Random Cooking

Soups Soups Soups

Something very comforting about soups and when the nights start to draw in and the leaves fall off the trees I always find my thoughts turn more to soup making than at any other time of year.   Summer soups strike me as being weak and spineless, light and delicate whereas autumn and winter soups can be thick and chunky and creamy and, unless you are being very posh, should be slurped steaming hot out of a mug. That is what I have been doing in the last week or so though I will admit to putting them in nice bowls and tarting them up a bit for when they are having their picture taken....

First up - Roasted butternut squash soup

One butternut squash chopped up, be warned these can be a bugger to chop (I now purchase them already prepared having nearly taken off a finger one time)roasted with herbs and a bit of olive oil, then blended with some good stock, ground pepper and salt and dished up with a scattering of grated cheese on the top.  I was not exactly overwhelmed with this particular soup the first time I made it so the next time I roasted red peppers as well and that made a huge difference

My favourite soup - Leek and Potato.  Heat up some olive oil in a casserole, slice up your leeks and chop your spuds (not too bothered about the ratio of leeks to spuds, I just bung in what I have though perhaps more leeks that potatoes), and sautee for a few minutes.   Garlic, of course, and some good sea salt.  This soup needs a healthy dose of salt I find but go easy on it while cooking as it can always be added when served.   When the veg is cooked through and is soft blend and serve. A dash of cream never goes amiss here either.    Of course if you have a soup maker then you just hurl it all in and go away and leave it to do all the work.   If you make a batch of this I would recommend freezing on the same day as it does not keep very well after 24 hours. It starts to ferment a bit and taste odd.  Lost count of the number of times I have forgotten this and had to pour it down the sink.

I also like making what I call Bottom of Fridge soup or perhaps Remains of the Day.  In other words, anything that is lurking in the veggy drawer of your fridge.   I rummaged the other week and found some carrots, slightly aging, a leek or two, an onion and a potato.   So in the pot they went with some herbs, some good chicken stock made the day before from the carcase of my chicken, simmered for about half an hour, blended and dished up with a swirl of yoghurt this time as I was lacking cream.  It was delicious but the only drawback with this kind of soup is that you will never be able to replicate the recipe though knowing my veggy bit of the fridge it is more than likely I might. A good way of using up veg that perhaps should have been eaten and not left and saves waste.

I do not turn up my nose at commercially prepared soups.  I have a weakness for Heinz tomato soup, I freely admit and don't mind oxtail either.  I have made my own tomato soup and it was simply lovely but part of me yearned for the monosodiumglutinate taste of Heinz with its highly and, no doubt, toxic colour which leaves you with orange lips for hours afterwards.   I keep a stock of a few tins in the store cupboard and Baxters onion is another to which I am rather partial.

You can make soup out of almost anything.  When catering years ago, I did a huge cauliflower cheese, it was a vegetarian restaurant, usually popular. On that particular day it did not sell and there we were left with it.  Well food chucked in the bin = profits in bin so I put it in my food processor with some stock and cream and whizzed it up.  Added a handful of stilton and next day dished it up as our Soup of the Day, Cauliflower and Stilton and sold every last drop of it.   When I used to cook a big roast for the family any left over veg was bunged in the processor, with left over gravy and anything else that remained - bit of Yorkshire pudding or a roast spud or two and blended.  OK sometimes it all came out a murkey sludge colour but add a swirl of cream (my fail safe for making any soup look good) to take away the less than glam appearance and it always tasted wonderful.

Soup is so easy to make and so satisfying to eat. 

So get blending..

Christmas Cake - my favourite Delia Smith recipe

I like Christmas cake but have never really fallen in love with the dark fruited ones that are the norm so when I discoverd a Light Christmas cake recipe by the Blessed Delia I decided to try it and have made it many times since as I enjoyed it so much.   One of the reasons I enjoy making it is that the fruits, when cut up and left to soak overnight in brandy in a clear bowl, look like jewels and are such lovely colours.

The fruit needed is 4oz glace pineapple; 4oz glace apricots; 6oz glace cherries, rinsed and dried (mixed colour pack); 4oz candied peel; 2oz angelica; 8oz sultanas (I bought the golden variety); 2ozs crystallised ginger.   All these fruits need to be chopped up into pieces the size of the sultanas and then, as I said, left to soak overnight.  Also add 4oz finely chopped walnuts.

Note: this is an old recipe so I have left it in Imperial measurements

Tracking down these fruits can be difficult. The main supermarkets do not seem to stock some of the glace fruits need, Waitrose not much better which surprised me and I ended up at Guntons in Colchester which had a good selection and bought them all from there. Angelica is impossinle to get hold of locally and I have tried and Guntons is the only place. Or Amazon. You may need to check out a similar shop in your locale.

Next day, cream up 8oz unsalted butter with 8oz golden caster sugar till light and fluffy. Then whisk four medium sized eggs and gradually beat in. When all the beaten egg has been added lightly fold in 2oz ground almonds, the grated rinds of an orange and a lemon and their juice.  At this stage Delia says bung in the brandy but I have already used it to soak the fruit which makes for a better cake in my humble.  Then fold in 8oz plain flour sifted, add all the fruit and give a good stir until everything is incorporated.

This cooks in an 8" round tin, well greased and lined with greaseproof paper and placed in the middle of a preheated oven Gas Mark 3/325F/170C and cooked for an hour. After an hour cover the cake with a double layer of greaseproof paper so the top does not get too brown and leave to cook for another 2-2¼ hours but do check after 2 hours as sometimes, depending on how hot your oven is, it can be ready then.

When ready it will shrink away from the side of the tin and be springy in the middle when pressed lightly with a little finger.   Leave in tin until cold then peel of papers and re-wrap in fresh greaseproof paper before storing in a tin until ready to be iced.   It can also be drip fed with extra brandy every now and then should you so wish....

 

Cassoulet

I was rummaging in a charity shop a few weeks ago (I love charity shops) and I came across a cook book by the Hairy Bikers called The Happy Dieters.  With that title who could resist? Plus it cost the princely sum of £1.

It is packed with simply lovely tasty recipes and I have made quite a few of them. One of my favourites is their cassoulet. This recipe serves six.

6 good quality sausages.  I bought mine from a local butcher and they are really worth seeking out

6 boneless chicken thighs (about 450g).  I prefer using chicken breast so substituted them which does make the calorie count slightly less but not so much as to make a huge difference

stick of celery, three medium carrots, 2 medium onions, 2 cloves of garlic crushed

200g gammon or bacon

2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes, 400 g tin of cannelloni beans, 400 g tin of butter beans - drain and rinse in cold water

Method

Brush a non stick frying pan with teaspoon of sunflower oil and add the sausages to the pan (I chop them in half) until nicely browned.  Add onions to the pan (I find that I had to add a little more sunflower oil so if you do the same don't forget to add the extra few cals). Add the chicken (thighs or breast whichever you are using) to the pan and cook for a few minutes. Then bung it all in a casserole. Stir in the gammon, celery, carrots, tinned tomatoes and a 150 ml red win if you wish. If not just add water instead.

Put in a bay leaf, thyme and freshly ground pepper and sprinkle over 1 teaspoon of caster sugar.

This recipe also adds 1 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes which I left out because I am not a chilli lover.

Either simmer on the hob and cook for 45 mins or put in the oven. Then stir in the beans and put back for a further 30 mins.

I have made this several times and had a batch cook the other week and have frozen about 10 portions. In fact I am having it for supper tonight.  Add veg of choice or rice - adding extra cals - and enjoy.

The Hairy Bikers bring this in at 464 per portion but that is using chicken thighs.

When I made this myself I only used 5 sausages, a chicken breast, no red wine and it came out as 382 a portion.

When I make these recipes I do measure out every single ingredient and note its calorie content and I would recommend you do the same.  That way I am sure I am not misleading you in any way but sometimes there will be a variant in the calorie count depending on what sausages you use, etc.

OK my version saves only 80 cals but look at it this way. That could be a chocolate digestive biscuit you can now have..............