Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Over the land is April  Coconut and pine nut cookies Over the land is April, Over my heart a rose; Over the high, brown mountain The sound of singing goes. Thanks to Robert Louis Stevenson for the title of this entry. April activity This month I made Chetna Makan's coconut and pine nut cookies. Distracted by something, I left them in the oven a little too long. Even so, I quite liked them but I'm not sure that my tasting audience was hugely impressed. Easter bark with Smarties I haven't bought a copy of Good Housekeeping for a long time so I treated myself to the April 2017 issue. There were lots of tempting chocolate cake recipes but I opted for the fairly straightforward Easter bark recipe . I made two batches: one with the suggested chopped mini eggs, the other with chopped up Smarties. These were very much appreciated by my tasting audience. Sometimes I have to remind myself of why I started writing this blog: to encourage...

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...

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...

Recipe Round-Up An e-mail went around at work on 1st June: baked goods were being sought for a fund-raiser. Great! I was home early from work but I had to cook the dinner before going out. Somehow I managed to make two batches of scones (one containing sultanas and the other cheese and chives) and a coconut jam slice from Successful Cooking: Slices . We were planning a quiet bank holiday weekend after the spouse's busy week. Flicking through Doreen Fulleylove's Country Fare I came across a recipe for wine cobbler, the ingredients for which are a bottle of white wine (this book was published in the days when no one was expected to know anything about wine regions), ice cubes, sliced lemon, mint, maraschino cherries (I substituted fresh blueberries), lime juice and a pint of soda water. This quantity was supposed to give you fourteen cups! The spouse and I had about two glasses each before it disappeared. Very tasty and refreshing, all the same. I also baked a cheesecake....

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...

Pineapple Broth with Cod Perhaps recent enthusing about  Roopa Gulati 's recipes has tempted fate. Today's recipe was ... well ... a little disappointing. Her introduction to the recipe in The Soup Book states that this combination of South Indian and South-East Asian flavours is "a marvellous match" for any firm-fleshed fish or seafood. Those flavours are derived from onion, peanuts, coconut, ginger, coriander, sesame, cumin, poppy seeds, tamarind, turmeric, chilli, pineapple, lime and mint. Add caption I started by preparing the paste: chopped onion, peanuts, desiccated coconut, ginger and four different seeds (coriander, sesame, cumin and poppy) heated until the coconut darkened. When cooled, I put the mixture into my processor, but didn't have much luck creating a coarse paste. So I got out the stick blender and had a go with that. I then added the tamarind paste, turmeric and chilli powder, but the blender was no match for the tamarind paste. It ret...