Peta, of the blog Peta Eats, was our lovely hostess for the Daring Cook‟s September 2011 challenge, “Stock to Soup to Consommé”. We were taught the meaning between the three dishes, how to make a crystal clear Consommé if we so chose to do so, and encouraged to share our own delicious soup recipes!
I have made soups and broths (mainly for risottos) before, but they were simple, easy and quick to make. I'm not really fond of soups as a main dish - I don't know why - so I don't cook them very often. The only one I loved to eat was "Buchstabensuppe" (letter noodle soup) made bey my grandaunt who died three years ago. It was a simple dish, with a broth made from sausages (wiener) and small noodles shaped in letters. Her soup was the best noodle soup I can remember - it reminds me so much of my childhood. So I wanted to taste something similar again, and by accident I found a suitable recipe by one of my favourite German chefs, Kolja Kleeberg. It's a recipe that reminds him of his childhood and a typical/traditional dish of Berlin, our beautiful capital. This soup is made with noodles, a broth of veal, cooked veal meat, parsley and little balls made out of beef marrow, bread and eggs (I learned they are called quenelles). As accompaniment I chose a very German bread/pastry too - lye rolls.
Unfortunately my first attempt to make quenelles went completely wrong and they dissolved themselves instead of getting firm. That ist the reason the soup is not as clear as supposed to be. The bread rolls were easy to make, I skipped topping them with coarse salt because I don't like that either.