Minnie's Soup Kitchen

It's 5th January and I have been busy in the kitchen. We started the new year with a favourite old recipe - cinnamon duck with redcurrant sauce - from Good Housekeeping (April 1992).  Basically, you sear duck breasts in a pan with a stick of cinnamon, then transfer the breasts to an oven (skin side up) to roast while you make a sauce with onions, thyme, stock, red wine and red currant jelly. A delicious start to the year.  Getting ready to roast tomatoes Yesterday I decided to make soup from one of our cookery books other than The Soup Book . I selected River Cottage Veg Everyday! (Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, 2011, Bloomsbury) but didn't go for a straightforward recipe. In order to make Hugh's Mexican tomato and bean soup , I first had to make roast tomato sauce (1.5kg of tomatoes yielded about 550ml of sauce) and go on the hunt for a tin of black beans. Finding black beans was the hard part. Once I found them, there was no holding me back. The spouse said o...

September: it's all back to school, sunny days and increased traffic volumes. Then someone injures himself and earlier events fade from the memory. But there's always baking. My fifteenth recipe from Norfolk's Own Cookbook was for lemon and blackberry cake. The key ingredients were grated lemon zest, rapeseed oil, sugar, ground and flaked almonds and sugar. The blackberries were added to the top for the last fifteen minutes of baking. I have to admit I didn't pick my own blackberries. I bought these ones and I am not a fan. Next time I will put my boots on and scramble among the brambles.   As it was the younger offspring's birthday earlier this month I made him one of his favourites: rocky road muffins from Gill MacLennan's Chocolate recipe book. He was appreciative. Then as a treat for when he was in hospital I made him Nigella Lawson's rocky road crunch bars .  Yesterday I reverted to The Soup Book and made a lentil and vegetable soup that I...

Peanut butter brownies Party Pieces While sorting out recipes cut from magazines recently, I came across one for marbled peanut butter brownies. Having been off chocolate in January, I decided that I would reward my abstemiousness with a chocolate treat. My self-imposed rule when I haven't given up chocolate in January is not to eat chocolate except on Fridays and Saturdays ... and perhaps a sneaky bit on Sundays. Back to the brownies recipe. When would I get to try it out? The occasion arose. Two colleagues were moving on and in the time-honoured tradition of showing affection for people who are always on diets or lamenting their weight, a group of us marked their departure by going out for lunch and then having a tea party about an hour and a half later! I baked, of course. First I made good  old-fashioned cup cakes using the batter and glace icing recipes from Mary Norwak's Breads, Cakes and Biscuits , which was published in 1978. Then I made the marbled peanut but...

White Gazpacho We've had a few lovely sunny warm days here in Dublin so yesterday I thought I'd pick a recipe for a chilled soup  from The Soup Book . On a hot day you don't want to spend too much time peeling and chopping and standing over a hot saucepan.  Similarly, while the recipe requires you to grind blanched almonds, I had a rebellious moment and used pre-ground almonds. Naughty me. I cut up white bread and left it soaking in iced water while I whizzed the ground almonds with a little iced water in the processor. I probably shouldn't have used ice cubes. Then I put the bread and garlic into the processor and whizzed the mixture together. This was followed by the addition of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. A little seasoning and I was ready to go. I placed seedless green grapes in the bottom of the bowls and ladled in the soup. Verdict: The poor younger offspring wasn't able for much, mainly because of the garlic. The spouse and I both liked it but h...

Onion and Almond Soup This weekend I made my thirty-fifth soup from The Soup Book - onion and almond.  It caught my eye several months ago, but I was put off by one of the listed ingredients, namely nigella seeds (Nigella sativa).  I didn't know what they were and I hadn't seen them any where in the course of my shopping, but eventually I looked them up. They are also known as black cumin, onion seed or nigella and are used in curries.  A suggested substitute is mustard seeds and that's what I used.  The recipe is by Roopa Gulati and listed among its ingredients are onions, almonds, chicken stock, red chilli, muscovado sugar, balsamic vinegar and cream. The preparation takes a little time and that's just the garnish. Preparation consists of finely slicing an onion, sprinkling it with sea salt and setting it aside for at least two hours before deep-frying it. We don't possess a deep fat fryer, so I had to use a small frying pan with about half an inch of oil. Late...