The Good Soup

The Good Soup has a new home!

2010-12-17T15:29:00.000-08:00

I'm back! I promise! come visit at http://www.thegoodsoup.com

A Simple Chicken Stock (or Soup)

2010-01-21T04:41:00.000-08:00

Here is the first, and simplest way I'm going to show you to make a good chicken stock. There are richer stocks, but this one is perfect for a simple chicken soup. In fact, it is a simple chicken soup. Ingredients for a simple chicken stock 1 well-sourced chicken, around 1.5 kg in weight, rinsed inside and out ½ kg extra wings, backs or drumsticks (optional, but will enhance the broth) Any

Laotian Chicken Soup with Onions, Shallots & Coriander

2010-01-21T04:39:00.000-08:00

This Laotian recipe is taken, with a little adaption, from Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid’s Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet (page 59). It’s a variation on the sort of simple chicken soup I write about here. To Alford and Duguid’s version I’ve added rice noodles (to make the broth into a heartier meal), and my own technique for making chicken broth. Laotian Chicken Soup with Onions, Garlic &

Morning Sickness

2009-12-30T05:33:00.000-08:00

There's a reason I haven't written anything on this blog for nearly two weeks. It's called morning sickness, or more appropriately in German, Schwangerschaftsübelkeit, which assigns no particular time of day to the sickness that, in my days, has been all consuming. I can't think about food, let alone write about it. Writing requires me to conjure flavours, scents and textures in the mind of

A couple of mighty good food jobs

2009-12-27T11:56:00.000-08:00

If anyone's interested, Shelagh Ryan's advertising two chef jobs for her fabulous London cafe, Lantana (just voted Time Out's Best New Cafe of 2009). The contact details are on gum tree. And here's a link to Shelagh's blog, about Lantana and other foodie adventures and ponderings.

Changes to Australian Raw Milk Legislation

2009-12-18T05:22:00.000-08:00

Australia's Department of Food Standards has released their Draft Proposal for changes to the Raw Milk Legislation. Some progress has been made. If it goes ahead, we'll be able to purchase some Australian raw milk products made in Australia: those that are matured for over 90 days; those that can be proven to use production processes that eliminate pathogens; and those that can be proven

Dried Mushroom Stock

2009-12-16T14:21:00.000-08:00

Just because dried mushroom stock is easy doesn't mean it's unimpressive. And the character of the stock varies dramatically with the character of the mushrooms you use. I'll use the shaggy parasols (pictured above) we collected with Dougal and Deidre to make a stock for a mushroom soup. Sure, you don't have to use a stock for mushroom soup, but if you do, its flavours will be more layered and

I'm starting a Stock Renaissance

2009-12-16T07:18:00.000-08:00

I don't know why more people don't make stock. The word 'stock' floats in an aura of difficulty that makes people turn and run for the stock cubes. But if this difficulty perception puts people off stock making, then it must make brothy soups and risottos a triply contentious possibility, as both of these, along with many stews and braises, rely on good stock. The thing about stock cubes

Impossible Coconut Pie, Take I

2009-12-15T09:11:00.000-08:00

I found this recipe on a blog called A Southern Grace. Grace calls it the 'impossible pie' because rather than the baker making a pastry crust, the pie forms its own crust. I was immediately intrigued, not so much because of this logic defying feat (it seems to me to work along the lines of the crust that forms on cannelés), but because the recipe reminds me of a recipe I've been trying to get

Whole Oats Porridge & Macrobiotics

2009-12-10T04:50:00.000-08:00

I had a visit from my friend, Constantin, a couple of weeks ago, and his love of macrobiotics reminded me that I know very little about it. And well, I still don't. I know that macrobiotic diets work to balance yin and yang elements in food, for our health. I know that eating extremes of yin and yang (balancing of flavours to enliven the palette) is what most restaurant food thrives on. It

Marlon’s Carrot Pasta

2009-12-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

Cooking staff lunch at Petersham Nurseries Cafe was often left to the regular few, who knew how to do it cheaply and quickly. This, of course, didn’t mean there was no pride to be taken in creating pleasure for hungry waiters and cooks. I loved the kitchen when someone started cooking staff lunch. Preparing food for people you know is potently different from cooking for

Roasting Chicken, the Zuni Cafe (Judy Rodgers) Way

2009-12-06T12:03:00.000-08:00

The Zuni Cafe way results in a roasted chicken that will BLOW YOUR MIND. It is more succulent, more flavourful, than any other method I’ve tried. And it’s actually very simple. There are a few tricks though, and I’ll go through them below, with a few of my own elaborations: Use very small chickens. That way, you can keep the cooking time fast and at a very high temperature, which means a

Pre-salting Meat

2009-12-05T13:06:00.000-08:00

After so many years of thinking that salting meat any earlier than the very last moment was an act of destruction causing unspeakable degrees of dehydration and toughness, I discovered pre-salting in Judy Rodger’s wonderful tomb, The Zuni Café Cookbook. It bordered on a religious awakening. I and my fellow Rose Bakery chef, the wonderful Avon Lyons, made the discovery together (during those

Pasteurisation, a Sour Story

2009-11-29T09:09:00.000-08:00

The word ‘pasteurization’ conjures a picture of two related periods in history. The first is that breakthrough moment when pasteurization entered the scene of an industrially created health calamity: cows fed off the sludge byproduct of distilleries produced sick milk, resulting in outbreaks of diphtheria, tuberculosis, and thousands of deaths. The second is right now, when the

Gratin Potatoes, a curdled tale

2009-11-29T05:21:00.000-08:00

I just spent the last hour making a potato gratin, and as it bakes, it's curdling. With guests arriving in less than ten minutes, I'm trying to believe this isn't a bad thing. I want to celebrate the curd. I want to love that what I'm bending over right now is steaming layers of satiny potato, crunchy crisp on top, held together by a tenuous curd and hiding a shallow bath of... whey. But I so

The perfect mashed potatoes, Part I

2009-11-23T15:38:00.000-08:00

I've been inspired to write about mashed potatoes after reading about this rather gorgeous version in Simply Recipes. It's sings with balance I think: the tang and sweet creaminess of blue cheese, the slightly pungent nose of the sage, the nutty earth in the brown butter... you know it's funny, I've just realised I misread their recipe... I thought Garett and Elise used blue cheese, but they

Shaggy Parasols & Chestnut Boletes

2009-11-23T05:17:00.000-08:00

I hunted for mushrooms for the first time ever yesterday. We drove with our avid mushroom hunting friends, Dougal, Deirdre and their dog Doom, to Sackrow, where they know some special spots for Ceps and other boletes. It's a little late for Ceps, but Deirdre thinks Chestnut (or Bay, oder 'Maronen', auf Deutsch) Boletes taste even better. John Wright in his book, Mushrooms, says Chestnut Boletes

The Best Roasted Tomatoes start with two Skye Gyngell tricks*

2009-11-19T10:58:00.000-08:00

Trick 1. Roasting tomatoes require roominess Trick 2. Roast tomatoes dry (that is, without any oil) *Caveat for all diligent recipe followers: not all advice from cooks should be followed to the letter. When I first started working in Skye’s kitchen (and being way too eager to please) I took her on her word when she said ‘green vegetables should be boiled in water as salty as the sea’- advice

My First Cooking Class at Goldhahn & Sampson

2009-11-19T10:06:00.000-08:00

The Magic of Stocks Samstag, 6. Februar, 2010, um 18 Uhr Goldhahn & Sampson Infusing water with the flavours of meats, vegetables, herbs and spices is one of the kitchen’s most basic transformations, and yet like most of cooking’s simple magic, it requires a bit of ‘skilling up’ to perfect. In this class, we’ll step through stock making from raw ingredients to clarification. We’ll make

Good Eating, a Joselito Jamón and me

2009-11-12T04:28:00.000-08:00

Welcome to The Good Soup. At least, the good soup before the 'other' good soup is ready to eat. Or maybe this little blog will remain 'a' good soup forever? I'm not sure. My friend, Clarissa, said I should make this blog happen so people know I exist. I think she's right, but I can also be so shy about these things. I'm not sure I know yet what I will tell you... I'm starting my own