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Harira Soup

One of my fondest food discoveries from Morocco was the Harira soup. Savouring the different versions we had of it as we travelled around that great country was a total delight.
Some times, it had vermicelli in, some times not.
Some times, it was made on a meat stock base, some times not.
Some times, it was quite a thin soup, some times not.
Some times, it had quite a few lentil varieties in it, some times not.
Some times, it was quite red, sometimes it was more orange.
Every time it was pretty darn tasty, some times just a lot more tasty 🙂

It was one of the foods that every time we were presented with a buffet, I quickly scoped out the soup option, would this soup that I so dearly loved be present?
When a pot of soup would be brought to our table by our cooks or hosts whilst travelling, I eagerly awaited the opening of the pot, would it contain this soup that I so dearly loved?

Please, click here to continue reading 🙂 “Harira Soup”
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a little noodle soup

a little noodle soup for dinner

This is what I made for dinner tonight. Partly cleaning out the pantry before I move next week, partly just feeling like a change. I was sort of inspired by the noodle soup that Nigella made on Nigella Express last night. The whole express thing was the best thing. I put a pan of water on to boil with a few strands of saffron and some vegetable stock, added some chopped up leeks, cauliflower and carrots, let that simmer and then added some broken up rice noodles, dried mushrooms and a dash of tamari. A few more minutes and then I had a lovely bowl of noodle soup (and two more bowls for lunches).

A perfect bowl of soup that was both light and full in flavour. Perfect to eat for dinner whilst reading the daily papers.

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Sunday Cooking

Le Creuset Love

On Sunday after spending the last 36 odd hours in bed resting to avoid the beginnings of a cold get any worse I made Chicken soup. It started off with the roasting of chook and some carcasses I had in the freezer. Once the chicken had roasted I stripped it, saving the meat to go into the soup later on and the bones for the stock. I sweated some onions, carrots and leeks in the pot, then I added the chicken bones/skin, water and some sage and let it simmer gently for an hour or two. Then I strained it and strained it again through cheesecloth. Then I let it cool and cracked an egg white into it and brought it back up to heat to clarify it. I read about using the egg white to clarify it in Michael Ruhlman’s book The Elements of Cooking which I am reading with much joy at the moment. I ended up with the most glorious stock, just this delightful chicken flavour. I froze half of the stock to use at a later date and left the other half in the pot and added an assortment of diced vegetables, macaroni and the chicken and let it all simmer again.

When it was all cooked I had this pot of the most delightful soup I have ever made with enough for about 7 meals 😀 I like it when I have lots of leftovers 😀