
200 g Swede cubed
200 g potato, peeled and cubed
1 bay leaf
1 large sprig of fresh thyme
2 Large sprigs of parsley
1 can chopped tomatoes or 400 g of Fresh tomatoes roughly chopped seeds in
600 ml vegetable stock (I prefer home-made)
Salt and pepper
Preparation method
In a large saucepan heat the oil. Add the onion and cook for about five minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the onion is softened but not browned.
Add the celery, carrot, fennel, swede and potato, and cook for a further five minutes or until slightly softened. Tie the bay leaf, thyme and parsley sprigs together into a bouquet garni. Add to the pan, together with the stock, tomatoes (with their juice), peas and beans. Season to taste and bring to the boil, then cover the pan and reduce the heat. Simmer gently for 45 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender.
Remove the bouquet garni and check the seasoning. If you’re using a pre-made stock, you may not need to add any more salt. Sprinkle the soup with fresh cracked pepper, serve piping hot. Our five-grain or our rustic sourdough bread is delicious with this soup.
Beef Bourguignon
Due to popular demand for this recipe and the abundance of great red wine we have in our area, I thought it would only be fair to publish it.
One of the best dishes my wife Sylvie makes for our family in winter is the old French favourite Beef Bourguignon, which she learnt from her mother in Paris. It’s a winter dish that matches perfectly with our Pain Campagne and Pain sur Levain sourdough breads.
INGREDIENTS
1kg Stewing beef diced in to 2cm to 3cm cubes
1 Garlic Clove roughly chopped
1 large sprig of fresh thyme
1 Bay leaf
6 Eshallots onions or brown onions peeled and quartered
2 Carrots thickly sliced
100g Streaky Bacon roughly chopped
2 tbsp of Olive Oil
50g Butter
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
30g Plain flour
500ml Red wine preferably Pinot Noir
250ml Beef stock
200g Small button mushrooms
Parsley roughly chopped
METHOD
Marinate the diced beef in the red wine Garlic, eshallot onions, carrot, thyme and bay leaf over night in the refrigerator. The next day pick out the beef, onions and carrots then set them aside. Make sure you keep the red wine marinade for later on in the recipe
Pre-Heat the oven to 150ºC in a fan forced oven and 180ºC in a conventional oven.
Roughly chop the Streaky Bacon and in a large Casserole dish heat up the Olive Oil and cook the roughly chopped bacon until lightly brown. Spoon them out (leaving as much oil remaining as possible) and set aside in a covered bowl.
Re-heat the remaining Oil and Bacon Fat until very hot - almost smoking. Add the cubes of Beef, in batches, and fry them until they are brown on all sides. Spoon these out and place in the bowl alongside the Bacon.
Now add the butter with the shallot onions and carrots and fry quickly while constantly stirring.
Add the Beef and Bacon back into the Casserole. Add the Salt & Pepper and stir everything well. Sprinkle with the Plain Flour and stir again.
Stir in the Red Wine left over from the marinade and enough Beef Stock to just cover the meat. Make sure the Garlic and Herbs are in as well. Bring to boil on the stove then cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the button mushrooms and simmer for a further 5 min occasionally stirring to prevent burning on the bottom of the casserole dish.
Place in the oven with the lid on and cook for 45min to 1 hr or until the beef is tender.
When ready decorate with the roughly chopped Parsley and serve immediately from the Casserole dish.
Serve with Boiled New Potatoes and sourdough bread.
Serves 2 as a Main Meal
The Jewel in the Crown
10/06/2010
I recently had the pleasure of cooking for a group of grape growers at the Keppoch Hall in south east South Australia, just between Naracoorte and Padthaway.
The Keppoch hall is one of those charming, rural communal halls full of memorabilia that never fails to remind me of what country life is about.
Although the iconic picture of the Queen mounted on the wall is actually a snap of local farmer Ian Ward (Wardy to us) having fun taking the Mickey out of our dear Liz, there was but one jewel in this crown – the kitchen of the Keppoch Hall.
An original and genuine cast iron, enamel-plated wood fire stove in immaculate condition takes pride of place.
I could almost hear the wood crackling in the fire box. If only I’d know that beauty was going to be there, I would almost certainly have taken the chocolates of the menu and replaced them with mini almond cakes for the tea and coffee.
At this time of the year fresh almond meal is readily available and I would like to share with you one of my secret weapons for a quick and easy dessert or treat.
In patisserie we call it an almond financier. But I like to call them mini almond cakes.
Ingredients
350g caster sugar
270g or 9 egg whites at room temperature
85g flour
200g almond meal
255g butter melted
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC in a Fan force oven and 180ºC in a conventional oven.Melt the butter and set aside to cool while you separate the eggs and weigh the sugar.Place the egg whites and caster sugar in a mixing bowl with a paddle and slowly mix for two to three minutes or until the sugar has dissolved. It’s important not to aerate the egg whites and sugar.Put the almond meal and flour in to the mixer and switch on to the slowest speed while pouring the melted butter in the mixer. Make sure the butter is still warm but not too hot; if it has gone cold a little just warm the butter up a fraction.Once the all the ingredients are incorporated it’s time to prepare the moulds. I prefer to use small muffin tins lightly oiled and dusted with almond meal to prevent sticking.Spoon the cake batter almost to the top of each muffin mould and put a generous amount of sliced almond to cover the top of the batter. Place them in the middle of the oven and bake for at least 25 to 35 minutes or until completely golden brown.Once out of the oven let them cool in the tins for five minutes. Carefully demould the almond cakes and let them cool on a wire cooling rack. To serve, simply dust the almond cakes with icing sugar. They are just wonderful in winter with a pot of tea.
I was in our locally-owned supermarket the other day eyeing off some delicious ham hocks. I could almost taste them in my mouth - sightly smoky and falling-off-the-bone pork. Yum!
My former primary school teacher was standing next to me and noted my dreamy state. “They’re delicious, aren’t they?” she said to me. “I just love pea and ham soup. Young people don’t make great soups these days; they just make cream of everything.”
I had to laugh, because she had a point. Even I tend to make cream of everything.
Feeling inspired, I bought one of those ham hocks.
Nothing beats a great soup in winter, especially when the wind and rain is belting against the windows and you’re inside by the fire eating soup with crunchy, crusty bread. It’s one of the wonderful things about winter.
And what could be more warming than pea and ham soup?
There are many myths and fables surrounding the origin of pea and ham soup. Even Charles Dickens likened the greyish, yellow fogs of London to pea soup in his 1852 classic Bleak House. Londoners then starting calling the fogs “pea soupers”.
This soup really is one of those old classics and here is my version of the dish.
It’s so versatile you can use either green or yellow split peas even lentils and chickpeas. If you don’t like ham hocks, simply leave them out.
Ingredients
300g split peas (green or yellow, just cover them with water and soak overnight in the fridge)
30g olive oil
1 ham hock
1 litre chicken stock
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
½ leek, roughly chopped
½ carrot, diced chunky style
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 sprig of thyme
1sprig of parsley
1 bay leaf
1tblsp double cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
Put the soaking split peas into a sieve and leave to drain.
Heat a five-litre pot on the stove with the olive oil and lightly fry the ham hock on all sided until lightly golden. Spoon out the ham hock and leave aside.
With the oil left in the pot, lightly fry the onions, garlic, leeks and carrots for five minutes until the onions start to turn clear. Add the split peas thyme, parsley and bay leaf into the pot and cook for a further two minutes. Put the chicken stock into the pot along with the ham hock and bring to the boil.
Turn the heat down low, cover with a lid and simmer gently for 90 minutes.
Remove it from the stove and let it cool for 45 minutes, then remove the ham hock and set aside for later. Discard the thyme and bay leaf.
Place the contents of the pot into a kitchen wiz or a blender; you may have to do this in batches. Gently blend until the soup comes together. To maintain that rustic feel, keep it a little chunky – not too smooth.
Place the blended soup back into the pot. Pick off the ham hock meat with a fork making it nice and stringy before adding to the soup pot. Re-heat the soup and check for seasoning, adding salt and pepper to your liking.
If the soup seems a little too thick, just thin it down with a little extra chicken stock. Like most soups, this version of pea and ham is better the next day. Serve this one with a dollop of double cream and day-old sourdough bread.
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.....?05/05/2010
It wasn’t so long ago that regional Australians were still cooking with wood-fired ovens. Both Mum and Dad have childhood memories of having to get out of bed in the early hours of the morning to chop wood ready for the breakfast fires.
Women back then really knew how to cook. And I say ‘women’ advisedly, because for the most part, it was our mothers and grandmothers who ruled the kitchen. I could swear that my Grandmother had built-in scales in her fingertips – a pinch of this, and a pinch of that. She even had an instinctive sense for when the oven was just the right temperature.
In her era, things were tough, with limited ingredients and much shorter shelf life for most fresh food. Aside from being shrewd and adept at making a lot from a little, the home cook had to be creative.
And what could be more creative than a ‘duck’ fashioned from a simple cut of meat?
Today, simple cuts of meat such as shoulder, shanks and tail are quite trendy. We may even live to see the return of one of my Grandmother’s specialities – Mock Duck.
Mock Duck has nothing whatsoever to do with duck. This is a creative way to use those cheaper cuts of meat which often have a stronger, more gamey taste.
This week, I offer up my Grandmother’s old Mock Duck recipe.
Mock Duck
Begin by asking your butcher for two metres of butchers string and a shoulder of mutton with the knuckle left in.
Stuffing
4 onions, peeled and cut in half
9 sage leaves roughly chopped
60gm butter
100gm Bread crumbs
Pinch of salt and pepper
Method
Bring a pot of water to the boil. Blanch and boil the onions for five minutes, stain and set aside to cool.
Once the onions have cooled, blend the onions, sage, butter, bread crumbs with a pinch of salt and pepper in a kitchen wiz or blender. You will need to pulse the blender until all the ingredients come together. If you would like to remain true to the old fashioned methods, you could use a mincer with a fine mincing plate. Mince the onions first and then knead everything together, putting the whole lot through the mincer twice more. Voila! Stuffing done.
Construction
To create the Mock Duck, fill the shoulder with the stuffing and secure with the butcher’s string, all the while trying to shape it into a duck. Arrange the shoulder in a tray so the knuckle is facing up. This becomes the duck’s ‘head’. Sprinkle the shoulder with salt and pepper and leave it in the fridge for an hour to rest.
While the Mock Duck is now resting, pre-heat the oven to 180ºC for a fan forced oven and 200ºC for a conventional oven.
For every kilogram of Mock Duck, allow 40 minutes of oven time.
This is a delightful served with good, old fashioned gravy and roasted vegetables – from the garden, of course.
I would love to hear about your family’s favourite old recipes or cooking experiences.
Email: bonafidecook@vanleuven.com.au or post your recipes to The Bona Fide Cook, PO Box 1359 Naracoorte, South Australia 5271.
Nothing makes a home more inviting than the smell of freshly baked ANZAC Biscuits. Perfect for a frosty autumn morning tea.
My Grandma’s famous ANZAC biscuits were a family favourite, slightly salty, crisp with a chewy centre and she always managed to burn the bottoms slightly. She was a great cook, I don’t know why grandma never corrected the slightly burnt bottoms, but I am kind of glad she didn’t because with that slightly caramelised taste, Grandma made those biscuits her own. And our family, well, we wouldn’t have them any other way.
So what is an ANZAC biscuit? According to the Australian War Memorial, there are two versions, one is the ANZAC tile or wafer and the others are called Soldier’s biscuit, which is what we know ANZAC biscuits as today.
The ANZAC tile or wafer was the original standard ration for our soldiers in World War 1 and was intended to replace bread. This biscuit was so hard that the soldiers would grind them up to make a sort of porridge. It consisted of flour, wholemeal flour, sugar, milk powder, salt and water. Without butter they would have been real tooth breakers!
Happily, the wives, mothers and girlfriends of the soldiers fighting the Great War, were able to cook up something a little more palatable, and the Soldier’s Biscuit was born. It must have been one of the only comforts for those brave men. The war effort would draw on groups such as the CWA, church groups and schools to help produce the Soldier’s biscuits as there was a great concern for the nutritional welfare of our soldiers. The volunteers would pack the biscuits in Billy Tea tins to keep them fresh during the long sea voyage to the fighting front.
The biscuit is said to have originated from an old Scottish recipe containing flour, oats, butter, brown sugar and treacle and just like the ANZAC wafer or tile, they contained no eggs. This was largely due to the fact that a lot of the soldiers were farmers and at that time there was a huge egg shortage here in Australia, as the very producers of eggs were off fighting in the war.
It wasn’t until the soldiers returned to Australia that the Soldier’s biscuits were renamed the ANZAC Biscuit, and this is the biscuit that we know today.
ANZAC Biscuits
155g plain flour
95g rolled oats
85g desiccated coconut
155g brown sugar
125g butter
6 tbs golden syrup
2 tbs boiling water
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 pinch of Salt
Method
Preheat the oven to 160ºC for a fan force oven and 180ºC for a conventional oven and line two baking trays with baking paper.
In a mixing bowl combined the plain flour, rolled oats, desiccated coconut, brown sugar and salt. Melt the butter and the golden syrup in a pot and set aside. Mix the bicarbonate of soda and boiling water together and add it to the pot of melted butter and golden syrup.
Add all the ingredients of the pot in to the bowl of dry ingredient and gently mix until the mixture comes together.
Spoon it on to the trays lined with baking paper and allow a little room for the biscuits to spread.
Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown. Once the biscuits are cooked, take them out of the oven and leave them aside for five minutes to rest before you put them on to a cooling rack. Or you can let them cool on a bed of rosemary (another symbol of ANZAC Day signifying remembrance) instead of a cooling rack - the delicious fragrance of rosemary will permeate the biscuit. L’est we forget.
When the relatives comes to visit
01/04/2010
I love it when family come to visit, but there is always a part of me that can’t help feeling a bit relieved when it’s time for them to leave!
One of the things I have always dreaded is cooking at home for relatives. The house is loud, children are screaming and everyone else has a glass of wine or beer in their hand except me. Because I’m the one in the kitchen.
The first day isn’t usually so bad. You can spend the day before they arrive preparing something special. But then that awful realisation creeps over you – they’re here for breakfast and lunch tomorrow, as well!
But don’t stress! I have made a deliberate decision to make my life easier. I forget all about trying to impress and now focus on getting back to good old fashioned basics.
It’s autumn now and the produce coming into season is exciting – pork, rabbit, duck, mushrooms apples, almonds, fennel, rhubarb, pumpkin… the list goes on. I love autumn and winter cooking, because I am a great fan of slow cooked meats, stews, soups and crusty crunch sourdough bread. And what better way to feed the hoards!
If you grew up in the country like me, chances are rabbit has been on your menu at some point. This autumn dish is great to bung in the oven while you enjoy the family fun. If you don’t like rabbit, you can always use chicken legs instead. Just serve in the centre of the table with some crusty sourdough bread and lashings of butter. It’s real ‘stick to your ribs’ food!
Braised Rabbit Legs with cider and mushrooms
5 Large Rabbit legs cut in half (or substitute with chicken legs)
Plain flour for dusting the legs
80g smoked bacon, roughly chopped
50g butter or olive oil
4 red onions, roughly chopped
3 Swiss brown mushrooms quartered
2 garlic cloves peeled and roughly chopped
2 large sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
550ml dry cider (not sweet) or you can use beer
100ml Cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Pre heat the oven on 160ºC (fan force) or 180ºC for conventional oven.
Firstly season the plain flour with salt and pepper and generously coat the legs with the flour mix. The flour will thicken the stew, so make sure it’s a little generous.
Heat a large frying pan on the stove, melt the butter in the frying pan and pan fry the rabbit legs. Once the legs are golden brown set them aside and pan fry the bacon, onions and garlic until the onions have turned clear. Add the mushrooms with the thyme and bay leaves and continue to cook with a pinch of salt for five or so minutes, then add a tablespoon of plain flour and stir in.
Place the rabbit legs back into the frying pan and simply add the cider (or beer) while stirring and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for five minutes, stirring from time to time. Make sure nothing catches on the bottom and starts to burn.
Put the contents of the frying pan in to a casserole dish with a lid or a roasting tray covered with foil. Add the cream with a pinch of salt and pepper and stir through well. I find it important at this stage for a braising dish to check and taste for salt and pepper before I place it in the pre-heated oven for final cooking for 45 to 55 minutes.
When the timer goes off, dinner’s done! And the great thing about this dish is it’s even better the next day, so tomorrow’s lunch is done as well.
Tomatoes Tomatoes Tomatoes
So three years ago when my wife, Sylvie, and I were starting our business, one of the first things we did was to start a vegetable plot in our back yard. We also planted a pink lady apple tree, pear, plum, orange and olive trees.
We were living on a shoestring budget and we had to grow our own food. But we were also passionate about extremely fresh produce.
My old RM Williams boots came out of the back of the cupboard and we bought our packets of seeds, carefully and lovingly tending to them. It was hard work to make sure we had a continual supply of food and it’s true you reap what you sow.
My first spring gardening adventure saw me go a little over the top with tomato planting. Sixty plants, to be precise. Tomatoes are my favourite fruit and nothing beats watering your home grown tomatoes in the evening sun, the aroma radiating off every plant.
However I wasn’t prepared for the bounty that confronted us late that summer.
Tomatoes are everywhere at this time of the year and in our town so many people are giving them away. These days, I find I don’t need to grow them anymore because I am the lucky recipient of the crop grown by my father’s friend, Peter.
So what to do with all that fruit?
I loved my Grandmother’s famous tomato sauce, but these days I’m a bit savvier. Living in the country means I can buy terrific home-made sauce for my barbecues from the local trading tables and markets
What I do is to make a fabulously versatile tomato base which I freeze so my family can enjoy the taste of summer all year round.
For my tomato base you will need four basic ingredients.
1kg Tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 Onions finely chopped
2 Garlic cloves finely chopped
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
On the stove, heat a large base pot with the olive oil and cook the onions and garlic until they have turned clear. Add the roughly chopped tomatoes into the pot with a pinch of sea salt, making sure you stir the base until the mixture starts to bubble. Then turn off the stove and place a lid on the top. Let the mixture cool for two hours. The tomatoes will continue cooking for a while but you don’t want to cook them too much, because you are going to use this as a base for other recipes that require tomatoes, such as pasta sauces, soups, curries, chutneys or even your grandmother’s favourite tomato sauce recipe. The sauce is now ready to be put in to small containers for the freezer, but remember never put anything in the freezer hot. Always cool it to room temperature first.
