Midnight soup again

It’s become part of our family tradition to have Midnight Soup on Christmas Eve – not at midnight though! Every year it is different in some way, either I accidentally miss something out or maybe I’m missing some ingredient and substitute something else; sometimes I just add something different for some reason… but here, again, is the recipe _

Midnight Soup

Ingredients

• 1 lb steak
• 3 tbsp oil
• 4 onions
• 4 tbsp tomato puree
• 3 pints stock
• 1 tbsp chilli sauce
• ¼ tsp ground pepper
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp pickled silverskin onions
• 10 oz grapes
• 1 tbsp flour
• 6 tbsp cream
• 8 oz mushrooms
• 1 liqueur glass brandy
• 1 tumbler glass port
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 level tsp paprika

Method

1. Cut meat into small cubes. Heat oil and fry meat until lightly brown.  Peel and dice onions and fry lightly with meat at low temperature.
2. Stir in tomato puree.  Add stock, cover and simmer for 45 minutes.
3. Add chilli sauce, pepper, cayenne pepper, and silverskin onions.  Stir well.
4. Slice mushrooms and add to pan.  Wash grapes, slice and add to pan.  Bring to the boil.  Mix flour with cream and add to soup.
5. Add brandy and port, salt and paprika before serving.