Souper Soups (New Covent Garden Soup Company's Book of Soups)

Member Name: Charris2002

Product:	New Covent Garden Soup Company's Book of Soups
Date:	06/11/08 (162 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tasty and Quick

Disadvantages: None

The New Covent Garden Food Co have produced hundreds of varieties of soup since its inception in 1988 using fresh, natural ingredients. They've learnt what works, what doesn't and their Book of Soups - New, Old and Odd Recipes provides a stunning array of soups that confirm to this description. Old favourites stand side by side with some decidedly odd and new soup recipes. The Book of Soups provides yet more sumptuous soups for you to experiment with at any time of year.

I mentioned in my earlier review of Soups for all Seasons that my soup epiphany was at a dinner party when I was served a homemade Russian Vegetable soup. At first glance, it was rather disconcerting, a bowl of thick, green (very green!) liquid, with a rather artistic swirl of cream being the only visually attractive contribution. However, once I actually tasted the soup, I was well on my way to being converted. The flavours were intense, complex, balanced and, taken together, formed an absolutely moreish soup....For those of you wishing to try this stunning soup, you'll be pleased to discover that the recipe for this soup does appear in this particular New Covent Garden Company book...Hurray, I hear you saying!

This delicious hardback book, with its cover pictures of green vegetables provides a wide variety of soup recipes, some simple, some more complex, but (of those that I've tried) none disappoint in terms of flavour or in appearance.

Other than your recipes, which we'll come to in a moment, the book has an extremely interesting introduction that gives the history of the New Covent Garden Food Company, its inception, its development, how it grew from very humble beginnings and its ethos, its raison d'etre.

'Tricks of the Trade' tells of soup launches and events that could have gone better, the importance of good quality ingredients and stresses the importance of seasonality. This is followed by Hiccups - a sort of Soup troubleshooting section - identifying common faults and problems with soup-making. Errors such as adding too much cream or milk which can overpower the flavour of vegetables, avoiding the use of old, ill-kept spices, and using potatoes, bread, pasta etc to thicken your soup rather than the unpredictable flour. Whilst not totally exhaustive, this section is well worth reading before you embark on your culinary voyage of discovery.

The following section has recipes for various stocks - beef, chicken, vegetable, game and fish. Like all of the recipes in this book, you are presented with a list of ingredients (both imperial and metric measurements) followed by a step-by-step guide to preparation.

All of the recipes themselves are kept as simple as possible - and will guide you effortlessly through the preparation, cooking, garnishing and serving of your soup. I believe that any budding cook, regardless of experience would be able to use this book and produce professional looking and tasting soups.

The book is divided into the 'Wonderful', 'Unusual', 'Reviving', 'Fancy', 'Plain' , 'Chilled',
'Warming', 'Exotic', 'Seasonal' and 'Sweet'. Now, I could go through each section and list all of the recipes but that really would spoil the fun for you, so I'll simply give you a flavour of each. These are based on my own experiences and I have either made, or been served, all of the recipes mentioned.

Wonderful - Russian Vegetable Soup - a soup amongst soups! A gorgeous blend of root vegetables, herbs, fresh parsley and cabbage, ideal for the vegetarians among you.

Unusual - Aussie Roo Soup - Kangaroo meat is now widely available here but I have to admit this one was a challenge as I grew up with Skippy. I'm glad I did - it's is not only unusual but delicious. Unfortunately, I had to use a straightforward game stock as I didn't have a kangaroo tail in the freezer at the time......tender meat, vegetables, garlic croutons make this a particularly hearty and substantial soup - maybe not for the faint-hearted though!

Reviving - Jewish Chicken Soup - I couldn't really pick anything but this recipe for this section. The old traditional favourite, comprising chicken, carrots, peas, and lochoen or egg vermicelli. Great at anytime but especially if feeling somewhat under the weather.

Fancy - Sorrel and Oyster Soup. Fancy but incredibly simple. Fish stock, oysters, sorrel and seasoning. Voila! It's ready. This literally takes a couple of minutes - a great return for minimal effort.

Plain - Mangetout Soup - deliciously green, quite filling due to the inclusion of yellow split peas. A lovely fresh tasting soup, ideal for those summer days that aren't as warm as you thought.

Chilled - Mustard and Cress - I wasn't particularly enamoured with the idea of this recipe. I think it reminded me of school, growing mustard and cress on blotting paper and then wondering what to actually do with the results...Never mind, it produces an attractive looking soup, with the sharpness of the mustard and cress combining to cut through the milk and cream. Not one of my favourites but I wouldn't refuse to eat it.

Warming - Cheese Soup with Bacon - A definite winter warmer. A rich and creamy blended cheese and potato soup, flavoured with onion and garlic and topped with a good helping of crispy bacon....delicious but extremely filling and definitely not for the calorie conscious.

Exotic - Ttoro Basque. A Basque version of the classic stew/soup Bouillabaisse. Mixed fish (whiting, mackerel, eel, bass, crab, prawns, mussels etc - use whatever is available), oil, tomatoes, garlic cayenne etc form a hearty and mouth-watering version of this classic. Quick to make and definitely one to impress your guests.

Seasonal - Pumpkin Soup - A great soup for Halloween! A blended soup with chunks of pumpkin, for added effect, you can serve it in the pumpkin shell - this always goes down well, especially with the kids and, truth be told, with the adults too. A great way to use the pumpkin scooped from your lanterns too!

Sweet - Peach Soup Flambe - For the extrovert in you! A warm pureed dessert soup. Present in a large tureen, peach halves floating on the top, dim the light and ignite the brandy -quite spectacular, tasty and refreshing....

So, that's a taste of the soup recipes on offer. Following the recipes, there is a great section, that lists all of the recipes in the book, with spaces alongside headed date cooked, cooking notes and tasting notes. This allows you to keep track of your soup-making and to make any advisory notes on each soup - does it need more water, extra seasoning, was it delicious etc. A really handy feature as we all have differing tastes.

Technically, it retails for a fairly hefty £14.99 but can be found on Amazon for approximately £9.99 - you will struggle to find a second-hand copy though - I know I did!!

This review also on Ciao under my name of MarkKerr

Summary: Ideal for the beginner and the experienced cook