Nettle soup, done well

It's again this time of the year when foodies and those aligned with them start cooking foraged weeds. What used to be (really) poor man's grub, these days is a social marker of the educated classes. Now, I've seen and tried and number of nettle soups this year and, I hate to say that, people you need to get a grip. Just boiling leaves with random veggies does not do the trick, or any trick for that matter. That's what my 85-year-old farmer uncle cooks for his piglets, literally. Nettle has its own special flavour that, if served to humans, needs to be cherished, flaunted and taken proper care of.

So here I will share the proper nettle soup recipe, as it's been cooked in my family for at least three generations.

1. Pick a bunch of young nettle leaves, they need to be light green and with no flowers forming.
2. Remove the stems and rinse well in cold water.
3. Sautee in butter on a low heat.
4. Add chopped shallots or onions. Cook until soft.
5. Add a can or two of chopped tomatoes with juice. If too thick, add water.
6. Beat a nice large biodynamic egg and add into the boiling soup, as you stir it, making sure it comes out stringy, not cloudy.
7. Let it bubble away for a little while to let the tastes mingle.
8. Salt and pepper in moderation. Sprinkle a few drops of fish sauce to enhance the flavour.

This recipe balances the sourness from the tomatoes and the sweetness of sauteed onions to give the nettle a proper stage to show off its zing.

Old wives' tales (that are quite likely true):  

• Nettles are supposed to stimulate your liver to cleanse blood. 

• It is not recommend to eat too much nettle soup, not more than 2-3 times a year, naturally in the spring.

Vietnamese beef and lemon grass soup: Canh Thịt Bò Xáo Sả

ietnamese cuisine is pure poetry in the pot. Their soups alone are celebrations of agriculture, flavours and wholesomeness. Don't believe me? Try this recipe: beef and lemon grass soup (Canh Thịt Bò Xáo Sả).

1. Finely slice some lean organic outdoor-bred beef and marinate in fish sauce, brown cane sugar and black pepper.
2. Sweat some chopped shallots in vegetable oil.
3. Add some pressed garlic, one crushed and chopped stalk of lemon grass and the meat. Gently sautee until the meat is cooked.
4. Add water and bring to a simmer.
5. Add some bean sprouts (and some noodle, if so desired). Simmer until ready to eat.
6. Serve with a sprinkle of chopped green coriander.

Clams, spinach and butternut squash soup recipe

  nspired by Korean jogae-tang clam soup, I made a few adjustments with some fantabulous results. 

1. Slow-fry some crushed garlic in some groundnut oil until golden.
   
2. Add clams, diced butternut squash, sprinkle with some fish sauce and fry a little.
   
3. Add water and bring to a simmer.
   
4. When all clams have opened, add roughly chopped spinach and simmer a little more.
   
5. Season with black pepper and fish sauce.

Turkish manti soup recipe

Of course, it is mantı, not manti, the vowel harmony! I am always inspired by Turkish cuisine, it is such a potentially wondrous fare that somehow all too oft ends up very über-meh in most Turkish restaurants, even those catering the local clientèle in Turkey. I suspect that real Turkish food must be made by Turkish mama's loving hands for her family.

In the absence of such in my social circles, I have no choice but to be a Turkish mama to myself. So I venture northwards, to Finsbury, where round-the-clock Turkish grocers beacon with mouth-watering displays of ripe fruit and fragrant bread and then rows upon rows of roast pepper paste jars, bags of crackly bulgur, packs of salted olives and huge trays of syrupy sweets. Slurp.

A pack of thumbnail-sized ravioli, mantı, costs 1.39 quid. It's enough for three pots of delightfully tangy and zesty soup. I also insist that you invest in a jar of proper Turkish acı biber salçası, spicy pepper paste. Don't let the word spicy confuse you, this is nothing like Thai or Jamaican spiciness, more like Basque piment d'Espellete.

So here's for the recipe:

Slowly roast some crushed garlic in olive oil. Fold in a full spoon of tomato passata and a full spoon of acı biber salçası and fry a couple of minutes more. Add some dry mint and sea salt. Add a litre or so cold water and bring to a gentle boil. Add mantı and a tin of boiled chick peas. Remove from the fire after 5 min and serve with lemon juice and chopped coriander.

autumn roots soup recipe

Pumpkin soup recipe

or those of you who don't want life to be simple, or just hate pre-processed canned supermarket food, or perhaps your gums have just been operated on here a pumpkin soup recipe.

1. Peel a pumpkin and cut into half-an-inch slices.
2. Sprinkle with olive oil and bake in the oven at 160 degrees until soft.
3. In the meantime, peel, slice and caramelise an onion in a pan with a tad of olive oil. Season with a pinch of curry powder if you feel that way inclined. (You can skip the onion altogether if it's too much trouble!)
   
4. Leave the pumpkin and onion to cool a bit, then purée in a kitchen processor.
5. Move to a pan, add cream, sea salt and bring to a gentle simmer.
6. Remove from fire and add either cinnamon or nutmeg.
   
7. Serve garnished with croutons, freshly ground black pepper, fresh sage and crushed walnuts.
   

Moo guk: Korean radish soup recipe (무우국)

White and juicy daikon radish gently boiled into a still crunchy softness - that is the highlight of moo-guk (무우국) the Korean radish soup. Don't even get started on phallic connotations: in soup, daikon ends up chopped to bite-size chunks!

1. Cut 50 g of lean beef or chicken into thin stripes.
2. Marinate them in a 1 tsp of sesame oil and some freshly ground black pepper.
   
3. Peel half a daikon (aka, mooli or Chinese white radish) and cut into bite-size chunks.
4. Stir-fry the beef in a well heated pot, then add the daikon and stri-fry a couple more minutes.
5. Add 3 cups of water - and, if you so wish, a handful of pre-washed bean sprouts and /or half a chopped leek - and bring to a boil.
6. Reduce the fire and allow to simmer for 5-6 minutes.
7. Serve with a wee drizzle of sesame oil and a sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper.

Serve as a starter or an accompaniment to a Korean main dish such as jaeyuk bokkeum (spicy pork stew).

Miyeok guk: Korean seaweed soup recipe (미역국)

iyeok guk (미역국), Korean seaweed soup, is packed with essential nutrients that are hardly ever present in your daily 5. That is why in Korea it is given to pregnant women and students about to sit for an exam.

Like all Korean recipes it is straightforward, simple and yields amazing results. The beef stock lends the seaweed a depth of flavour, while the aromas of garlic and sesame oil make the melody of this soup a fully harmonised one.

1. Soak 2 tbsp of dried seaweed (miyeok in Korean or wakame in Japanese) in plenty of cold water. I also use kombu/dasima but that is optional
   
2. In the meantime cut 50 g lean beef into thin strips and marinade them in 1 tbsp of sesame oil and a modicum of freshly ground black pepper.
   
3. Heat a wok and quickly stir-fry the beef.
   
4. When the beef is nicely browned, reduce the fire and add the seaweed. Make sure to wring it out as dry as possible. Stir-fry very briefly.
   
5. Add 3 cups of water and bring to a simmer.
6. Add 3-5 cloves of garlic, sliced, and soya sauce to taste.
7. Simmer until the garlic is soft.
8. Serve with a sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper , a drizzle of sesame oil and a pinch of finely sliced scallions.
   

Kongnamul guk: veg soups can be fab too! (콩나물국)

his is a surprisingly simple and flavourful soup. Kongnamul guk (콩나물국) is made from truly basic ingredients and takes just a few minutes to cook, yielding a remarkable combination of healthiness and taste.

1. Bring to a boil 3 cups of water.
2. Add 2 generous handfuls of bean sprouts, pre-washed, and 2 tablespoonfuls of fish sauce.
3. Let simmer for 4-5 minutes.
4. Add 1 chopped spring onion, one finely sliced de-seeded chili pepper and 3 finely sliced garlic cloves.
5. Let simmer for another couple of minutes.
6. Season with sesame oil and freshly ground black pepper.
7. Serve!
   

Sancocho - Colombian beef soup recipe

ccording to my Chinese doctor, amino acids from meat are at their most digestible when in broth. This is why I cooked this Colombian sancocho soup for my sick landlord, who after 2 years of my relentless propaganda, had caved in and quit his 40-odd-year vegetarianism madness.

The original recipe calls for oxtail but since this time I had not stocked up on that, I made do with meat balls from the rundertartaar (pure minced steak with no fat or connecting tissue) I had brought from Amsterdam. I tried to imitate the wonderful sancocho I had indulged in a couple of weeks before that at the Colombian restaurant at Brixton market. It came out beautifully!



So here's the recipe:

1. Peel and finely slice half a head and 3 onions. Reserve a few cloves of garlic unsliced.
2. Sauté 2 onions and sliced garlic in a squiggle of olive oil until nice golden brown. Add some fish sauce or salt as well as very finely sliced Scotch bonnet pepper towards the end, if you like it spicy.
3. In the meantime, put one sliced onion and a whole head garlic in a pot with water (about 2 litres). Add some whole crushed black pepper corns, 2 carrots peeled and cut into small blocks and a stalk of celery, sliced. Add meat at this stage if you are using bones or oxtail. Put on fire, allow to simmer until the meat start coming off the bone.
4. Tip 2 into 3. Add the meatballs as well as diced cassava, sweet potato, green plantain, mandioquinha, chayote, garden eggs, or whatever other South American veg you get hold of.
5. Simmer until the vegetables are soft enough to eat.
6. Serve with chopped spring onions and coriander or parsley.

Rustic sophistication: French onion soup (soup des oignions)

his is the ultimate peasant soup: it requires no meat and onions are about the cheapest vegetable to come by. It also thrives in the Russian countryside: my Mom cooks it for Dad at least once a month. The rich and gentle flavour of caramelised onions blends perfectly with grilled cheese and bread.

Russian pearl barley & mushroom soup (перловый суп с грибами)

o Russian dinner is complete without soup. Most recipes are traditional and use  obscure cereals and seasonal vegetables with quite spectacular results.

Barley and mushroom soup is at the very top of my favourites. list. It takes some time to cook but the good thing you don't need to be there to wacth the pot all the time. It is rather light yet very filling, full of fibre and complex carbohydrates. The slowly cooked barley and caramelised onions give it gentle sweetness, while the heady aroma of fried mushrooms will keep you salivating like a Pavlov's dog throghout the cooking process.

1. Soak a cup of barley and a generous handful of dried mushrooms in cold water overnight.
2. Set the mushrooms aside and bring water with barley to a boil. Allow to simmer for an hour or so until the barley becomes al dente.
   
   
3. In the meantime, cut 2 potatoes and a carrot into bite-size chunks. Set aside to dry.
4. Finely chop 2-3 large onions and stir fry with the  mushrooms in olive oil until golden brown. Optional: 100 g smoked bacon.
5. Tip the potatoes, carrots, onions and mushrooms into the pot with barley. Add salt, pepper and a couple of bay leaves, mix well and allow to simmer for about 20 more minutes.
6. Serve with crème fraîche and chopped fresh parsley.

Flowers, mushrooms and fish: Chinese Daylily Soup (金針木耳滾魚湯)

eahorses, shark fins and swallow nests - the Chinese can make a soup out of anything.

To start from something less challenging, why not try flower buds and tree mushrooms. This light consommé (金針木耳滾魚湯) is fish based but you can substitute fish with stir-fried shiitake to make it veg(etari)an.

Here how you go about fixing it. It is really done before you can say Jack Robinson.

1. Soak a handful of dried daylily buds (金針) and a handful of black fungus (木耳) half an hour in advance.
2. Cut a couple of large tomatoes into large wedges.
3. Slice a 3-inch piece of fresh ginger and fry it lightly in cooking oil.
4. Add a medium sized fish, e.g., sea brim (or shiitake for veg(etari)ans) to the oil and fry it until done.
5. While it is frying, bring to boil a pot of water (2-3 litres).
6. Shred the soaked black fungus and drain the daylily buds.
   
7. Add the fish (or shiitake), fungus, buds, tomatoes and ginger to the boiling water.
8. Season with fish sauce or soya sauce for veg(etari)ans and a dash of ground white pepper.
   
9. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes.
   

Borscht: the Russian Lent soup (борщ)

never cook borscht myself. I love it, I miss it but somehow I never get around to actually lining up the ingredients and shoving them in the pot. So much the more I appreciate when somebody else makes it for me. It is not the kind of dish you can enjoy in a restaurant. It must be home made. The other day I paid a visit to Olga and that is exactly what she had for lunch for me. Hearty, earthy-flavoured borscht with fresh dill and a dollop of crème-fraîche, served in fancy China with real silverware. She made it the Russian Lent style, that is vegan.

According to Olga it takes just 10 minutes to cook. Here is the recipe:

1. Peel and chop 3 big onions. Fry until golden brown in a generous amount of olive oil.
2. Add 1 big grated carrots and 3 big grated pre-cooked beets. Add more olive oil. Sautée lightly.
   
3. Add black peppercorns and a couple of bay leaves.
4. Add 2 litres boiling water.
   
5. Bring to boil. Turn off heat. Serve with crème-fraîche, fresh dill and/or spring onions.

It tastes great with Russian rye bread. If you can't find it, use German pumpernickel.

Tom yam kung: zing-zest-bang! (ต้มยำกุ้ง)

om yam kung is the ultimate Thai soup.
A liquid explosion of aromas it is Thailand's punchy answer to the more sedate charm or bouillabaisse.

Curiously enough, tom yam kung literally means boiled shrimp salad and that is what it in fact is.

There is really nothing to cooking it as long as you can get hold of right fresh ingredients.

1. Bring water with galangal root, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, Thai phrik khee noo chilies and some fried chili paste to boil.
2. Add whatever seafood you have, some green beans and a few champignons. I sometimes embellish it with lotus roots but that might be slightly apocryphal. A glug of coconut milk at this stage turns your soup into the tom yum nam khon (ต้มยำน้ำข้น) variety.
   
3. When it boils again, it is ready. Never overcook!
   
4. Regulate saltiness with fish sauce.

++++++

Thai language school and translation agency in Bangkok, Thailand offering Thai, Chinese, English, Japanese, Russian and Laotian (Lao, Isarn, Isaan) language courses.

Miso shiru: a Japanese staple (みそ汁)

here is no going about it: the base ingredient for this soup, miso paste, looks dodgy. Real dodgy. It is made from fermented beans and ground rice and it only takes a tablespoonful for a bowl of delicately aromatic broth.

A Japanese staple on par with European toasted bread, miso shiru is soup that can be served with any meal.

It is hard to call this cooking but here is the recipe anyway:

1. Put a 5-6 cm piece of kombu into a pot with cold water and put the pot on medium fire.
   
2. When the water is close to boiling take out the kombu. Let the water boil and reduce the heat.
3. You can also skip steps 1 and 2 by simply adding katsuobushi extract to boiling water. Alternatively, use water wherein dried shiitake mushrooms were soaking overnight.
4. Scoop miso paste (about 1 tbsp per cup of water) and mix it with a cup of hot stock. Make sure there are no clumps left.
5. Pour the mix back into the pot. Turn off the heat.
   
6. When you add make sure there is not more one strong-tasting (negi) and one mild-tasting (tofu, daikon, wakame) ingredient. Also one should be sinking and the other should be floating. Cluttering your miso soup with too many is against Japanese aesthetics.
   

Abenkwan: Ghanaian palm nut soup with foufou

ive me head!" I point to a coolbox with freshly cut salmon heads. My fishmonger laughs. "What good is one, take two!" An excellent point. And I am so glad his English is not on the idiomatic level yet.

Even before I get down to cooking, I derive a huge kick from shopping for African ingredients in Brixton Market. Now I only need to buy some garden eggs and okra to fix abenkwan, Ghanaian palm nut soup. It is popular throughout West Africa and known as ngonya mosaka or mbanga in Cameroon, amiedi or obey-ekpo in Nigeria, moambé in the Congo, banga in Sierra Leone and nyembwe in Gabon.



The main ingredient that defines the flavour of abenkwan is palm nut oil. Without the oil you end up with a generic stew. It is squeezed out of boiled fruit of Elaeis guineensis. I go for convenience and buy ready-made one. It is imported from Ghana, so as authentic as it gets.

I have been fascinated with the cuisines of the Cradle of the Humankind ever since I heard a song by a New Yorikan poetess Dana Bryant. It was titled Food, an ode to home-made meals that trace their lineage back to "five thousand years of history on the Nigerian countryside". The tastes and flavours of the places I have never been to, what can be more exciting! So here we go, abenkwan soup with foufou! Yeeppie-ho!

The recipe is simple:

1. Fry 3 tablespoonfuls of palm nut oil in a pan for about 10 minutes. Traditional recipe calls for a whole cup but here I prefer to give precedence to post-modern health-conscious trends.
2. Add one chopped onion and one de-seeded chili and fry 10 minutes on medium heat.
3. Add meat or fish that you use and fry it until fragrant.
   
4. Add okra, garden eggs and tomatoes and stir-fry briefly.
5. Pour cold water until it covers everything and bring to boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer 10-15 more minutes. The traditional recipe requires a whole day of sitting on hot coals but I think in the olden days it was more about food safety.
   
6. Mix foufou flour with water: half a cup flour with 3/4 cup water. Knead well. Make dough balls the size of a regular meat ball. Add to the simmering soup. Cook 5-8 more minutes.

It comes our robust, unctuous and flavourful. Thank you, Mama Afrika!



Here is some nice music to accompany this gorgeous meal:

Breton cotriade: poor French fisherman's delight

Breton cotriade is basically the same as Russian ukha: white sea fish stewed with potatoes and onions. In Russia most of time it is made of fresh water fish, while in Brittany, naturally, of the catch from the brine.

The only condiments being sea salt and coarsely ground pepper, this dish brings out the best of the flavour in fish. It is very simple yet exquisitely delicious.

The recipe couldn't be simpler:

1. Peel and cut potatoes, let them dry a bit (this way they will less likley crumble).
2. Peel and chop an onion.
   
3. (Skip this part for the Russian ukha!) Fry a few stripes of bacon in a pot. Add the onion and cook until soft.
   
4. Add cold water and put the potatoes (and raw onions for ukha), bring to boil, then add fish.
   
5. Keep skimming the froth that comes up to the surface.
   
6. Add salt and pepper to taste. This comes out even better when you use the heads of big fish.

Liquid aphrodisiac: Jamaican mannish water (goat soup)

Or should it rather be afrodisiac with an 'f'?

Never mind that mannish water, the Jamaican goat soup, looks a bit like chunky Thames water, it tastes quite alright! I fixed it with potatoes, okra and garden eggs (which are, in fact, eggplants) but as the recipe varies from household to household any other veggies are fine too.

It is supposed to increase male sexual drive (women are excluded from this) but I don't know if it had much effect on me. It is hard to notice with my depressed serotonin levels. At any rate, mannish water, hearty and spicy, proved great comfort food on a gloomy February afternoon.

So there you go:

1. Wash well a goat's head or an equal amount of goat's meat.
2. Put in a large pot and cover with cold water. Add a few cloves of garlic, bring to boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for a couple of hours.
   
3. Add all or a few of the following, chopped into bite-size chunks: green plantains, yams, taro root (a.k.a. cocoyam), carrot, seeded and peeled chayotes, garden eggs, okra.
4. Add some chopped habanero pepper to taste, a few sprigs of thyme and salt. Simmer another 20 minutes.

Chorba, the Moroccan soup

Chorba is a generic Moroccan word for soup. In Morocco I was served it at any time of the day. What better appetizer can you think of to prepare your palate and induce salivation for the rest of the meal!

Most of time it is tomato-based with thin vermicelli, lamb bits and beans. Harissa - the spicy sauce - is served alongside so you can adjust the level of hotness yourself. Fresh chopped herbs are essential: I use coriander and spring onions.

So here's the recipe:

1. Chop finely one big carrot, one big turnip and two potatoes. Let them sit and dry for while: this way they will stay whole when boiled.
2. Chop finely half a pound of lean lamb, beef or chicken breast.
3. Heat a thick-bottomed pot medium hot and briefly fry the veggies and meat.
4. Add 2-3 crushed garlic cloves, a dash of freshly ground turmeric (powder will do too), half a bunch of chopped coriander, a sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of salt. Fry a tad longer.
5. Add 1.5 litres of water, bring to boil. Reduce the heat.
   
6. Open a tin of peeled tomatoes, mush them into pulp and tip into the pot.
   
7. Wait until it starts simmering again and add two handfuls of fine vermicelli.
8. Allow to simmer for another 20 minutes. The vermicelli should be well done.
   

Veg(etari)ans: substitute the meat with a (strained) can of chick peas. Carnivores can also add some beans to meat, Moroccans do.

Here is a theme song for this fragrant Moroccan meal: