Mint Pea Soup

reference: based on http://www.gourmettraveller.com.au/recipes/recipe-search/fast/2014/9/pea-soup-with-mint-and-creme-fraiche/.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2JpKT1bFcQ

​(changed a little bit ingredient for suiting with taste).

INGREDIENT:

200g frozen pea, defrosted/

10g butter.

1 egg.

50g onion, finely chopped, small dice.

1 garlic clove, finely chopped.

300 ml chicken stock.

100g spinach, trimmed.

1/2 cup mint, plus extra to garnish.

30g natural table cream 18%.

1/2 juice of one lemon.

1 country bread, chopped large dice, keep 2 large pieces.

METHOD:

​- Heat oil and butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.

- Add onion and garlic and sauté until tender (3-4 minutes). Until it turns into yellow colour. From now you can feel mix's aroma.

- Add cream and stir until they stick together. Then is chicken stock, season to taste with salt, black pepper and lemon juice, bring to the boil and cook for 5 minutes for flavours to develop.

- Next, add peas, mints, spinach and simmer until just tender (3-4 minutes). Chill the mix down.

Cooking side dish with medium heat, put 5g butter with chopped large dice of country bread into a pan. Turn pieces of bread to make sure that it's crispy both two-side.

- Using 2 large pieces of country bread to make sandwich by the way to plunge them into beaten egg. Then, sauce in pan with butter.

- Add a little bit parmesan cheese and spinach. When it's done, cut into 3 small pieces.

- Back to mint pea soup, blend them with a hand-held blender until smooth, check seasoning and serve cold.

Bell & Pea's Story.

Feb 19, 2018.​

I would say that Mint Peas Soup is my very first time in cooking. In fact, peas are not a popular ingredient and easy to add to Vietnamese recipes. I used to work in my mom's restaurant, I have seldom seen our chef using peas in cooking except fried rice. Moreover, I never have a thought that I will create my own food with the main ingredient coming from peas. One reason is whenever I try any kind of ingredients, their methods will appear in my mind and I know exactly how it looks, how it tastes. For example, potatoes, I have capacity of cooking a huge variety of dishes such as potato latkes, frech fried, potatoes salads and gratin dauphinoise potatoes. However, being mentioned to peas, I have no ideas. This time might be my challenge and I am strongly willing to discover.

Perhaps, the fate naturally drive me to peas because I am matcha-holic. I have always been fascinated by green. Looking at avocado, grean bean, spinach, kale, celery, broccoli or bok choy, I have had too many opportunity to change them many different ways. One day, I truly need to renew myself due to fact that I found boring when keeping the same ingredients for a long time and cook them day by day, time through time. As I remember, maybe 2-3 weeks ago, I followed one very fantastic instagram account with hashtag #soupaddiction. I could not leave my eyes from Mint Pea soup which had a brilliant green, harmonious colour, and eye-catching decoration. It did badlly to me, it was too attractive me to starting to cook as soon as posible.

To be honest, I haven't tried eating thick soup from peas before. Therefore, to say that I fail or get success is not true. I watched a lots of channels which displayed the several ways to cook peas soup. Indeed, each channel will guide the different ways, the thing I was looking for is not the exact direction, methods. The thing I need is basing on main ingredients including mint, spinach and pea that I can create by my own without following the same what I watched. For example, to make soup more thicky, sweety, greasy, for sure that they will cook with a huge of cream and about 7 minutes in medium heat. Talking about myself, I like my soup have to be thick but not too sweet, I only used a little cream but It's not enough for my soup being thicker. Therefore, I decided to use corn starch instead. At that moment, I seemed like a crazy person when I screamed loudly because I was much proud of myself. I believe that I dont need to use the same ingredients if we don't have, I will try to replace by the new one. Sometimes, somethings can be happened marvelously.

In my recipe, I let chopped country breads and peas soup have been interwined together very well, which It will not easily cloy someone's appetite. I dont like eating merely soup, it means I will always find out side dishes suitably to go with. It helps me a lots in enhancing my knowledge of the combination between food and food.

Through this soup, it's not too perfect, I think it's quite fine. Because of the first time attempt, I still hesitate to adapt. My most challenge is cream sauce. All of Asian people like me will meet hardly when they eat this soup because our soup never add cream, butter, milk or even sugar( rarely add sugar if it's possible, just very small amount). We get used to eating the savoury soup, not the sweet one I mean. My soup, I love its vibrant colour, creamy, greasy, smooth and fresh of mint. When I tasted it for a first attempt, I did not like it much. However, at my third of table spoons, I got addicted to this soup. Unbelievably, I ate all of them before I also had a thought that I would keep them all for my housemate. I could not help forgetting, a little bit its salty on my tongue, I felt how healthy it was, very low calories, and soft.

​ I took a lots of picture and then I sent them to my friends. They were angry because I ate all. They said I must redeem my mistakes by the way cooking this soup again for tomorrow. Surely, I will add zest of lemon to make difference. Why zest of lemon? Take it easy because keeping the same way to cook is not my style excepting if it requires from people. ​

I hope you guys can try and cook the delicious soup like me. Believing in me, It won't make you feel disappointed.

Lim Bell

​(Le Thi My Linh).