I am not a fan of soup.  I really don’t get it.  My MIL loves soup.  Oh, I am sure she would deny it.  I am sure she doesn’t even notice.  However, she has a vast repertoire of soups, most without names, and throughout winter at least, lunch and dinner are punctuated between Grace and Main with soup.  Sometimes you even have a choice.

It isn’t that I actively don’t like soup.  (I also like my MIL!)  I just don’t get it.  It really doesn’t do anything for me.

But Soup is different entirely.

Today I made Soup.

My parents used to make Soup.  It was a wonderful weekend food (and aroma) in our home during winter.

It would start the week before.  Mum would boil a chicken.  I never liked the smell of a chicken being boiled, but my heart would start to beat a little faster whenever it happened.  To this day I get a little overly excited at the smell of boiling chicken.  A bit like Pavlov’s Dog, methinks.

A boiling chicken meant two things.

Firstly, we would be getting yummy chicken sandwiches for lunch at school this week.

Secondly, one of the large old peanut jars would soon be sitting in the fridge, filled with hot yellow liquid which would magically divide into golden, gelatinous goop and a hard white layer (later skimmed off).

And what did a jar of stock in the fridge mean?  Next weekend we would be having Soup.

Come Saturday morning, Dad would peel and dice the veges – parsnip, swede, turnip, potato, carrot, celery and onion.  He would chop up the celery leaves (oh, they smell so good!).  He would lightly fry off the onion and then all the goodies would go into the stock pot with a couple of handfuls of barley.  (If we were really lucky, sometimes he would toss in alphabet noodles for a treat.  Can you get alphabet noodles anymore?)  The stock pot would slowly simmer and the aroma would infuse the house.

Aaaah.  The smell of home in winter.

The first serving was Saturday lunch.  By the small bowl served at the start of dinner on Saturday night, the flavour was more developed.  On Sunday, it was served with bread.  And on Sunday night, it was thick and stewy as we finished it off.  Unless of course, we had eaten too much already and it needed to be drastically watered down to go the distance.

As a child, I was sick of Soup by Sunday.  (By then I would even have referred to it merely as ‘soup’).  And sadly, although I loved this Soup, I took it for granted.

As an adult it has an almost spiritual aura about it.  The smells evoke the memories of a happy home, a warmth that was not just from the stock pot, a gathering of family.  I lean over the pot to test the balance of flavours and I think of my brothers and sisters.  I wonder with love what they are doing at that moment.  I remember sharing this with them.  The steam feels like a big hug.

I am delighted today.  My husband and all my children – even the baby just starting “solids” enjoyed Soup.  Hopefully, one day, they will also lean over a pot on bubbling vegetables and think of their loved ones.

I am happy, for today I made Soup.

Mum used to make this and think it was just the best thing ever.  I didn’t really get it at the time, but having tried it again as an adult, I can see the appeal.

Mum would slice the pork into little medallions to serve.

2 x 500g pork fillets

30g butter or equivalent (once more, I omit the butter myself)

2 Tbsp oil

Sauce:

2/3 cup plum jam

2 chicken stock cubes

1 Tbsp cornflour

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce

1/4 cup dry sherry

2 cloves garlic

Trim fat from pork fillets

Heat butter and oil in large frying pan

Add pork and brown well on all sides

Place pork fillets in baking dish

Pour over sauce

Bake uncovered in moderate oven for 40-45 minutes.  Baste frequently with sauce.

Serve slice.  Spoon over remaining sauce.

To make the Sauce:

Combine in saucepan: jam, crumbled stock cubes, cornflour, water, soy sauce, sherry and crushed garlic.

Stir over medium heat until sauce boils and thickens.

Reduce heat and simmer for 1 minute.

90-95g butter

1 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 cup self-raising flour

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp custard powder

Cream the butter and sugar together

Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well.

Sift the dry ingredients together.

Fold in the dry ingredients, alternately with the milk.

Bake in a moderate oven for 40-45 minutes.

Extra yummy served with lemon icing.

I have two recipes for lamingtons from Mum.  One is a butter cake recipe and the second is a sponge recipe.  Mum was the Queen of Sponges and I only ever recall the butter cake one being used in “Manure Balls” – rounded patty cakes decorated as lamingtons and filled with cream.  (I believe the name Mum preferred for these was “Snowballs”, but Dad’s moniker for them is the one that has stuck.)

Anyway, time to bake:

Sponge Lamingtons

3 eggs

1/2 cup castor sugar

1/4 cup cornflour

15g butter

2 Tbsp hot water

Beat eggs until light

Gradually add sugar, continue beating until mixture is thick and the sugar completely dissolved.

Sift the dry ingredients together several times (Note from Doffy:  “I would sift the dry ingredients before beating the eggs as I don’t believe it is good to allow the egg to settle after beating”) (Editor’s Note:  We ALWAYS sifted three times)

Melt the butter in hot water

Sift dry ingredients over egg mixture, fold in lightly, then, working quickly, fold in hot water and butter.

Pour into a greased 18cm x 28cm lamington tin.

Bake in a moderate oven for approximately 30 minutes.

Make the cake the day before cutting and icing.  Thinly trim brown top and sides from cake.  Cut into 16 pieces.

Chocolate Icing:

500g icing sugar

1/3 cup cocoa

15g softened butter

1/2 cup milk

Sift icing sugar and cocoa into a heatproof basin.

Add the softened butter and the milk.  Stir to mix thoroughly

Stand over hot water (Editor’s note:  the icing, not the cook.  Bain Marie style) Stir constantly until icing is of good coating consistency.

Ice, holding cake on one or two forks.  (Editor’s note:  Just in case you have not had lamingtons before, you need to dip the entire cake in the icing, to ice all six sides completely)

Dip in desiccated coconut.  (Editor’s note:  Again, you need to cover all six sides)

Stand on wire rack until completely dry.

And now for the Other recipe – Butter Cake Lamingtons

125g butter

3/4 cup castor sugar

1 teaspn vanilla

2 eggs

2 cups SR flour

1/2 cup milk

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla together until light and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, beat well.

Fold in sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk, starting and finishing with the dry.

Pour mixture into a well greased and paper lined 18cm x 28cm (7 x 11 inch) lamington tin.

Bake in a moderate oven 30 to 40 minutes.

Allow to stand in the tin for a few minutes before turning out on to a cake cooler.

It is best to make the cake the day before you want to cut and ice the lamingtons, as fresh cakes with usually crumble.

Cut cake into squares.  Dip in chocolate icing, then in coconut (see instructions above)

Chocolate Icing for Lamingtons:

500g icing sugar

1/3 cup cocoa

2 teasp melted butter

1/2 cup warmed milk

Sift icing sugar and cocoa into a heatproof basin.

Add melted butter to the milk.

Add sufficient milk mixture to the icing sugar mixtture to make a smooth coating consistencey.  Beat well.

Either stand basin in warm water to keep thin enough to cover cakes or add hot water as needed.

Stir to mix thoroughly

Stand over hot water (Editor’s note:  the icing, not the cook.  Bain Marie style) Stir constantly until icing is of good coating consistency.

This is site is currently on Sabbatical due to a two month road trip (woo hoo!)

I have some more lovely recipes to add soon, including some from the other Coyle sisters, thanks to Donna.

If you are family and you have anything you would like to see included, please let me know.

These delicious little numbers were on the table every Friday night during Lent.  Super Yummo.  I don’t think it could really be considered fasting.

8 eggs

Salt and Pepper

Oil

60g mushrooms

4 shallots (I am going to call them shallots.  I don’t really mind what you call them where you live.  I mean the green ones that are pretty much the same size and shape all the way down to the bulbs.)

1 stick celery

250g prawns

250g bean sprouts

Beat eggs with salt and pepper until slightly frothy

Gently saute finely chopped mushrooms for 1 minute.  Drain and add to the eggs

Add finely chopped shallots, celery, shelled and chopped prawns and well drained sprouts.  Mix well.

Just cover the base of fry pan with oil.  When hot pour mixture in with a cup or jug.

Flip when firm.

Sauce…

1 cup water

1 Tbsp cornflour

2 chicken stock cubes

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp soy sauce

salt

Blend water and cornflour until smooth (Editor’s tip:  Always add the cornflour to the water to avoid lumps.  I know it is counter-intuitive, but it seems to work.)

Add crumbled stock cubes, sugar, soy sauce and salt.

Stir over heat until sauce boils and thickens.

Pour over pancakes to serve.

Serves about 3 or 4 by reckoning – definitely doesn’t make enough of these yummy pancakes!

The cake would come out after dinner and would be accompanied by other party foods.  To this day, it is not a birthday if we don’t have a bowl of bite size Violet Crumbles and a bowl of cashews on the table.  Of course, it is not the same as “home” when we always used those brown and cream plastic woven bowls that someone once recieved in a craft kit as a gift.  They are still there, at Mum’s place, running strong after all these years.

Here is a chance to look at some of our menus:

Jan – Boiled Fruit Cake

Colette – Boiled Fruit Cake with green icing

Di – Sponge Cake

Paul – Spice Cake

Moira – Roast lamb with pumpkin and green beans.  Golden four fruits pudding.  Apricot Cake.

Julie – Ham Salad and Ice Cream Cake

Matt – Marble Cake with blue icing

Me – Honey Beef and Beans followed by chocolate cake.  I also went through a stage of requesting a bbq dinner.  Our barbeque was a little hibachi charcoal powered one, and, although Mum would try and talk me out of it when I would request it, somehow Dad would manage to produce dinner for the whole tribe.  We would sit in the yard under the clothes line by the shed – ah, summer nights in the ’70s…

1/2 oz butter

2lb chuck or blade steak, cut 1″ thick

1 envelope of french onion soup mix (the big sachets - make about 2L, I think)

1/2 green capsicum

2 tomatoes

1/2 cup tomato juice

1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp cornflour

chopped parsley

Grease 20 inch piece of foil (or use a casserole dish with a lid)

Cut steak into serving pieces

Arrange the steak on the foil (or in the casserole) overlapping each piece

Sprinkle with soup mix, chopped green capsicum, and peeled sliced tomatoes

Season with salt and pepper

Mix together the tomato juice, sauce and cornflour.  Pour over the meat.

Bring foil up and double fold the edges to seal the package (or put the lid on the casserole)

Stand foil parcel in a shallow baking dish.

Bake 2 hours in a moderate oven (less if the meat is thinner)

Roll back the foil and sprinkle the meat with parsley to serve.

2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour (Mum substitutes regular SR flour)

1 1/2 cups plain flour

280g butter

1/3 cup + water

milk for glazing

Sift dry ingredients

Rub in butter

Add sufficient water to make a firm dough

2 bacon rashers, chopped

2 medium onions, finely diced

750g hamburger mince

2 medium carrots, grated

1 level teaspoon salt

1/2 level teaspoon pepper

1/4 level teaspoon mixed herbs (This is dried mixed herbs)

1/2 level teaspoon dry mustard (Mustard Powder)

1/4 cup tomato sauce

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 beef stock cube

2 level Tablespoons chopped parsley (fresh)

1 cup soft white breadcrubs

1 quantity of double crust pastry

Saute bacon. 

Add onions and cook until golden. 

Add hamburger mice and brown well. 

Add next 9 ingredients. 

Cook 2-3 minutes. 

Stir in breadcrumbs. 

Cool.

Roll out pastry to line a 23cm pie plate.  (Remember that you will need two sheets – one for the base and one for a lid)

Spoon cold filling inot pastry shell. 

Glaze edges with milk. 

Cover with second sheet of pastry. 

Press edges together (Mum usually used a fork, making a pattern with the tines). 

Glaze the top with milk and make 4 slits in the pastry.

Bake at 230 deg C for 20-25 minutes.

Serve hot or cold.

There is often enough pastry and filling leftover to make another small pie.