All Day Rainy Day Soup
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 10 minutes plus 2 hours waiting time
Cooking time: 4 hours approximately
- 1.8kg/2lbs. pork neck bones
- 2 onions, peeled and halved
- 2 carrots, cut into three or four pieces
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled
- 5 litres water
- 2 large red chillies
- 10g/0.3oz curry leaves, 2-3 branches reserved
- 500g/1.1lbs washed, roughly chopped vegetables (sweet potato, zucchini, I used cauliflower florets for the top)
- 1 small cauliflower, broken up into florets
- 3-4 tablespoons oil
- 1 cup barley
- salt, pepper and a little sugar to taste
Step 1 - Wash the pork bones well and allow them to steep in water for 2 hours (if you have time). Drain and place back in the pot with onions, carrots, garlic, curry leaves and water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 1.5 hours.
Step 2 - Add the additional vegetables into the pot and bring to a boil and then simmer for 45 minutes. Lay out the cauliflower florets on a baking tray, drizzle with oil and bake in a 200C/400F oven for 20-30 minutes until caramelised. Set aside.
Step 3 - Remove the stems from the curry leaves and discard. Also remove pork bones from the soup and place in a bowl and allow to cool until you can handle them. Remove the meat and soft white bone from the brown bones and place back into the pot along with the chillies. Season with salt-you'll need a couple of teaspoons at least as it is a big mix as well as pepper and a bit of sugar. Take an immersion blender (making sure there aren't any bones in the pot) and blend-it should start to look creamy. Add the barley to the pot and cook for 1 hour until the barley swells (remove the scum as it appears). Serve soup with cauliflower florets and extra curry leaves.