Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Fig and apricot scones  First off, let me say I pronounce the word scone to rhyme with don and upon. It's not an affectation. It wouldn't occur to me to pronounce it the other way. End of. Now, moving on. Last Saturday (30th January) I made fig and apricot scones using the recipe in Norfolk's Own Cookbook . I had an open packet of dried apricots and I wanted to use it. The ingredients include self-raising flour, caster sugar, dried figs and apricots, butter, ground cinnamon, baking powder and milk. I put everything into a bowl and brought them together with a knife. Then I tipped out the dough on to a work surface and kneaded it for the final binding. Now, for some unknown reason, I misread the instruction to roll out the dough to a 4cm thickness: I rolled it out to 4mm and then wondered why I ended up with twenty rather than ten scones. They were somewhat biscuity but very tasty. I will try them again - not sure when though, as I have prepared a list of recipes I ...

Lamb Meatball Soup Yesterday I decided to go off piste from The Soup Book . I leafed through The Lebanese Kitchen by Salma Hage and found a fairly simple recipe for lamb meatball soup. Meatballs, tomatoes, sweetcorn, spices: what's not to like? Whenever I think of minced meat I think of minced beef rather than minced lamb, but minced lamb is becoming increasingly available. The recipe calls for seven spices seasoning (also known as Lebanese mixed spices ), which I haven't heard of before. The spouse searched on the internet for me and found several different combinations of spices. Eventually I opted for a mix of black pepper, cumin, paprika, coriander, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamon. Decision made, I set to making the meatballs. These consisted of minced lamb, grated onion, flour and the spice mixture. Rings off and hands washed, I began mashing and pounding the ingredients together. I then shaped seventeen meatballs, all the while thinking of an old song my f...

Harira Harira: browning the meat and bones Oh, happy day! Oh, happy tastebuds! Yesterday's soup was one of those soups that I have no qualms about adding to my "make it again" list. Using Sophie Grigson 's recipe for this Berber speciality, I made a soup that  all four of us enjoyed: the spouse, the younger offspring, Juno (my mother-in-law) and I. Yes, that's right: even the younger offspring was unstinting in his praise. All it took was an onion, a shoulder of lamb, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, parsley, coriander, brown lentils, tomatoes, vermicelli, chickpeas, flour and lemons. And my smaller dekshee.  I chopped what needed to be chopped then set to cooking. First I fried the onions until translucent, after which I added in the ground spices, the chopped herbs, the meat and the bones. Next in were the brown lentils, chopped tomatoes (tinned) and sundried tomato paste. When these were well mixed I poured in water and left the lot to simmer. H...

Pork Vindaloo Broth Making Roopa Gulati's pork vindaloo broth from The Soup Book has been a two-day event. It began yesterday morning with my ruling out recipes because I didn't know where to get curry leaves or kaffir lime leaves . Eventually I decided upon pork vindaloo broth because I knew where I'd be able to obtain the necessary  tamarind pulp  if it wasn't available at the supermarket we use most frequently. The spouse was working outside Dublin so I had to take up the supermarket shopping slack. And what did I find in the spice section? Only dried curry leaves and kaffir lime leaves! Later on I had to accompany the younger offspring to a party in town and I planned to call into the Asian shops near the city centre in search of tamarind pulp or paste. I bought the tamarind on Drury Street before heading off to Lower Clanbrassil Street to see if I could buy fresh curry leaves or kaffir lime leaves. First I stopped into an Indian sweet shop the spouse had told ...