almost 5 years later, it's still soup

I'd apologize for writing my second post almost five years later than my first but as I know absolutely nobody who read the first is still waiting for a second to appear I won't. Life happened. First I had a wedding to plan, then I went on honeymoon, then I got promoted, things got difficult and then suddenly I was alone followed by travel, divorce and a new start. Now you know.

Once again I find myself full and bloated, a week in London can do that to you and as there's only more food awaiting us at Christmas I mentioned a soup week and it has been put in motion.
That of course brought me back to this site because it's the only place I have the recipe for the Spiced Pea and Mint Soup by Tiffany Goodall as that poor cookbook suffered and died a horrible death due to an overly damp apartment back in the good days. So here I am, trying new soups and one's so good I want to save it so I thought that this would be a good place to put it. Sorry for the lack of photo but I truly didn't expect it to be so tasty!

I found this delicious sounding recipe on the Jamie Oliver website and have read that one is not allowed to in any way "republish" any content from that website but I'm going to hope that this is not considered infringement rather than advertising, reviewing and praising said content and hope they won't chop my head off for this post.

One of the many many things I admire about Jamie Oliver, is that his recipes are pretty foolproof. Whenever I'm in need of a good recipe that works the first time around I end up on his site.
I must say that I am at loss when it comes to his amounts though, I can understand what he must mean with a "large onion" but get really nervous when I have to figure out what the difference between a "knob of butter" and a "large knob of butter" is. I know that for many that's what makes his cooking so appealing and I agree when it comes to watching him cook but when I'm supposed to recreate that delicious looking dish I would be happy for a guideline which is why I've given you amounts but please just take these all as being slightly vague and feel free to adjust as feels right.

The reason I didn't expect this to be a great, save-for-another-day kind of soup was because of the parsnips. I feel parsnips aren't all that noteworthy although they're nice enough with a Sunday Roast but in this soup they shine despite, or maybe because of, the strong seasoning.

I tweaked the recipe a bit to fit my taste and pantry, you'll find the original here: Spicy Parsnip Soup In the original recipe Jamie Oliver asks for sliced red chili and coriander leaves as garnish and I'm sure that would elevate the dish but buying coriander only to use a couple of leaves is just a waste in my kitchen. When I tasted the soup I felt it was spicy enough and didn't need that little extra kick of a few slices of chili.
Go ahead and add it if you like, as I said I'm sure it'll be great. I just felt bad that I'd most probably end up throwing 3/4 of the chili and 95% of the coriander away. However I did add whipping cream because I had some in the fridge and didn't want that to go to waste.

Spicy parsnip soup
adapted from Jamie Oliver's Spicy Parsnip Soup on his website
including preparation, cooking and blending took me just over an hour, serves 4

approx. 50g	butter
approx. 6 tbsp	olive oil
1	large onion
2	large cloves of garlic
1	thumb sized piece of ginger
1tbsp	garam masala
6	parsnips
400ml	coconut milk
100ml	single cream
1 litre	vegetable stock
	salt and pepper

Peel and roughly chop the onion, garlic, ginger and parsnips. Prepare the vegetable stock.

Heat the butter and olive oil in a saucepan and add your onion, garlic, ginger and garam masala. Fry at a medium heat gently for about 10 -15 minutes until the onions are nice and soft.
Add the chopped parsnips and stir the contents of the pot well so that the parsnips are completely coated in oil and spices.

Add the coconut milk, the vegetable stock and the cream. Season well with a good amount of pepper and about half a tablespoon of salt. If you're uneasy about the amount of salt, put less and adjust by taste. Bring to a boil and then let simmer with the lid on but slightly ajar for about 30 - 45 minutes until the parsnips are soft.

Take the soup off the heat and liquidise or blend with your preferred appliance then taste and reseason. By now you should have a pale yellow, silky smooth, glossy liquid ready to serve.

Now let's see how long it takes for the next post...

Post Christmas Soup Week

With Christmas and New Year's behind us, I feel unbelievably full. I've eaten absolutely amazing food, Christmas biscuits and Stollen (a kind of Christmas cake with dried fruit and lots of icing sugar) and feel like I've eaten enough to last me a few weeks.

Looking ahead I just started a new job and I know I won't have the time to do much menu planning during the day. I'll also be going to lunch with my new colleagues to get to know them and will end up eating heavy restaurant meals.

So to help on both accounts (feeling full and not having any time) Greg and I came up with the Post Christmas Soup Week. For every evening this week we're going to eat soup, we'll alternate cooking it and we'll make sure the variety is there so we won't be tempted to whip up a solid dish.

When planning our menu, I decided to give the pea soup I'd messed up twice before another chance. I got the recipe from "Tiffany Goodall's First Flat Cookbook" which I - surprise - bought when I moved out from home and was afraid I'd end up eating pizza every night. I like the book a lot, it's full of caring advice for someone who's never really had to cook on a tight budget with limited time before. She gives good tips on what to do with the leftovers and has a way of making you feel taken care of without being patronising.

The first time I made her pea soup, it turned out very sweet and had me wondering if I'd mixed up salt and sugar but I'd followed the recipe to the t so the next time I made it, I decided to spice it up with tabasco and paprica but ended up ruining the taste so this time I went back to the recipe and just amped up the ingredients to my taste - and bingo! - I got it right :) The recipe asks you to blend it with an immersion blender but every time mine hit a large pea it blew soup up into the air and my kitchen ended up looking like the site of a Gremlin massacre so I blend with a normal blender.

So with no further ado, here's her recipe with a bit of my tweeking:

Spiced Pea and Mint Soup

adapted from Tiffany Goodall's First Flat Cookbook
including chopping, simmering and blending takes about 30 minutes, serves 2

25g	butter
1	large onion
2	cloves of garlic
1,5	green chilies
400g	frozen peas
600ml	vegetable stock
8	mint leaves
2tbsp (15ml)	single cream
	crème fraîche for serving

Chop the onion and the green chilies finely and fry it in the butter on a medium heat. Once the onions have softened a bit (3-4mins) add the crushed garlic and the frozen peas and season with about a teaspoon of salt and a lot of freshly ground pepper. I use a mix of red, white and black pepper but use whatever you like best just make sure you use a fair amount of it as you need to give the naturally sweet peas a bit of a kick.

Add the mint leaves and the stock and bring to a boil. Leave it to simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes.

Blend until smooth (no need to tell you to be careful because it's hot soup) and mix in the cream.

Serve with a swirl of crème fraîche and garnish with some mint leaves before serving.

it's a start

Many years ago, almost in another life if I'm honest, someone requested a specific dish I'd once made for them. It flattered me to no end because I didn't consider myself a cook, let alone a good one. I still feel flattered when people enthuse over my food and even ask for the recipes. Lately the voices asking for recipes have grown louder, which obviously has something to do with the fact that I now have my own kitchen and can't rely on my mother to provide me with delicious meals anymore.

This past year I've been toying with the idea of a food blog, but the fear of not being good enough has stayed my hand. I don't see myself as an excellent cook, I don't have an endless repertoire of recipes, I feel my photographs of dishes don't do them justice.
What I can do though is cook tasty food that has my friends and family asking for more.

I decided to look at the first posts of some of my favourite food blogs and I realised, they all started out like me, a bit clumsy but with good tasty food.

So here goes, this is my start.