Time for soup. Essentially, it's a large bowl of nourishment made from seasonal ingredients, which are all designed to warm the cockles of the soul.
Forget about the packet stuff - I don't care how good it may be. Instead put a pot on the stove, throw in
a few ingredients with a good dollop of olive oil, stir for a bit and then add stock, a splosh of wine and seasoning. It will be ready in a flash and will taste infinitely superior. That's what happens when you make food from scratch - additives are only there to substitute for the flavour of honest ingredients. For today's recipes we need plenty of onions, vegetables, garlic, some gorgeous cockles, herbs, wine and stock, tasty gruyere and a sourdough baguette.
There are two crucial steps in making soup. The stock is one, and assembling the base flavours is another. Homemade stock means simply simmering some veggie scraps and/or bones or the leftover carcass from your last roast chook, with a bayleaf or two until a lovely fragrant liquid results.
Freeze what you don't need - it'll be perfect for the next risotto. When it comes to starting a soup, get a pot hot, add olive oil with a couple of teaspoons of butter, then finely chopped onion, celery, garlic, carrot if you feel like it and rosemary. The key is to stir these ingredients until soft and caramelised - then the soup will have a delicious foundation on which to build the other flavours.
* Cockle soup with wine and parsley
* Leek, chickpea and lemon soup with roasted garlic oil
* French onion soup
CHEF'S TIP
If not using stock straight away, it can be covered and refrigerated for three days or alternatively, labelled and frozen.
