I thought of this dish when struggling to think of the soup course for a competition. The theme was best of British, but I didn’t have any soup recipes that I liked. I sat down and thought about the most British dishes we had to offer, and that is when I thought of de-constructing the 'English Breakfast and making into an stunning soup course.
It did take a lot of work to get the concept of the dish right, with a balance of flavours that worked together, as well as making the dish look as amazing as the flavours. And for such an amazing dish it is so simple to make.
Ingredients:
- 800g Ripe plum tomatoes
- 200g Celery
- 100g Button mushrooms
- 100g Diced pancetta
- 70g Cherry tomatoes
- 1 Loaf crusty bread
- Parsley
- 3 Sprigs of thyme
- 3 Cloves of garlic
- 100g Butter
Tomato Soup
The Soup or Consommé part of the dish is actually so simple to make. The original way to make a clear soup is by using the traditional French way of whisking in egg whites to draw out the impurities leaving a clear soup, but I find this is to complicated and variable. A lot of things can go wrong so using my method is so much easier and user friendly.
Simply put the plum tomatoes in a robot coupé or a blender along with the celery and a drop of salt and a half dozen of peppercorns. Adding the salt at this point will help draw the moisture from the tomatoes. Place the mixture in some Muslin cloth or any other fine cloth and hang it in the fridge for at least 24 hours, and what you should get at the end of it is a clear stock of concentrated tomato juice which will be the basis of the soup.
The Soup Ingredients
For the ingredients of the soup, fry off the pancetta lardons in a pan in a drop of oil until they are evenly golden brown. Pick out the pieces and place on some absorbent paper, leaving all the pancetta flavoured oil in the pan which will be used to fry the mushrooms. Half the mushrooms and cook for about 5 minutes and then add a nob of butter to finish and drain them off as well .
The Granish
For the 'sugar' element is made up from sun dried tomatoes and croutons. To make the sun dried tomatoes, simply cut them in half and place them on a tray with some olive oil and place them in an oven for about and hour at 100 Celsius. Doing this will withdraw the moisture from the tomatoes leaving a sweet tomato. You can buy sun dried tomatoes which are still good quality.
To make the croutons, pick out the flesh of the crusty bread, they don’t have to be perfect and the same size. Heat up butter in a pan until foaming on a medium-high heat and add the thyme sprigs and garlic cloves. Leave these a few seconds before adding the bread and toast these until they are golden brown, and once they are done drain them on some absorbent paper.
All that is left to do is assemble the cup of tea. Pour the tomato consommé in a jug, place some chopped parsley at the bottom of a tea cup and cover with a few of the lardons and button mushrooms, and fill up up a small ramekin bowl with the croutons and tomatoes to play the roll of the sugar which completes the perfect cup of tea.
This dish is a real favourite of mine. Building a cup of tea but with the ingredients of an english breakfastgives a quirky take on an English classic with a dramatic twist, which makes this dish really entertaining, but yet a wonderfully tasty and satisfying way to start any meal and break the ice. If you decide to make this dish then you will be in for a real treat!
