Another ginger-laced soup

Late home and needed to put a meal on the table fast for others dashing out to a concert. Butternut squash curry wasn't going to be on the table in 45 mins. On holiday in rented cottage. Kitchen equipped only with what I remembered to bring, which was not everything required for the recipes in mind. Inspiration struck on the bus home and luckily it worked:

Sweet potato and lentil soup

2 red onions
1 huge sweet potato (or two more average sized)
2 cloves of garlic
1 inch fresh ginger
1 red pepper
all the above finely chopped and fried in lots of olive oil. Onions first for 5 mins, then the rest for another 5-10. Add lentils, add water and a good dollop of harrisa paste. I used a new brand of paste (proper stuff from my local international supermarket) and it was a lot stronger than the supermarket stuff.
Cook 15 mins until veg is soft and lentils collapsing. Mush a bit with potato masher and serve. We added natural yoghurt and toasted pumpkin seeds. I think something green would have been nice with this. Maybe finely shredded fried cabbage?? Something green and crisp, not sure what else.

A shop with a fabulous name and fabulous food

I'm on a brief holiday in York at the moment and happened to come across this most wonderful place - The Hairy Fig. Could have spent all day there (and spent more money than I earn in a month...). Tiny cafe is also excellent. Again, could have spent all day....

I bought:

3 quinces. OOOOOOO. Only once have I had a quince before, scrumped from a local museum garden. It was bruised and went off before I could cook it. Darn! I need to work out a sugar-free way of cooking them too. I think stewed with apples and a bit of honey is the way to go.
a litre of Ampleforth cider. Aaahhh. It's good. Also very fizzy and took some effort not to spray across the kitchen.
A tin of chestnuts. Mainly because there were chestnut recipes in last month's Country Living and I fancy trying them without the effort of peeling fresh ones. Which I LOVE. So will do at some point.
A block of Willies Supreme Cacao. Bought on advice for chef-friend who made utterly wonderful hot chocolate with it a while back. No idea what to do with it as I don't make sweet stuff. I plan to experiment with making hot chocolate with honey.
Some homemade hummus. This I haven't yet sampled.
Two Upita de los Reyes. The tiny cafe sensibly serves snippets of these with tea which made me buy more. Not sure if I've had them before, but have certainly seen the packaging.
Some Tomme de Chevre. Fond memories of holidays in thee Pyrenees.
Two tiny pieces of sliced Pan de Higo as i hadn't got enough cash to buy a whole one. Link is to a recipe as I can't find much about this stuff - although I have had it in Spain and I think also in London, probably one of the Spanish delis in Notting Hill. Useful info I know....
Mexican green jalapeno sauce. Which I foolishly thought was salsa verde. Damn.

Wish I had bought some smoked garlic. Some fresh chanterelles. Some ripe figs. Some old, old balsamic vinegar. Some chipolte chillies. And more.

Admired the monks' sloe gin and happily remembered my own at home which surely must be ready now. More anon on that if it has worked!

Now time to eat the cheese before the others get home.

Soups with ginger

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

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

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

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

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!