Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Since my last post I have made another soup and done a fair amount of baking. The soup recipe was from The Guardian Feast  (2 November 2019) and was a hit in this house. Pasta soup with potato and sausage , cheese, leek - what's not to like?  On the baking front I've made a marmalade ring and date and walnut biscuits (both recipes from Doreen's Country Fare ), an apple pie (guided by my M&S cookery book published in 1980), and two types of flapjack (both recipes in my Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Baking ).  I do like flapjacks and am always very interested in other people's produce. My earliest memories of flapjacks date from my mid-teens when I was still living in England. Butter, brown sugar, oats and golden syrup. How can you go wrong?  The ones I made last Thursday were for different purposes: ginger flapjacks for the younger offspring's associates and orange flapjacks for the office; and some spares for my nextdoor neighbour. (Spouse and offspr...

As I write I'm listening to Summer Breeze sung by the Isley Brothers . Makes me feel fine.  Salted coffee, pecan & lime rocky road Lots of baking since my last blog entry. At the end of June I revisited a couple of lemon and lavender combination recipes - Bronte Aurell's blondies and Paul Hollywood's loaf cake. But an absolute triumph was Ottolenghi's salted coffee, pecan and lime rocky road . Oh yes. Make it. Make it soon. Make it often.  Now I'm listening to July by Mundy. Oh my my, July.   July is baking competition time.  The baking competition is just one section of a local horticultural society's annual show. It took place last Saturday. In preparation, I made sticky gingerbread using Doreen Fulleylove's recipe (Country Fare published in 1972) on the previous Wednesday and set dried fruit soaking in chai for my tea brack which I baked on the Thursday evening.  Pistachio shortbread I took a half day on the Friday and set to with m...

A Sliver of Silvia Silvia cake My first bake of February was the Silvia cake from Hygge and Fika . Buttery batter and coconut topping: it had to be good. I was rather disappointed by the cake's blandness. I've checked a couple of other recipes for this cake, none of which stand out as making it more interesting or flavoursome. Spinach and Spice Loaf Spinach and spice loaf This is more like it. Spinach, chilli, cumin, garlic and pinenuts provide rich flavours and texture. Definitely to be made again.  Rabbitting On A new recipe from an old book was Dorset rabbit from Doreen Fulleylove's Country Fare . Our butcher had a couple of rabbits for less than €10, so why not have a go? Jointed and covered with a layer of breadcrumbs and suet, this was a tasty meal.  All Square  Hazelnut squares One weekend I made raspberry squares from Hygge and Fika and hazelnut squares from Martha Day's Baking . I've had my eye on the hazelnut s...

Fete-ful Fudge Fest  Last year I was asked to make fudge for a parish fete. This year I was asked to do so again and invited to assist at the stall where the fudge would be sold. I agreed to both and the fudge-making began five days beforehand (16th May). I decided to try different recipes: one from a recipe book sold many years ago in aid of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin , one cut out of a magazine and one downloaded from a commercial website. All three required different types of sugar, or different types of milk (evaporated, condensed or ordinary) or a combination of two. Altogether I made four batches, including one with fruit and nut. What a blissful week that was!  This haiku by "Amanda in Scarlet" sums up my feelings for fudge:  Layers and folds yield  to pressure, tongue sinks - dissolves  into soft, sweet bliss. Training Days  Wholewheat scones: worthy but dull I am now preparing for another local event: the baking competiti...

Devilled Pork Chops I'm still trying to clear out foodstuffs from the cupboards and to use up any items in our freezer. Yesterday (9th January) I thawed out pork chops for our dinner but wasn't sure what to do with them. I flicked through Doreen Fulleylove's Country Fare and came across her recipe for devilled pork chops.  I wondered what the term devilled means as used in cooking. All I could find was "cooked with hot seasoning", a rather generic definition. Doreen's devilling in this instance requires:  75g/3oz butter or margarine  a teaspoon of dry mustard (I didn't have any so I used Dijon mustard paste instead)  a teaspoon of curry powder or paste  half teaspoon of ground ginger  half teaspoon of salt  1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce   These are all creamed together ready to spread on the chops when cooked. I followed Doreen's instructions and fried the chops. I spread the devilled mixture on both sides and covered th...

It's 7th January 2016 and the new year is well under way. We still have foodstuffs from Christmas: dried fruit, cheese, etc. The parsimonious streak in me has come to the fore. Yesterday I flicked through the cookery books in search of a recipe to use up some dates I'd bought for my Christmas festival cake. In Doreen Fulleylove's Simple Country Fare I found a recipe for date and walnut cookies. I doubled the quantities of the ingredients (self-raising flour, semolina, butter, caster sugar as well as the fruit and nuts). The younger offspring was favourably impressed, as were my colleagues when I brought the surplus into work. This evening I made pear and stilton soup using the recipe in The Soup Book. I first made it in August 2010. I made half the quantity, substituting a shallot for the onion and some lime juice for the lemon. Very nice, if sweeter than I expected. 

Oxtail Soup  At long last I have made the oxtail soup I pledged to make last month! The ingredients are relatively straight forward - oxtail (obviously), onion, carrots, celery, tomatoes (out of a can), parsley, a bay leaf, fresh thyme, flour, butter and dry sherry - but it required some effort to track down oxtails and the soup takes a long time to prepare. You need  to simmer the tails and onion for four hours, then add the other vegetables and herbs before simmering for a further thirty minutes. Eventually the stock is strained and chilled for at least an hour before finishing. Just as well I started cooking before midday in time to have it ready for the evening meal.  After four hours of simmering (during which time I prepared apple dumplings), I removed the herbs and meat. The meat is taken off the bones and then blended with the vegetables. I used the liquidiser part of my food processor and by the time I'd finished, smoke was rising from that hard-working machine...