Saturday Soup

LOL

Cream of Mussel Soup (serves 2-4 depending on greed and whether it's the main event, so you'll need to upscale it)

500-600g mussels (18-22 NZ greenlip mussels) 3 cups milk 2 cloves garlic 3T butter 4T flour 1tsp nutmeg or mace (I use freshly grated nutmeg, but it's not important) 1-2 tsp salt pepper Steam mussels in 1-4 cup water, in covered pot until they open. Pour off all the liquid, strain and reserve. Make up 3 cups of liquid with milk.

Cook garlic in the butter until it turns straw coloured. Stir in the flour (level tablespoons are important) and nutmeg or mace into the pan and cook until the flour bubbles. Stir in half the milk mixture. Stir constantly over medium heat until sauce thickens and boils. Add rest of liquid, bring back to boil. Simmer 2-3 mins.

Puree the shelled mussels in food processor (I reserve a few mussels, cut them into chunks and add them at the end for a visible look of mussels) then add some of the warm sauce to thin. Add to soup. Let stand for a few hours in fridge for flavour to develop. Reheat when ready.

The mild chicken curry isn't a soup. It's a meal served with rice. But Charlie Clifford's mulligatawny soup is curried so I'll repost it here.

Mulligatawny Soup

450g chicken breasts, sliced small 2 litres chicken stock 1 T peanut oil plus 2 dashes tobasco sauce 1 medium onion, finely chopped 1 large rib celery, diced small 3-4 tsp dried thyme 1 1-2 tsp curry powder pinch ground fenugreek 1-4 tsp ground ginger pinch cayenne 2 T flour 2 T honey 1 apple, unskinned, cut in large dice 1 T chopped fresh parsley 1 1-2 tsp salt 1-2 tsp black pepper 1 c whole milk 1-4 cup Basmati rice

Start heating the chicken stock in a soup pot over medium low heat. In a large (nonstick is best) skillet, heat oil over medium heat. When hot add onion, celery, and thyme. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the onions are clear. Do not brown the veges. Stir in curry powder, fenugreek, ginger, cayenne, flour and honey. Cook for 5 minutes more.

Add chicken, apple and parsley. Stir to coat, then add hot chicken broth gradually, by the ladleful at a time (about 2 cups total), stirring until smooth and thickened. Carefully pour the thickened mixture into the the soup pot containing the rest of the stock while stirring. Add the salt and pepper, stir. When smooth, simmer for 20 minutes. Add the rice to the soup 10 minutes after the start of simmering.

Remove from heat and stir in the milk. This is served in a bowl over a large spoonful of rice, if rice cooked separately.

Note: I cook the soup as stated, but I then remove the apple as I didn't like the apple in the soup, but used it for the flavour. Again, you'd have to upscale the recipe.

Kathy