"Ot-Ot" Soup

CarrOT and PluOT Soup



Certainly sounds odd doesn't it? Last year I tried making a carrot soup without a recipe and it was ugh, ugh, ugh! So this week I dug out my soup books and looked for something to guide a carrot or three into my bowl. I wasn't sure how this would taste but but I gave it a try anyway. The recipe was inspired by "New England Carrot, Apricot and Sesame Soup" in the New Covent Garden Book of Soups: New, Old and Odd Recipes, a book I have had in my collection for over ten years. The original recipe calls for the soup to be served chilled, but with the temperatures in San Francisco set to hit a record low, you've got to be kidding me? For me it works just as well warm. In fact. it works better, I have never been a fan of cold soup. "Ot-Ot" soup is mysterious and delicious, exotic and unusual, sharp and soothing, sweet and sour, easy to make. Does it sound like your thing..?

Ingredients (serves six)
8oz dried pluots*
1 onion, diced
1 bay leaf*
3 fat carrots, thinly sliced*
1 cinnamon stick
2 pints water
1 pint light chicken stock
6 tablespoons greek yoghurt
Handful of Sesame Seeds

Method
-Soak the pluots overnight in 2 pints of water
-Drain the pluots reserving 1 pint of the soaking water
-Add the pluots, onion, bay leaf, cinnamon, stock, 1 pt soaking water, carrots, salt and pepper to a lidded saucepan.
-Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 50 minutes until soft
-Toast sesame seeds until golden in a hot pan. Cool
-Remove the cinnamon stick from the soup and blend with a handblender
-Check seasoning
-Serve piping hot topped with a spoonful of greek yoghurt and toasted sesame seeds.

*Pluots are a cross between an apricot and a plum. You could use dried apricots instead. I bought mine from Hamada Farms at the San Francisco Farmers Market. $5 for 10oz
*I actually used something in my pantry that *looked* like a bay leaf but I am not sure that it actually was. It was a gift from a mad person I know, maybe she can put me straight. It was probably homegrown or foraged.
Carrots from Heirloom Organics $2



PS (Shhh.... don't tell anyone I just ate a bowl of this soup for breakfast, they'll all start thinking I am as odd as the recipe)

Archives
2006 | American Brunch "Ile Flottante"
2005 | Hot Chocolate - Hot Topic

Food | Soup | San Francisco | Recipe | Cooking

"Ot-Ot" Soup