The Potage Cup 2012

It was SOUP-er.

The Potage Cups for first and second place

Well not for me - I came third. Close, but no trophy.

Baby Bro sent the rules out a few weeks in advance and there was a new category added for this year "Patriotic-ness"... well, that I can do.

Every year the other contestants go all out, testing out recipes, looking for clever ideas, sourcing unusual ingredients. Every year I find a random fruit, add a slug of alcohol, a bit of garnish and give it a clever name.

15 mins of prep time

15 mins of prep time

15 mins of prep time

I have a select number of "fans" who always mark me quite highly... everyone else exclaims in outrage that it's actually not a soup, but in fact a cocktail.

How very dare they!

Last year I did a vodka, orange and chilli gazpacho in shot glasses, the year before I hollowed out a melon, blended it, added some vodka, a spring of mint and served it in the melon skin. Genius!

This year? I blended some fresh raspberries with some rose wine, sieved out the pips, served with blue meringue clouds and some white creme fraice, placed on a patriotic tray and named it Red, white and blues-berry soup, with meringue clouds and Royal furniture.

The Entries

Soup 1: Red, white and blues-berry soup, with meringue clouds and Royal furniture.

It went up against the following:



Soup 2: Rubbish soup

Soup 3: Roast chicken soup with chorizo bits and triple cooked chicken ciabatta blue croutons.

Soup 4: Squishy and squashy butternut squash soup with chestnut and bacon topping and olive Olympic rings

Soup 5: Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

Soup 6: Pea, pear, mint and ginger with caviar and fish roe biscuits.

Marking

The marks were allocated as follows:

• Taste (/10)
• Texture (/5)
• Moreishness (/5)
• Presentation (/5)
• Colour (/5)
• Christmas Spirit (/5)
• Britishness (/5) (In honour of the Jubilee and the Olympics!

The winners

In second place came Joanna, with her Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire having received very high points for Christmas Spirit.

 

...and in first place, Mr G with his self-proclaimed Rubbish Soup. He's a very good cook usually, but this soup was cobbled together at the last minute, tasted pretty vile and was rather un-festive or patriotic (until he raided my Jubilee party box and London 2012 souvenirs). Quite how he won, we're not sure. Absolutely nothing to do with the fact that his mother was involved in the voting... hmmmm.

 

 



 

 

Will there be an adjudicator's enquiry?

 

Either way, after years of striving to reclaim his trophy, he's finally got it back and he's finally stopped whinging about the previous years' winners being cheats, so that's good enough for me!

 

So now he's putting up a shelf for his trophy...