My Dad’s Home-Made Soup

Memories are something that you can hold dear forever or place somewhere quiet and go visit now and again. When I made this soup recently the memory of my dad with his glasses on his head asking, 'Has anyone seen my bloody glasses?' just came flooding back – I may as well have been standing in front of the stove years ago. This recipe is dear to me, and I hope you try it and enjoy it. You can ask your local butcher for a piece of beef shin: it is part of the foreleg that will have plenty of flavour but needs long slow cooking.

Ingredients

300g piece of beef shin

Sea salt and black pepper to season

1 onion

2 parsnips

3 carrots

3 sticks of celery

A knob of butter

150–200g dried soup mix*

Method

• Season the beef, peel and dice the onion, peel and slice the parsnips and carrots, and chop the celery.

• In a large saucepan, sear the shin in the butter. Add in the onion and cover with a lid to soften the onion for about 5 minutes. Add the parsnips, carrots and celery and cook for a further 5 minutes to soften them.

• Add in 1½ litres of water and bring to the boil, reduce to a steady simmer, add the dried soup mix and season. Simmer for at least 40 minutes, but the soup is at its best if allowed to simmer gently for up to two hours.

• * Dried soup mix can be bought in all supermarkets. It is a mix of pearl barley, dried split peas, red lentils, etc. – great for beefing up soups to make them more filling.