Kitchenella: The secrets of women: heroic, simple, nurturing cookery - for everyone. Rose Prince
soup for us, and selling it in cans, packets or ‘fresh’ in cartons. But in terms of goodness, it always falls short of the real thing.
Soups are to most Europeans what dal is to India and Pakistan – a vital, nourishing food that is affordable. But the British and Americans are a little soup-shy. The wealthy traditionally view soups as a starter, or diet food, and there is an educated margin of bowl-food enthusiasts – but on the whole we typically avoid all but the best-known canned varieties. A pity all round, not least because a bigger love for soup would instantly solve the catering problems of schools and hospitals.
Italian mothers rear their children on minestrone and pasta e fagioli, the delicious garlic-scented white bean and pasta soup capable of supplying a slow stream of energy for the rest of the day. The soup-devoted French have their Niçoise pistou, similar to minestrone yet greener and with more garlic; they also have their famous fish stew-soups and a delicious heartening cabbage and pork broth from the hilly Auvergne. In central Europe buttery dumplings float in rich and gamey meaty soups, while potatoes dominate the soups of colder Nordic countries. That is not to say we do not have some great broths in Britain, such as mutton and pearl barley, likely based on the lost medieval pottages, soups made with peas, grains and herbs.
Velvet soups
These are the smooth, creamy-textured soups that are sometimes just the essence of one vegetable, sometimes two, but never too many. The good news, for those still not persuaded to make meat or vegetable stock, is that you do not need to use it in these soups. There is another, time-saving and effective way, using additional butter, which is typically found in French home cooking but less in chefs’ books (chefs tend to be slavish to bouillon). When making a soup in which one ingredient stars, like lettuce or watercress, the butter method is especially successful. In the meantime, soups should begin in their humblest form.
see PLATE 1
A big energising soup, its creaminess comes from the beans and adding wholemilk or Greek yoghurt at the end of cooking, which also gives the soup a refreshing, citrus taste. Onion, garlic and one of a number of green vegetables are added to lighten the floury texture of the beans. ‘Well dressed’ means it has a number of guises and can be many different soups, depending on what you add from the list of embellishments.
The secret value of beans
The trick of balancing the food budget yet feeling happy with what you eat lies in some of the humblest foods. Bean soups like the one below are something I turn to often – but with great enthusiasm. All types of bean are now fairly easy to find. Even the otherwise unimaginatively stocked late-night grocery across the road from where I live sells a range. I will sometimes buy dried beans, reconstitute and boil them, but it is a longer process (see page 230) and this section is about time poverty. Beans, like all pulses (lentils, chickpeas, peas), are in many ways the perfect food. They contain a vast range of nutrients and are high in fibre, growing them is great for the environment and though they are not grown in the UK (some ought to be) they are never air-freighted. Canned beans and pulses, incidentally, are not an inferior food to dried. With one can costing under £1 yet containing enough to serve 2–3 people, learning to use them in soups should be an essential part of every home cook’s abilities.
SERVES 4
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium white-fleshed onions, roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed with the back of a knife and peeled
1 fennel bulb, roughly chopped, or choose from: 2 celery sticks, sliced; 2 leeks, sliced; half a cucumber, seeds removed and thickly sliced; 3–4 medium-sized turnips, including green tops, sliced
2 x 400g/14oz can white haricot beans or cannellini beans
900ml/1½ pints water or stock
salt and white pepper
400ml/14fl oz Greek-style, wholemilk strained yoghurt
EMBELLISHMENTS
Add one or more of the following (you can also eat this soup plain):
• Slices of ciabatta, baguette or other open-textured bread, fried until golden in olive oil
• Melted butter, with chopped garlic
• Red chilli, the seeds removed, then sliced
• Crisp sautéed bacon or pancetta, chopped
• Basil pesto sauce
• Black olive tapenade sauce
• Roasted red peppers
• Flakes of raw, undyed smoked haddock (they will cook in the hot soup)
Put the oil in a large pan and heat over a medium flame. Add the onions, garlic and fennel or other green vegetable and cook until transparent and fragrant, but not coloured. Add the beans with their liquid, then the water or stock. Bring to the boil and then cook for about 10 minutes until the beans and vegetables are soft. Transfer all to a food processor or liquidiser and blend until smooth. Taste and add salt if necessary. Add a good pinch of white pepper.
To serve, reheat until almost boiling. Add the yoghurt and heat until nearly boiling, then remove from the heat. Ladle into bowls and add one or two of the extra ‘outfits’ from the list.
My father also remarried, when I was five. My stepmother Annie Lou, who at the time had no children, was suddenly faced with four children to feed for half of every holidays and little sympathy from her instant family. There was a kind of competence and reliability about her cooking, learned from Cordon Bleu recipe cards, Arabella Boxer’s First Slice Your Cookbook, and The Joy of Cooking, which we displaced children found reassuring. I am not sure how much joy Annie Lou found in cooking itself, but she saw it as a duty and shopped enthusiastically with the village butcher, and even grew vegetables. She did not make all the many different dishes my mother made, nor share my mother’s love of southern European food, but she had a few great staples that became ‘old friends’. You knew where you were in the week by what was on the table. If it was fish pie, it was Friday; cottage or shepherd’s pie was usually there on a Monday, the day after a magnificent roast, the joint bought from Mr Vigor in Woodborough. I have no complaints. On winter picnics at horsy events (not my favourite days as I did not share the family’s devotion to all things equine) she always filled flasks with very hot, Heinz tomato soup ‘let down’ with milk. I loved that stuff. Later, when making my own tomato soup with milk, I laughed to find its eventual flavour not unlike the one from the can. Adding fresh mascarpone cheese, however, takes the flavour of tomato soup to a new, richer level.
SERVES 4
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed with the back of a knife and peeled
1 x 400g/14oz can plum tomatoes, chopped
225g/8oz fresh cherry or other ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 sprigs basil
1 dessertspoon sugar
200ml/7fl oz water or stock
250g/9oz mascarpone cheese
salt and black pepper
To serve: extra olive oil, extra basil leaves, bread such as baguette or ciabatta
Put the oil, garlic, canned tomatoes, fresh tomatoes and basil into a large pan and heat. When the mixture boils, cook for 10 minutes, then add the sugar and water or stock. Simmer for 20–30 minutes until sweet. Cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a liquidiser or food processor. Process until smooth and return to the pan. Stir in the mascarpone thoroughly and reheat. Do not allow to boil. Taste and add salt if necessary, then add pepper. Ladle into bowls,