Ian Hemphill's Chervil Soup

September 10, 2002

Last week, along with several other local members of the New Zealand Guild of Food Writers, I had the pleasure of traveling up the country to have lunch with spice and herb expert Ian Hemphill.

Ian comes from Sydney, Australia and is the son of John and Rosemary Hemphill, names synonymous with herbs and spices since the 1950s. His parents, particularly his mother, have written numerous books on herbs and spices.

Ian grew up picking herbs on the family farm for pocket money. He worked with his parents for many years, managed a spice company in Singapore and was a senior manager for Masterfoods in Australia. He runs his own herb and spice business - check out http://www.herbies.com.au.

The lunch was held at the home of Ruth Pretty who runs a highly successful catering business from Te Horo, about an hour's drive north of Wellington. During the bus trip up the coast, Ian kept us entertained with interesting snippets about herbs and spices. He gave a further address during the luncheon and was kind enough to answer on many questions on the trip back. Some of his observations are in a companion article which you can read here.

Our meal featured recipes from Ian Hemphill's recent cookbook, Spice Notes (marketed as The Herb and Spice Bible in the United States).

We started with a glass of bubbly and some spiced cocktail biscuits when we arrived. This was followed by sourdough rolls with the locally pressed Kapiti Gold extra virgin olive oil and dukkah. The oil was a deep rich green with a pleasant almond taste.

A delicious chervil soup preceded the main course which was veal tagine, potato and cauliflower both roasted with cumin and mustard seeds, and a spinach salad.

Dessert was a coriander-flavoured apple crumble served with yoghurt vanilla cream.

I particularly enjoyed the chervil soup. Ian Hemphill says one of his mother's Rosemary's particular talents has been to create dishes that are disarmingly simple, yet subtle flavoured with fresh herbs gathered from the family's stone-walled herb garden.

This recipe reminds him of balmy summer lunches, often attended by some of Australia's pioneering food, wine, theatrical and literary characters.

"This callow youth no doubt benefited from the input of conversation, fine foods and aromatic garden fragrances in his formative years."

Chervil has a very light, subtle anise aroma and a flavour similar to tarragon, though I think less intense.

Chervil Soup

500g peeled and diced potatoes
1 chopped onion
4 cups chicken stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 tablespoons chopped fresh chervil
4 tablespoons reduced fat cream or unflavoured yoghurt
a little extra chopped chervil for garnish

Simmer the potatoes and onion in the stock in a saucepan with the lid on for one hour. Puree in a blender and return to the saucepan. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste, fold in the chervil, and allow the soup to gently simmer on a slow heat for 10 minutes.

Pour the soup into hot bowls with a tablespoon of cream or yoghurt, swirled ying and yang like, and garnished with a sprinkle of chopped chervil.

Herb sandwiches made with seeded bread make an excellent accompaniment, says Hemphill.

Serves 4.

Recipe © Ian Hemphill from Spice Notes, by Ian Hemphill, published by Macmillan, ISBN 0-7329-1156-7.