Courgette Soup with Mint and Lemon – how to make a glut vanish !

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At some stage over what remains of the summer, a friend will drop in with a slightly desperate look in their eye. They will ask you how you are and there will be small talk as you wait for the kettle to boil. The friend will be clutching (but studiously ignoring) a mysterious newspaper-wrapped parcel and you’ll frown and wonder if they bring it everywhere with them.

Halfway through a pot of tea, the friend will suddenly ‘remember’ the mysterious parcel and casually mumble through a mouthful of chocolate biscuit crumbs:  “Oh, by the way, I brought you some courgettes, fresh from my garden.” If you haven’t got a courgette plant churning out the little blighters almost by the minute, accept gratefully and make this light, summery soup. If you have got a courgette plant, you’ll almost certainly produce a newspaper-wrapped parcel of your own as the friend takes their leave…

The friend will be clutching a mysterious newspaper-wrapped parcel...

For 3-4 servings of light summery soup you will need…

25g butter (or 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil)

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 teaspoon of finely grated lemon zest

500g courgettes, sliced

1 litre of well-flavoured chicken or vegetable stock

1 tablespoon of very finely chopped fresh mint

Melt the butter (or heat the olive oil) in a medium saucepan. Add the onion and lemon zest and cook gently without colouring for 8 - 10 minutes or until translucent. Add the sliced courgettes, followed by the stock. Simmer gently for about 10 minutes or until the courgette is soft.

Remove the saucepan from the heat. Add in the fresh mint and blend until you’ve turned the vegetables into a smooth liquid – a stick blender is the perfect tool for this. Taste and add salt and pepper only if necessary.

Serve it just as it is, or with a sprinkling of fresh herbs and/or a swirl of cream.

OK, that's 3 courgettes taken care of. Only another 7 to go...

...What’s your favourite recipe – savoury or sweet - for making a crop of courgettes vanish?

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White Bean and Lemon Soup – has the X-Factor !

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Compare and contrast: your beloved feeding you oysters... or strawberries... and now, that same scene with soup... Eeek!!! Let’s face it, soup just isn’t sexy. Most of the time, it isn’t even good-looking.

I think the writer, Judith Martin, sums up the nature of soup beautifully in this quote:

"Do you have a kinder, more adaptable friend in the food world than soup? Who soothes you when you are ill? Who refuses to leave you when you are impoverished and stretches its resources to give a hearty sustenance and cheer? Who warms you in the winter and cools you in the summer? Yet who also is capable of doing honour to your richest table and impressing your most demanding guests? Soup does its loyal best, no matter what undignified conditions are imposed upon it. You don't catch steak hanging around when you're poor and sick, do you?"

I think she is right. Soup is a friend with an engaging personality, able to charm just about anyone, be they king or pauper.

One of the things I love about soup is its ability to surprise. It is capable of having that X-Factor, that Susan Boyle moment. Then, a seeming bland bowlful - made from a handful of simple ingredients - will sing out at the top of its voice, hitting all the right notes, and just blow you away.

For 4 servings you will need...

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 stick of celery, peeled and finely chopped

1 bay leaf

1 fat clove of garlic, crushed

400g tinned white beans such as Cannellini (rinsed and drained)

750mls good-quality chicken stock (use vegetable stock if you prefer)

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice 

A tablespoon of finely chopped fresh parsley (optional) 

Magic beans!

1                    Place the olive oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat and add the onion, celery and bay leaf. Lower the heat and cook gently for about 5 minutes until onion is soft and translucent but has not taken on any colour. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute.

2                    Add the beans, stock, lemon zest and lemon juice to the saucepan. When it has come to the boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Remove the bayleaf before blending the soup to a smooth liquid – a stick blender is the perfect tool for this.  Serve with a sprinkling of parsley and some good crusty bread.

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Honey Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Ginger Crème Fraiche – stirring stuff!

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I have a complete mental block when it comes to buttons on kitchen appliances. My particular downfalls are my electric beaters and my stick blender. When using either, I manage to successfully carry out the task I had in mind – whip cream for example, or blend soup. Easy enough! Job done!



Honey Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Ginger Crème Fraiche



It’s the next bit I find tricky. I switch off the appliance and go to eject the beaters/blade but for some strange reason I am unable to carry out this simple step. Instead, I lift the appliance out of whatever mixture I have been working with – still dripping with cream/soup etc and ... switch... the... damn... thing... back... ON!

At this point, about a tablespoon of cream/soup is dispersed around the kitchen at a centrifugal force of OH MY GOD!!! Have you any idea how much kitchen/person a tablespoonful of liquid will cover? Worse, each droplet has a spinning trajectory which means that it will not only COVER every surface within a 10 foot radius, but it will actually get BEHIND stuff too.

I only ever make this mistake when I have just finished my makeup and blow-dried my hair and guests are about to arrive.

This evening I am taking no chances. My husband is on soup-blending duty and the ginger crème fraiche only requires stirring. Athough...there is still the cream to whip for the cherry profiteroles. After a glass of wine that will be tempting fate. Oh dear - fingers crossed!

Honey I Roasted the Squash!

For 8 servings you will need...

1 butternut squash weighing about 1.2kg

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon fresh thyme

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 carrots, peeled and halved

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon runny honey

6 fat cloves of garlic, unpeeled

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion (think tennis ball-sized), finely chopped

2 sticks celery, peeled and finely chopped

1.5 L vegetable or chicken stock

Preheat the oven to 180°C

1                    Cut the butternut squash into quarters lengthways and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Cut each wedge of squash into half across the middle. Place in a shallow roasting tray with the olive oil. Get your hands in there and anoint each piece of squash with the oil until liberally coated and glistening. Sprinkle with fresh thyme and a little salt and black pepper. Place in the oven for 10 minutes.

2                    After 10 minutes, remove from the oven and add the carrots. Sprinkle the squash with balsamic vinegar and drizzle with honey, making sure each wedge gets a little bit of honey sweetness. Place the tray back in the oven and continue cooking for a further 25 minutes, adding the unpeeled garlic 10 minutes into this cooking time. When the squash is cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 5 minutes.

3                    Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a gentle heat. Add the onion and celery and cook gently without colouring until the onions are soft and translucent - about 5 minutes.

4                     Chop the roasted carrots and add to the saucepan. Remove the skin from the butternut squash before adding to the saucepan. Squeeze the garlic cloves gently until the skin bursts then add the soft garlic pulp to the saucepan. Finally add the stock. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat. Cover and simmer gently for about 15 minutes, then blend. A stick blender is perfect for this job.

Ginger Crème Fraiche - stirred, not shaken!

For the ginger crème fraiche you will need...

6 tablespoons crème fraiche

1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger

Simply stir the two together and chill until needed.

Just before serving, swirl a little of the ginger cream into the soup.

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Tomato and Carrot Soup – bloomin’ luverly!

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As a small child, himself knew his great grandmother, a Victorian lady who apparently had a habit of going around with her skirt tucked into her bloomers. Her great grandson remembers that she adored tomato soup, which she would sop up with chunks of bread. I never met her, but I have a vision of a Queen Victoria-like figure schlurping up her soup, then wiping her tomato-stained gob with a lace-cuffed sleeve – a sort of Eliza Doolittle character.

I asked if the Victorian’s soup was likely to have been homemade. Himself is inclined to believe that it was tinned.

Tastes like this!

Today’s recipe is homemade… from a tin - or rather a carton. That might seem a contradiction in terms however, unless you have a fantastic supply of sun-ripened San Marzano tomatoes, you’re much more likely to get the best flavour for soups and sauces from pasata (sieved tomato pulp) or tinned tomatoes. Look for brands with a conscience and go for products with nothing added. There should only be one ingredient on the label. Tomatoes!

For 6 – 8 portions of bloomin’ luverly tomato soup you will need…

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 carrots, finely sliced

1 onion, finely chopped

2 potatoes, peeled and finely diced (approximately 250g prepared weight)

1 fat clove of garlic, chopped

750ml pasata (or 2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes)

750mls chicken stock or vegetable stock

1 teaspoon of fresh thyme (or ½ teaspoon of dried thyme)

½ teaspoon sugar

salt and pepper to taste

Method

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the carrot and onion. Give them a quick stir to coat them with the hot oil then turn down the heat, cover and allow to cook gently without colouring for about 8 minutes. Next, add the diced potato and chopped garlic, stir and once again, cover and this time allow them to cook for about 4 minutes.

Next add the pasata, stock, thyme and sugar. Turn up the heat until the liquid comes to simmering. Lower the heat, cover and allow to simmer gently for about 15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

Blend the contents of the saucepan to a smooth cream – a stick blender is perfect. Taste and add salt and pepper to suit your palate.

Serve with crusty bread.

I scattered the top of the soup with a little proscuitto and some finely chopped fresh celery leaves. 

Other toppings I like for this soup are shredded fresh basil; Parmesan croutons with fried bacon bits; or a simple swirl of crème fraiche, though I'm not beyond following the Victorian's example!

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Allendale Courgette and Cheese Soup – a game of Farmers’ Market Roulette

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Some years ago, while hiking in Snowdonia in Wales, I shared a hostel kitchen with three girl guides as they prepared lunch for their troop. 

I speak Geordie... This is A bool a kyle ... apparently

The first girl guide slathered margarine on the bread...

the second girl guide filled the sandwiches with square ham and plastic cheese...

the third girl guide painstakingly nibbled away any filling that peeped over the edge of the crust, before wrapping the completed sandwiches... Bleaugh!

That memory popped into my head because my beloved was recently reunited with his scout troop - the 4th Ilford - after more years than they care to remember.  These former boy scouts assured me that their food prep was much more conscientious.

Our visit to Allendale, near Newcastle in Northumberland, coincided with the Allen Mill Farmers’ Market, run by our delightful hosts, Anne and Chris Bacon at Allen Mill.


Farmers' Market Roulette - some of the contributors

There, David Harris (aka The Cookery Coach and self-confessed “Diet Satan”) was conducting a demonstration of “Farmers’ Market Roulette”.  Farmers’ Market Roulette is when David arrives more or less empty-handed and charms the stall holders into swapping some of their produce for publicity. He then conjures a dish from the ingredients collected.

On the menu was a courgette soup with a mellow cheddar-style cheese from Birdoswald Organic Cheese. Birdoswald cheese has quite a pedigree - the recipe originally coming from Ireland in 1688.  



David Harris converting local produce into a feast!



The courgettes were grown by Bluebell Organics, who produce organic vegetables, fruit juices and chutneys.

David served the soup with a hunk of Sunday Bread from Allendale Bakery and Cafe. 

Also featuring in David’s food roulette were pork escallopes from Hallsford Farm – a rare-breeds farm producing Llanwenog Lamb (and Mutton in season), Shorthorn Beef and Saddleback Pig. The sauce for the pork contained mustard from Marilyn Avens and Geoff Cole at Cumberland Honey Mustard. I tasted the Seville – tangy with a hint of orange - and the wonderfully nutty Original Honey Mustard. Marilyn and Geoff also produce a range of relishes, vinegars and vinaigrettes, pickled fruits, and jams.

Cumberland Honey Mustard - it's hot stuff!

This is the soup David made from his Farmers’ Market bounty. (I've reduced the quantities to suit a family-sized pot)

For 3 - 4 servings you will need...

2 shallots (or 1 onion) roughly chopped

1 fat clove garlic, roughly chopped

50g streaky bacon, cut into small pieces (a kitchen scissors is great for this job)

500g courgettes, cut into large cubes

1 litre good chicken (or vegetable stock)

100g Birdoswald Organic Cheese (or any good cheddar-style cheese)

Salt and pepper to taste

1          Heat a tablespoon of oil (light olive oil or sunflower etc) in a large saucepan over a medium heat and add the shallots, garlic and bacon. Fry gently for about 2 minutes until the bacon is cooked, then add the courgettes. Cook for a further 5 minutes or so, giving the courgettes time to absorb the flavours from the other ingredients.

2          Add the stock to the saucepan. When it has come to the boil, lower the heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the grated cheese. Blend to a smooth liquid – a stick blender is the perfect tool for this. Taste and add salt and pepper only if necessary.

A landscape made famous by Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Take a Farmers' Market picnic to this famous spot on nearby Hadrian's Wall

Allen Mill Farmers’ Market and Car Boot Sale runs on the 3^rd Sunday of the Month, July – December, 10.30am to 3pm. Aside from the market, Allen Mill is open all week and offers a range of local North Pennines crafts and produce, micro brewery, art centre and printmaking studio with antique presses. The mill is in an area of outstanding natural beauty and archaeological importance. It is within striking distance of Hadrian’s Wall, and the medieval market town of Hexham.

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Smoked Bacon and Mushroom Chowder – Fuel for Dancing at the Crossroads

Pin It Summer arrived on Saturday – for one performance only.  The clouds of the past few weeks gave way to blue sky. The temperature nudged 20°C . It was perfect timing.  

Smoked Bacon and Mushroom Chowder - a 'souper' food

Cabinteely village was closed to traffic and a dance floor was erected in the street. Several local restaurants had set up stalls, with paella and meatballs from Las Tapas, and a range of Thai food from Pattaya. The Horse and Hound pub was five deep at the bar – almost unheard of since the smoking ban. The scene was set for the revival of an old custom - dancing at the crossroads – a tradition prohibited by the party pooping Public Dance Halls Act of 1935.

Hey! This is my airspace!

This community occasion would have been miserable in the rain. As it was, the temperature dropped to a chilly 10°C as the evening wore on. Dancing would have kept me warm but I had worn ridiculous shoes (a recurring theme) and I had to rely on this chowder to heat me up when I got home.  

For 6 - 8 servings you will need...

750g mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
10g dried porcini (optional) processed to a fine powder in a food processor
500mls chicken/vegetable stock
25g butter
150g onion, finely chopped
125g smoked bacon lardons
500mls milk
50g butter
50g plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat leafed parsley
A little extra chopped parsley for sprinkling over the top

1                    Put the sliced mushrooms (and dried porcini if using) in a medium saucepan and add the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

2                    Meanwhile, melt 25g of butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and the smoked bacon lardons. Cook gently until the onion is soft and translucent. Transfer to a bowl.

3                    To the same large saucepan, add the milk, the remaining 50g of butter and the flour and stir with a whisk over a medium heat until thickened into a creamy sauce and starting to bubble – about 5 minutes. Strain the stock from the mushrooms into the creamy sauce. Add about 1/3 of the sliced mushrooms, then finely chop the remaining mushrooms and add them too. Finally, add the bacon and onion, along with salt, pepper, thyme and chopped parsley. Simmer gently for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4                    Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve with a generous sprinkling of freshly chopped parsley.

This is even better next day, when the flavours have had a chance to develop further.

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Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness – and Wild Mushroom Soup

Pin It Once upon a time, I went on a Mushroom forage at Avondale, the home of Charles Stewart Parnell, “uncrowned king” of Ireland for anyone who is interested in history. That I am alive to tell the tale is down to the fact that my colourful haul with its minks and mauves and sulphur yellows was confiscated and labelled beautiful... but deadly!

Wild mushrooms... captured!

"I've never trusted toadstools."

- Cheshire Cat

Our guide - a mycological ‘Ray Mears’ - told us that there are around 3,000 types of mushrooms in Europe - or was it 30,000? Either way, it was a bewildering array but the job of making identifications is relatively easy as there are only 30 or so that are good to eat, the rest being inedible or downright poisonous. I unerring selected the downright poisonous. You can catch the full story, broadcast on RTE’s Sunday Miscellany. My bit starts exactly a minute into the clip.

One of the ‘mushroomiest’ mushrooms to eat is the porcini (aka cep, or penny bun) and it is the star of this rich autumnal soup. You’ll be glad to know that I did my foraging at the supermarket. Given my level of foraging expertise, it is much safer that way.

For 4 to 6 servings you will need:

10g (½ oz) dried porcini mushrooms

150mls boiling water

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 stick celery, peeled and finely chopped

500mls (1 pint) chicken/vegetable stock

250g (8oz) button mushrooms, thinly sliced

50g (2oz) butter

50g (2oz) plain flour

500 mls (1 pint) fresh milk

2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Salt and black pepper

1    First, rehydrate the porcini mushrooms by placing them in a measuring jug with the boiling water and leave to soak for 15 minutes. This also allows any grit to settle at the bottom of the liquid.

2    While the porcini are soaking, heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over a gentle heat and add in the onion and celery. Cover and cook gently without colouring for 5 minutes or so until the vegetables have softened.

3    Remove the porcini mushrooms from their soaking liquid with a slotted spoon and chop finely. Strain the soaking liquid through a sieve into the saucepan, catching any grit in the sieve. Add the porcini mushrooms, button mushrooms and stock and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

4    Meanwhile, in another medium saucepan, melt the butter, then add in the flour and stir until it forms a paste. Continue cooking and stirring over a medium heat for a minute or so, then remove from the heat. Now, add in the milk a little at a time, stirring rapidly with a wooden spoon. It will almost certainly look a little lumpy. Don’t worry we’ll sort that out in a moment. When you have added about half the milk, swap the spoon for a whisk and add the remaining milk.

5    Return the saucepan to the heat and use the whisk to stir any floury lumps back into the liquid. Now add the cooking liquid from the vegetables and mushrooms and continue cooking (and stirring) until the liquid starts to bubble gently. Turn down the heat and add in about three-quarters of the mushrooms and softened vegetables, along with the Worcestershire Sauce. Simmer gently for 2 minutes, then blend the soup. A stick blender is perfect for this job.

6    Finally, add in the remaining mushrooms and vegetables and the fresh parsley. Taste, and add salt and black pepper if needed.

Gilding the lily...When you’ve dished up the soup, pour a little fresh cream into the centre of each bowl, sprinkling with a little more parsley (or chives if you prefer).

If you prefer a smoother soup, blend all the mushrooms and vegetables at step 5.

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