Recipe 22: Turnip & Horseradish Soup with Crispy Beef

I think I'll give up the pretense of trying to do one recipe a week and logging it on here week-by-week. I have been cooking lots more new things than I would normally (and tasting so much good stuff too), but I'm not quite managing the New Year's Resolution... However, cook on I shall, and I wonder if 52 new things isn't an outrageous target to meet. Hmmm. I think i need to plan this one.

Anyway 'Recipe 22' [more recipes yet to write up] was done just this evening (14th October) and comes from Tom Kerridge's Proper Pub Food (2013. Bath: Absolute Press). Although seemingly just a soup, there are two key soupy tings learnt in this recipe, giving just one of the reasons I'll be making this again. The main reason is that it's very tasty!

vegetable oil	75ml white wine vinegar
1 onion, finely chopped	50g caster sugar250g beef bavette steak, thinly sliced
1 litre of chicken stock	50g cornflour
700g turnips	2 green chillies (I used red for a little extra punch!)
200g double cream (or single if feeling a little healthier…)	Paprika or cayenne pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons of freshly grated horseradish (or 3 heaped tablespoons of creamed horseradish if freshly ground unavailable)	Salt and pepper, to taste

 Nb: In the pic, I missed out the cornflour, oil, cream and white wine vinegar

1. Heat some oil in a large pan over a low heat. Add the onions and a pinch of salt, cover and sweat for 10-15 minutes until softened but not coloured.

2. Add chicken stock and turnip (I supplemented my turnip with swede...) and bring to boil.Simmer uncovered for 10-15 minutes, or until the turnip is tender.

3. Add the cream and return the soup to the boil, then stir in the horseradish. Blitz the mix until smooth.

3. Put the white wine vinegar into a pan over a high heat and add the sugar. Stir until the sugar's dissolved. Now pout this into the soup mix - it'll give a lovely, sweet acidity to the soup. Really.

4. Coat the beef strips in cornflour, shaking loose any extra, and fry for 6-10 minutes until suitably crispy. The dusting of cornflour makes a lovely crispy shell which is particularly good. Once done, drain on kitchen towel and sprinkle with paprika/Cayenne pepper and chopped chilli.

5. Ladle the soup into bowls and add the crispy, chilli beef. Super tasty.

Today's learning: 

1. The white wine vinegar and sugar trick adds an amazing depth of flavour to root vegetable soup. Before I'd just relied on chilli, salt and pepper, but this gives a delightful, zingy flavour.

2. Coating the beef in cornflour (rather than plain flour) helps gives a crunchy edge with extra crunchy bits, making the beef a most excellent garnish. I'll be doing this again!

3. 'beef bavette' is more commonly known as 'Butcher's Cut', so called because it's a very tasty bit, there's not much of it on the cow and as a result, the cheeky butchers often kept it for themselves. A perk of the trade, shall we say?