Isle of Wight Garlic Soup

I first experienced Spanish garlic soup at The Trinidad restaurant near Arboleas in Spain and I was amazed at its simplicity yet deliciousness. The fact that it had a poached egg in just made it even better, I had never seen anything like it before and I loved it. This version uses three types of Isle of Wight garlic, being the cloves, the scapes and fermented black garlic, however you can simply use plain old white garlic from the supermarket instead.

Ingredients:
(serves 2)

4x Large cloves of garlic
2x Garlic scapes, thinly sliced
2x Cloves of black garlic, finely diced
2x Eggs
2x Thick slices of bread, for croutons
50g Chorizo, diced
700ml Chicken stock, hot
1tbsp Plain flour
1tbsp Parsley stalks, finely diced
Parsley leaves to garnish
Rapeseed oil
Black pepper
White vinegar to poach the eggs


Method:

1. Cut the bread into 1" cubes, place on a baking try and drizzle with oil. Bake on gas mark 6 for about 10-15 minutes until browned.
2. In a saucepan gently fry in oil the garlic cloves and chorizo for about 2 minutes.
3. Add the flour and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring all the time.
4. Pour in a little of the stock to dissolve the flour then pour the rest in and stir well.
5. Now chuck in the parsley stalks and allow to simmer.
6. Bring a separate pan 2/3rds full of water to just bubbling then pour in a good glug of vinegar and pop your eggs in to poach.
7. Now add your scapes to the soup and season if needed with salt and black pepper.
8. When the eggs are done (about 3 mins) plate up. Pour the soup into bowls, top with the croutons and poached egg then garnish with the parsley leaves, black garlic and a few drops of nice oil.


Tip: Use the leftover vinegar from your pickled eggs for poaching, it works a treat.