28.02.08: Definitive Borscht

As regular readers of this blog well know, borscht has been a recurring theme. Way back on Day 12, Lou essayed a recipe so simple that we could hardly call it Borscht since it was basically a beetroot puree. Then I had a go with a recipe from the Soup Bible. Then I had another go and so did she. By now, I reckon we're about ready to settle upon a definitive recipe.

Borscht is traditionally made with beef stock, so the main issue with making a vegetarian version is how to get that flavour and the secret is: Marmite! Not just Marmite, but mushrooms, too, sweated right down in the mirepoix to surrender their bosky essence. Like this:

For the mirepoix, you will require a pound or half a kilo each of onions, carrots and celery, plus half a head of garlic. Buy five kilos of beets, four decent sized Bramley cooking apples, and a 750g punnet of field mushrooms. You'll also need cream or yoghurt and chives or dill for the garnish. I like thick Greek yogurt thinned with a little lemon juice to make it runnier and a clump of chives one can cut straight into the soup with scissors.

1. Roughly chop the onions, carrots and celery and sweat them in a splash of oil in the bottom of your soup pot with the peeled and crushed garlic. Keep the lid on the soup pot to keep the moisture in, but stir the contents often.

2. Next, add the mushrooms. You don't have to bother chopping them. You'll want to sweat them right down and they will release a lot of moisture. Keep the lid on, but keep stirring.

3. Apples are a bit of a controversial ingredient, but add a delightfully fruity note. Peel, core and chop the Bramleys and add the to the pot, stirring them into the mixture.

4. As the soup pot continues to cook over low heat, peel and chop the beets. Add them to the pot, stirring them into the mirepoix, and add sufficient liquid to cover, probably two litres. You need a dark vegetable stock: Marigold bouillon mixed with a dessert spoon of Marmite per litre.

5. Boil the beets quite vigorously for half an hour until they're soft enough to be blended and then liquidise, homogenise and blend, blend, blend your borscht. Add more liquid to create a silky texture and achieve your desired consistency.

6. Serve with an optional swirl of yogurt, or cream, chopped chives or dill, and black pepper.

Dairy comment: 'borscht as good as a Porche!'

Occupational hazard: beetroot hands

07.02.08: Yellow Satay Soup + Veggie Stew

Inspired by the Chinese New Year, apparently, the basis of this soup is yellow split peas, aka jumbo lentils, soaked and cooked down with paprika and cracked black pepper (the pepper corms roasted in hot oil until they crack) then blended to the consistency of polenta. Carlo made his own vegetable stock by boiling up carrots, celery and onion with garlic - your basic mirepoix mixture - and straining the resultant liquid, which he used to liquidise some peanut butter, seasoned with coriander and more paprika. Then he mixed the peanutty liquid with the creamy split pea base, uttered a few inscrutable incantations under his breath, and voila: another big hit soup!

The next day, Carlo extended his soup from the day before by adding pureed mushrooms and called it 'Morning Glory', oblivious to the English slang connotations of that phrase;-) This, however, was a side attraction to his second weekly experiment in offering a lunchtime plate of food for a set price, £2.80. Today's stew comprised various pulses with tomato, onion and garlic, plus parsnips, carrots, and organic red potatoes, with tofu, flavoured with parsley and coriander. Served on Basmati rice and accompanied by a little salad, it was pretty special.

Jan Duke had walked around the yards, telling everyone that a lunchtime special was in the offing at the Pullens Centre and so, by the time I came over at half-past-midday, the place was rammed and there wasn't anywhere to sit. The February weather was so clement that some people took their plates of rice and stew to sit outside at the benches in Iliffe Yard. Consequently, Carlo fed at least forty people, all of whom were quite content, with many happily giving more than the prescribed £2.80, making the day a roaring success from every point of view. Here's a photo from my P.O.V., when I eventually got a seat:

Graham rocking the David Live look; Naomi gazing into space

Carlo will return on Monday when, at the request of DSDHA, he will be reviving his 7 Pulse soup from last week. Some kind of vegetable stew-type punch plate may well also be offered. Seba. and Russell will (probably) be ransacking Nine Elms on Tuesday and may be joined by a new soup maker. On Wednesday it's Daisy, Rhiannon and Holly, essaying another of their ingenuous freegan creations. Carlo returns on Thursday and, on Friday, Cafe Cairo will be decking the hall for their event in the evening, so it's not certain what we'll be doing so far as the soup is concerned. But you can be sure it will be tasty.

4.12.07: Mushroom

This was the same minimalist recipe Lou deployed on November 6th and it produced the same result: deep boskiness. Natty was so overwhelmed by the flavour that he compared it in this log bok sketch to Fat Man. Or Little Boy?

06.11.07: Mushroom

My lousy cold is lingering, hence no soup yesterday, but today Lou took over from where she left off last week, making mushroom soup with Graham. It was one of her minimalist recipes: minced garlic and thyme sautéed in butter (she actually used Utterly Butterly, don't ask me why) followed by two kilos of 'shrooms, sweated in the soup pot with the lid on for ten to fifteen minutes, stirred every few minutes to stop it sticking and ensure even cooking. Then she poured over six litres of Marigold bouillon and simmered the soup for a further ten minutes before blitzing it with the stick blender. And that's it, really.

I thought this soup was delicious and sufficiently pungent for its earthy aroma to penetrate my cold. Lou served it with a swirl of single cream and there were 17 takers, six of whom had seconds, making a total of 23 bowls served (as usual!) As someone wrote, rather enigmatically, in the log bok: 'Must Understand Soups Have Really Orsum OM Factor'. Indeed.

Some technical notes: Lou bought her 'shrooms at Somerfield, because they have bargainous 750g packs of field mushrooms. She used two, plus a 500g punnet of button mushrooms, which went into the pot whole and were a birrova bovver to liquidizise with the baby stick mixer. Our big mixer is still at the menders where it's gone for a service: new lead and blade. You'd think that would be a pretty straightforward proposition, but oh no. Turns out there's only one guy at the factory who does servicing and he's got some kind of grievance, so I don't think we're going to get our Dynamic magic wand back any day soon. Never mind that this machine is integral to our operation every single day and it's going to cost, like, a hundred quid to tune it up. I only hope it's going to be as good as new for that price, because I could have a new one tomorrow for twice as much. Innit.