Recipe: Mulligatawny Soup

I call this one "The Forbidden Soup". Canadian government officials consider it so dangerous that it is illegal to import it from Britain.

I bet you are wondering what could be so dangerous about a soup that Canada would ban it. Well the dangerous ingredient is chicken stock. All meat products from the UK are banned in Canada because the Canadian Fool Inspection Agency (CFIA) is afraid that Canadian Mad Cow Disease might become contaminated by British Mad Cow Disease.

Ok, I'll dismount from my soapbox now and talk about food instead. Mulligatawny is a traditional British curry soup. If you like curry and you haven't tried Mulligatawny before, now is the time to try it out. It is very easy to make and quite delicious.

Ingredients

• 1 large onion
• 1 large apple
• 1 large tomato
• 1 litre Knorr chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon chutney
• 1/2 cup cooked lentils
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 tablespoon McDougall's Flour
• Salt, pepper

Preparation

• Chop the onion, apple and tomato and fry until the onion is golden.
• Stir in the flour, chutney and curry powder
• Add the stock gradually, stirring to make a smooth paste
• Add the lentils and cook over a low heat for at least an hour
• Season with salt and pepper to taste

John's Notes
I curried favour with the boss of the house with this one [who threw that shoe?]. I read several recipes before deciding which ingredients to use for my Mulligatawny. My trusty Grandmother's recipe book from the 1950s suggested using coconut but left out the lentils.

I didn't have any coconut in my kitchen cabinet anyway, but I recall eating Mulligatawny for the first time in a restaurant in England many years ago. My recollection is that it definitely had lentils in it.

The flavour of the soup will be influenced by your choice of chutney. I recommend one of the fine selection of Patak Indian pickles or Shaw's chutneys available at Blighty's Tuck Store (what a surprise).

If you want to adjust the ingredients slightly, go ahead, be creative. For example, add a little finely chopped chicken to the soup. And don't forget to wear rubber gloves and a biological protection suit if you use imported Knorr chicken stock cubes [get off that soapbox John!!] ...

PS: Can you spot the English style soup spoon in the picture? It's hard to find spoons like these in Canada.

How to Make Steak & Kidney Pudding

I have a dream. I have a dream that, one day, I will find a good source of Steak & Kidney Puddings in Canada.

Until that day arrives I will just have to make my own. And that is just what I did today. It's quite a challenge to sit at the keyboard writing this post with a huge steak pud inside me.

Home-made puddings tend to be heavy. Heavier than the type of pudding you buy at a "chippie" in the north of England.

So, if you want one of those "come hungry" type of meals then have I got a recipe for you.

Ingredients

• 1 pack Atora Light Vegetable Suet
• 1/2 Kg McDougall's Self-Raising Flour
• 1/2 Kg boneless stewing steak
• Small amount of chopped kidney
• 1 Oxo cube
• Salt, pepper

Preparation

• Rub the flour and suet together until the texture is smooth
• Add 1 cup of water and mix thoroughly
• Roll the dough on a floured board to make circles about 15cm in diameter
• Press some aluminum foil into a small dessert bowl with a broad overlapping fringe
• Press the rolled dough into the bowl on top of the foil
• Brown the steak in a little oil in a frying pan then throw in a pinch of flour, a crumbled Oxo cube and a couple of tablespoons of water. Stir to make a gravy
• Put the meat and gravy inside the dough and wrap the dough tightly around the meat.
• Wrap the foil tightly around the dough and remove from the dessert bowl
  
• Place the pudding into a large pan of gently boiling water and simmer for 2 hours. Keep the pudding half-immersed in the water and top up with water from a kettle as necessary
  
• Serve with more gravy and Batchelor's mushy peas

John's Notes
Instead of aluminum foil you could use the more traditional method of wrapping the pudding in cloth to make a "rag pudding".

I tried in vain to find a "pudding bowl" in my local stores. Pudding bowls are deep with steeply sloping sides and make an excellent mould for a pudding. If you have a pudding bowl you can line the walls with dough, add the meat then make a flat dough lid for the pudding. Seal the top of the bowl with foil and put the bowl into the boiling water to cook.

If you are not a fan of kidney you can substitute onion or mushrooms - or even just make a plain old steak pudding.