Sunday, September 09, 2007

Brown Windsor Soup from Jamie Oliver

Have you ever come across a less appealing name for a dish - Brown Windsor Soup? A marketing man's nightmare. But if you can get past the name, it is really good. Very winter warmer-ish. I can see us eating this from mugs outside at Halloween or Bonfire Night.

It was a Jamie Oliver recipe from Sainsbury's freebie magazine, as is the photo - love those cups. But I can't find it anywhere on line - probably due to it's unappealing moniker. But it is tasty, although I have to warn you, it features Marmite, a love it or hate it ingredient. Hubby loathes the stuff, but failed to detect it in the soup - it just gives a background savoury hit. Here's the recipe:

Melt a big knob of butter and a little olive oil in a big saucepan and brown about 500g diced stewing beef. Add a tablespoon of Marmite and a splash of Worcestershire sauce. A fair amount of liquid will be released, but don't panic, just keep stirring until it has evaporated. Throw in a couple of sprigs of rosemary, a bay leaf, 1 red onion (peeled and chopped) 2 carrots (peeled and chopped) and 3 sticks of celery (trimmed and chopped). Sweat gently with a lid on until the veggies are softened.
Stir in a tablespoon of flour and then pour in 2 litres of beef stock (actually I used a bit less, but topped up the water level as I cooked the soup). Season and bring to the simmer. Add 150g of pearl barley and cook gently for about an hour. Discard rosemary and bay leaf. You can whizz the soup for a couple of seconds with a hand blender to thicken it a bit, but we liked ours left chunky.

Jamie Oliver is on the receiving end of a lot of stick this week as British schoolchildren are eating fewer of the 'healthy' school meals which are now on offer thanks to his intervention. We manage school meals twice a week, but this Jamie recipe will be appearing in the food flask of a lunchbox near us very soon.

19 comments:

Marmite Breath said...

As you may be able to tell from my nickname, this recipe is going to be a huge hit with me. I'll try it this week, since autumn seems to be on its way here, regardless of the fact that I am not quite ready for it!

Anonymous said...

I get so cross with everyone blaming JO for kids not eating school dinners - when did healthy, locally produced food became such a taboo?! Soup looks great and I'm loving the new JO programme - lets hope its more authentic than others that shan't be mentioned!!

velcro said...

Will have to try this, both MrV and the FB are great fans of marmite.
Why are kids eating less healthy school meals because of JO? Has he driven them to chips?

ellen said...

Yum, thanks for the recipe. I live in the states but have had marmite thanks to my son who was in NZ. I,m going to have to try this!

Anonymous said...

Yummo. NZ/Aussie Marmite is light years different to British Marmite (still love it/hate it) and I'm a vegemite fan anyway, but still. Yummo.

I like J.O. At least the wee chappie gives it a go.

Joanna said...

I've never had marmite, believe it or not. That soup looks perfect for fall and yummy.

Commonplace iris said...

My husband thinks marmite on toast is revolting, but is usually not at all put off by me using it for stock in soup/stews. (Yeast extract seems to be an ingredient in a lot of stock cubes anyway I've noticed.)
That soup sounds good, perfect for when the autumn decides to arrive for real. My almost 14 month old daughter is a big fan of barley at the moment (and bites of my toast and marmite) so I think this might be popular in our house.

Victoria May Plum said...

Sounds absolutely yummy.
I agree, it sounds perfect for bonfire night.
I'd better test it out before then - I don't want to poison anyone on the night!

Victoria x

Anonymous said...

Oh my husband LOVES marmite. I might have to make this for him. Thanks for the recipe!

grumpy said...

In my experience, more people have been put off "real food" by adding pearl barley than I could possibly count.

If the school authorities introduced this recipe to 2007 children, they could close their canteens immediately.

Can't stand JO. I prefer foreigners who at least try to speak the English language!

Anonymous said...

It does look ever so yummy! The name is not all that enticing but I agree that it would make for a perfect Halloween night soup.

Unknown said...

That soup looks perfectly delish so I'll be trying some, but being an aussie girl it will be vegemite in mine. (I actually prefer promite but am out voted by the rest of the family)

I can't watch JO but really only because he is just like (and I mean JUST like!) an ex boyfriend I would much rather forget!!!

Anonymous said...

brown soup... sounds like the sort of things we usesd to make as children with mud, and leaves, and sticks.... and then pretend to feed to our dolls!!

I'm sure that your ones tastes much better :)

Anonymous said...

It looks great, really hearty and warming. We are all Marmite lovers so it'll be going in the recipe book!

The Honourable Billy Blunt said...

Looks yummy,I got to give this one a try....
Hope all is going well with your son,pop over to my blog to pick up an award for making me smile,
Kat x

dottycookie said...

Sounds scrumptious. I think Jamie's a complete star - one of the few celebrity chefs who seems like a genuinely caring person. His parents' pub is just a few villages over from us; I've not been in a couple of years but the food used to be fab - once you got past the huge cardboard effigy of Jamie that stood in the doorway!

Anonymous said...

Oh lovely, I am just get ready for some homemade winter soups - I will give it a try. We all love taking soups for our packed lunches in the winter.
Poor Jamie - if only parents would stop pampering their kids and make them all stay for school dinners. If they are hungry they will eat.

Ragged Roses said...

I love marmite, but, unfortunately don't eat meat so `I'll have to give the soup a miss, Pity cos it looks delicious
Kim x
Windsor soup always reminds me of that Fawlty Towers episode - Basil the RAt

Anonymous said...

I know someone will be offended about this but I do wish that Jamie would leave recipes alone. This is a classic and, as such, a few tweaks are acceptable but adding something that will radically alter the taste is unacceptable. Needless to say, Marmite should not be put anywhere near brown Windsor soup, even if you really love Marmite, which I do.