Scotch Broth

Everyone’s getting so excited about Christmas but we haven’t got any of our decorations up yet! We don’t normally put our tree up until about the eighteenth, so in the meantime I think there’s time for a quick non-Christmas post. We’re big on soups in our house and if there isn’t any soup, then there’s a strong chance that Daddy won’t actually eat lunch, which is really annoying because he ends up wandering the house and invariably getting into a stink with one of us. With the days getting even shorter and even colder, it’s important that his immune system is tip-top so I often find myself slipping as much nourishment as possible into soups to trick him.
Scotch Broth is obviously one of the reigning kings of ill-person food; I’ve always enjoyed reading that weird little section in the back of my Mrs Beeton, all ‘invalid eggs’ and ‘fortifying broths’. But I shit you not; I forced the fading Mum-y to down a little bowl of this nectar yesterday as she’s been wheezing about and it really made her feel better. All hail the power of soup! Anyway, we had a beef bone from a roast kicking about and it broke my heart to think of throwing it away, so that’s how this came about. It looks a bit murky so I’d advocate chucking a bit of savoy cabbage in near the end just to sex it up a bit. Oh yes.

Ingredients:

For the stock:

1 large beef bone (from a roast)

1 large onion, skin on

1 large carrot, peeled

1 stick celery

2 beef stock cubes

1 bay leaf and a few peppercorns.

For the soup:

50g broth mix

1 knob butter

1 onion

1 stick celery

2 medium carrots

A chunk of swede (a good handful)

2 medium potatoes

Beef stock (between 1-2 pints)

A small chunk of savoy cabbage, shredded finely

About 2 handfuls (up to 150g) chopped cooked beef chunks leftover from a roast

Parsley, to serve.

Method:

For the stock, follow the usual drill: bung the beef bone and rough chunks of onion, carrot and celery into a big stock pot, cover with water and bring to the boil before adding the stock cubes, bay leaf and peppercorn. Season well and allow to simmer slowly for as long as you think you need. I boiled mine for 4 hours and would have liked to have gone on further but at the end of the day, stock cubes will help with that. This gave me pints of stock so it’d be useful to freeze some; I used the rest of mine as the base for a cottage pie gravy.

1)      For the actual soup, the first thing you’ve got to do is make sure your pre-soak your broth mix overnight if the instructions say so. A necessary evil but if you’re on the ball this won’t be a disaster. Once soaked, give it a rough boil until the hard peas are almost soft, drain and set aside covered with cling film.

2)      In a large pan melt the butter and fry off soup-sized chopped chunks of the onion, celery, carrots and swede for a few minutes.

3)      Tip in the diced potato followed by the part-cooked broth mix. Pour over a good quantity of your beef stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 20-30 minutes.

4)      When your vegetables about fifteen minutes away from being done, add in the finely shredded savoy cabbage and the beef chunks. You don’t want either to overcook and disappear.

5)      Check for seasoning –lots of black pepper please- and then decant into bowls and dredge with parsley.

Eat with giant chunks of bread and feel fit and well and ready to attack the prospect of Christmas shopping.