Choices - leftover soup

"Such a dish is always, in my experience, made more scrumptious by the knowledge of its unpromising beginnings." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

These are my unpromising beginnings. The real starter is the smallest - some leftover braised peas - less than a handful and some leftover creamy mushroom sauce for some pork chops that we ate the other day. Most would have thrown it all out probably, but my frugal upbringing resists, and besides I always find doing something with something like this an enjoyable challenge. From little things big things grow and all that.

Now such a mix could be made into another sauce for something I guess, or as the basis of a pie - not a tart I think because it' a bit too liquid. A stir-fry or risotto maybe and of course there's always pasta. But today - well over the last few days in fact - I have been dreaming of soup, and not just because of the soup but also because of the cheese and celery scones I shall make to go with it.

So soup - something homely and comforting like this beautiful photograph at the beginning of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's essential cookbook Love Your Leftovers. Wrong ingredients for my particular leftover soup, but the same emotional pull. Comfort has been on my mind of late - the weather and lack of major events in my life has made me feel a bit down, and then of course Ottolenghi's latest book - acquired this week - is called Comfort. Not to mention my other cookbook reading of the week - Nigel Slater's Eat, which is full of such simple, homely things.

So I latched on to the idea of peas - even though you could probably count the actual number of peas in my leftover dish. And what goes with peas? Well porky things of course, which immediately made me think of another way to use some of that ham that David bought in a fit of enthusiasm a couple of weeks ago. I would love to be able to extract the bone - or some of the bone from it, but I suspect I won't be able to. I do have a very efficient cleaver, but it would be wielded by a very inefficient exponent. I never seem to hit the same spot twice, and one hit from me would do very little damage. And a saw is far too difficult. If I come across an actual joint, then maybe. Anyway ham.

The other must use ingredients - not a choice here - are celery and leeks. Celery because although it doesn't look like I have a lot to use in the photograph, David, in another fit of enthusiasm bought a whole new bunch. "There's small choice in rotten apples". said Shakespeare. Alright they aren't apples, but you get the picture. Hang on though - what about an apple or two in the mix? Regardless of what I decide on that, I shall be exploring ways of using celery endlessly for a week or two I think. Quiche next. Then there are the leeks - which are my fault. Aldi had lovely looking leeks at $2.00 each. I couldn't resist. I now have three.

That's alright though - celery does go with ham, and so do leeks.

What else should I add however? Peas, ham, celery, leeks - it's just a bit boring isn't it? And this is the simultaneously exciting and challenging bit of the whole process. This is where you lift your 'boring' soup into something utterly delicious, or get so carried away with being 'edgy' that it's all a disaster.

The place to start is the fridge. The veggie drawer first. Should I add some carrots - just to brighten it all up a bit? I've got half a capsicum which will go off fairly quickly - but no that would take me in a completely different direction and the peas are pointing me elsewhere. Do I add some more mushrooms - there are a lot of them still left? No - better in the beef stew I'm planning for tomorrow. Spring onions which are beginning to seriously wilt? No - unless I go for one of those trendy garnishes you see on soup these days. And I don't think I want to do that. So just make a note to myself to use them up soon. Parsley? Mint? A dollop of yoghurt - which is also dying - on top? Maybe - will check it out when the soup is done.

I almost forgot those other things you find in the fridge - the mustards, the chutneys, the pickles. What about some sliced pickled onion on top? Would that work? Maybe a touch of mustard or chutney in the soup? Cream? I'm a sucker for cream, so maybe. What about cornichons? There were some in my mushroom sauce so I could add a few more. Maybe. These are the sorts of things I shall decide at the time of cooking, and here I think is my major fault when it comes to improvisational cooking. I tend to throw in too many different, and possibly clashing things.

The freezer - some more peas perhaps. I've already extracted a couple of pieces of Parmesan rind because I tend to forget the usefulness of that in a soup. I just hope I remember to put them in - and fish them out before serving.

The pantry. What a treasure trove. Onions - no we've got leeks. Potatoes? Maybe one or two - although now that I think about it, I have a couple of leftover roast potatoes from last night's dinner, which was Nigel Slater's fried kefir chicken - very juicy, but ever so mildly disappointing and not to be repeated I think. Worth a try but not a stayer. But yes the potatoes could be diced and put in, together with the few bits of red onion they were roasted with. They were roasted with rosemary, so maybe I should put in a touch of rosemary as well? Might be alright for the ham, but not peas. Mint surely?

Dried split green peas - yes, a few already soaking. They add an earthiness and they also, with the potatoes, make the soup a bit thicker. Leftover roast potatoes are really better in a frittata or something similar, but there they are, so I shall use them. I could add some tinned beans as well, but perhaps not. Or tinned tomatoes - but that means going in quite a different direction, and not one that I have chosen for today. Spices galore - I could go in a curry like or Middle-Eastern direction, but, again, I think not. I might add a bottle of Pear cider however, because there was some of that in the mushroom sauce, and it needs using. I bought it by mistake thinking it was actual apple cider. And I have no spare wine. Well I have spare red wine, but it would need to be white and the leftover red wine is for the beef stew.

So a fair bit of celery I think, which leans me towards a bit of mustard. The celery to be just chopped and lightly fried before adding liquid. Along with the leeks.

To finish - well below are a few pictures of gourmet pea and ham soups that I gleaned from here and there - just to make me think about it:

So trendy - the swirls of creamy things, the scattering of stuff on top, that includes crispy things like nuts, seeds and bacon, actual peas, shreds of ham, green leaves ... And they are all so green. - well except for Ottolenghi in the middle at the bottom but then he has tomatoes in his. I think Nagi Maehashi is probably more correct when she says:

"It’s brown more than green. Kahki at best. So no, it’s not glamorous. But this ugly duckling is seriously delicious. One bite, and you won’t be able to stop!!"

Well I hope so, but it's not really a bite is it? More of a slurp. I think mine will look more like the last one above, although maybe I'll mash the ingredients up a bit when it's cooked. And I think I've just found a photograph of what I hope it will look like - if you substitute shreds of ham for the bacon in this picture. It's a picture from a website called Hungry Ali and a recipe for the world's best soup - her mum's. Which sort of says it all really doesn't it? There's a mini discussion of what you would choose to eat as your last meal and this is hers - ' a soup to die for' she says.

I doubt mine will be as good as that. Too many decisions to make yet, from what to put in it, to when to put them in, how much of each to put in, how to prepare each ingredient, how long to cook, what little extra touches to make. Some would find so much choice distressing. If you look for quotes on making choices you will find them to be largely negative, causing anxiety, distress, breakdown. Me - I'm going to find this kind of choosing exercise challenging fun and if it doesn't turn out to be the world's best soup, then there's always another chance to make it soon. And I know it will be at least eatable - and the accompanying scones will be delicious. They're from an actual professional recipe.

POSTSCRIPT

September 7

2023 - Capsicum (peppers) and pasta

2022 - Gleanings

2021 - Cubist bananas

2020 - A failure - and now I'm worried because the failure was pea soup. Not pea and ham - maybe the ham will save it - but I'm seriously worried. David didn't like it. And what a coincidence as well. Is it a sign from above?

2019 - The gap in 2019 continues - nothing until the 12th. What was I doing?

2018 - Chicken soup for a cold - another soup - is somebody trying to tell me something? And of so what?

2017 - It's hard to find cream crackers

2016 - Oversize