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Source: Australian Women's Weekly "Best Recipes from the Weekly" cookbook, p13. ISBN 1 949128 41 4; (c) ACP Publishing Pty Ltd 2000 (9th reprint).
It's winter here, so I've been looking into making soup. I decided to do this one, since I've made it before, and tried making it up in the slow cooker (which requires a small tweak or two to the recipe, but overall doesn't change things much). Mulligatawny is a soup which is basically the result of exasperated Indian cooks trying to deal with the requests of English Memsahibs for a proper English dinner, starting with a soup course, using the local materials - the name is basically a blend of the Tamil words for "pepper" and "water".
I tweaked the recipe slightly - I decided to poach the chicken thighs in some liquid chicken stock I had in the cupboard, and top up with water (I wound up with slightly more liquid than the recipe expects - 2L rather than 1.75L). Basically, this is one of those soup recipes which demands you start with the stock, and you can certainly skip that stage by just substituting pre-made soup stock, and already-cooked chicken. I did most of the work of preparing the recipe and getting everything cooking and simmering until the vegetables were tender on one day, then did the blending and pureeing of the vegetable, stock and lentil mix the next morning, before adding the reserved poached chicken and coconut milk (again, I overdid it here, mainly because the cans of coconut milk I have on hand are the standard size 440mL ones rather than the little 283mL ones).
Overall, it comes out pretty straightforwardly. I served it with crusty bread (Vienna loaf, chopped into slices and heated in the oven for about 20 minutes) and my partner seemed to enjoy it - he'll always sit down for soup and crusty bread as a main meal. The recipe says it serves six, although for more than about four, I'd be supplementing your soup, bread and such with some cold meat, cheese, and sandwich fixings (a regular Saturday or Sunday winter lunch when I was growing up).
Difficulty: About 2 out of 5.
Spoons/Fuss and Bother: 2 out of 5 - in this case, there's the whole business of the blending or sieving of the soup to consider - if, like me, you're sensitive to the noise of mechanical motors, you have about three to four minutes of intermittent racket to look forward to and save spoons to deal with; there's also the whole business of having to move the soup from one container to another in order to get the whole process done in batches (and if you're doing this with low arm or grip strength, it may be exhausting/impossible/incredibly difficult at the least). There's a certain amount of standing in the early stages, where you're cooking the onion and spices - maybe about 10 minutes all up.
Overall: 2.5 out of 5. This really doesn't strike me as a stand-out recipe, to be honest. Nice enough, but not really something I make all that often, mainly because the balance of "fuss & bother" vs "actual taste" isn't overwhelming.
Considerations: Not suitable for vegetarians or vegans; contains dairy (butter/ghee), gluten (flour), and whatever happens to be in the brand of either stock or stock cubes you use to make the recipe. Probably neither Kosher nor Halal, but check with an expert if you're not sure.
It's winter here, so I've been looking into making soup. I decided to do this one, since I've made it before, and tried making it up in the slow cooker (which requires a small tweak or two to the recipe, but overall doesn't change things much). Mulligatawny is a soup which is basically the result of exasperated Indian cooks trying to deal with the requests of English Memsahibs for a proper English dinner, starting with a soup course, using the local materials - the name is basically a blend of the Tamil words for "pepper" and "water".
I tweaked the recipe slightly - I decided to poach the chicken thighs in some liquid chicken stock I had in the cupboard, and top up with water (I wound up with slightly more liquid than the recipe expects - 2L rather than 1.75L). Basically, this is one of those soup recipes which demands you start with the stock, and you can certainly skip that stage by just substituting pre-made soup stock, and already-cooked chicken. I did most of the work of preparing the recipe and getting everything cooking and simmering until the vegetables were tender on one day, then did the blending and pureeing of the vegetable, stock and lentil mix the next morning, before adding the reserved poached chicken and coconut milk (again, I overdid it here, mainly because the cans of coconut milk I have on hand are the standard size 440mL ones rather than the little 283mL ones).
Overall, it comes out pretty straightforwardly. I served it with crusty bread (Vienna loaf, chopped into slices and heated in the oven for about 20 minutes) and my partner seemed to enjoy it - he'll always sit down for soup and crusty bread as a main meal. The recipe says it serves six, although for more than about four, I'd be supplementing your soup, bread and such with some cold meat, cheese, and sandwich fixings (a regular Saturday or Sunday winter lunch when I was growing up).
Difficulty: About 2 out of 5.
Spoons/Fuss and Bother: 2 out of 5 - in this case, there's the whole business of the blending or sieving of the soup to consider - if, like me, you're sensitive to the noise of mechanical motors, you have about three to four minutes of intermittent racket to look forward to and save spoons to deal with; there's also the whole business of having to move the soup from one container to another in order to get the whole process done in batches (and if you're doing this with low arm or grip strength, it may be exhausting/impossible/incredibly difficult at the least). There's a certain amount of standing in the early stages, where you're cooking the onion and spices - maybe about 10 minutes all up.
Overall: 2.5 out of 5. This really doesn't strike me as a stand-out recipe, to be honest. Nice enough, but not really something I make all that often, mainly because the balance of "fuss & bother" vs "actual taste" isn't overwhelming.
Considerations: Not suitable for vegetarians or vegans; contains dairy (butter/ghee), gluten (flour), and whatever happens to be in the brand of either stock or stock cubes you use to make the recipe. Probably neither Kosher nor Halal, but check with an expert if you're not sure.
