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A Consommé & The Minestrone.

Come monsoons and a bowl of soup is one thing, other than piping cuppa tea, one can never say no to. In India soups have come a long way: from the doctor advising you to have soup to recuperate and mom putting all the bountiful ingredients, chosen with care, in a pot boiled for hours to the lamb knuckle soup that keeps you warm in winters.

 Nowadays, while some people prefer soup as a starter to meals, others, especially on a diet, take soups as a whole nourishing meal with no calories at all. Here are a few of my favourite soups.

Clear soup: the most famous and the basic of soups, clear soup has its origin in the delicate French cookery and is very nutritious and nourishing. Very delicately flavoured, it is called Consommé. It can be served with different kinds of garnishes and hence gets its different names.

A consommé should be crystal clear. The clarity comes from the albumen of the egg white and the coagulation of the meat and clearing quality of the egg shell.

Basic recipe of a consommé:

• 200 gm minced lamb
• 1 litre stock or water (cold)
• 1 bay leaf,
•  1 clove
• 3-4 pepper corn
• 100gm mixed vegetables, finely chopped (onion, carrots, turnips, coriander left over, and ginger trimmings)
• 1 egg white with the egg shell crushed into it,
• Salt and white pepper powder to taste Method:

Thoroughly mix all the ingredients together in cold water (or stock) in a thick bottom pan. Place on boil on high heat and bring to boil stirring only once. As soon as it comes to boil stir slightly once and reduce heat to gentle. Cook for an hour on very low heat without stirring. Strain carefully using a muslin cloth in a clean pot. Serve in a warm soup tureen after correcting seasoning.

The next soup I am going to talk about is the world-famous soup form Italy called Minestrone. This is tomato based garlic flavoured soup with pasta and vegetables and cheese.

Minestrone Ingredients:

• 300gm mixed vegetable (onion, carrots, turnips, cabbage) cut in small dices
• 50gm Butter
• 25gm French beans cut diagonally into diamond shape,
• 1 litre Stock, with 1 clove of crushed garlic, salt,
• 1 clove,
• 1 bay leaf,
• 3 peppers corns.
• Pinch of nutmeg ,
• 25gm Peas,
• 200gm Tomatoes (de-skinned, de-seeded and finely chopped),
• 25gm Spaghetti or any pasta,
• 20gm Grated cheese and chopped garlic mixed together to form small pea-shaped palettes

 Method:   .Cook vegetables without butter or and tomatoes on gentle heat for 10 minutes with stock. Add the butter, peas and beans and cook for 10 minutes. Add the spaghetti (1-inch length) and the tomatoes and simmer gently till the vegetables and the pasta are cooked. Remove the bay leaf and add the cheese and garlic. Serve hot, garnished with Parmesan cheese (optional).