grublog

Soups with ginger

2009-11-06T14:50:00.000-08:00

Some good soups also supped recently:

Beetroot and ginger - based on a recipe but only vaguely.
Lots of beetroot, roasted with chopped fresh ginger root. Blended with stock once done, including all the tasty crusty bits from the roasting dish. Dollop of yoghurt to serve. Fabulous. And very pink. Alas no photo, but you can imagine.

In a restaurant the other day I had broccoli and ginger soup which was divine. Very pale, I'm not sure how. I would guess at some potato and plenty of cream. The ginger, like my beetroot soup above, was fresh and very zingy. A surprising combination which worked very, very well.
Here's a recipe, found randomly on the web.

Itching to try pumpkin and ginger. Autumn is definitely the time. There's a few butternut squashes appearing in the garden, though not sure I'll get away with stealing one and claiming it was a slug invasion....

Some like it hot - lettuce soup

2009-09-27T05:42:00.000-07:00

OK, so firstly we will gloss over how long it is since I did ANYTHING on this blog and will move straight on to the business - Lettuce Soup.

Lunchtime. Sunday. Alone. Supposed to be working. Hungry.

Errrm. Fridge full of old veggies needing a good home. Including 3 elderly lettuces, not counting he 2 fresh(er) ones. How much salad can I eat? Not that much, even me.

So I turned to one of the recently arrived inspiring cookbooks in my kitchen (bought by other people who also share this kitchen) and picked Lettuce and Spring Onion Soup from the WI book of Soups for all Seasons. Tis good. Beetroot and ginger coming soon.

I even had most of the ingredients in the cupboard, except of course spring onions, what with it being autumn. But I've made do with an ordinary onion and won't be adding cream (don't risk it in the house or I'll eat it all in one go) or chilling it, because it really isn't all that warm, being that it's autumn.

I made it in the giant new soup-vat-pan that has also appeared in our kitchen, which was completely unnecessary given that the recipe only calls for 3/4 pint of stock. So it's a soupcon of soup, but damn tasty anyway. Specially with toasted and buttered sourdough rye.

I used:
butter and olive oil (the recipe can't decide which)
half a big onion
one large spud
loads of old lettuce (1lb in the recipe)
3/4 pint stock (I used the water left from cooking my corn on the cob).
Splash of skimmed milk
lots of salt and pepper because this is a subtle soup and I like my flavours big.

Fry onion slowly, add potato and stock and lettuce. Simmer 20 mins, blend and add milk and seasoning.
Delicious.

Sandwich heaven

2008-11-26T05:36:00.000-08:00

Toasted rye bread (I like Authentic Bread Co)
sliced cherry tomatoes (although sun-dried tomato paste is also good)
avocado
Mexican chili relish (salsa verde)
cheese
black pepper

pile up. grill til the cheese has melted.
add a few fresh coriander leaves on top.

Almost like being in Mexico again.

--------------------------
For Richard, who is hungry but can't have my sandwich.

Curry of cabbage, coconut and cashew nuts

2008-11-19T12:39:00.000-08:00

I've got a major weakness for south Indian food. I first had tastes of it I was growing up round, but it was living in London in my 20s which really got me addicted. For a year or so I had the pleasure of living around the corner from a marvellous south Indian restaurant, where I ate as often as I could afford. And had takeaways when I couldn't. It helped that the restaurant is pink!
Just eating in the restaurant wasn't enough, so in 2004 I went to south Indian myself. I'd always wanted to go to India, since I was in primary school and my friends would go there to visit family in the summer holidays. I made a decision to opt for south India for two reasons

1. the food
2. the lack of fabric.

The lack of fabric is relative - there was plenty to enjoy, but I knew that had I gone to areas of India very much associated with fabric production, I would have gone mad and felt the need to buy a million metres of fabric. Kerala and the surrounding states in the southern tip of India aren't so renowned for fabric, so I knew I was safe(r). I still managed to buy plenty, most of it in a fever-induced frenzy on Christmas day in Chennai (Madras). I was not well, quite possibly delirious and bought all sorts of rubbish!

Anyway, the point was the food. I have taken many liberties with this dish, with my guide being this book. It still has the essence of my sensory memories of India.

Chop 2 medium-sized onions and fry in a generous helping of olive oil. You could use ghee, I don't. To this add an inch or so of freshly-grated ginger, about 4 crushed cloves of garlic and two fine, hot chillies, chopped up small. Fry this all on a medium heat, making sure the garlic doesn't burn. When that looks about done, take out a couple of spoonfuls to use in dhal or rice. Add some mustard seeds - about 2tsps, and the same of ground cumin and ground coriander seed. I also added a bit of garam masala. Cook gently, stirring all the time so the spices don't burn or stick. Add a bit more oil if needed.

Then add lots of shredded cabbage. White cabbage works well, but I used spring greens today - they just stay crisper. Keep stir-frying and add a big handful of broken cashew nuts and a similar amount of grated fresh coconut*.

Add a cup or so of water and cover, letting it simmer for 10 minutes or so, depending on the toughness of your cabbage. Take off the lid and turn up the heat to dry it out.

This evening I had this with tomato rice. Usually I'd have dhal, but I've run out of orange lentils! If you leave out the cashew nuts, this is also nice with boiled eggs.

* I get fresh coconut in my organic box in the winter and spend a happy hour or two disassembling it and chucking the white flesh in the food processor. Chop til its fine, like dessicated then store in a plastic box in the freezer all year round. You can just crumble off what you need from the box.

Rhubarb

2008-05-25T11:38:00.000-07:00

I'm inspired (even more than usual) to eat seasonally at the moment, as a result of reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. This book is amazing. That's all there is to say.
I had a depressing time looking for English fruit at the local wholefood co-op this week. It's fair enough, there just isn't anything much in season, apart from rhubarb, and they didn't have any of that. Shops don't stock stored apples and although there are still plenty in our freezer, I wanted something different. I will admit I succumbed to some European fruit (Spanish plums and satsumas) but I don't feel happy about it. I know its not been air-freighted, and is sold by a thoroughly ethical local co-op, but still, it's come a long way. Though not as far as Argentinian pears!

I'm enormously lucky to live in a house with people who grown lots of fruit and veg. There is salad coming up already, but not in large enough proportions for me to scoff it all, and the promise of new potatoes before long, and then a great abundance of raspberries. I gorged myself on them last summer. It looks like there are also broad beans, runner beans, onions, leeks and squash on the go, plus a greenhouse full of tomatoes. Then come the apples, and hopefully if the weather is drier this year than last, plums. There is a huge pear tree that is so tall we can't pick them. Most frustrating!

Christmas food

2007-01-01T11:20:00.000-08:00

Time to catch up on some recipies that I have enjoyed cooking over the holidays. Christmas in my tiny family is very low-key and simple. We like to go walking and we like to eat. Sometimes we watch a film. That's about it for three days.
We had our main meal and presents on Christmas eve so we could have a good day out on Christmas day. I was pretty tired and uninspired so I went for a simple dinner - family favourite of polenta and roast veg. I use quick-cook polenta, cooked up with lots of butter and dried herbs. I sometimes put in a teaspoon or two of sundried tomato paste. To this I add a good panfull of shredded cabbage which has been gently fried in oil and a couple of cloves of garlic. Stir in lots of grated cheese - I'm a cheddar fan, but purists might prefer parmesan, but my mum hates it so that's never an option. Put the polenta into a shallow oven dish and pop in the oven while the veggies roast.
My choice of vegetables varies - this time I think we had red peppers, red onion and courgette, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. In the past I have made a nice chunky sauce of mushrooms with a little cream.
Pudding - now, this was a new experiment. I have been enjoying tiny slivers of a wonderful middle eastern cake that my friend makes. It's based on a Claudia Roden date cake, from the Book of Jewish Food, but Claire's version has figs, apricots, pears and all sorts of other dried fruit in it. Basics are:
250g dried fruit
200g ground almonds
200g sugar
2 eggs

My version was:

250g dried figs, finely chopped and soaked overnight in water. Drain and mix with the almonds. Instead of sugar I added a tablespoon or so of maple syrup and the eggs. Stir it all up and put in a loose bottom cake tin (line base with greaseproof paper) and bake in a medium-hot oven (gas 6) until it looks done and is no longer gooey in the middle.
Claire's sugary version is fudgey and sticky. My version was more solid and cakey, and a lot less sweet, but still delicious.

To make this into a Christmas treat par excellence, I made a real egg custard to go with it. I haven't made custard in years - I used to make Tiramisu when I was in my late teens, and the custard recipe I use is from Italian Vegetarian Cookery by Sara Heathcote Laing. This is the only cookery book that I have kept over the years. I bought it in about 1992 and it's nice and sticky.
Her recipe is:
1/2 pint milk (I used skimmed)
1oz cornflour
1 egg yolk
vanilla flavouring (I used a vanilla pod with some seeds scraped out and added in)
Just under 3 oz sugar.

I used maple syrup in place of sugar, adding it to taste. It gave it a lovely rich flavour and it went down a treat. yum!

It didn't occur to me to take any photos of any of this. Another time, foody friends.

Courgette 'risotto'

2006-12-11T13:25:00.000-08:00

This is not a risotto for Italian food purists, but one for us that don't eat arborio or any other sort of white rice. This is made with brown basmati - make extra the day before and use it up on this recipe.

Gently fry plenty of grated or finely chopped courgettes in a mixture of olive oil and butter, with a clove or two of garlic. Cook slowly until soft and moist. Stir this into your warm rice and add whatever cheese you like - I tend to use organic mature cheddar, but use whatever you like to cook with. It's nice with a soft goat's cheese too. Add lots of pepper and that's it.
I often like to serve this with tomato sauce - onions, lots of garlic - fried to transparent, then add tinned toms and a dash of red wine, plenty of pepper and cook for at least 20 mins. Thin with more wine if it's too gloopy. Fabulous!

Spiced fennel (and other things)

2006-12-11T13:18:00.000-08:00

I'm starting my new year's resolutions early and planning to devote more time to this neglected blog and my cooking in general.
Today's recipe:
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
small head of fennel
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
Bit of cabbage

Cook all of these a while in olive oil. add a couple of teaspoons of garam masala and 3 chopped tomatoes. Cook until the tomato starts to break down. Add half a tin of baked beans* and a little water or stock to moisten, depending on your beans. Cover and cook gently for about 20 mins until the veg is cooked but not mushy. Season with black pepper.
I had this with quinoa with a little liquid aminos on it. Very tasty it was too.

* I only eat Whole Earth organic beans. They don't have refined sugar and are much more flavoursome than ordinary baked beans. I eat loads of them!

Followed up with some stewed damsons which had been in the freezer. I just cooked them with a little water and a dollop of concentrated apple juice spread stuff, and then spat out all the stones as I went along!

Fruit & veg

2006-09-30T09:38:00.000-07:00

I've been really enjoying late summer seasonal fruit and vegetables recently. I went a bit wild in the local organic shop a week or two ago and came back with local plums, cucumbers, 4 different types of English apple, fennel, more peppers and sweetcorn, as well as lots of salad leaves. I love being able to buy things that say LOCAL on them. I haven't had time to do much cooking recently, as I have been a little busy, but I did make one of my favourites the other day.

Carrot and Coriander soup
Chop up a pile of carrots and chuck in a pan with plenty of stock and a mug full of red lentils. Boil until both are cooked, then whizz through the blender. Season with lots of black pepper then add a whole bunch of chopped coriander. Always put the coriander in last, not before the blending, or you get khaki-coloured soup, which isn't terribly appealing!

Other that this, I've been eating a lot of salad, using a fine mixture of ingredients. I tried some (local) white radishes, which were really nice, not as fiery as their pink relatives. Another thing I often use is pickled walnuts which are just wonderful in salads, especially when there is something sweet to counterbalance them, like a few raisins. I like pickles a lot and often use sliced gherkins in salads.
One of the tips I have picked up from Nadine Abensur is preserved lemons. These are more like concentrated lemon than pickles, and I have been trying them out in all sorts of things. I put some finely sliced ones in a salad dressing, which was fabulous. I also made this last night

Cabbage and lemon
Steam a quarter or so of cabbage. Put in a pan when cooked and stir in a big dollop of pesto, and half a chopped preserved lemon.
Delicious! I had this with another onion omlette, which this time had some peas in it and was delicous cold for lunch today.
All this food thinking is making me hungry, so I am off to worship at the temple of food that is Waitrose. I very rarely shop in any supermarket, but when I do, it is only ever Waitrose, which is a partnership and therefore a lot more ethical than the multi-national giants. Plus the food is fantastic and they sell organic wine.

Peppers

2006-09-07T04:19:00.000-07:00

I've been enjoying local organic produce the last few weeks. I love these real-looking peppers - nothing like the uniform bland ones you get in supermarkets.
I had these roasted and skinned with new potatoes yesterday.

The redcurrants came in my organic produce box and I cooked them with a little maple syrup and a good scrape of vanilla seeds and served them with natural yoghurt.
I have a load of cooked apples and some rhubarb (both from friends' gardens) in the freezer, again all cooked with vanilla - current obsession!

My own produce-growing is rather limited - I have the world's tiniest garden, a window box! I've only had it a few months, and stocked it up with two tiny tomato plants I bought for a few pence in a car boot sale in May. They have flourished and are spreading all down the front of the house (I'm on the top floor!) and I have to lean out a long way to pick them!
This picture is of them a few weeks ago. They are now climbing in the windows. But wow! they are delicious and sweet.

Low GI cheesecake

2006-09-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

Is such a thing possible? Indeed it is, and very delicious it is too. I made this up last year for my brother's birthday. He isn't bothered by low GI, but I was going to the party and wanted to partake of cake! So I invented this, and repeated it for Christmas dinner for my also sugar-free mum and partner. And reprised it again for Sam's birthday this year.

It all varies according to what I have, what I find and what I fancy at the moment.

Base: basically a flapjack recipe with unsalted organic butter and either oats or muesli, sweetened with maple syrup. Lots of butter is essential to make it stick together. This is baked in the oven til crisp - in a round, loose bottomed cake tin.
Cheese: This time I used half mascarpone and half greek yoghurt. Sometimes I use cream. I tend to stick with the sweeter and less cheesy things, then less sweetening is needed. Again, a large dollop of maple syrup and some vanilla pod. I scraped out the seeds from about an inch of pod. More wouldn't hurt.
Topping: traditionally I use blueberries as Sam loves them, but it's equally nice with raspberries or whatever soft fruit is in season (not a lot most of the year). I wouldn't normally buy fruit with massive air miles like blueberries, but it was a birthday treat. I always look out for fruit that is packaged in cardboard and not plastic. I often pay more just to avoid plastic packaging, and try not to buy too much out of season fruit. Though I lapse in winter of course and buy apples and oranges.

empty cupboard cooking

2006-08-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

Today's delicious meals in all their glory!

Lunch was bok choy cooked in coconut milk with lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves, plus as much chilli as I could find. I have pretty much run out of anything interesting in the cupboard, so this was desperation cooking. But not bad, and pretty easy. Oh, it had some frozen peas in it too, as I was lacking anything else. If I had been paying more attention (rather than listening to the Archers) it would have had at least an onion and a carrot or two. It was done in a bit of a hurry. I had it with pitta bread (low GI) because I don't eat noodles or white rice and was too hungry to wait for brown rice to cook. Also I am not wildly keen on carbs, I prefer masses of vegetables, but have to try and get my 5 portions of wholegrains in every day. I get most of it from my breakfast muesli, but have to force something else down too.

When I am out and about I have no problem with this. I snack on oatcakes and sometimes a peanut butter (pure wholenuts, no salt or sugar) and jam (St Dalfour sugar-free) sandwich (on rye!). Somehow when i am working at home I eat less, because I am so busy. Unless I am really bored and have been food shopping in which case I will just stand by the fridge snacking on fresh carrots, gherkins, olives, cheese, ready cooked tofu chunks, anything edible.

My organic box arrived nice and early today so I made a hearty salad. There wasn't actually much in it for a salad. One large green cabbage dominated, so i will have to be inventive with that. The bits on top of this salad aren't meaty, they are croutons - chunks of rye sourdough cooked wickedly in olive oil and garlic. I've not had croutons in years and it was a nice treat. The basis of this salad was tomato and egg - a combination I love. I have a serious weak spot for Pret's egg and tomato sandwiches which are on light rye with caraway and are delicious. I allow myself that treat about once a month at most.

By the way, the plate is very small, it's not that giant a portion! The rest of the salad was sliced carrot and courgette, gherkins, toasted pine nuts and a sharp dressing made with red wine vinegar. I fancied a change after years of balsamic. It was a bit boring, but makes a refreshing summery change.
I had some more of the lovely Spanish rose wine with this. Delicious!

The cookbook in the pics is the one I mentioned the other day. I'm planning a food shopping trip so I can try some of the recipes soon.

Summer soup

2006-08-11T11:32:00.000-07:00

Now, this may seem like a bad idea - hot soup in summer, but this week has been distinctly autumnal. I was browsing a River Cafe cookbook in a library the other day and saw (and tried to memorise) a recipe for pea, potato and broad bean soup. I have a bit of an aversion to broad beans, and they keep coming in my organic box, so I have had to be inventive. I actually don't mind them at all if they are out of their bitter little skins, so bean eating is time consuming. I made up this soup from memory - fried onions and garlic, added chopped new potatoes and when nearly cooked added broad beans and frozen peas and as much basil as I could manage from my elderly and unloved basil plant. It was very subtle. I think my basil has passed it's useful life. I'll buy some more to reheat this soup with.

The other day I tried a potato salad with tapenade, based on an idea from somewhere of boiled potatoes dipped in tapenade. It wasn't the most successful salad - potatoes need some creamyness to make them into a salad. I'll post the recipe for my favourite potato salad soon. It's fab. I love being able to eat potatoes in the summer. I don't eat them the rest of the year as winter potatoes are too hi GI for my blood sugar to cope with. Cold boiled new potatoes are reasonable.

Got a book from the library to give me some new ideas. Nadine Abensur is probably my favourite cookery writer. Lots of delicious-sounding combinations in this one, which is going to be inspirational. I might even follow a recipe or two - which is almost unheard of for me! In the adding of the links to the above, I have found Nadine's own website, which I am looking forward to exploring.

Tomorrow I am going to my cousin's wedding, so I await with interest to see if the vegetarian option is more edible than the general reputation! A veggie friend promises to serve at her wedding fabulous vegetarian food with the meat eaters getting cold Findus Crispy Pancake after everyone else. Divine! This wedding is in a posh place, so fingers crossed for something delicious - and no doubt wickedly high GI. I have asked for fruit instead of pudding, so it wont be too bad!

Onion omlette

2006-08-03T12:21:00.000-07:00

This is an old favourite which I often forget about - hence posting it here so it will remind me. Useful for onion and egg-gluts which often happen when I am not around often enough to cook.
Fry 4 onions slowly in olive oil - really slowly so they don't go crispy. Make omlette mix with 4 eggs, some milk, pepper and liquid aminos which I use instead of salt or soy sauce. Sometimes I throw in basil if I have it.
Cook slowly and gently. Scoff rapidly.

Yellow courgettes

2006-08-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

I was really excited to find yellow courgettes and ruby chard at the farmers market on Saturday, so invented this to make the most of both of them.

I cooked two onions and two large cloves of garlic in the oil from a jar of sundried tomatoes and then added 3 or 4 chunky sliced yellow courgettes and fried gently for a little while. Then added stock powder and some water and cooked it with a lid on for a few mins. Chard went in at the end, so it was lightly cooked, along with some butter beans. A dollop of sun-dried tomato paste was the final touch and I ate it while the courgettes were still slightly crunchy. yum. Reheated it today - 2 days later- in the oven, which dried it out just perfectly and crisped the butter beans up. Fab.
Served with quinoa the other day and with rye toast and tapenade today. Waitrose green olive tapenade is lovely and has no evil anchovies.