Courgette Soup perfection!

This must be one of the most delicoius things I have ever made. I never knew courgettes and parmesan cheese went together so well.
I added onions to the recipe below and topped the finished product with lots of parmesan and parsley. I made this soup as a 'pick me up' for someone who was feeling unwell but sadly they weren't well enough to eat anything so I can only rely on my own review of the end product but I loved it!

Ingredients:



60ml/2fl oz extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp chopped garlic
handful basil leaves (preferably Italian), chopped
sea salt and ground white pepper, to taste
1kg/2¼lb green courgettes, cut lengthways into quarters then into 1cm/½in slices
750ml/1¼ pint chicken stock (should work well with veg stock too)
60ml/2fl oz single cream
handful flatleaf parsley, chopped
50g/2oz freshly grated parmesan, plus extra to serve

1.

Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan over a medium heat.
2.

Cook the garlic, basil, salt and courgette slowly for 10 minutes, or until the courgettes are lightly browned and softened.
3.

Add white pepper, to taste, then pour in the stock and simmer for 8 minutes, uncovered. Remove from the heat.
4.

Put three-quarters of the soup mixture into a food processor and blend until smooth.
5.

Return the mixture to the pan and stir in the cream, parsley and parmesan.
6.

To serve, ladle the soup into a bowl and season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Sprinkle over more parmesan, to taste. Serve with crusty bread and a green salad.

O got this recipe from the BBC food website it was devise by a chef called Neil Perry.

Home made chutney!!!

No recipe with this one for a change! Just wanted to share a few pictures of the ingredients used in my recent pickling and chutney making spree.

Keith Floyd's Green Tomato Chutney

What you need:

* 15g/½oz root ginger
* 8-10 chillies
* 2kg/4lb green tomatoes, chopped
* 500g/1lb apples, peeled, cored and chopped
* 250g/8oz raisins, chopped
* 625g/1¼lb shallots, chopped
* 2 tsp salt
* 500g/1lb brown sugar
* 570ml/1 pint malt vinegar



An now for the easy method:

1. Bruise the ginger and tie in a muslin bag with the chillies.
2. Place all the other ingredients in a preserving pan and suspend the muslin bag among them.
3. Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved, and simmer until the desired consistency is reached.
4. Remove the muslin bag. Pour into warmed sterilised jars, cover and label.

OR!!!! Using my tried and tested methos forget about the muslin bag and just put all the items from the bag in the the mix and after the sugar has dissolved!

Irish marrow chutney

Place all ingredients except the sugar in a large pan and bring to the boil, stirring all the time. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 1/2-2hrs, [or until the chutney is thick and the consistency of jam] stirring occassionally. Add the sugar about 3/4 of the way through and stir to dissolve. Stir more frequently for remainder of the cooking time to prevent the chutney scorching.

Spoon while still hot into prepared jars. Seal with airtight, vinegar-proof covers


What you need:

# 3lb marrow/courgette, peeled, quartered lenghtways, seeded and diced
# 3lb cooking apples, peeled cored and chopped
# 8oz onions, peeled and chopped
# 1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed
# 4oz sultanas
# 4oz raisins
# 4oz dried apricots
# 4oz preserved ginger, finely chopped or 1 tabsp ground ginger
# 2oz almonds blanched and chopped
# 4tabsp mustard seeds
# 1tabsp chillies, seeds removed and finely chopped or ground chillie powder to taste
# 1tabsp salt
# 1tabsp ground cinnamon
# 1tsp ground cloves
# 1tsp ground nutmeg
# 1 1/2pints malt vinegar
# 5tabsp Irish whiskey
# 1 1/2 lb sugar
# cooking time: approx 2hrs

This makes about 7lb of chutney. It is best kept in the jars for a few months before opening to let the taste mature!

August's indulgent blackberry fool

Ingredients:
300g blackberries
75g sugar
juice of 1 lemon
120ml double cream. I used Elmlea as it has less fat content
50g mascarpone

To make the fool, reserve a handful of blackberries for the garnish and purée the remainder with the sugar in a blender.
Add the lemon juice, then taste and adjust the flavouring.
Whisk the double cream to just soft peaks, not any thicker.
Soften the mascarpone by beating by hand and then whisk the two gently together. It is important not to overbeat this mixture. It can be taken too far and then the fool will have a grainy texture.
Finally, fold this mixture together with two-thirds of the purée. The remaining one third should be kept aside until assembly.
In a sundae dish or wine glass, place a few blackberries tossed in a spoonful of the reserved purée. Fill the glass half-way with the creamy mixture. Place a thin layer of the purée on top of this layer before filling the glass with more creamy mixture.
Fill the other dishes in the same way.
Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours to firm up the mixture.

This recipe is from Paul and Jeanne Rankin and can be found on the BBC food website.

Eggs Benedict - food perfect Sunday morning Breakfast

Here is the food that inspired the name for Dirk Benedict's name (he played Face in the A-team)
You make this easy dish with Poached Eggs, Hollandaise Sauce, English Muffins (Waitrose essential muffins are reccommended if you can get near a Waitrose), a generous sprinkle of Paprika, Some Ham (I love Duchy Organic Ham), salt, pepper and finally in this dish I used some home grown Spinnach.

Enjoy!!

Last weeks Banana Muffins as promised

banaba muffins!

Ingredients

* half a cup golden sugar
* 1 egg
* 2 and a half cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 3 ripe bananas, mashed
* 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
I added a tad of rose water and a few bits of fudge...oh and a little citrus peel with one batch that turned out well



Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place muffin cups in muffin tin, or grease with a little butter.
2. Mix sugar, oil, and egg until creamy and light yellow. Add bananas and walnuts. Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir until completely smooth. Spoon the batter into the muffin tin.
3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until toothpick poked in center muffin comes out clean.

Pictures of decorated muffins to follow shortly...see next post

Tom Yum - how to make it

Possibly one of my favourite soups ever. There is something very cleansing about this soup. I always feel fab the day after I have eaten it.
What you will need to make it:


1000ml water
6 sticks lemongrass, lightly crushed
4 fresh coriander roots, crushed
110g/4oz fresh galangal, peeled and sliced (available from Asian supermarkets)
8 tomatoes, cut into quarters, seeds removed
6 kaffir lime leaves
1-2 limes, juice only
3 red chillies, thinly sliced
75ml/3fl oz fish sauce (nam pla), or to taste
2 generous teaspoons of Tom Yum paste
approx 20 raw tiger prawns, shelled, gutted and split in half
Some people also add small chunks of chicken breast but I prefer not to

To serve


1 small bunch fresh coriander, leaves
1 small bunch fresh Thai basil if available or just use Italian basil
lime wedges

Tom Yum Soup - Healthy spicy yummy

Beetroot blend to detox

And of course the colours of nature left over in my juicer : )

super nice juice

I have dusted off the juicer which sadly I did not use at all last year. Every year when it is down off the shelf I tend to use it throughout summer and always feel the benefits....well my hair , skin and nails do : )
Yesterday I was juicing beetroot, ginger and celery...forgot to put the top on the juicer and my kitchen resembled a scence from dexter - doh!

Today I have made a pint of something sweet with a little zing. It tastes delicious so give it a go:
juice one large beetroot (washed but skin kept on!)
5 large carrots
large handful of fresh corriander leaf
half a large brocoli (I juiced about half the stem under the floret bit)

A great drink for when it is warm outside

I read an article on the web yeasterday saying that Beetrot is one of the key cleansers you can drink but obviously if you boil it you lose alot of the goodness. It is rich in potassium and somewhat comparable to bananas in that respect. One problem with beetroot is that it can cause you to have nausea or even a headache the first few times that you try it in a juice concentration as I am told it acts like breaking a damn holding back the toxins in your body. A good idea is to start with a bit and build up till your body is happy with the amount. I felt a bit unwell for about 30 mins yeasterday after my first raw beetroot juice but today my body is quite happy with it. There is a doctor at a hospital in Hungary who has apparently been using Beetroot as a menas of treating cancer for many many years.... I will let you do your own reasearch on that one!
Enjoy the day!

Tuna Salad without the Tuna ????

So we had enjoyed a busy weekend in Bristol and the weather had been slowly getting warmer over the last month....it got to that point where you think for the first time in 7 months...wow I can really eat a big juicy salad...a tuna or nicoise salad......
On arriving at the supermarket they were all out of fresh tuna and so we opted for fillet steak which we sliced thinly and fried quickly so it was still a bit pink inside - great replacement. The salad was complimented with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and brown sugar marinated french beans.....lovely : )
All fresh, juicy and relatively healthy.