Sophie Conran - Sophie Conran’s Soups and Stews

This is a delicious soup dearly loved by the Victorians and Edwardians. Occasionally, cooked basmati rice is added to Classic Brown Windsor just before serving.

1 tbsp beef dripping or olive oil

500g/llb 2oz veal shins sliced 3mm/ 1/8 inch thick

1 pinch of ground nutmeg knob of butter

1 large carrot peeled and chopped

1 Spanish onion sliced

2 leeks, white part only chopped

1 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme leaves

1 bunch of parsley chopped

1.5 litres/2 1/ 2pints home made beef stock or consommé

1 bay leaf

1/ 2tsp cayenne pepper

1 small glass of sherry or Madeira sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Heat the dripping or oil in a large pan with a lid over a medium/high heat. Season the veal with a little salt, nutmeg and pepper, then fry for 3 minutes on each side. Remove the steaks and place on a plate until needed. Reduce the heat and drop the butter, carrot, onion, leeks and thyme into the pan. Gently fry the vegetables, stirring from time to time for about 10-15 minutes or until soft.

Return the meat to the pot, then stir in the parsley, the stock, the bay leaf, the cayenne pepper and a pinch of salt. Cover with the lid and leave to very gently bubble away for 2 hours, making sure it never boils. Remove the bay leaf and set the meat aside on a plate.

Scoop the bone marrow out of the middle of the bones and drop it into the soup (it is not necessary to add the marrow if you don’t fancy it, but it does give a wonderful richness to the soup). Allow the soup to cool before blitzing it in a food processor until smooth. Using your hands, break the meat up into small pieces, discarding the bones and any globby bits. Plop the meat into the soup, heat through and stir in the Madeira or sherry just before serving. Serve with white toast and butter.

This French recipe brings together some of my most treasured ingredients. Lovely, hefty red wine, gorgeous earthy wild mushrooms and good country smokey bacon. They all combine perfectly to make this superb soup.

3 tbsp olive oil

100g/3 1/ 2oz bacon lardons cut into 1cm/1/2 inch sticks

500ml/18fl oz beef stock (see page 184)

300g/11oz shallots or pickling onions peeled

400g/14oz fresh chanterelle mushrooms

2 cloves of garlic peeled and chopped

1 handful of chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

2 tbsp plain flour

400g/14oz chuck steak cut into 1cm/1/2 inch cubes

4 tbsp marc de Bourgogne or Cognac

1/ 2bottle of red wine such as Burgundy or something hefty

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large pan and fry the bacon until it begins to crisp and brown. Pour the stock into a small saucepan and plop in the onions. Simmer gently for 10 minutes. Lift the bacon out of the pan and set aside. Drain the onions, reserving the stock, and fry them with the mushrooms in the bacon fat until beginning to brown. Add the garlic and parsley and stir through, then cook for a couple of minutes, remove from the pan and set aside.

Mix the flour and meat in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add the rest of the oil to the pan and fry the meat on all sides until browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and return to the bowl. Pour the marc or Cognac into the pot and bubble, stirring with a wooden spoon to scrape up the flour that has cooked onto the bottom of the pan. Add a little of the wine if it boils dry. Keep stirring until all the flour has been incorporated into the liquid and you have a smooth sauce before adding any more wine.

Return the meat to the pan with the rest of the wine and the reserved stock and stir through. Leave to simmer gently for 2 hours. Stir every now and then and add a little hot water if it starts to get dry. Drop in the bacon, mushrooms and onions, heat through, and add hot water until it reaches your desired consistency. Season to taste and serve with slabs of country bread and fresh butter.

I find it quite remarkable that these nuggets of gnarly muddiness can result in something so sublime and luxurious as this beautiful dish. It’s like a sophisticated potato soup.

1/ 2lemon

750g/1lb 11oz Jerusalem artichokes

3 tbsp beef dripping or 2 tbsp olive oil or butter

4 large carrots peeled and chopped

2 leeks white parts only cleaned, trimmed and chopped

1 parsnip peeled and chopped

500ml/18fl oz beef stock (see page 184)

2 handfuls of chopped fresh mint

zest of 2 lemons finely chopped salt

Fill a bowl with cold water and squeeze the juice from the lemon into it. Peel and chop the artichokes and put into the acidulated water as you prepare them—this prevents them from going brown.

Heat the dripping, oil or butter in a large pan and gently fry all the vegetables for 20 minutes, stirring every now and again.

Add the stock and 1.5 litres/2 1/ 2pints of water to the vegetables, bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for 30—40 minutes or until the vegetables are easily squashed with the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat and pour about 500ml/18fl oz of cold water into the pan—this cools it all down so that it is not hot when you purée it.

Whiz the mixture in a blender until smooth. Pour back into the pan reheat and stir through the mint and lemon zest. Season to taste with salt.

Shabu-Shabu, meaning ‘swish swish’, is a wonderfully light Japanese hotpot, a little like a fondue. You cook the sliced meat yourself at the table and enjoy the vegetables and stock afterwards. Everyone needs chopsticks or a fork, a spoon and bowl and dipping sauce.

600g/1lb 5oz beef fillet sliced as finely as possible and cut into 2cm/3/4 inch strips

1 litre/1 3/ 4pints beef or chicken stock (see pages 184 and 185)

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 carrots peeled and finely sliced

10 shiitake mushrooms sliced

1 bunch of enoki mushrooms roots cut off

6 spring onions trimmed and cut in half lengthways

1 cube of firm tofu cut into four pieces (make sure that the tofu is not too fine, something more solid is best)

75g/3oz udon noodles

2 pak choi cleaned and sliced

1/ 2Chinese cabbage cut into strips

For the dipping sauce

1 walnut-sized piece of fresh root ginger

peeled and finely chopped

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp lime juice

2 tbsp sesame oil

Set the table first with a small paraffin stove or burner that will keep your pot bubbling, the chopsticks, bowls and some napkins. Prepare all the ingredients, arrange the beef slices on a plate, and have them waiting for the arrival of your guests. Combine all the ingredients for the dipping sauce in a bowl and place on the table.

Once your guests are seated, pour the stock, soy sauce and 500ml/18fl oz of water into a large pot (it needs to fit safely on the paraffin stove and be big enough to take all the ingredients). Bring to the boil and then add, in this order, the carrots, mushrooms and spring onions. Then add the noodles, tofu, pak choi and lastly the cabbage.

Carry it very carefully to the table and set on the stove. Now the fun starts—each person should dip their meat into the soup until done to their taste, then dip it into the sauce and devour. Everyone helps themselves to veg, tofu and noodles and lastly the broth, which by this point is superb with wonderful flavours from both the veg and the meat.