Roasted Tomato Soup

I went & bought 7 kg of tomatoes this week. The last of the summer tomatoes were on sale & I couldn't resist. I have big plans to make more tomato juice, jars of tomato coulis & of course, tomato soup.

Making this soup always puts me in a good mood. The smell in the kitchen as the tomatoes & garlic are roasting, the sound of the immersion blender & the pretty swirl in the soup.

At this point, I really should introduce my accomplice in making soup - my immersion blender. It's not a must have since you could always puree your soups in a blender but if like me, soups are a regular feature on the menu then it's so much better to invest in one of these.

Roasted Tomato Soup
serves 3-4

1.5 kg tomatoes
6 garlic cloves
1 medium onion
2 tsp sugar
2 Tbsp butter
3 cups stock
1/2 cup cream

1. Core tomatoes & cut them lengthwise in half. Put on a baking tray & sprinkled with olive oil. Add unpeeled garlic. Roast 180C for 1 hour

2. Fry onions & sugar in butter

3. Then add tomatoes, peeled garlic & stock

4. Simmer for 15-20 mins

5. Pour into a blender to puree or use immersion blender

6. Serve with cream, croutons, grated cheese or toast bread

Note :
- You can strain the soup if you want it to be smooth
- The cream can be added before you puree but I like to add it at serving so that I can have fun with making little swirls or funny faces

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

Growing up, I thought Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup was the best thing in the world. My mother always had cans of these in the pantry & I even eat it over rice. Even though I haven't had it in years, I still love me some cream of mushroom soup (not necessarily Campbell's of course).

I'd only ever made it with the cultivated champignons de paris & with my bounty of mousserons, I was keen to do this with wild mushrooms. So for this, I also dug into our stash of dried morel (morille) mushrooms to give it more flavor.

And don't you love my new colourful cups ? Well they were a present from Helena & Simon-Pierre (thank you again !) with special instructions to use them on the blog. I couldn't think of a better introduction for these little beauties. I expect that they would be featured a lot on the blog.

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

500g assorted wild mushrooms - I used mousserons & morel *
1 small shallot
1 Tbsp butter
50cl heavy cream or creme fraiche
1 1/2 cup of chicken stock
4 Tbsp dry sherry, white wine or sake

* If using dried mushrooms, put them in a bowl of water & into the microwave on high for 2 mins. When done, squeeze out the water from the mushrooms & keep the mushroom water (you can use that to flavor the soup)

1. Chop mushrooms in processor (I leave a portion unchopped cos I like to bite into pieces of mushrooms)

2. Fry shallots in butter

3. Add mushrooms to the pan & fry for 10-15 mins (they are going to exude a lot of water, don't worry)

4. Next add stock, cream, dry sherry, salt & pepper (& mushroom water). Bring to a boil then simmer for 20 mins

5. Get ready to dig into a bowl of delicious creamy chunky wild mushroom soup

Note : You can also make what is called Cappuccino of Mushroom Soup. Add more stock & use less cream. When it's done, just blend till it's frothy. Serve in coffee cups.

We just can't get enough of these mousserons

Dried Morel Mushrooms

Simple Japanese Salmon Soup

This is one of my go to meals when I'm feeling too lazy to cook anything elaborate. It's quick, simple, delicious & nutritious. One of The Girl's favorite too. I had some salmon leftover after I made sushi the other day & so I turned it onto soup.

I love to eat this with rice. Take a spoonful of rice, get some soup into the spoon & just slurp it up. Or do what I do sometimes, pour the soup into my rice & make it rice soup.

Simple Japanese Salmon Soup

Salmon skin removed & cut into cubes
Chinese cabbage, sliced
tofu, cut into cubes
half onion, sliced
1 tbsp of wakame seaweed
1-2 tbsp of daishi powder

1. Boil the chinese cabbage, onion & tofu in water with daishi powder

2. When cabbage is soft, throw in the salmon cubes

3. When salmon is cooked which is about 1 min, throw in wakame seaweed. It would expand as the soup simmers. Don't simmer for too long else the wakame would turn yellowish - just about 3 mins or so

4. Serve hot with bowl of rice on the side

Fish Soup

When I was in Biarritz earlier this year, I swore to myself that I was going to make their delicious fish soup called ttoro which is the Basque take on the French fish soup. With a little help from this recipe and some feedback from X, I managed to come up with something that was pretty close to what I had in Biarritz.

I made this just before we left for Cannes, like the day before which explains why I didn't really have time to style the shot properly but take my word, it is delicious. I could have sworn I added parsley but I don't see any trace of them in the picture. I froze the remainder & when I want to eat it next, I'll buy some mussels, langoustines & maybe a little bit more fish to be added to it.

For the soup base, I bought 1 kg of small fish with heads which would then be pureed. Another 500g of firm white fish to be eaten with the soup.


Fish Soup
makes about 4 servings

1 kg of small fish (with heads), I used poisson de roche
500 g of any 2-3 types of firm white fish fillet, cut into big pieces
500 g mussels
4 langoustines
40cl white wine
6 onions, diced
1 potato, quartered
2 cans whole tomatoes or 5-6 tomatoes, remove skin & diced
1 star anise
laurel
1 tsp piment d'espelette
3-4 espelette chillis (if any)
I head of garlic cloves, smashed & skin removed
parsley
olive oil

1. Fry onions, garlic in about 3-4 Tbsp of olive oil

2. Add fish & wine until wine is reduced

3. Add 1.5 l of water with potato, tomatoes, star anise, laurel & piment d'espelette. Bring to a boil then simmer for 1 hour. Add salt & pepper to taste

4. Remove the big pieces of fish fillet & set aside (cutting them to bite size pieces)

5. Puree the soup with an immersion blender

6. Then strain it through a sieve, pressing with a spoon to extract as much of the liquid out as possible. Discard the mush with the bones in them

7. Bring the soup back to a boil & add the mussels & langoustines. When they are cooked, add the fish fillet. Serve with fresh parsley or croutons.

Chicken Vegetable Soup

My mum's Cantonese so I grew up drinking a lot of soups. No meal's complete without a soup. But when I was living alone, I hardly ever made soups cos I don't have patience nor time, at least 3-4 hours which is generally what is required to make Chinese soups - slow simmer to allow all the flavors to be released.

Now that I have the time, it's difficult to get the ingredients - black chicken (In France, are you kidding me ?), chicken feet (I don't even want to go there), pork spare ribs (one would think this should be relatively easy but in France, pork bones are pet food so I have to make a special request at la boucherie) not to mention all the various herbs I'll have to ask my mother to send over.

So I'll just have to wait till I'm home before I'll get my fix of Chinese soups. In the meantime, I'll have to content myself with making Western soups.

Unlike over here where soups are mainly a winter fare, I can have soups any day of the year. This is one of X's favorite & I prepare this in the summer when we want something more filling than a salad & it is so comforting that you want to wrap it tightly around you & cuddle it to bed.

Chicken Vegetable Soup

1. Remove the thighs, legs & wings of a whole chicken for another dish like Pan Fried Chicken with Mango. Put the remainder of the chicken in a soup pot & cover it with water. Add salt. Bring to a boil then simmer till chicken is cooked. You may have to remove the scum from the broth. Remove the chicken & shred the meat. Set aside the shredded chicken & the broth.

2. While the chicken is boiling, diced up the vegetables - 1 zucchini, 2-3 carrots, 1 potato, 2-3 tomatoes & cut 1 onion in slices.

3. Fry some cubed bacon (lardons) then add onions & vegetables. Add 1 Tbsp of tomato paste. Mix it with the vegetables & fry for 10 mins or so. Next pour in the broth & shredded chicken. You can also add chicken or vegetable stock cubes if you like. Boil, then simmer till vegetables are cooked. Add salt & pepper to taste.

This can be served as it is or I like to add some noodles at the end to make it chicken noodle soup. Just add half a packet of instant noodles (note : I don't add the seasoning from the packet esp if you've already added stock cubes & sometimes the flavors are just not right eg. tom yam instant noodles but if you want to, go right ahead).

Asparagus soup

I love soups but reading my blog, you probably won't know that, would you ? Cos I've not featured soups at all. But you do know that I love asparagus cos I've already mentioned it here and here.

X requested for something light cos we've been having lots of heavy meals & besides, I do need to get my body ready for summer. Speaking of which, don't you hate trying on swim suits when you are still in your "winter whites" ? The last swim suit I bought was 5 years ago when I was in Rio. The Brazilians know swim wear so I bought so many bikinis & swim wear - enough to last me for well, 5 years. So I figured it was about time to get some new ones. I tried some on the other day & yikes, I need a tan so badly.

Geez talk about going off on a tangent. Okay back on track. So I decided to make asparagus soup since I was able to get a bunch at the market at a good price. I've had this recipe a while now so I don't remember where I'd scribbled it from. X had second helpings to the soup but I think I would have preferred the soup to be a little creamier.

Aren't asparagus such photogenic vegetable ?

Either way, you just can't take a bad shot of them

Asparagus Soup
serves 2-4

1 kg asparagus
1 large onion, sliced
3 Tbsp butter
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup cream
1/2 lemon

1. Use a vegetable peeler to peel off the tough outer layer of the asparagus. Then cut into pieces, setting aside the tips

2. Cook onion in butter till soft over low heat

3. Add the asparagus (not the tips) & fry for 5 mins. Salt & pepper

4. Then add chicken stock, bring to a boil then simmer for 20 mins, till asparagus is soft

5. In the meantime, cook the tips for 3-4 mins in pot of salted water. Drain & set aside

6. When the asparagus is done, puree the soup

7. Add cream & squeeze lemon juice

8. Garnish with tips