shutterbugISm

Who loves soup? :)

I'm one of those who can survive on a meal with just a plain bowl of rice and soup.. any kind of soup (eXcept corn soup. NO, thank you). There's just something about homecook soups and the wonderful aroma that wafts from the kitchen stove

Well, we were out in town again the last few days and coincidentally, have been trying out soups from cafes and restaurants. So far, I still like the spicy tomato soup from Bakerzinn, the french fish soup from le Troquet cafe, french onion soup which Ms Clover cooks once in a blue moon (*hint hint*) and of coz, my mum's soups.

So I thought I would just write this entry to share with you a soup recipe which will surely satisfy the palette of tomato soup lovers

Fuss-free seafood tomato soup

I love tomatoes, full of Vitamin C and it's easy to prepare. This soup recipe is an excellent pick-me-up soup after a hard day's work or on a cold rainy day. The strong attack of the tomatoes on the taste buds just whet up an appetite for anything after that - like snoozing on the couch :p

This tomato soup will be using ready-shelled seafood from supermarkets and canned tomato paste. Reason why I don't advocate using fresh tomatoes is that canned tomato paste is sweeter and has the consistency in the paste compared to having to boil/ peel/ grind the fresh tomatoes. Also, I won't recommend using Campbell tomato soup coz it just taste weird. Besides, it's a fuss-free meal right?

The important thing about the seafood tomato soup is that you want to preserve the nice acidic taste of tomato with a hint of seafood in it. A lot of times we try to over-compensate the saltyness of the tomatoes with lotsa sugar but that will kill the balance of the tangyness of the soup with the seafood. The simplest of food is often the hardest so just keep in mind that it's not the tomato but what you put into the tomato soup that changes the favour.

Ingredients (serves 4):

a) 2 cans of Tomato paste (I used the brand 'HUNT' that can be found in NTUC)
b) 1 or 2 cans of peeled canned tomatoes (also from HUNT)
c) Seafood (fresh peeled prawns/ mussels/ fish chunks/ squid cut into rings which are all prepared and ready in styroform trays in the cold section of the supermarkets)
d) 2 -3 cups of Water
e) Coarse grinded Black pepper
f) 1 piece of Bay leaf
g) Thyme
h) Salt & Sugar to taste
i) Mint leaves for garnish

Additional variations: Tabasco sauce for spiciness. Sour cream for Cream tomato soup, Parmesan cheese to kick up the tangy factor

Preparation:

a) Open the 2 cans of Tomato paste and pour them into a soup pot.

b) Add 2 cups of water 1st and stir the paste till it dissolves. (if you like it watery, then add just 1 more cup of water but if you like it to be of a certain viscosity then 2 - 2.5 cups will be just right)

c) Once the soup mixture is stirred, add in the canned tomatoes. You can either leave the tomatoes whole as that or you can just break them apart to release the favors. I prefer the latter.

d) Stir constantly to a boil and add sugar/ salt to taste.

e) Add the bay leaf and grinded black pepper for that extra flavor to the soup

f) Add seafood. Careful not to let the seafood overcook coz the fish meat may disintegrate or the mussel meat will become too rubbery.

Note: Sample the soup once in a while to determine how strong you want the bay leaf flavor to be. Once you have decided that it's strong enough, remove the bay leaf completely.

g) Finally, add thyme for the sweet aroma.

Serve it hot and add a dash of chopped Mint leaves to complete the garnish.
Goes wonderfully with toasted bread :)

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The next time, i will share my recipe for Lotus roots with peanut soup but for now, I'm looking forward to Ms Clover's Creme Brulee... hehehe

Labels: Food, Recipes, Us

Posted by ShutterBug on Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 14:00 | Permalink