Lex Culinaria

German Peasant Soup

This soup is very much like one my mother used to make. My Grandmother also made a similar soup, and her mother too. It puts together several things that were absolutely essential in a Mennonite kitchen: good sausage, fresh dill and potatoes. My mum would have made this with a good quality Mennonite Farmer's sausage, which is not exactly the leanest kind of meat there is on the planet, but it's very flavourful and has a great coarse texture to it. As Cakes and have two missions at the moment: clean out the freezer of lamb and bison; and stop eating so much fatty food, I've used a lean (but very good) smoked bison sausage from a farm about a half hours drive from our house. The dill is from the local farmer's market as are the potatoes and onions. The chicken stock is from my cache in the freezer - I always save the carcasses from roast chickens (I sometimes buy extra cages from Sunworks Farms) and when I've got enough to justify a day or two on the stove, I roast the bones in the oven until they are beautiful and brown, and then chuck them in a pot with some onions, celery, carrot, garlic and parsley. When my stock is done, I remove the bones and what's left of the vegetables and reduce it down slowly, over low heat until it is quadruple strength. Then I freeze it in one cup portions.

Presuming you've got premade stock, this soup is pretty simple. My mum would also have added cream, or sour cream to it after it came off the heat, but that's not really in the spirit of low-fat. If you are so inclined, a dollop of low fat sour cream on the top of the bowl would be lovely. Sans the cream, this is a great smoky flavoured soup, the potatoes are cooked to the point that the just start disintegrating and are unbelievably soft. The caramelized onions add a touch of sweetness and the dill a fresh green tang.

German Peasant Soup

Serves 6-8

• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 1 medium yellow onion, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 400 grams lean smoked bison sausage, or farmer's sausage
• 3 largish (or 4 medium) red skinned potatoes, scrubbed
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh dill
• salt and pepper
• sour cream to garnish

In the bottom of a soup pot, gently caramelize the onions in butter over a medium low heat, stirring occasionally for about 20 or 25 minutes. Meanwhile, slice the sausage into coins about1 1/3 centimetre thick and quarter and slice the potatoes. Add the garlic to the soup pot and cook and stir for 3 minutes more. Raise the heat to medium high and add the sausage to the pan, cooking and stirring for 5 to 8 minutes, until the sausage begins to cook. Add the sliced potatoes and pour over chicken stock. Add enough water so that the the meat and vegetables are covered by a margin of about one inch. Add in one half of the chopped dill.

Place the lid on the pot and allow the soup to simmer over medium high heat for 45 minutes. Taste the broth and season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat and stir through the remaining dill. Serve with (or without) dollops of sour cream.

Xmas Baking#3: Basil and Cinnamon Dark Chocolate truffles

I love making chocolate truffles. They sound pretty hard and are really tasty, but are about the easiest thing to make. Especially if you're not super anal about making cute little round balls, but opt for what I think is a more modern (and easier) presentation - cubes. I flavoured these by infusing the cream with cinnamon and basil, but your options are really limitless - Earl Grey tea, orange, lemon, chai spice, vanilla bean, chili powder, ginger..... see what I mean about impressive?

Seriously, these will take you mere minutes to make (if you don't count the slow simmering of the cream).

• 250ml (8 oz) whipping cream
• 1 Tablespoon water
• 1/2 (sort of packed) cup bruised fresh basil leaves
• 2 x 2 inch pieces thick cinnamon bark (look in a South Asian grocer for this)
• 800 grams chopped dark chocolate
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Simmer the cream and water together with the basil and cinnamon covered, over medium-low heat for 20 minutes. Remove the cinnamon bark. Use an immersion blender to roughly chop the basil into the cream using 2 or 3 short bursts. Continue to simmer, uncovered, for 5 more minutes. Strain the basil bits out of the cream and use two large spoons, nested together, to squeeze all the liquid out of the basil leaves back into the cream. Discard the basil leaves.

Transfer the cream to the top of a double boiler and add the chocolate. Melt the chocolate and cream together, stirring occasionally, over boiling water. Meanwhile, line an large 4" by 8 " loaf pan with cling wrap.

When chocolate and cream are fully melted, pour the mixture into the lined pan, taking care that the plastic doesn't flop over into the hot chocolate. The best way to do this is to tape the edges of the plastic to the sides of the pan. The chocolate should cover the bottom of the pan to a depth of about 1 1/2 centimetres.

Refrigerate the pan for an hour.

Mix granulated sugar and powdered cinnamon together in a shallow bowl and set aside. Using a knife dipped in hot water and dried, cut the chocolate into small cubes about 1 to 1 1/2 centimetres. You'll have to reheat and re dry the knife every 2 or 3 cuts. Roll each cube in the cinnamon sugar.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Makes about 70 small cubes.