Madhur Jaffrey’s mulligatawny soup
Even though there are some recipes for vegetarian mulligatawny in old cookbooks, most often they are made with mutton or poultry.
Serves 4-6
almonds 4 tbsp, blanched, slivered
chickpea flour 5 tbsp
chicken stock 1½ litres
ground cumin 1 tsp
ground coriander 1 tsp
ground turmeric ¼ tsp
cayenne pepper ¼ tsp
hot curry powder 1 tsp
corn or peanut oil 2 tbsp
boneless lamb or boned and skinned chicken thighs 340g, cut into 2cm cubes
fresh ginger 2 tsp, peeled and grated to a pulp
garlic 4 cloves, peeled and crushed to a pulp
salt
lemon juice 1 tbsp
lemon wedges to serve
cooked basmati rice to serve
Soak the almonds for 4 hours in hot water or overnight in tap water. Drain. Put into a blender with the chickpea flour and 250ml chicken stock and blend until smooth. Leave in the blender.
Combine the cumin, coriander, turmeric, cayenne pepper and curry powder in a small bowl.
Pour the oil into a wide pan and set over a high heat. When the oil is hot, put in the meat and cook, stirring, until the pieces are lightly browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Reduce the heat to medium. Quickly put in the ginger and garlic. Stir for 30 seconds, then add all the dry spices from the bowl. Stir for another 30 seconds. Stir in the remaining stock. Strain in the paste from the blender and add the reserved meat. If your stock is unsalted, add ½ teaspoon salt. Stir and bring to the boil. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and cook gently for 1 hour for lamb and 35 minutes for chicken thighs. Taste for salt. Stir in the lemon juice.
Serve with the rice and lemon wedges, if you like. (If you are serving this as a first course soup, scatter 1-3 tablespoons of cooked rice in each bowl just before you eat. If this is a main course, offer individual bowls of rice on the side.)
From Madhur Jaffrey’s Ultimate Curry Bible by Madhur Jaffrey (Ebury, £27)
Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s burnt aubergine and mograbieh soup
Mograbieh and, to a lesser degree, maftoul are available from Middle Eastern grocers and online. Giant or Israeli couscous are widely available and so is fregola, the Sardinian equivalent. Whichever you choose, check the package for cooking times, making sure the little pasta balls are just al dente.
Serves 4
aubergines 5 small (about 1.2kg in total)
sunflower oil for frying
onion 1, sliced (125g in total)
cumin seeds 1 tbsp, freshly ground
tomato puree 1 tsp
tomatoes 2 large (350g in total), skinned and diced
chicken or vegetable stock 350ml
water 400ml
garlic 4 cloves, crushed
sugar 2 tsp
lemon juice 2 tbsp
salt and black pepper
mograbieh 100g, or maftoul, fregola or giant couscous
basil 2 tbsp, shredded, or 1 tbsp chopped dill, whichever you prefer, optional
Start by burning three aubergines. If you have a gas hob, line the base with foil to protect it, keeping only the burners exposed. Place the aubergines directly on separate moderate flames and roast for 15-18 minutes, until the skin is burnt and flaky and the flesh is soft. Use metal tongs to turn them occasionally. Alternatively, score the aubergine with a knife in a few places, a couple of centimetres deep, and place on a baking sheet under a hot grill for about an hour. Turn them around every 20 minutes or so and continue to cook even if they burst and break.
Remove the aubergines from the heat and allow them to cool down slightly. Once cool enough to handle, cut an opening along each one and scoop out the flesh, dividing it with your hands into long thin strips. Discard the skin. Drain the flesh in a colander for an hour at least, preferably longer to get rid of as much water as possible.
Cut the remaining aubergines into 1½cm dice. Heat about 150ml of oil in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat and, when it is hot, add the aubergine dice. Fry for 10-15 minutes, stirring often, until coloured all over; add a little more oil if needed so there is always some oil in the pan. Remove the aubergine, place in a colander to drain and sprinkle with salt.
Make sure you have about 1 tablespoon of oil left in the pan, then add the onion and cumin and saute for about 7 minutes, stirring often. Add the tomato puree and cook for another minute before adding the tomatoes, stock, water, garlic, sugar, lemon juice, 1½ teaspoons of salt and some black pepper. Simmer gently for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and add the mograbieh or alternative. Cook until al dente; this will vary but should take about 15-18 minutes (check the packet). Drain and refresh under cold water.
Transfer the burnt aubergine flesh to the soup and blitz to a smooth liquid with a hand-held blender. Add the mograbieh and fried aubergine, keeping some for a garnish, and simmer for another 2 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve hot, with the reserved mograbieh and fried aubergine on top and garnished with basil or dill, if you like.
From Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi (Ebury Press, £27)
Lindsey Bareham’s pumpkin and cheese soup
Elizabeth David once recalled to me a pumpkin soup made by Raymond Blanc, at his newly opened Les Quat’ Saisons. When she got home from that meal, Mrs David devised this recipe, her version of the young turk’s soup.
Serves 4
pumpkin flesh 550g
water 900ml
mild chicken or clear vegetable stock about 570ml
double cream 150ml
salt
fontina cheese 100ml, or other quick-melting cheese
Cut the pumpkin flesh into small pieces, and simmer in the water until quite soft, adding extra water if necessary. Push all through a fine sieve. Return the resulting puree to the rinsed saucepan or casserole, thin with the chicken or vegetable stock – or water if you have neither – and reheat, adding the cream gradually and seasoning with salt.
To serve the soup, have ready 4 wide ovenproof soup bowls, and cut the cheese into dice. Heat the oven, pour the hot soup into the bowls, scatter cheese onto each, transfer to the oven and heat until the cheese melts. Serve straight from the oven without delay.
From A Celebration of Soup by Lindsey Bareham (Penguin, £16.99)
Marcella Hazan’s minestrone alla romagnola
At home, in my native Romagna, this is the way we make minestrone. Note that the ingredients do not all go into the pot at the same time, but in the sequence indicated. While one vegetable is cooking, you can peel and cut up another. It is a more efficient and less tedious method than preparing all the vegetables at once. You can, of course, have all the vegetables prepared before starting, but do observe all the cooking intervals indicated.
Minestrone is even better when reheated a day later. It will keep up to a week in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.
Serves 6-8
courgettes 450g
extra virgin olive oil 8 tbsp
butter 45g
onions 3, very thinly sliced
carrots 4, diced
celery 2 sticks, diced
potatoes 225g, peeled and diced
french beans 115g, fresh
shredded cabbage 170g, preferably savoy
homemade meat broth 1½ litres, or 500ml tinned concentrated beef consommé plus 1 litre water
parmigiano-reggiano cheese crust from ½-1kg piece of cheese, carefully scraped clean (optional)
tinned Italian plum tomatoes 170g, with their juice
salt
tinned cannellini beans 400g, drained
parmigiano-reggiano cheese 6 tbsp, freshly grated
Soak the courgettes in a large bowl filled with cold water for at least 20 minutes, then rinse them clean. Trim away both ends from each courgette and finely dice them.
Choose a large saucepan that can subsequently comfortably contain all the ingredients. Put in the oil, butter and sliced onion and turn the heat to medium-low. Cook the onion in the uncovered pan until it wilts and becomes coloured a pale gold, no darker.
Add the diced carrots and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring once or twice. Then add the celery and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes. Then add the potatoes, repeating the same procedure.
While the carrots, celery and potatoes are cooking, soak the french beans in cold water, rinse, snap off both ends and dice them.
Add the diced french beans to the pan and, when they have all cooked for 2-3 minutes, add the courgettes. Continue to give all ingredients an occasional stir and, after another few minutes, add the cabbage. Continue cooking for another 5-6 minutes.
Add the broth, the optional cheese crust, the tomatoes with their juice and a sprinkling of salt. If using tinned beef consommé, salt lightly at this stage and taste and correct. Give a thorough stirring. Cover the pan and lower the heat, adjusting so that the soup bubbles slowly, cooking at a steady but gentle simmer.
When the soup has cooked for 2½ hours, add the drained tinned cannellini beans, stir well, and cook for another 30 minutes. If necessary, you can turn off the heat at any time and resume the cooking later. Cook until the consistency is fairly dense. Minestrone should never be thin and watery. If you find that the soup is becoming too thick before it has finished cooking, you can dilute it a bit with some more homemade broth or, if you started with tinned consommé, water.
When the soup is done, just before you turn off the heat, remove the cheese crust, swirl in the grated cheese, then taste and correct for salt.
From The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan (Boxtree, £30)
Nigel Slater’s onion soup, madeira and gruyère toasts
Enough for 4
butter a good thick slice
onions 3 large, sliced
bay leaves 2
plain flour 2 tbsp
white wine 250ml
chicken stock 1 litre
madeira 3-4 tbsp
sourdough bread 8 small slices
gruyère 75g, thinly sliced
Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan, add the sliced onions and bay and let them cook, without colouring, over a medium heat. You want them soft and slightly sticky, which will take a good 25 minutes. When they are ready, stir in the flour, cook for a minute or so, then pour in the white wine, followed by the stock. Bring to the boil. Season with salt and black pepper, then turn the heat down so that the soup simmers and leave it, with just an occasional stir, for 30 minutes. Add the madeira and continue simmering for 5-10 minutes.
Toast the bread on one side, then cover the other side with the gruyère. Check the soup for seasoning, then spoon into heatproof bowls. Float the slices of bread on top and place under the grill for a couple of minutes, till the cheese has melted.
From Tender Volume 1 by Nigel Slater (Fourth Estate, £30)
