Tag: traditional

Asparagus Soup (Traditional)

8 June 2023

Preparing Asparagus soup starts by using the skin and woody ends of the asparagus with leek or shallot to make a stock. Since the stock is fairly bland and watery, you need to add additional flavour (the tips of the asparagus, cream, salmon and dill) and improve the consistency of the final result. The traditional way of doing this is by making a roux. You will get a nice, thickened soup with a velvety mouthfeel. It’s still a bit one dimensional so if you want a more complex soup, we suggest replacing the water by chicken or vegetable stock.

Another way of improving the consistency and enhancing the flavour is by adding asparagus to the soup and blending the result. In this post we will prepare the traditional version.

What You Need

  • The skin and woody ends of lots of White Asparagus
  • Shallot
  • Butter
  • Water (Chicken or Vegetable Stock preferred)
  • Five White Asparagus
  • 30 grams of All Purpose Flour
  • 30 grams of Butter
  • Cream
  • White Pepper
  • Pinch of Salt

What You Do

Peel and slice the shallot. Peel the five asparagus and cut of the woody ends. Add butter to a pan, glaze the shallot. Now add the skin and woody ends of the asparagus, coat with the shallot and butter mixture and add cold water. Allow to simmer for 30 – 45 minutes. If you cook the stock too long, then it will become bitter. Pass the liquid through a sieve. Squeeze to capture all the lovely asparagus juices. With the stock ready it’s time to make the (white) roux. Warm the butter in the pan, add the flour and stir. Keep on medium heat until you just begin to smell cookies. Now start adding the warm liquid, slowly at first, keep stirring and adding until you have used all the liquid. Taste, add some white pepper and a pinch of salt. Keep on low heat. Slice the five asparagus, add the slices to the soup and keep the tips. Stir every 5 minutes. After 20 minutes add some cream, slice the five tips lengthwise and add these to the soup. 5 more minutes and the soup is ready.

Asparagus Soup (Traditional) ©cadwu
Asparagus Soup (Traditional) ©cadwu

Londonderry Soup

19 January 2018

Sunday afternoon, my mother in the kitchen, asking us what we would like to eat as a starter. Would we like vegetable soup with broken vermicelli or Londonderry soup? My favourite! Londonderry soup! Monday meant school but Sunday was all about Londonderry Soup!
My mother seemed less keen to prepare Londonderry soup because, depending on the chili and the curry, it could be too spicy to her taste. The vegetable soup was more predictable.
As always in life, things change. I moved to another city, she became less interested in cooking and so here we are today: I haven’t tasted the soup for years. Time to start cooking.
The Londonderry soup I tasted as a child seems to be a Dutch and Belgium phenomenon. And a rather undefined one. Some use veal stock, others chicken. Some add mushrooms, others rice. Also used are chili, sambal, cayenne pepper, parsley, egg, meat balls et cetera. And to make things even more confusing, in the UK it’s known as a pea soup. Which is not at all what my mother used to prepare. Plus no-one seems to know what the origin is of the name.
So we decided to follow the recipe my mother included in her ‘kookschrift’, which is a notebook with recipes she learned as a young woman.

What You Need

  • Light Stock (Veal or Chicken)
  • A Shallot
  • Curry Powder
  • Chili
  • Equal amount of Flower and Butter
  • Button Mushrooms
  • Single Cream

What You Do

  1. Start by glazing the chopped shallot in butter
  2. Add the chili (my mother used 4 small slices, but feel free to use more!) and the curry powder
  3. The curry powder should be spicy and powerful
  4. Make sure the curry is fried, allowing for the flavors to develop
  5. Add the flour and start making a roux
  6. Add the warm stock, step by step, take your time, and create the soup
  7. Leave it for 15 minutes to integrate
  8. In parallel gently fry the very small mushrooms (so called button mushrooms)
  9. Pass the soup through a sieve
  10. Use a spoon to capture all the flavors of the shallot and the chili
  11. The soup should be completely smooth
  12. Now things become unclear in my mother’s recipe. She suggests adding white wine just before serving (which will add acidity plus the taste of alcohol which is not great) or single milk or cream. Milk will only weaken the taste of the curry. Cream however will give a velvety mouthfeel when tasting the soup, which is great in combination with the spicy curry. So we added a touch of single cream
  13. Leave the soup for 5 minutes on low heat, allowing for the cream to cook
  14. Just before serving add the gently colored button mushrooms

Thanks Mum!

Londonderry Soup © cadwu
My mother's recipe for Londonderry soup © cadwu
Ingredients of Londonderry Soup © cadwu