The Joy of Soup

And Then We All Had Soup

Hang onto your hats, dears! - the Soup Lady is a modern woman and works outside the home! It is quite true and it is a good thing. This increases the opportunity for exposure to soup at varied restaurants during business-related lunches. An emerging trend seems to be that if one party orders soup, the rest of the table does as well. Last week, our party of four did just this thing, and the soup ordered was:

Seven Onion Soup - This appeared to be the garden-variety cheese-topped French Onion, but once the topping was pushed aside, there was evidence that shallots and scallions were part of the recipe. It was over-whelmingly scented by bay leaves. Chosen by two members of the party.

Cream of Portabello Mushroom with Lemon Thyme - What a color this was! Kind of greenish/taupe. But the mushrom bits were of a good size and the cream base was rich in flavor, not pasty.

Spicy New England Clam Chowder with Chorizo Sausage and Chiopotle Peppers - this was the selection of the Soup Lady. Although it was promising in description and appearance, it was most bland and a major disapointment.

Not to worry, dears. The Soup Lady plans to cover the entire length and breadth of Buck's County in search of blog-worthy soups. Report to follow.

D's Lime Steak Soup

ToTo, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.

Soup Fever sweeps through Europe as the ultra-talented web-design genius, D. writes from the U.K.about a soup he frequently mentions: Souplady, O Souplady, Here is my recipe for lime steak soup. I no longer remember where it came from or what it is really called. Best regards, D.

Lime Steak Soup

Ingredients :
6 cups water
1 pound of .steak sliced or diced into thin strips or cubes
1 chopped onion
4 pounded cloves
garlic
8 sliced dried red chilies
1 stalk of sliced lemongrass
1-inch of galangal
1/2 cup lime juice
4 tbsp fish sauce
3 tsp brown sugar
4 tbsp vegetable oil
4 tbsp coriander, chopped
4 tbsp spring onion, chopped

Directions :
1. Heat oil in pot and fry garlic and onion till golden.
2. Add beef and fry for 1 more min.
3. Add water, lime juice, fish sauce, chilies, galangal, lemongrass and sugar, and simmer for 20 mins or until beef is tender.
4. Garnish with coriander and spring onion. Serves 4-6.

It sounds like a major flavor experience, doesn't it? The Soup Lady likes the looks of this and will produce it for the panel of judges as soon as they can all be rounded up into the test kitchens. (I wonder if he really meant 8 chilies?)