The Clangers' Soup Dragon

Well, look at me, being all late with my first post, I deserves a slap on the hand. Though it wasn't really my fault, I did plan to make something last night, but plans changed, and it didn't happen. To compensate, here is a picture of the apples I just had as a snack:

I can see why the red one wanted the green, he did indeed have juicy juicy flesh.

But apples are not what I'm here to talk about.

I was sitting in the car on my way home last night wondering what on earth I could now post about, and nothing came to me. Until this morning, when I got up, came downstairs and found my mum at the cooker. Making soup.

This lead me to thinking about my opinion of my mum's lentil soup (it looks like vomit, but is the tasty lentil soup I have ever had), to what my favourite soup is (a toss-up between asparagus and mushroom, I think), to what kind of soup the Clangers' Soup Dragon would have made. Since they live on the Moon, probably rock. Or cheese, depending on who you believe, but that got me onto a cheesy tangent, and is also not the point of this post. But it is slightly relevant.

Just for the record, Roquefort is the best cheese in the world.

But soup. That is the point of all of this. One of the most diverse, simple dishes in the world, and yet it can be one of the most surprising too. Now, to the basics; what does one put in soup?

This simplest answer is stock, but then leads to a whole bunch of new questions; what kind of stock? should I make it myself? Does it have to be thick/full of ingredients/smell good? Yes, to all of the above, in various batches.

I find the type of stock you use depends entirely on what you're chucking in the pan, but then, it's not always totally straightforward. Take Scotch Broth, to be stereotypical and all that; it's mostly made of veg, but it has a meaty stock, usually made by boiling a ham shank, the meat of which is then cut from the bone and thrown back in. One of the best winter soups ever.

Generally though, unless I am making a soup that has meat in it, I tend to stick to a vegetable stock, if for no other reason than I can share it round more people, as my veggie friends will be able to enjoy it too.

Right, now I'm done rambling about that, I'll talk about a couple of my favourite types of soup, then clear off and let you get on with your day.

One of my favourite soups to make is curried sweet potato and butternut squash soup. Two of my favourite veg, plus a whole load of spices makes me a very happy girl. The sweet potato and butternut squash soup is also very nice on it's own, and dead simple; boil some sweet potato and squash in a veggie stock until soft, then blitz the whole lot in a blender. Serve with thick white bread for best results. This also works really well with pumpkin, which you serve with a swirl of cream.

Currying a soup is a little more tricky. No matter what the recipe tells you, add a LITTLE of the spices at a time, otherwise you'll lose the flavour of the veg and just have a bowl of tasteless mush. What a waste. Also, add the spices after you've blitzed the soup, that way they're not lost in the water, and you don't end up adding too much. When I'm currying soup I tend to add curry powder, cumin and cinnamon in varying amounts depending on taste. Also grind in some black pepper, and you're all set.

On the note of my favourite soup mentioned above, I have the easiest recipe for mushroom soup in the world. Boil a whole load of mushrooms, of various types if you wish, in about 3/4 a pot of water, then add a carton of cream, usually single. Cook a little longer, but try not to boil in case the cream curdles, stir through, blitz, season, and there you go. I find I have time to make this one before going to work in the morning when I decide I want soup for lunch at the last minute.

A last one that I really, really like, though it does sound a bit odd, as it relates to the Clangers, in that it contains cheese; cauliflower and cheese soup. Seriously, try it, it's properly scrummy. As with the others, boil the cauliflower in a veggie stock, I sometimes add broccoli too, then take off the heat before adding lots of grated cheese. Cheedar is perfectly acceptable for this, I like to chuck some Roquefort in too, for a stronger flavour, though be warned, it will make your soup smell like feet. Totally worth it though. This soup tends to be pretty runny, even after blending, so you might need to add some cornflour to thicken it, but like the spices, don't overdo it. It's be tastless stodge if you do.

Perfect accompaniment to soup? Thick, white bread, such as tigerbread, with a little butter on top, torn up and dipped in. Or croutons. And I don't mean those little cube things you buy in a bag and chuck on Caesar salads, I mean proper, thick, cheesy croutons. I usually make mine by slicing a baguette into about half inch slices, toasting them in the grill on both sides, then putting cheese on one side and sticking them back in until the cheese melts. These are particularly fine with onion soup. If I'm in the mood, I sometimes make garlic butter to go under the cheese; literally by crushing some garlic and mixing it with butter.

Right, I think that's enough about my weird soup habits, I may touch on this again if becomes relevant. Because, y'know, soup makes the world go round.