Not For You, Sookie

I feel really bad for vampires. I mean aside from the obvious problems of constantly needing to prey on us mortals for sustenance and your friends and loved ones dying of old age while you just carry on living.

Imagine never being able to eat garlic or make out with an Italian! I bet even vampires' significant others have it tough, much like people who are dating a person with a peanut allergy.
You wouldn't be able to have anything with garlic in it, in case when you kissed your vampire, their lips and throat swelled up and they died-died (as opposed to undead-died.)

So Sookie, this recipe is not for you unless Bill stays missing and you finally hook up with Sam.

Can shapeshifters eat garlic?

This garlic soup recipe is a variation on a lovely looking dish that food blogger extraordinaire Wendy Tien at Upstart Kitchen. There are three bulbs of garlic in here, but the flavour is so mellow and golden. You know what I mean, right? I served this as a main course with some toasted sandwiches and it was absolutely beautiful. Stepson went on and on about how tasty this was, which is high praise indeed from him, because he isn't a big soup fan generally. It was wonderful as a main, but would be a fantastic starter if served in cups the way Wendy does.
If you like the mellow sweetness of gently roasted garlic, then this is the soup for you.

Unless you're Sookie.

Velvety Garlic Soup
serves 3 as a main, or 6 as a starter, takes 1 hour

3 bulbs garlic, cloves separated and peeled
2 cups olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
500ml (1 pint) free range chicken stock (preferably home made)
1 floury potato (about the size of a tennis ball) peeled and finely diced
2 sprigs thyme
the top of a sprig of rosemary (about 2")
2 bay leaves
100ml (4 oz) double cream (heavy whipping)
2 tsp sherry vinegar
salt and white pepper to taste
truffle oil to serve (optional)

Some of the garlic growing in our garden

Put the garlic cloves and olive oil in a small saucepan over a very low heat. The garlic should be completely submerged in the oil with room to move around. If you need to, add a little more oil. Allow the garlic to poach gently for about 30 minutes, until it is a warm honey colour, floating on the oil and the kitchen smells fragrant. Turn off the heat and let the garlic cool for a few minutes before removing from the oil with a slotted spoon.

What ever you do, don't throw away the oil. It is wonderful used in cooking, or on breads and in salad dressings.

Use a little of the oil in a medium sized saucepan to gently sweat the chopped onion until translucent. Add the garlic cloves, herbs and potato, then add the chicken stock and simmer for 15 minutes, until the potato is completely cooked and the herbs are tender. Remove the herbs, they should be floating on the surface.

Pour the lot into a blender and wazz for 30 seconds or so, until completely smooth and velvety. Return the soup to the pan and add the cream. simmer for a minute, then add the sherry vinegar and seasoning.

Taste to check seasoning before serving in warm bowls. Drizzle with a little truffle oil if you're using it.

Garlic Soup

Prawn Yesterday

I have a confession to make.
Remember yesterday that I said I thought that we should get free booze as a reward for keeping our families well-fed and healthy?
Well I told my husband about that and so today when we got to the cash register at the grocery store I grabbed a bottle of really good ale I'd been lusting after. (No, I'm not a bearded 50 year old farmer with a pipe, I'm just a gal who missed English ales for 20 years who indulges occasionally.)
I got back from the store and put away my spoils, updated the menu on the kitchen calendar and went out to the garden to check on/chat with my seedlings and sprouts, carrying my bottle of ale with me.

Did I mention that it is about 1:00pm at this point? (But it's 6:00 O'clock in Yekaterinburg.)

So it went like this:

Sip, Sip, "Hello little corn plants! I see you're doing well. in a couple of weeks you'll be able to live outside!" sip... sip...

Sip, "Hi radishes! my goodness look at you! You're doing ever so well in spite of this cloudy weather. You'll be tasty in some salads in no time. sip, sip, sip....

Sip, "Asparagus! Why do weeds love growing around you so much?? (sip, sip)  Look at the beetroots and garlic! No weeds there, so what are you doing?" Sip, sip, sip......sip

And so on and so on. Sip.

It's 2:00pm now and I am what you might call three sheets to the wind. I looked at the alcohol content (4.9%) and the back of the bottle and it turns out, I just drank 2.45 units of alcohol in the middle of the week. At Lunchtime. Alone. Without eating lunch.
Part of me is ashamed, but the rest of me thinks it's pretty awesome and like I'm getting away with something. Something that I will not make a habit of though, because I keep having to go back and fix typing errors.
I am also aware that I will probably have a hangover at around 5:00pm.

Anyway, on with the cooking.
Last night I made this tasty and quick Thai prawn and noodle dish. Bright with the flavours of fresh lime, lemongrass and coriander it's a delightful Spring evening meal.
I used wide rice noodles, which are lovely but chin-slappy, so rice vermicelli might be a better idea if you like a dry face.

Coconut Prawn Noodle Soup
serves 4, takes less than 45 minutes

1 can organic coconut milk
1 can water
2 stalks lemongrass, bruised and roughly chopped
2 thumb-sized pieces galangal thinly sliced
2 shallots, chopped
2 red chillies, sliced
6 lime leaves (fresh or dried)
400g (14oz) large, uncooked prawns, peeled and deveined
300g (10.5oz) rice noodles
juice of 3 limes
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp palm sugar
1 tbsp flavourless oil such as ground nut or sunflower
green tops from two bunches of pak choi, sliced thinly (reserve the white parts for another use)

Prepare the noodles according to the instructions on the packet, more than likely pouring boiling water over them and allowing them to soften before draining and refreshing with cold water. Divide the noodles into four bowls and set aside.
Meanwhile:
Sweat the shallots, galangal, chili, lemongrass and lime leaves together in a medium saucepan until soft and beginning to colour. Add the coconut milk, palm sugar, water and the fish sauce and bring up to the simmer for about 15 minutes until the liquid has reduced and is very fragrant.
Strain the broth through a fine sieve, pressing on the vegetables to squeeze out all the flavour.
Return the liquid to the pan and bring up to a simmer again and add the prawns. Cook for 2-3 minutes (depending on their size) until almost cooked then add the pak choi, cooking for half a minute more.
Squeeze the lime juice into the pan and give it a quick taste to check the sweet, spicy, sour and salty harmony, adding more sugar, cayenne pepper, lime juice or fish sauce if necessary.

Ladle the broth, prawns and pak choi over the noodles and scatter with coriander leaves before serving.

Spring Is Springing!!

This is my absolute favourite time of year. Now that the clocks have come forward, the days are magically longer and energy levels are suddenly higher, it's fantastic!

The woods behind my house are coming to promising life, full of the sound of song birds and the new shoots of tasty little ingredients like elder flowers and young nettles. Some of the elder trees along the stream by the back of the wods are dead or dying, and grow a fabulous mushroom called Jelly Ear or Wood Ear. They're used a lot in Chinese cookery and are usually sold dried in this country. They remind me of the ears of those creepy hairless cats like Mrs Whiskerson (Rachel's cat on Friends, duh) But they are absolutely delicious. They don't have a ton of flavour, but their texture is similar to a tender seaweed.

So now that Spring is here, I'll be done with hearty winter dishes for a while I think, preferring lighter salads, grilled dishes and lots of veggies, as they start to come out of the ground outside. Because last year we got three tons of bum compost delivered, our harvest was frustratingly sad. I left all the beetroot and parsnip seedlings that had failed to thrive in the ground, fully expecting the snow and worms to finish them off, but they over-wintered really well, giving us a surprise spring harvest.

I practice crop rotation in our garden, so last year's beets had to give up their spot this week to make way for other things, so I pulled these little golf ball-size babies out of the ground, keeping all the tender young leaves for my salad.

I made a spring vegetable minestrone, the basic recipe for which I 'borrowed' from Delicious magazine. It has broken tagliatelle in it, but you could use any left-over bits of pasta that you have lying around, or none at all.

The salad is a simple beet leaf, avocado and baby beet pile, full of the flavours of this time of year. It's the sort of thing that makes you feel better about having feasted on stodge and carbs all winter.

Spring Veg Minestrone With Broken Tagliatelle

serves 2, takes less than 20 mins

1 medium onion, roughly chopped

1 stalk celery, roughly chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 small red chilli, de-seeded and finely sliced

1/2 cup each, frozen peas, broad beans, sliced green beans (or similar

the heart of a romaine lettuce, cut into large chunks

6-8 asparagus spears, cut into 1" pieces

handful dry tagliatelle or spaghetti noodles broken into three

1 litre good veg or chicken stock

salt and pepper to taste

2 tbsp olive oil

Put the onion, celery and garlic in a food processor with a couple of tablespoons of water and pulse into a smooth puree. Sweat this mixture with the olive oil in a medium saucepan for 4-5 minutes, until translucent and fragrant. Add the sliced chilli and the chicken stock, then bring to the boil before adding the broken pasta and cooking for a further 8 minutes, until the noodles are tender.

For the final two minutes of the cooking, add in the frozen veggies, asparagus spears and lettuce.

Season before serving with crusty bread and butter.

Beetroot and Avocado Salad with Baby Beet Leaves

Serves 2, takes 2 hours (because of cooking and cooling times)

6-8 baby beets (depending on size) tops and roots trimmed

large handful baby beet leaves

1/2 avocado, cut into small, bite-sized pieces

2 large romaine lettuce leaves, sliced thinly

Dressing:

1 tsp dijon mustard

1/2 clove garlic, minced

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 salted anchovy fillets, chopped finely

2 tsp walnut oil (optional)

Boil the beetroot in a pan of salted water for 45 mins-1 hour, depending on size. They're cooked when tender all the way through to the tip of a knife. Drain the beets and allow them to cool completely.

Peel the beets by rubbing them with your thumbs, the skins will slide right off. It's best to wear latex gloves while you do this, as the colour from the beets will stain your hands.

Cut the beets into halves or quarters, depending on their size and pop into a bowl with the walnut oil, (or some olive oil) a little of the vinegar and a sprinkle of salt.

Use a fork to whisk together the remaining dressing ingredients, then toss the avocado, lettuce and beet leaves through the dressing well.

Pile onto plates and top with the gorgeous jewel-like baby beets.

Veg Soup

Baby Beet Salad

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

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.

Thai Seafood and Green Peppercorn Curry

Green peppercorns

Seafood, Pepper and Fresh Peppercorn Curry (see why I didn't use my pic before?)
Serves 4, 40 mins
I made this up the other day and it turned out really nicely. Feel free to adjust the chilli to taste and leave out the green peppercorns if you can't find them fresh. There's still plenty of flavour without.

The Paste:
3 cm piece of galangal root, thinly sliced
2 stalks lemongrass, white part only, thinly sliced
3 shallots, finely chopped
handful coriander (cilantro) stalks, finely chopped
2 tsp shrimp paste
3-4 dried red chillies, steeped in boiling water for a few mins, then chopped finely
2 tbsp raw peanuts (optional if you have allergies)
3 cloves garlic, bashed
4-5 lime leaves (dried or fresh) crushed or thinly sliced

Remaining ingredients:
400ml coconut milk (low fat is fine if you like)
500g mix large, raw prawns, deveined, squid tubes, scallops, mussels (or just prawns)
1/2 each red and green bell pepper, sliced thinly
2 ripe tomatoes, cut into quarters lengthways
5-6 twigs of fresh green peppercorns
3 tbsp fish sauce (nam pla)
Small handful Thai sweet basil leaves
Small handful coriander (cilantro) leaves

First, make the paste, either by using a large pestle and mortar and pounding away until you have a smooth paste OR, do as I do and use a small food processor. if you need to, add a tablespoonful of water to keep it moving. You want it to be free of large chunks and as smooth as possible.

In a hot wok, heat the coconut milk and simmer for a few minutes until a layer of fat appears on the surface. Add the curry paste and stir, cooking for a few minutes until fragrant. Stir in the peppercorns, tomatoes and peppers and continue to cook for 3-4 mins, keeping the mix moving from time to time. Add the seafood (or prawns) and simmer for a further 3-4 minutes until the seafood is cooked, sprinkle in the basil leaves and stir one more time before serving over plain steamed jasmine rice and scatter with the coriander leaves.
Thai Curry