What to do with Leftover Soup!

~  Menu  ~

Spicy Roasted Tomato & Fresh Coriander Scrambled Eggs

Toasted Ciabatta

Red Wine

Homemade Cookies from a Friend

Coffee

We haven’t been food shopping for almost 2 weeks due to the aforementioned bout of ‘flu but I like to think I keep a tight ship, doncha know, so there’s been no problems.  Today I was a bit lost for something to get me cheerful about lunch but a quick glance in the fridge helped tremendously.

A couple of nights ago I had roasted tomato and chilli soup but still being a little under the weather was so pathetic I left a little.  Really a little; less that 2 tbsp but I couldn’t throw it away.  For some reason, perhaps you are the same, if I throw something away immediately I feel guiltier than if I leave it in the fridge a few days and then throw it away.  Lunch then was this modicum of soup heated up, 2 eggs broken in plus some chopped fresh coriander, scrambly, scrambly – toasted Ciabatta, red wine.   All’s well.

Handy Tip when making Scrambled Eggs

Incidentally a good tip for making extra delish scrambled egg (which I didn’t do today) is when the egg is just how you want it add a knob of butter or a splash of cream which not only enhances both taste and texture but also cools the eggs down so they don’t keep on cooking whilst you serve them. Scrambled eggs can be buggers that way.  I think that officially this idea is credited to Julia Child although I am sure lots of people must have realised the same thing independently.

If you click through to the Roasted Tomato Soup Recipe you will find another tasty way to use up soup remains.  Of course much depends on the flavour of your leftover soup but here are some other ideas  ...

~   add to more soup!
~   use to deglaze a pan to make a sauce
~   just use as a sauce!
~   put a spoonful of warmed leftover soup into a buttered ramekin, crack over an egg, drizzle with a little more soup or some cream and bake at 350ºF/180ºC/160°C fan/gas 4 till the egg whites are set and the yolk just perfect: approx 20 mins.

~   add to casseroles and pasta bakes

~   mash into potato
~   stir into mayonnaise

~   fry it, having made certain adjustments ~ see below.

Soup Fritters!

The most fabulously impressive thing I ever did with leftover soup was make fritters!  For a few years (not all of them consecutive!!) I ran the kitchen of The Tamarind Club in Tortola and, as anyone who knows Tortola will understand, Sunday’s at the Tamarind Club are hugely busy and no time for mucking about.  Well …

… we had a group of regulars who for several days had been verging on having a celebration, I can’t remember what.  Suddenly just as we were serving the last brunch dishes and cleaning down they decided they needed a party with nibbles that very afternoon.  So I added handfuls of fresh breadcrumbs to the last couple of portions of the Seafood Chowder, chilled, balled up and fried till crisp.  People, as is typical of People I find, asked for the recipe.  They only do this when it is almost impossible to give one. 

I have posted the Seafood Chowder recipe before, ages ago, but that post has corrupted so I’ll do it again some time.

Anyhoo – back to today’s lunch.

For lunch pudding I had two seriously good cookies that my friend Carol sent round – I love having friends who can cook!

Basic (basically delicious, more like!) Shortbread Biscuits

225g soft butter

110g sugar

275g plain flour – sifted would be best
pinch salt

~   Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºC/160°C fan/gas 4.

~   Cream together the butter and the sugar till light in both colour and texture.

~   Fold in the flour.

~   Form into walnut sized balls and place a little spaced out allow for spreading, on a greased and/or lined baking tray. Flatten slightly.

~   Bake for about 15 minutes till puffed up a bit, starting to firm up and going golden round the edges.

~   Cool for just a few minutes then transfer to a rack (carefully) to finish cooling.

Of course things can be added (spices, zest, flavouring, choc chips, dried fruit etc.) but they are really, really good as is.  Having said that, hmmm – I might try using light brown muscovado and a sprinkling of crunchy sea salt.  Shall I?

Here, apropos of nothing, is a picture of some lillies my Real Man brought home yesterday.  If you feel he can’t be that real-mannish buying flowers I would point out they were one a helluva bargain!