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Digby Law's Soup Cookbook: A New Zealand Classic
Digby Law's Soup Cookbook: A New Zealand Classic
- Title:
- Digby Law's Soup Cookbook: A New Zealand Classic
- Author:
- Digby Law
- Price:
- $30.00
- Shipping:
- Shipping Details
- ISBN:
- 9781869711030
- Publish Date:
- 2007
- Pages:
- 235
- Publisher:
- Hodder Moa Beckett
- Format:
- Paperback
- Availability:
- Approximately 2 - 3 days. Availability details
Every soup you have ever heard of and many that you've only dreamt of are contained in this timeless cookbook
Digby Law's recipes are culled from all over the world and many of his own creations are included. All the classical soups are here – vichyssoise, borsch, bouillabaisse, etc – together with more exotic soups such as Turkish wedding soup, and curried cauliflower. Digby Law's Soup Cookbook has clear and simple instructions, an emphasis on using only the very best ingredients, and the imagination and flair that the author brings to all his cooking. With recipes for stocks, garnishes and soup accompaniments, as well as for over 300 soups, Digby Law's Soup Cookbook will provide cooking and eating pleasure for a lifetime. Now back in print for the first time in almost 10 years, this classic deserves a place in every New Zealand kitchen.
Table of Contents
Digby LawIntroduction
Stocks
Light Soups
Meat Soups
Poultry Soups
Vegetable Soups
Seafood Soups
Chilled Soups
Dried Bean, Pea and Lentil Soups
Herb Soups
Cheese Soups
Fruit Soups
Nut and Seed Soups
French Terms and Soups
Herbs and Spices
Soup Garnishes
Soup Accompaniments
Index
Extract
What is soup?The dictionaries all define soup as 'a liquid food'. Webster continues: 'having as a base meat, fish, or vegetable stock being clear or thickened to the consistency of a thin puree, or having milk or cream added and often containing pieces of solid food (as meat, shellfish, pasta or vegetables).' Collins elaborates: 'prepared by boiling, usually consisting of an extract of meat with other ingredients and seasoning.'
But there is much more to soup than that. Shall we say that soup is a liquid food made out of anything edible. The word comes from the Latin 'suppa' as does the word 'supper' which originally consisted of soup.
Soup has been described as being 'to a dinner what a portico is to a house'. It should announce the full tones of the meal 'as an overture of an opera announces the subject of the work'.
This book all started because I was amazed at the lowliness to which soup had descended in the eyes (and stomachs) of most citizens. Soup was really only considered as winter fare, as a sort of healthy thing boiling merrily on the stove, that had to be eaten in the winter to keep away seasonal ills.
And restaurants often regarded soups as totally 'du jour'. Yesterday's leftovers thrown together without any imagination or a caterer's pack of instant soup brewed up with water, garnished with a sprig of parsley and given a French title to con the public.
No, soup is an all–year round food and good soup–making is just as much an art as good bread or cake–making, meat cookery or vegetable cookery. French gourmets in particular consider soup–making the ultimate accomplishment of the chef.
As a basic food, every country, every civilisation has had its famous soups. France has its pot–au–feu, America its black bean soup, Italy its minestrone, Russia its borsch, China its bird nest soup, New Zealand its toheroa soup, Britain its brown Windsor soup, Australia its kangaroo tail soup, Spain its gazpacho. Most of these classical soups have been included in this book.
Soups and stews are often inseparable. Many countries have what is known as soup–stews, which are all served primarily as soups, with the meat and vegetables sometimes being served on the side.
Soup has a very important reason to lead the meal. It stimulates the salivary glands and the gastric juices, by its moisture and, if it is a hot soup, by its heat.
Light soups are usually served at dinner before a variety of courses to put the diner in the right mood. Thicker soups are better served at lunch or by themselves as they are a 'theme' rather than an 'overture'.
The choice of soup is important. Since soup is often the overture it should set the scene for the meal, set the style of the meal and be in harmony with the rest of it. The French custom is to serve soup at dinner only. At lunch they would serve hors d'oeuvre. The two are not often both served at a meal but if they are the hors d'oeuvre is served before soup. The Chinese serve soup half way and all through a meal. And fruit soups are served either before or after a meal.
The full spectrum of soups is staggering, from the usual meat and vegetable types to those based on such marvellous items as sunflower seeds, kiwifruit, cherries and brazil nuts. Soup can be a luxury dish like a Crayfish Bisque or a Scallop Cream soup or it can be made on a very simple and economical basis from refrigerator scraps, leftovers and trimmings. And of course, with panache, this type of soup can also be in the gourmet class.
Remember the time when a good soup simmering on the stove and bread cooking in it filled the house with the comforting feeling of foods prepared lovingly and slowly instead of the instant no–fuss, no–mess, no–taste foods of today? And although soup must be one of the most versatile dishes, with the inroads of packet, instant, canned and dried soups, it surely must be one of the most abused. Ignore these flour and water concoctions and plan deliciously flavoured, beautifully seasoned and temptingly aromatic soups of your own.
Soups can be thick or thin, light or heavy, hot or cold, strong or weak, whatever you want them to be. The base ingredient of most soups is generally a stock, made either from beef, chicken, vegetables or fish. Refer to the first chapter, on Stocks. In some cases where the stock is not very important to the soup, instant stock can be used. To this stock is added whatever is to be used to give the soup its characteristic flavour. Extras can be added to improve the taste, the appearance and the colour, and suitable garnishes will often do all three of these things too (see the chapter on Soup Garnishes).
If you are opening a can of soup or doing something with a packet, please try and disguise that loathsome artificial flavour. Add some real vegetables or some finely chopped fresh herbs or dried herbs. The Herbs and Spices chapter will be of use here.
Soups are classified into two categories, clear soups and thick soups. The clear soups are consommes (jellied or liquid) and the thick soups come under a variety of headings. There are the smooth soups, the cream, puree and veloute, and the chunky soups, the broths, chowders and bisques.
A cream soup is smooth, with the addition of cream or a white sauce. A puree is a soup that has been pureed in the blender, mouli, food processor or sieve, and a veloute is prepared by first making a roux, then adding a white stock to make a white sauce base.
A broth is a meat and/or vegetable soup. It starts out life as having a thin base, bouillon, in which there are meat and vegetables. However, with long cooking time a broth will thicken itself considerably. A chowder is a thick soup usually of American origin and although it normally has a normally has a milk base containing seafood, there are also vegetable chowders. The name chowder comes from the French word chaudiere meaning a heavy soup pot. A bisque is always a thick soup of shellfish, or sometimes vegetables, although in earlier times it was made from poultry or game. The origin of the word is unknown. All thick soups are variations on these themes.
For this book the soups have mainly been categorised by the chief ingredient rather than the method of making them. The great attraction of soups is that they can usually be made well in advance of the meal and reheated, if served hot, just before serving. If served chilled, they remain in the refrigerator until being served.
The most pleasant way to serve soup for a formal meal is from a tureen, served at the table by a member of the household. Hot soup is best served piping hot in hot soup dishes and cold soup should be ice–cold in chilled dishes. Always serve the soup in bowls or containers that suit the style of the soup. A hearty meat and vegetable broth is great in large rough pottery bowls or a delicately smooth Crayfish Bisque is beautiful in fine china.
If wine is served with soup it should be at room temperature and of fairly high alcoholic content. Classic wines to server are either brown sherry or old madeira. The addition of wine to soup itself frequently enhances the flavour, but do not over salt soups to which wine has been added as the wine intensifies the saltiness. Strongly flavoured meat soups are often improved by the addition of red wine. White wine adds zest to shellfish soups. And beer adds tang to bean, cabbage and vegetable soups. If adding fortified wine, sherry or port, it is best to put some in the soup bowl before pouring in the hot soup.
To remove fat from soup, if it is hot, use paper towels to soak up the surface fat. If you have time, cook and refrigerate the soup overnight, then remove the solidified fat. Remember though that a little fat adds a lot of flavour to the soup. And if using packet soup, always add a little butter or oil to give the soup background, as well as disguising it by the addition of fresh herbs or vegetables.
A blender is extremely useful in soup–making to make purees. A mouli will do the same thing but takes longer and a food processor tends to make a coarse puree. Not only are sieves laborious but only rarely are they necessary. Sieving is the only way to remove seeds from a soup. Tomato seeds if chopped in a blender make the soup pink rather than a glorious tomato colour – and if left in the soup become irritating.
There are many ways of thickening soup. If thickening is necessary to the soup, the method has been incorporated in the recipe. A word of warning though: never thicken a soup with flour just before serving. Flour takes at least 12 minutes to cook. And if in doubt about thickening soup, don't. The flavours are often much better if the soup does not contain a lot of starch, whether flour, cornflour, pea flour or arrowroot. Numbers of servings are given to suit each recipe but it is usual to allow 1 cup (250 ml) of soup per serving. Use judgement: if the soup is for a large banquet, then only a few mouthfuls would be served to each person, but for a substantial meal, much more than a cupful would be served.
Present the soup well. A suitable garnish can make a soup look so spectacular that it can even look too good to eat.
