Lorraine Soup

Seeing as it's the festive season and we have mountains of leftover chicken and stock in our house after the Christmas Lunch Feast, I found a fitting recipe to use it all up. This is a Scottish recipe for Lorraine Soup, and it comes from a farmhouse cooking book. The original recipe calls for all the ingredients to be mashed or ground and pushed through a sieve, but I simplified it a little and just blended it all.

Soupy Christmas cheer

Lorraine Soup

1 thick slice of white bread, crusts removed
1/4 pint (150ml) milk
2 cooked chicken breasts, cut up
4 oz (~110g) ground almonds
2 hard-boiled egg yolks
2 pints (1.1 litres) chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp lemon juice
2 egg yolks
1/4 pint (150ml) double cream
2 tablespoons diced, cooked chicken to garnish

1. Put the bread in a small saucepan with the milk, bring to the boil and then set aside to cool.

2. Mix the chicken, almonds and hard-boiled egg-yolks into a large pan with the bread and milk and chicken stock. Blend until smooth.

3. Bring the mixture to the boil, season with salt and pepper and then add the nutmeg and lemon juice. Simmer for 10 minutes and then turn down the heat.

4. Beat the egg yolks with the double cream and mix in 3 tablespoons  of the hot soup. Stir the mixture into the soup and heat gently for 2-3 minutes, stirring continually until it thickens.

Serve at once garnished with the diced chicken.