Pub/hotel soup

I worked in a pub and it was how we used up left over mash and veg so there was no exact recipe but the following would be typical:

In a large pot add:

Left over spuds/mash
Left over veg (typically carrots, I think I discovered green veg wasn't good)
A raw onion
A raw leek
Chicken Boulion
Enough water to cover well

Cook the bejaysus out of it, blend - add water if needed and adjust seasoning to taste (using more boullion)

Mystery Egg wrote: »

No butter/cream?

There would've been some butter and milk in the mash (it was always mash) but I don't know if it was enough to make a difference.

Edit: We'd put a dob of whipped cream into the bottom of the bowl and ladle the soup on top. You get the nice marbling and the soup keeps for longer.

Jaysus, I'd have never ever thought of putting mash into soup!

Nicest veg soup I've made involves onion, celery, cauliflower, carrot and broccoli all sweated in butter, then simmered in beef stock (adds most flavour for my taste, knorr stock pots are the business) seasoned and blitzed, cream added when heating to serve.

I rarely use potato (a throwback to my low carbing days), but cauliflower does as good a job of thickening.

Have to say I love pub / hotel veg soup. Nice crusty roll, lots of butter on it and a nice dose of pepper- preferably the powdered pepper and not any of that fancy pepper corn ****e from one of those twisty mills. Put a pint of plain beside it and I'm a happy man. Jaysus I've an awful hankering for that just now

Ave Sodalis wrote: »

Absolutely not. Food left over from customer plates gets scraped straight into a large food waste bin.

Yes in your restaurant kitchen however, I'm quite sure unused food from customers plates is reused. In fact I was told by chefs I know that it was done but dont know how common it is. The same chefs told me they would not eat in lot of restaurants due to poor standards. Just look at reports on the Food Safety Authority website some of which is frightening, rodent activity etc. Remember that video of Rat popping up out of sliced pan in the deli of the Service station. There is/ was apparently a shortage of qualified chefs ( pre covid) and many in restaurants had limited or no training.

Yyhhuuu wrote:

Yes in your restaurant kitchen however, I'm quite sure unused food from customers plates is reused. In fact I was told by chefs I know that it was done but dont know how common it is. The same chefs told me they would not eat in lot of restaurants due to poor standards. Just look at reports on the Food Safety Authority website some of which is frightening, rodent activity etc. Remember that video of Rat popping up out of sliced pan in the deli of the Service station. There is/ was apparently a shortage of qualified chefs ( pre covid) and many in restaurants had limited or no training.

I've genuinely never heard of it. I've actually no idea how you would even manage it. It can be time consuming enough separating the rubbish from the food, nevermind dividing out the food too. It wouldn't be cost effective at all to try and salvage any usable vegetables, not to mention it would take far too long to get enough to make any sort of impact on restaurant quantities of soup.
Maybe the inspector up here was just extra vigilant but they did show up for a spot inspection often enough that keeping poor standards would be difficult, and as far as I know, it's still the same inspector.
I worked with some very experienced staff when I did work in restaurants, and I would have no problem going into somewhere to eat.
I should point out that I have a weird thing about unclean food practices where I often don't eat at a house I've never been at before, until I can establish how they do their dishes. I've gone hungry before, rather than eat. Heck, I've even gone hungry in my own house because someone didn't clean off the plates before putting them in the dishwasher and turning it on. It's a very real problem (part of a much bigger one), but I'd still have no problem eating in a restaurant, unless it's grubby from the get go.

Ave Sodalis wrote: »

I've genuinely never heard of it. I've actually no idea how you would even manage it. It can be time consuming enough separating the rubbish from the food, nevermind dividing out the food too. It wouldn't be cost effective at all to try and salvage any usable vegetables, not to mention it would take far too long to get enough to make any sort of impact on restaurant quantities of soup.
Maybe the inspector up here was just extra vigilant but they did show up for a spot inspection often enough that keeping poor standards would be difficult, and as far as I know, it's still the same inspector.
I worked with some very experienced staff when I did work in restaurants, and I would have no problem going into somewhere to eat.
I should point out that I have a weird thing about unclean food practices where I often don't eat at a house I've never been at before, until I can establish how they do their dishes. I've gone hungry before, rather than eat. Heck, I've even gone hungry in my own house because someone didn't clean off the plates before putting them in the dishwasher and turning it on. It's a very real problem (part of a much bigger one), but I'd still have no problem eating in a restaurant, unless it's grubby from the get go.

:eek:

Faith wrote: »

Please report back! I think my error with vegetable soup has been using roughly equal ratios of veg when I should have gone heavy on spuds.

Yes, please report back. I always suspect hotel soup is finished with dollops of cream, butter and salt hence why it tastes so superior.

I use carrots in my vegetable soup, usually the pre-chopped kind, however they never seem to cook as quickly as the other veg and I'm left with bits of carrot that the processor cannot blend. Any suggestions?

angel eyes 2012 wrote: »

Yes, please report back. I always suspect hotel soup is finished with dollops of cream, butter and salt hence why it tastes so superior.

I use carrots in my vegetable soup, usually the pre-chopped kind, however they never seem to cook as quickly as the other veg and I'm left with bits of carrot that the processor cannot blend. Any suggestions?

I add the veg at intervals depending on how long it takes to soften.... if I'm adding broccoli it only needs about 2 or 3 mins or it goes to mush. So try giving your carrots 5 minutes longer than the other veg.

Is it possible there's something added to pre-chopped carrots that would affect their cooking time (like pre-grated cheese has flour or something added to stop it sticking). Fresh carrots are awfully cheap and very easy to chop......

eastie17 wrote: »

That’s why soup of the day is ALWAYS “cream of vegetable” what does “cream of” anything even mean anyway?

That's just telling you the type of soup, creamy, probably lightish in colour, mainly blended as opposed to a broth type or full of chunky vegetables.