HIGGS BOSON SOUP

“Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!” - Lewis Carroll
 

Well I hope you celebrated the discovery of the Higgs Boson, the so-called “God Particle”. The name boson is derived from the surname of the Indian physicist, Satyendra Nath Bose, a contemporary of the German physicist Albert Einstein. This class of elementary particles includes the photons and gluons, as well as the Higgs boson. The concept can be extended to other subatomic particles obeying Bose-Einstein statistics, such as mesons (e.g., pions and kaons), and nuclei of even mass number (e.g., helium-4). The existence of the Higgs boson and the associated Higgs field explain why the other elementary particles have mass in the standard model of nuclear physics.

Although proof of its existence has caused particle physicists the world over to pee in their pants with joy, on this cold wintry evening in Melbourne, I am more overjoyed by a delicious bowl of steaming hot, savoury and appetising hot soup!

Cauliflower and Blue Cheese Soup
Ingredients
1 medium, cauliflower (≈500 g)
1 large parsnip, peeled, chopped
50 g blue cheese, crumbled into small pieces
2 bay leaves
50 g butter
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
4 tender sticks celery (the white parts from the heart), chopped
1 large leek, trimmed, washed and chopped
100 g potato, peeled and diced
2 tablespoons double cream or sour cream
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Fresh chopped chives and extra cream to garnish

Method

• The stock for this soup made with all the cauliflower trimmings and the parsnip. Trim the cauliflower into small florets and then take the stalk, including the green stems and leaves, and place these trimmings in a medium-sized saucepan.
• Add the chopped parsnip, the dry mustard, the bay leaves, some salt and 2 litres of water.
• Bring it to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes with a lid.
• Meanwhile, take another large saucepan with a well-fitting lid, melt the butter in it over a gentle heat, then add the onion, celery, leek, cauliflower florets and potato, cover and let the vegetables gently sweat for 15 minutes.
• Keep the heat very low, then, when the stock is ready, strain it into the pan to join the sweated vegetables, but throwing out the stock vegetables.
• Bring it all back up to simmering point and simmer very gently for 30 minutes, this time without a lid until the vegetables are completely tender.
• Place the contents of the saucepan in a food processor or liquidiser and process until the soup is smooth and creamy.
• Return it to the saucepan, stir in the cream and cheese and keep stirring until the cheese has melted and the soup is hot but not boiling.
• Check the seasoning, adding salt and pepper to taste if required, then serve in hot bowls, garnished with a little more cream or a dob of butter and the chives.

This post is part of the Food Friday meme,

and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.