Walnut Soup

The walnuts simmered soft in the stock for twenty minutes before anything is blended, because hard nuts blend to grit.

Not vegetarian — contains chicken stock.

Ingredients

• 250 g walnut halves
• 1.2 litres chicken stock
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 potato, peeled and diced
• 150 ml double cream
• 2 tablespoons butter
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• salt and white pepper
• a few walnut halves, toasted and chopped, to serve

Method

1. THE WALNUTS ARE SIMMERED SOFT IN THE STOCK FOR TWENTY MINUTES BEFORE ANYTHING IS BLENDED, because hard nuts blend to grit. A domestic blender cannot reduce a raw walnut to anything finer than coarse sand, and sand in a cream soup is unmistakable and cannot be rescued -- sieving it only takes out the walnut, which is the soup. Twenty minutes at a simmer and the nuts swell and go genuinely soft, more like cooked beans than nuts, and then they purée completely smooth. Everything else here is ordinary; this is the step the soup stands on.
2. THE POTATO IS THE OTHER HALF OF THE TEXTURE. One, diced and cooked with the nuts. Walnut purée alone is rich but slightly grainy and separates as it stands; potato starch binds it into something that stays a smooth soup in the bowl. It contributes almost no flavour of its own, which is the point.
3. THE WALNUTS ARE NOT TOASTED BEFORE SIMMERING, AND SOME ARE TOASTED FOR THE TOP. Toasting the whole quantity makes the soup taste bitter -- walnut skins have tannin and heat concentrates it, and twenty minutes of simmering then draws it out into the broth. The raw nuts give a sweeter, milkier soup. A handful toasted and chopped on top gives the toasted note where it is wanted, in the nose, without putting it through the pot.
4. IT IS BLENDED AND THEN PASSED THROUGH A SIEVE ONCE. Even well-simmered walnuts leave a few flecks of skin. One pass with a ladle takes them out, and the difference between a soup that is nearly smooth and one that is smooth is worth two minutes.
5. THE CREAM GOES IN OFF THE HEAT AND THE CINNAMON IS BARELY THERE. A quarter teaspoon in a litre and a bit. It should not be identifiable as cinnamon; it should simply make the walnut taste more like itself. Half a teaspoon turns the soup into a pudding.
6. The butter melted in a pot and the onion and garlic cooked 8 minutes until soft and not coloured.
7. The walnuts added RAW -- not toasted -- with the diced potato and the stock.
8. Brought to a simmer and cooked 20 MINUTES.
9. TESTED: a walnut pressed against the side of the pot should crush easily, like a cooked bean. If it still snaps, another 10 minutes.
10. The cinnamon stirred in and the pot taken off the heat to cool for 5 minutes.
11. Blended, in batches, until completely smooth.
12. PASSED THROUGH A SIEVE once, pressed with a ladle, and the few flecks of skin discarded.
13. Returned to a clean pot and warmed gently. It should coat the back of a spoon; let down with a little stock if it is too thick.
14. THE POT TAKEN OFF THE HEAT and the cream stirred in.
15. Seasoned with salt and WHITE pepper and tasted.
16. A few walnut halves toasted on a dry pan 2 minutes and chopped.
17. Ladled into warm bowls with the TOASTED walnuts scattered on top.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes