10.03.08: Rooty Miso

All weekend the forecasters kept predicting that heavy weather was imminent so, this morning, I thought I'd better make a proper hearty soup to insulate us all against low, low pressure. Plus, I've been intending to revisit my experiments with miso that began back with winter vegetables on 17.10.07, continued with various beans and pulses on 23.11.07, and reached some sort of a conclusion with root veggies on 10.12.07. Also, I wanted to have a go with Marigold Organic Instant Miso Bouillon Powder.

I bought this array of ingredients from Somerfield (swede, kale, carrots, potatoes) and Oli's (white radish, two types of turnips, 3 tins of kidney beans for a quid). I might say I spent a bit more than I usually do and then I spent £2.69 more at Baldwins for a tub of the aforementioned miso powder. Previously, I've mixed fresh miso paste into a soup stock made of Marigold bouillon and learned to add it last and then not to let the soup boil in order to preserve the precious enzymes as far as possible. But this powder is a whole lot easier to use and the 140g tub makes 7 litres, which is exactly how much I require. So, thanks once again, Marigold, and lets talk about sponsorship, eh?

To make the soup, I peeled and diced the swedes and turnips and radishes into centimetre cubes, put them in a roasting tray with a little vegetable oil, and roasted the dice on high heat for half and hour or forty minutes, stirring the mixture occasionally. Since this soup was not going to be blended, I took extra care chopping a finely diced mirepoix of leek instead of onion, with carrot and celery, plus half a dozen cloves of garlic, and sweated it in the bottom of the pot. I peeled six large white potatoes and steamed them for about half an hour, until they were cooked right through.

I assembled the soup by adding the roast root veg. to the mirepoix in the soup pot, covering with four litres of Marigold Miso, then squeezing the steamed potatoes through a ricer into the soup to thicken it, adding a further two litres of boiling miso bouillon, stirring, and finishing with shredded curly kale plus the last litre of miso. Looking back, shredded curly kale has been the green component of all four of my miso soups. To paraphrase Al Murray, all hail to the kale.

I garnished this rooty miso soup with fresh bean sprouts for crunch and served 21 people with at least 28 portions, as many had seconds. A bowl was left over for me to enjoy and, while I don't necessarily concur with the person who wrote in the dairy that this was the 'best so far', it was better than OK if I do say so myself.

10.12.07: Miso & Celeriac, Roots & Kale

This was the third variation on the winter Miso soup I've been developing, with chunky root veggies and shredded greens. The first, on 17.10.07, was thickened with pearl barley in the bottom; the second, on 23.11.07, had a base of red kidney beans, whizzed up. This one was thickened using a celeriac mash I made for my Sunday dins. I looked all over for celeriac and never thought of Lidl, but there I found a great big celeriac root. I steamed it with an equal quantity of potatoes and mashed the two together with a bit of fat. OK, you might as well know the truth. I admit I used real, unsalted butter from real cows and it was delicious.

First thing this Monday morning, I had to shop. Foolishly, I'd neglected to stock up on Marigold at Fare Shares last week, so was obliged to pay a quid extra in Baldwins this morning, where I also purchased a 300g pouch of Clearspring Hatcho Miso. As it turned out, this was probably more than I needed and maybe I could have saved some in the re-sealable pouch. This miso has seriously deep flavour and I reckon I could've got away with using maybe 200g in the six litres of liquid that went into today's soup.

I had a selection of rooty veg left over from the weekend, two types of turnip and those long red radishes from the Turkish supermarket, to which I added a couple of smallish swedes from Somerfield (on sale at half price!) and a polythene pillow of shredded curly kale.

To make the soup, I started by peeling the cloves of a head of garlic and roughly chopping a couple of largish onions, throwing them into the bottom of the soup pot with a splash of oil while I peeled and diced four large carrots and washed and chopped a head of celery, which also went into the pot. These mixed vegetables cooked slowly over very low heat with the soup pot lid on, being removed occasionally to stir, while I got on with peeling and dicing the rooty veg. I spread the diced swede, turnips and radishes onto an oven tray with a smear of oil and popped them into a hot oven to roast for 15-20 minutes. In retrospect, I'd have been better off with a wok, but I didn't have one to hand.

To the cooked mixed vegetables in the soup pot, I added the celeriac and potato mash, at least 3/4kg of it, plus the off cuts from the cubed root vegetables and covered it two litres of Marigold bouillon. I simmered the soup for fifteen minutes, left it to stand for ten and then liquidizised it with Brenda the blender while adding another two litres of bouillon.

The blurb on the back of the miso packet advises: 'avoid lengthy boiling to preserve the enzymatic properties of this unpasteurised miso', so I dissolved the 300g of miso paste in two litres of water that was hot, but not boiling. Finally, I assembled the soup by adding the cubed root vegetables and the miso to the pot and shredding the kale a bit more finely before stirring it in to the finished soup.

Before the soup was finished - and it was ready for 12:30 - a couple of women were waiting and nearly all the soup was gone by 3:00. Soon after 3:15, when Crampton Primary School lets out, Jack Kelly Granger burst in, breathlessly, to claim the last bowl.

Among today's soup slurpers were Taz and Will, Alexa and Julian . Taz has got an iPhoney and Julian had to restrain himself from dunking it in his soup. I needed a photo for the blog, so Will took a picture of me with the iPhone and pretended to dunk it in my soup. My face in I+I soup, innit.

Day 13: Winter Vegetable Miso

I've been wanting to do a chunky vegetable soup with miso but - likesay and to my dismay - good old British root vegetables aren't exactly plentiful in these parts and I didn't see so much as a parsnip down East Street this morning. Oli had parsnips and also these amazing radishes, which I thought might work in the absence of turnips. I stepped in to Somerfield on my way back up Walworth Road and picked up a couple of shrink-wrapped swedes and a bag of curly kale.

radishes, parsnips, swedes, carrots, onion, celery and kale (in colander)

Back at the Pullens Centre, I started by boiling up the pearl barley, probably about 500g. You cover it with cold water, bring it to the boil, then drain and repeat. When the barley water boils for the second time, it has to simmer for at least an hour.

This soup isn't going to be blended, so everything needs to be diced quite small (as in the picture). I roasted the diced swede, parsnip, carrot and radish in a little vegetable oil for about half an hour with the oven turned up as high as it goes, turning the dice in the roasting tray every ten minutes. Meanwhile, I made a mirepoix of finely diced onion, carrot and celery and sweated it in a little oil with the lid on the soup pot.

I dissolved a 240g tub of Organic Sweet Brown Miso - which is especially rich in soups, or so it says here - in a litre of hot water. I assembled the soup by tipping the cooked pearl barely into the cooked mirepoix, mixing them together while adding a 2 litre jug of Marigold bouillon. Then I added the miso, plus another three litres of Marigold bouillon. Finally, I added the diced root vegetables, which were just cooked through, and the kale, which I washed and shredded a bit finer than it came out of the bag.

Iraxte and her Mum, a Basque, were first through the door with baby Irene. Iraxte thought her Mum might not like the taste of miso, but she cleaned her bowl.

Of the 18 people who came for soup this lunchtime, at least half a dozen brought their own bowls and scurried back to their workshops with their soup. Which is fine, of course, but it gets a bit lonely if no one hangs out. Ira from the Buddhist Centre sent over a chocolate cake today, but I didn't get around to offering any. In fact, I didn't make a cup of tea all day. There was loads of soup left over, too, and I'll serve it again tomorrow rather than see it go to waste.

Among those who did hang out at the Soup Kitchen today, Kevin from Iliffe Street said the 'soup was fantastic, heart warming', and Shelly said: 'third time. I'm officially hooked! Love the soup, great idea. Tell your friends. Long may it reign.' Yay!

Soup Maker: Russell
Soup: Miso Winter Vegetable
Other ingredients: Pearl Barley
No. of bowls served: 18
Expenditure: £14.83
Donations: £21.09
Running balance: +£133.06