It’s Soup, Glorious Soup Month over at Veggie Venture, and while I wouldn’t dream of cooking up a piping hot pot of soup in this Sydney weather, there’s a whole range of cold soups that shouldn’t be ignored.. vicchysoise, gazpacho, and their ilk.

At it’s most basic form, soy beans are fantastic eaten straight from their freshly steamed pods, sprinkled with nothing more complicated than a few flakes of sea salt. You can also make a wonderful chilled soup out of the tender beans. Nevermind the shade of green that reminds me of the house I grew up in, in the 70’s; this soup is light, clean-tasting and was a great prelude to yesterday’s main dish of Dory Namban-Zuke, which also contained a handful of the green beans as a garnish.

The recipe comes from Shunju : New Japanese Cuisine by Takashi Sugimoto and Marcia Iwatate.

Chilled Green Soybean Soup :
(Edamame no surinagashi)

Serves 4

3 1/3 tablespoons mirin
4 cups water
2 tablespoons natural sea salt
3 cups edamame (podded green soybeans)
3/4 cup katsuo dashi (bonito stock)
1 teaspoon sugar
3 1/3 tablespoons milk
pinch natural sea salt
4 sprigs chervil

Put mirin in a saucepan and boil off the alcochol content to leave about 2 tablespoons. Cool and reserve.

Bring the water and sea salt to a boil in a large pot of water over high heat and boil soybeans for 5 minutes. Drain and plunge into a bowl of iced water. When completely cooled, drain and pat dry.

Peel the thin skin off the beans. Set 4 beans aside to garnish, then puree the remainder in a blender with the stock. Add mirin, sugar, and milk and continue to blend. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve and mash any remaining bits. Taste and add salt if necessary. Chill.

Pour chilled soup into cups and float one soybean and a sprig of chervil in each.

I’m pretty sure I’ll never forget how to :

1 Chop 1.2kg of parsley for Cafe de Paris butter
2 Finely grate 2kg of parmesan for biscuits
3 Cut up 50kg of butter for mash
4 Grate 9 cups of carrots for a cake
5 Thinly slice 5kg of brown onions for a souffle mix

Thankfully, this zucchini cake only took 1.8kg of zucchini, as I made 6 loaves. Redolent with vanilla and flecked with vibrant green strands like semi-precious stones, this cake is moist and utterly delicious even several days later. When you’re done making zucchini stirfries, patties or stuffing zucchini flowers, I urge you to try this easy recipe. It proudly gives carrot cake a run for it’s money.

Stephanie Alexander’s Zucchini Cake :

220g unsalted butter, melted
4 eggs
1 cup castor sugar
few drops of pure vanilla
2 cups of plain flour
pinch of salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
300g zucchini, roughly grated
2/3 cup walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 220’C. Brush base and sides of a 1.5 litre loaf tin with a little of the melted butter and line base with baking paper.

In a food processor, blend eggs, sugar, vanilla and remaining butter. Sift flour, salt and baking powder together, then add to butter mixture and blend briefly until smooth. Tip into a bowl and fold in zucchini and walnuts.

Pour into prepared tin and bake for 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 180’C and bake for a further 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and allow to cool to room temperature before cutting.

Valentine Schmalentine, I had been muttering all day. Finally home after a 16-hour day and he’s there with a glorious box of chocolates in hand. Not that we usually celebrate, but chocolate is always a welcomed sight for tired eyes. I’ll also never forget the day I came home and found that he had made a pot of vegetarian chilli. It had taken him hours and too many tears were shed over the onions, but it was truly delicious. The thought of it still warms my heart.

Some might say, the ideal sweet seduction dish is one that’s quick to make. With virtually all it’s components completed beforehand, there will be plenty of time on your hands for more important things. 😉 Afterall, who wants to be slaving over a hot stove when you could be sipping champagne?

For B this week, I made a Coconut Jelly with Black Pearls and Spiced Roasted Pineapple. The black pearls are tapioca pearls, commonly seen in bubble tea. They take only 5 minutes or so to cook, when boiled in a light sugar syrup. They are slightly chewy and provide both a texture and colour contrast to the silky smooth jelly and toothsome roasted pineapple.

Pineapple is one of B’s favourite fruits (not so much mine, as I’m allergic to the raw form). Bethonga Gold pineapples are what you should look out for, in Sydney. They’re slightly more expensive, but have an intense flavour and heady aroma (especially when roasted), and a rich yellow hue to the flesh that make other pineapples look pale and insipid in comparison.

Oh, and how can I forget the many cups of tea he has made for me when I come home tired and jaded. Now that’s my idea of seduction!

Spiced Roasted Pineapple :

1 small pineapple
2 cinnamon sticks
2 star anise
1 piece dried citrus peel
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
cloves

300g sugar
lime juice

Trim and remove skin and eyes from pineapple. Cut into half lengthways and divide each half into 3 or 4 wedges. Trim off the hardest part of the core from each wedge. Press a clove into each wedge. Place in a lightly buttered baking tray with the spices.

In a pot, heat the sugar until it turns a golden caramel colour. Pour this over the pineapple and spices. Roast in the oven at 175’C, basting frequently, until pineapple is cooked. Cool the cooked pineapple to room temperature. Adjust the sauce with some lime juice if it’s too sweet.