Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Early-flowering camellia February 2019 was surprisingly mild. The camellia in my back garden has dressed herself prematurely, fooled by the smile of early spring (a line from Anne Bronte's " In Memory of a Happy Day in Spring ".  I baked a couple of things, one of which was a very old favourite: chocolate brazil nut cake. The recipe was published in Good Housekeeping in April 1989, just in time for the older offspring's christening party. It became a firm favourite of the spouse's. I would make it for his birthday each February.  As we battled against middle-aged spread the recipe languished in a  folder. This year I decided that the spouse deserved a special treat and so dusted off the recipe. We are more restrained than in previous years and my office colleagues enjoyed their share of this special cake.  My second bake of last month was from the Kaul sisters' " Three Sisters Indian Cookbook ": semolina saffran biscuits. I had a job track...

Carrot and pineapple cake Oh October! Last month we hosted a teenage boy from overseas for two days and so what do teenage boys like? Cake. I made coconut and jam tarts and carrot cake from the Norfolk cookbook and a rich chocolate cake with orange and lemon from Gill MacLennan's Chocolate . According to my note in Chocolate , I last made that cake about six years ago. When making carrot cake I usually use the Good Housekeeping recipe from 1989 and I think I'll go back to it. The Norfolk recipe included a lot of sugar both in the cake batter and the cream cheese topping. The coconut and jam tarts were a big hit.  Now for November Amaretti plum cake This morning the spouse and I co-hosted a coffee morning fund-raising event for the younger offspring. He'll be heading off to sunnier climes next year to take part in a charitable project. What an opportunity for me to engage in a bake-fest!  From the Norfolk cookbook I made the morning muffins which I fi...

Baking and Boasting Last year I entered a local baking competition for the first time. There weren't many entries and I achieved a couple of seconds and thirds ... out of twos and threes! I decided that I would re-enter this year, having identified that the competition is quite old-fashioned and that the judges don't seem to require anything too fancy. Fortunately, I was on leave in the run up to the competition so had the time to prepare and make seven entries: shortbread, tea brack, scones, gingerbread, cupcakes, apple tart and a deep chocolate fudge cake.  Shortbread (Norfolk recipe) I tried out two shortbread recipes: one from Delia Smith's  Complete Cookery Course , the other from the  Norfolk cookbook . Delia's book was first published in 1978 and my copy was a twenty-fifth birthday present from one of my siblings. I have to state that I was not twenty-five in 1978 - I was still a teenager. The Norfolk cookbook was a more recent present from my other sibl...

Spiced Lamb Broth Regular readers of Minnie's Soup Kitchen will know that I usually cook my soups at the weekend. Well, it's Wednesday 9th February, I'm at home and there's a pot bubbling away on the hob.  The spouse had bought a few lamb shanks and was going to braise them for Thursday's dinner, but I thought I'd peep into  The Soup Book just in case there was a lamb recipe. Of course there was. It's Roopa Gulati's recipe for spiced lamb broth. The ingredients are chicken stock, lamb shank, lamb neck fillet, onions, root ginger, garlic, cumin seeds, cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon stick, green cardamons, brown cardamon, peppercorns, mace, chestnut mushrooms, green chilli and puff pastry. As there was a lot of lamb shank, I'm not using neck fillet. Instead of chicken stock I'm using the turkey stock I made last month. Also I couldn't source chestnut mushrooms locally so have substituted button mushrooms. While out at the green grocer's I...

Pre-Christmas Soup Break It's the Sunday before Christmas and I've opted to have a break from soups. Yesterday I was very busy, what with chauffeuring the spouse (who had come home "by railing" from a night out) to the shops and hunting more elusive ingredients and baking and cooking.  Later today the mother-in-law is coming for lunch. It will be something of an expedition, the cold and ice having played havoc with her travel arrangements and the logistics for the entire day.  The plan at present is for the spouse to go and collect her. As I write, he's preparing the vegetables for our lunch. We're having some sort of smoked salmon and smoked mackerel roulade to start, followed by roast beef and various vegetables (I'll be making Yorkshire pudding). I spent a lot of time yesterday preparing the pudding for today: compote of figs in port and prune ice cream using Delia Smith's Christmas recipe book (our copy was given to the spouse by one of my sibl...

Pumpkin and Apple Soup   It's Hallowe'en weekend and so pumpkin is on the menu.  There are two soup recipes in The Soup Book involving pumpkins: Monty Don 's pumpkin soup (which includes potatoes and tomatoes) and Jeanette Orrey 's pumpkin and apple soup. I was going to make both, but then changed my mind, having decided to make fudge (more on this later). I asked the spouse to choose between the two recipes and he opted for the latter. He does the shopping, so he deserves the power of choice. Sometimes. He headed off to the shopping centre and after a while he phoned to say there were no pumpkins left and that I should call down to "Young Stephen" (our local green grocer). So out the door with me in my new faux fur leopard print coat on the trail of pumpkins. I arrived down at Young Stephen's place of business to find one big pumpkin and lots of little ones. (When did little pumpkins come into vogue?) I bought the big one and when I got home decided ...

Tuscan Bean Soup This recipe calls for canned beans (borlotti, flageolet or cannellini) and as I have been tidying and cleaning out our cupboards I've used cannellini beans. I have to mention that the younger offspring has done an impressive job on the cupboards. That's enough about him. Back to me and my soup! Other ingredients include onion, carrots, leek, garlic, tomatoes, tomato puree (I substituted sun-dried tomato paste as there was an open jar of it in the fridge), chicken stock (I had to use a cube as my home-made reserves have been used up) and spinach.When ready it's served with ciabatta bread, grated Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. So it's quite a rich soup. We've just had the Tuscan bean soup for lunch. All enjoyed it. The adult males were particularly forthcoming in their praise. The spouse liked the "tomato-ey sharpness" and mused that ham stock should be considered as an alternative to chicken stock. Bees' Cheese and other recipes H...