strawberry soup

www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23009-2155546,00.html

this recipe works best if you use the strawberry juice — even though it makes it a bit long-winded. It is also delicious without. It’s worth knowing how to make the juice anyway, as it can be used as a sauce for ice cream or other desserts. If you are using the juice, you will need to begin the day before you plan to eat the soup. You will also need some muslin, which you can buy from all good cook shops.

from The Times, by Heston Blumenthal

serves 6

for the strawberry juice:
500g strawberries, hulled, quartered and washed
1 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp water

for the soup:
500g strawberries, hulled, quartered and washed
1 tbsp unrefined caster sugar
200ml strawberry juice (as above — optional)
1 orange
1 lemon
125ml fruity red wine
Orange flower water, to taste
black pepper
drizzle of olive oil, to taste

to make the strawberry juice, place the prepared berries in a metal or heatproof bowl with the water and sprinkle with the icing sugar. Set this bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, cover with some clingfilm and gently simmer for 1 hours. Now pour the contents into the muslin, tie it up and hang over a bowl overnight to catch the juice.

for the soup, place the prepared berries in a bowl, then add the sugar and the strawberry juice, if using. Leave to macerate for about two hours.

meanwhile, zest the orange and lemon by paring off the skin in one piece. Take care to remove all the white pith, as this will make the liquid bitter. Juice the fruits and reserve 100ml.

place the wine in a pan and bring to the boil for a couple of minutes, until you can no longer smell the alcohol. Add the zest and reserved juice of the orange and lemon, then simmer until the liquid is reduced by half. Strain and set aside to cool.

in a liquidiser, combine the macerated strawberries with the wine reduction and blend. Now use your taste buds to finish the dish. Add about 1 tbsp orange flower water. You may also need to add a little more sugar and orange juice, depending on the ripeness and quality of the strawberries, and perhaps some more orange flower water, too. Give the soup a good blend and add black pepper and olive oil to taste.

you now have a few options: hang the soup again overnight, which will produce a wonderfully concentrated essence of strawberry; pass it through a fine-mesh sieve; or serve it as it is, adding a few extra strawberries for texture if you like.