Kumara, Quince and Walnut Soup

May 22, 2001

The Spouse celebrated his birthday last weekend. We had some friends round for dinner and cracked a special bottle of champagne to toast the birthday boy. Champagne is even better when served with oysters and so we had some of those, too, served au naturel with a little side sauce of ketchup, horseradish, lemon juice and freshly ground pepper. Mmm!

Fortunately the local fishmongers have been in a competitive mood but even so these delicacies have become very expensive.

There was a time in my early newspaper days in the 1960s when one of the photographers used to organise a weekly shipment of feted Bluff oysters from the nether regions of the South Island. We'd all arrive in the photographers' studio with our screwtop jars, and the cans of oysters - each containing something like 15 dozen treats, would be ceremonially opened and the contents distributed. In those days we paid about 25 cents a dozen. Now the price is anything up to $13.95 a dozen.

When I was putting together a menu for the dinner, I had a sudden urge to get into some classical cooking, and so we had Coq au Vin for our main course, followed by Crepes Suzette.

I opted for a soup starter. The local kumera or sweet potatoes have been in good supply lately and are particularly good for soup. I used to make a tasty orange and kumera soup, but as we were having an orange flavoured dessert, I went looking for something else as a secondary ingredient.. That old-fashioned fruit, the quince, has been in season lately and seemed a likely contender. And so today's recipe evolved.

Kumara are like sweet potatoes and these can be substituted.

Kumara, Quince and Walnut Soup

3 kumara
2 large quinces
1.5 litres chicken stock
1/2 cup walnuts
3 tablespoons cognac
salt and pepper

Peel the kumara and peel and core the quinces. Chop both into chunks and place in a large pot with the chicken stock, bring to the boil and simmer until the kumera and quince are soft.

Grind the walnuts in a food processor, setting aside a couple of whole ones for garnish.

Add the soup to the processor and blend until it is smooth. Add the cognac and reheat the soup, thinning it with some milk if necessary. Adjust the seasoning to taste. Serve with a little lightly whipped cream spiralled onto the top (pour it off the tip of a dessertspoon) and sprinkle on a little coarsely chopped walnut.

The tartness of the quince and the nutty walnut flavour complement each other well, especially over the smooth kumara base.