Spiced Roast Parsnip Soup And Caramelized Red Onion And Goats' Cheese Pita Pockets

Last weekend was the first time since the snow began that we made it out into the garden for a poke around in the dirt to see what the winter had left us with.
We really should have already started our spring planting, so we pulled on our wellies, got out the shovels and rakes and had the first proper look at the greenhouse and raised beds in nearly five months!
The snow had come before we had finished pulling the root veg out of the ground and I really thought that whatever was left would be all soggy and ruined by the long cold winter. As it turned out, we have beetroot still growing happily, a few turnips ready to harvest and all THESE Parsnips! I think that there are few vegetables that roast more beautifully so I have kept some of the bigger ones back for next Sunday's dinner but the rest got turned into a huge pot of soup for dinner tonight. I made some little toasted pockets with caramelized red onions and goats cheese to go with it. I've used some North African spices here but you could absolutely do this recipe with curry spices or anything else you fancy.
I recommend listening to and Stanley Turrentine while making this recipe by the way.

Because I grew the parsnips myself and my Dad bought the goats cheese for me, I figured That this whole thing cost about £1 to make but even if you buy the ingredients you'd still be looking at less than £1 per serving.

Spiced, Roast Parsnip Soup with Caramelized Red Onion and Goats' Cheese Pockets
Serves 4, Takes 1 hour (unless you're peeling 40 tiny parsnips...)

500g (1 lb) parsnips, peeled and cut into 3cm chunks
1 litre veg stock*
4 cloves garlic, peeled
3 large, ripe tomatoes
2 tbsp thyme blossom honey (or other runny honey)
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp fennel seeds
2 tsp caraway seeds
2 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp crushed red chilli
4 wholewheat pitas, halved
150g goats cheese log, sliced
2 red onions, sliced thinly
Sea salt

Turn your oven on to 180C/ 350F and in a large roasting tin, toss the whole tomatoes, the parsnip chunks and garlic cloves in half of the olive oil, a couple tsp of sea salt, the caraway seeds, the fennel seeds and half of the cumin seeds. Roast in the oven for about half an hour, turning every so often to ensure even colour and tenderness throughout.
Meanwhile, warm a tbsp of olive oil over a low-medium heat and add the thinly sliced onions. Sprinkle the onions with the salt and stir frequently until the onions begin to soften but not brown. Turn the heat down to low and cover, allowing the onions to cook slowly until very soft and sweet. Check periodically to make sure they're not catching on the bottom.
Carefully, open up each half of the pita pockets and put a few thin slices of the goats cheese and a sprinkle of sea salt inside. Spoon a good amount of the caramelized onion into each pocket and lay them on a baking sheet.
When the parsnips are tender, put the pita pockets in the oven and bring the veggie stock almost to a boil and pour into a large bowl. Carefully add all the roasted veg and spices into the stock and use a stick blender to puree everything together until smooth. (You can also do this in batches in a blender.)
In the same frying pan that you cooked the onions in, heat 2 tbsp olive oil over a medium heat and add the remaining cumin seeds, and the chilli and sesame seeds. Fry for 30-45 seconds until fragrant.

To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and drizzle with the spices and oil and bring the pockets out of the oven when slightly brown.

*If you don't already have some, you can get the veggie stock started before you begin the rest of the meal. Here's how:
Quarter one large onion
slice one washed carrot
slice one washed stalk of celery
halve three cloves garlic
put into a large saucepan with:
2 tsp sea salt
2-3 dried slices porcini (cep) mushrooms
1 large piece kombu
6 black peppercorns
2 star anise
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 litres cold water

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for an hour. Voila! you have veggie stock.
You don't NEED to use porcini mushrooms or kombu, but both mushrooms and seaweed are brilliant sources of umami and give a well rounded savouriness to the stock the same as you would get from a chicken or meat stock.
You can use the stems from plain white mushrooms, shitake mushrooms and so on with similar results.
Parsnip Soup

Steak and Winter Vegetable Pie

This pie is not much of a stretch from a Cornish pasty, except it's a little quicker to make because you don't have any fiddly pleating to do and if you have a ROARING hangover (and I do!) it's quick to fix, as well as just about the perfect hang-over food.
Again, this is a very inexpensive but nourishing meal which features ingredients available abundantly at this time of the year.
Steak and Winter Veg Pie
Takes 1 hour, Serves 4

For the pastry:
300g (15 oz) COLD* plain (all purpose) flour
1 tsp baking powder
75g (3.5oz) cold butter, cut into 1cm cubes
75g (3.5oz) cold lard (or veg shortening if you must), cut into 1cm cubes
1/2tsp fine sea salt
1 egg
100ml cold* water
1 more egg, beaten

For the Filling:
200g rump steak, cut into 2cm cubes
1 floury potato, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
1 small turnip, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
1/2 small swede (rutabaga), peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
1 medium onion, peeled and cut into 1cm dice
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
1 large parsnip, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
1 clove, garlic, crushed
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp veg oil

First, make the pastry. *If you have time before, put the flour and water in the fridge, and you don't want to take the lard or butter out of the fridge until you need to use it. The point is to keep the fat from melting at all until you bake the pastry. This keeps it super super flaky and light instead of crunchy and hard. You can either do this in a bowl with a couple of cold butter knives or in a food processor. Either way, try to keep your hands out of the mix, as it will warm up the fat and melt it (which is bad!) I used the food processor this time.
In the food processor bowl, tip in all the flour, the salt baking powder, the butter and the lard.
Pulse several times for 15-20 seconds to cut the fat into the flour until you have mixture about the texture of fresh breadcrumbs. Tip this lot into a chilled bowl.
Beat your egg and water together, pour about half of it into the mix and stir with a knife. Add more of the water mixture as needed until you can just about bring the pastry together into a ball without it totally crumbling. DON'T over mix as it will toughen the flour, and use as little water as you can get away with. This again will give you a very light, flaky 'short' pastry.
Wrap your ball of pastry in cling film and pop it in the fridge for at least half an hour, or however long it takes you to make your filling.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Fry the meat for a few minutes without stirring too much, so that the outside gets a nice brown colour on it all over, then remove to a plate.
Lower the heat to medium add the onions and garlic to the pan and cook for a few minutes until golden, then add in the rest of the veggies, salt and herbs. Cook the veg for 7-10 minutes until they're all a little coloured and quite tender. Add the steak back to the pan, stir thoroughly
to combine, then turn off the heat.
Turn the oven to 19oC/375F
Divide the ball of dough into two 40/60 pieces and roll the larger one out between two layers of cling film or baking paper until a little larger than the pie plate you're going to use. Line the pie plate with the pastry, making sure it over-laps the edge a little. Pile the filling into the pie casing, making sure to push it well into the bottom corners, then roll out the smaller piece of dough between two layers of cling film to the size of the pie tin. Brush a little beaten egg around the top edge of the bottom pie case and carefully lay the top sheet of pastry over the top, pressing gently around the outside edge to seal.
Carefully trim the excess pastry form the edge and use a dinner fork to press all the way around, creating a pretty, firm edge. Poke a couple of small holes in the top centre and brush the whole pie with the remaining beaten egg. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the crust is golden brown and crisp.

This pie is nice by itself, but I like to serve it with steamed, buttered broccoli or cabbage.


Steak Pie

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup AKA Tom Kha Gai

My stepson Christian is 14 years old now and as it turns out, he's becoming quite an enthusiastic cook. He was seven years old when I came into his life and like many kids, his palate was fairly unadventurous. I'll never forget the first time I cooked for him. It was spaghetti Bolognese (safe choice, I thought) but as it was the first time he'd had it made from scratch, he was so upset that he actually started gagging. That was the beginning of a years-long battle to get him to eat everything from roast pork to simple curries and stir-fries. I started bringing him into the kitchen to "help" me cook as a way to bond with him, and I started realizing that what ever I taught him to cook immediately became a favorite of his. I'll always remember the months-long period when if asked what he wanted for lunch/dinner his answer was always "Hoummus!", which was the first thing I taught him to make. Fast forward seven years, and he's now in his after school cooking club and has decided to enter his school Master Chef competition. He has to make two courses and has decided that he'd like to make Thai, as it's one of his favorites. Christian has decided on a favorite soup of his and a curry with jasmine rice. The soup recipe is below. Some of the ingredients are a little hard to find in regular grocery stores, so when I got to Chinatown or an Asian market I usually buy lots of them and freeze them. If you keep things like galangal, lemongrass and Thai basil (washed, leaves picked) in airtight containers, they will freeze well for a couple of months. Good grocery stores will have things like palm sugar, jasmine rice and fish sauce.

Tom Kha Gai (not my picture)
Serves 4 as a main course, 30 mins
A perfect balance of salty, sour, spicy and sweet is what makes this comforting coconut chicken soup totally addictive. It's really easy to make as long as you can get hold of the ingredients. This is my go-to soup when I come down with a nasty cold or flu. Packed with good stuff and the flavours are robust enough that if you're a little stuffy it still dances like little fireworks on your tongue.

750ml homemade or very good quality chicken stock
400ml coconut milk (low fat is fine if you like)
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced approx 1 cm thick and cut into bite-sized pieces
Large handful mushrooms, sliced (or straw mushrooms if you can get them)
1 lemon grass stalks, bruised
4-5 kaffir lime leaves (fresh or dried)
1 5 cm piece galangal root, thickly sliced
2-3 fresh red chillies sliced thickly (remove seeds and membranes if you don't like it too spicy)
2 tsp palm sugar (or light brown sugar makes an ok sub)
handful picked fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves
juice of 3 limes
3 tbsp fish sauce (nam pla)

Method:
In a large saucepan, bring the the chicken stock, coconut milk, galangal, lemongrass, palm sugar, fish sauce and lime leaves to a boil and then reduce immediately and add the sliced chicken. Simmer for five minutes, until the chicken is cooked, then add the lime juice, chillies and mushrooms. Simmer for a further few minutes until the mushrooms just soft. Have a taste to check for sweetness/saltiness/tartness/spice and add sugar/fish sauce/lime juice/more chilli as needed and serve, stirring the fresh coriander leaves in at the last minute so that they keep their colour. I leave the inedible pieces of galangal, lime leaves and lemongrass in the soup, as it adds interest but if you have whiny family members, feel free to fish it out for them before you serve.

Braised Sausages With Puy Lentils and January King Cabbage

This week sees a continuation of the super tight-wad budget for the Martin family, yay fun! :-|

This a super tasty dish full of robust textures and flavour. It's packed with healthy protein, vitamins and minerals and will convert even the most staunch lentil hater.
For this lot you're looking at about £1/$1.50 per person with a healthy appetite.

Braised Sausages with Puy Lentils and January King Cabbage
Serves 4, takes 40 minutes
8 good quality pork sausages*
250g Puy style green lentils
500ml/pint free range chicken stock
2 large carrot, diced small
1 stalk celery, diced
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 tsp salt-or to taste
large handful curly leaf parsley, chopped coarsely
3-4 sprigs tarragon, leaves picked
1 tbsp olive oil
1 Medium sized head January king or savoy cabbage, sliced
1 more clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
lots of fresh black pepper

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and cook the sausages for a couple of minutes to brown them well on all sides. Remove the sausages to a plate sautee the mirepoix in the pan for a few minutes until the veggies start to go translucent and tender. Add the bay leaf, garlic and salt and cook for a couple more minutes before adding the lentils, the chicken stock and returning the sausages to the pan. Bring the lot to a low simmer and cook uncovered for 25-30 minutes until the liquid has been absorbed into the lentils and they are tender. Stir the parsley and tarragon a couple of minutes before you've finished cooking.
Meanwhile, get the cabbage going by melting the butter in a large sautee pan until it's foaming, then add the garlic and sautee it for a few seconds before adding the cabbage. Stir the cabbage well into the garlicky butter and cook for a few minutes until beginning to soften. Stir in the red wine vinegar and pour over half a cup of water, then cover and lower the heat to low. Allow to cook covered for 15-20 minutes until soft throughout and all the liquid has evapourated.

Serve the sausages on top of a few spoonfuls of the lentils with a big scoop of the cabbage on the side.

Also gorgeous with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Cook's Note: *Look for pork sausages with at least 80% pork meat. Toulouse or Cumberland sausages are perfect.

Puy Lentils
Sausage

Stickiness at Midnight!

Got your attention, didn't I?

Actually, this is a recipe for a gorgeous, sticky ginger cake rather than a more grow-up kind of nighttime naughtiness. I've titled the post Stickiness at Midnight because I decided to make this while we were watching Big Love, so it wasn't ready to eat until a couple of minutes after 12:00. Totally the best midnight snack possible.

When I was coming up through the British state school system during the '80s, our school dinners consisted of the typical grey roast beef, rubbery potatoes, congealed gravy and Spam fritters. Even the puddings were an abomination, consisting of pink (can somebody explain this one to me?) rice puddings and semolina. Every once in a while, we'd have a piece of warm golden syrup or ginger cake swimming in plastic custard which, as a kid, was like the pinnacle of sloppy decadence.

I have never stopped loving ginger cake, even though the ones found now in c0ffee shops and bakeries are a far tastier alternative to those institutional ones of my youth.
This recipe produces an incredibly sticky, light, yet dark cake with a sultry spiciness which is cut through by a drizzle of tart lemon icing. You can definitely leave the icing off and serve with warm vanilla custard for a grown-up version of old-fashioned English childhood.


Gooey Stem Ginger Cake With Lemon Drizzle
Takes 1 hour, 20 minutes +cooling Serves 8

250g self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp +1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
pinch of ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1/4 tsp salt
125g cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1cm cubes
125g dark muscovado sugar
125g treacle (molasses)
125g golden syrup or corn syrup
2 tbsp syrup from the step ginger jar
120g stem ginger, finely grated
225ml whole milk
1 egg

For the icing:
70g icing (confectioners') sugar
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 160C/320F for a fan oven or 180C/375F Conventional Put a Pyrex bowl full of boiling water on the bottom of the oven
Grease and line an 23cm/9" round or square cake tin or a loaf tin
Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices and add to the bowl of a food processor, along with the butter. Pulse this lot together for about 30 seconds until you have the consistency of bread crumbs. This can also be done by hand in a bowl using your fingertips.
In a small saucepan, heat the treacle, golden syrup, brown sugar and milk, stirring periodically until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is beginning to boil. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
Mix the grated ginger into the flour mixture, then pour the warm syrup mixture over the flour, stirring as you go. You'll notice a lot of bubbles as the hot sugar hits the bicarb, so you want to move fairly quickly, as this is going to add quite a lot of lift to the final cake and the clock is ticking. When the mixture is nearly completely combined, stir in the syrup from the stem ginger jar and the egg. Stir for a few seconds more until the mixture is mostly smooth, then pour into your prepared cake tin and bake on the middle shelf for 50-60 minutes.
The best way to check for doneness is to test the internal temp. You want about 98C/210F
but if you don't have a probe thermometer, a skewer or toothpick inserted into the centre should come out mostly clean.

Allow to cool almost all the way before turning out onto a plate and drizzling with the icing.

To make the drizzle, have the icing sugar in a small bowl and add the half of the lemon juice, stirring and adding more a few drops at a time until you have a just-pourable consistency. Add the lemon zest and stir through, then pour or spoon over the still ever so slightly warm ginger cake. Serve immediately or at room temp.

If you plan on freezing, don't ice until you have defrosted it. Well-wrapped this cake should last a few weeks in the freezer (but seriously, who freezes cake?)

Ginger Cake

Seriously The Best Bolognese Sauce EVER.

I know, this is pretty controversial. Claiming to have the best recipe for spaghetti Bolognese is like claiming to have the best apple pie or roast potato recipe. The automatic response is "What? No, my mother makes the best spag bol (As it's known here in the UK)!" I mean, besides chicken tikka masala and fish and chips, spag bol is practically our national dish, served regularly at pretty much every dining table the country over.
This recipe makes three batches, so that you can freeze enough for a couple of other dinners for subsequent weeks without any more work. It takes a long, slow cook and has some ingredients that might surprise you, but the final result is rich, authentic and multi-layered. You will never ever touch another jar of pre-made sauce again, especially as this comes in at a few pennies over £1 per person!
Also ridiculously good in lasagne.

The BEST Bolognese Pasta Sauce
Serves 4 x 3 batches, takes 3 1/2 hours
450g/1lb beef mince
450g/1lb free range pork mince*
450g/1lb British rose veal mince**
2-400 tins crushed tomatoes
140 tin tomato puree
3 large onions, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, finely diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 bay leaves
Lg bunch basil, finely chopped
8 large garlic cloves,
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2-tomato tins full of milk
1 tbsp sea salt (or to taste)
4 tbsp olive oil

To serve- big hunk of parmesan or peccorino romano

Heat half of the olive oil over a high heat in a large, deep frying pan or dutch oven. Fry the beef, then the veal, then the pork in batches, moving each to a bowl off the heat once browned well.
Put the remaining oil in the pan and add the sliced onions, frying gently until soft and starting to go gold before stirring through the celery and carrot.
Add all the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer, then lower the heat to low and cover tightly with a lid.
Cook for 3 hours, stirring every so often and checking liquid levels. Serve over your favourite pasta with freshly grated parm and a leafy garden salad.

Cook's Notes:
* Use free range pork if you can. Aside from the obvious ethical reasons, the difference in flavour in outdoor reared pork is huuuuge.

**If you live outside the UK or can't find free range veal, substitute with either more pork, more beef or even minced lamb, which is a brilliant alternative.
Spaghetti Sauce

Maple Walnut Tart

Every so often - actually, fairly often- my husband will pipe up with something along the lines of "You know what sounds GOOD right now?? Chocolate Chip Cookies!" Usually, I'll do a quick mental inventory of my cupboards and if I can, I'll make what he's fancying. Today, we were watching a Thanksgiving episode of Gossip Girl (Shut up) and he said "Ooooh, I want pie!" A quick sort through the supplies closet later and I decided to make this Maple-Walnut tart. It has a teeny tiny hint of orange, which adds a lovely background flavour.

Maple Walnut Tart
Takes 1 hour 15 mins, serves 8
For the Pastry:
200g chilled flour
50g golden caster sugar
125g cold butter, cut into 1 cm cubes
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp grated orange peel
pinch, cinnamon
3 tbsp ice-cold water

For the filling:
200g walnut halves
150ml golden syrup
130ml real maple syrup
50 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
4 eggs
55g butter, melted
120g light brown sugar

Method:
In the bowl of a food processor, mix together the cold flour, salt and sugar together and add the cold chunks of butter. Pulse this lot together for a few seconds, until you have the texture of fresh breadcrumbs, don't over-work. Tip this mixture into a cold bowl and add the orange peel and cinnamon, stirring through with a cold butter knife. Dribble the first two tbsp of the cold water over the flour mixture and use the knife to stir it through. Use your fingertips to bring the dough together, adding a few more drops of the cold water through if you need to. When you can just bring the mixture together into a tender ball, wrap with cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C/375F
Roll the pastry out between two layers of cling film until a little larger than a 25cm tart tin.
keeping one layer of clingfilm on the pastry, gently place it into the tart tin. Press the pastry into the edges carefully and use the edge of the tin to cut the excess off (See Below) but keep the cling film on top of the pastry.
Fill with rice, beans or pie weights and bake for ten minutes, then remove the clingfilm, carrying the weights with it, brush the bottom of the pastry case with beaten egg and bake for a further 5 minutes. Put the tart tin on a baking sheet before filling it.Whisk together the eggs, sugar, syrups and orange juice. Melt the butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave (careful!) and pour into the sugary mixture, whisking all the while.
Stir the walnuts through and pour the whole mixture carefully into the pie shell. Make sure you spread the walnuts out evenly and be careful not to over-fill the pastry shell.

Bake for 30-35 minutes in the middle of the oven, checking after 20 minutes to check that the tart is browning evenly, rotate it if you need to.
Cool for 15+ minutes before serving. If you're not at all worried about calories, go ahead and serve with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

** The filling minus the walnuts is gorgeous if baked in ramekins a bain marie for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with the teeniest pinch of clove and nutmeg before baking, then chill and serve with vanilla custard. Mmmmmmmmm Silky Autumn loveliness.

Walnut Tart