Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Blue July, bright July,  Honey flapjacks Month of storms and gorgeous blue;  Violet lightnings o'er thy sky,  Heavy falls of drenching dew; ... So wrote George Meredith.  I certainly saw some lightning in July but not here in Ireland. The spouse, the younger offspring and I were on the continent. Despite the time away from my own hob and oven, I still managed to get some baking done.  Pecan toffee shortbread: a favourite My first offering consisted of honey flapjacks from a recipe in the Irish Times . You'll see that the basic recipe can be varied: butter can be replaced by coconut oil and honey by maple syrup. Four days later I made pecan toffee shortbread - a personal favourite.  Prize-winners: apple crumble cake and plum and amaretti tray-bake Shortly afterwards I entered the local baking competition, making plum and amaretti cake for the tray-bake section and apple crumble cake for the miscellaneous section. Much to ...

Two Soups Celeriac and Bramley apple soup ingredients Last Saturday (27th February) I made celeriac and Bramley apple soup using Tom Kerridge's recipe in his book Proper Pub Food . I should have ended up with enough soup for 4-6 people but I was lucky to get two bowls. Because I'd used too much celeriac, once I had processed the cooked mixture, the resulting soup looked liked stodgy porridge. I strained as much as I could and it was very tasty indeed, especially with the crumbled Roquefort and chopped walnuts. Celeriac and Bramley apple soup with walnuts and Roquefort cheese Ingredients for butternutsquash soup and tomato salsa The next day I made roasted garlic and butternut squash soup with tomato salsa from Complete Comfort Food (edited by Bridget Jones). Lots of nice ingredients: whole garlic bulbs to be roasted, thyme, squash and ground coriander in the soup; tomatoes, red pepper and red chilli in the salsa. Much to my surprise, I have just found a ve...

My current project is to work my way through recipes from Norfolk’s Own Cookbook: Everything Stops for Tea , which was a present from J'Zo and G-Cro. J'Zo is delighted that I'm using the book and is even more delighted to be mentioned in my blog. She told me not to write that in my blog. Too late. Last Thursday (18th February) I made three things from Everything Stops for Tea : blondies, apple crumble cake and vintage Cheddar and walnut scones. The spouse, younger offspring and I were heading west to stay with family for a couple of days. I was pleased to have a good reason to progress my project. Everything was well received. Blondies Blondies: Rapture! Blondies are the heart of class! One way or another, you’ll want more of these. You’ll be in raptures after one. I’m dreaming of when I’ll next make them. Ingredients: 200g unsalted butter 450g light muscavado sugar 2 medium eggs and 1 medium egg yolk 3 teasp vanilla extract 280g plain flour pinc...

Curried Honey Sweet Potato Soup This weekend I was back into the Collins Beekeeper's Bible and made three recipes from it: one starter, one main course and one pudding. Yesterday (Saturday 12th October) I made curried honey sweet potato soup, the ingredients for which included sweet potatoes, curry powder, honey, garlic, ginger root, a red chilli, a red onion and vegetable stock. Having prepared the vegetables, I roasted the sweet potatoes which I had tossed in oil, curry powder, honey, garlic, ginger and chilli. The smell was gorgeous. While the potatoes were roasting, I gently fried the onion. When both were ready, they were processed together with the stock and some coconut milk. Then I reheated the mixture and soon it was time to dish up. A very tasty soup, improved by the addition of some thick yoghurt. Moroccan Honey-Chicken Tagine with Prunes Still dripping with honey, today I made this chicken tagine. First I had to marinate the chicken pieces in a combinat...

Chicken pieces rubbed with spice mix The first time I made mulligatawny was back in May 2011. On that occasion I used The Soup Book , of course. Yesterday I used another book that has been idling away, not earning its right to be on my kitchen bookshelves: The Essential Asian Cookbook (edited by Jane Bowring and Jane Price).  The ingredients include chicken pieces, flour, Madras curry powder, ground turmeric, ground ginger (I used fresh ginger on the last occasion), cloves, peppercorns, an apple(!), chicken stock, lemon juice and cream: not dissimilar to, but less extensive than the ingredients listed in The Soup Book recipe. The spouse had bought a whole chicken, which I cut into pieces. These pieces were then rubbed with the mix of flour, turmeric, ginger and curry powder. I fried them in butter, threw the cloves and peppercorns into the pot (not wrapped in muslin. Where do I buy muslin, anyway?), poured in the stock, added the diced apple and left the lot simmering for ...

Beetroot Soup with Goat's Cheese One of the first soups I made from The Soup Book was Juliet Kindersley 's beetroot and apple soup (see blog of 16th January 2010). The other beetroot soup recipes in this book are chilled beetroot and tomato soup, borscht, and beetroot and gin soup.  I wasn't sure about beetroot as it was something I resisted strenuously in my childhood. That said, time passes and tastes change or mature. I passed a vegetable shop last Friday and the beetroot on display outside caught my eye, so yesterday I called into "Young Stephen's" shop (my local green grocery) and bought some. The other ingredients in today's effort (a recipe by Rebecca Sullivan ) are tomatoes, apples, olive or sunflower oil (I've used the latter because we're low on the former!), onion, beef stock. The soup can be served hot or cold with Childwilkbury 's goat's cheese crumbled on top. There are two stages in cooking the soup: roasting the tomatoes...

Parsnip and Apple Soup I was determined to have completed fifty recipes from The Soup Book by the end of this month. In making today's choice I noticed I hadn't made a soup from the winter vegetable section of the book for some time, so thought I had better re-visit that section.  The recipe for parsnip and apple soup is on page 170 and coincidentally I made the recipe on the opposite page, Moroccan Roasted Sweet Potato Soup, exactly a year ago. Written by Marie-Pierre Moine , the recipe lists the following ingredients: onion, garlic, mild curry powder (I don't keep such a thing in the house so made up my own concoction), parsnips, a Bramley apple, vegetable or chicken stock, cream and lemon juice. I am not a fan of parsnips (see my blog of 4th September 2010), but the spouse loves them and the offspring are not immune to their charms. It took me longer than expected to cook the soup (Moine's times are twenty minutes for the preparation work and thirty for cooking)....

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 ...