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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Roasted Vegetable Tart Tatin – lives up to its puff pastry potential...

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I was watching The Great British Bake Off the other evening and the overriding theme was a terror of soggy bottoms. They went on about it so much I began to wonder if the judges and contestants had each had a childhood filled with compulsory picnics on damp grass without the benefit of a ground sheet.

It turns out that the dread lay in the possibility of puff pastry not reaching its full airy potential. Oh the drama of it all!

And yet, as I prepared this roasted vegetable tatin, I too began to worry about stunting the growth of my puff pastry. Ripe juicy tomatoes, plump peppers – all that juice instead of spelling flavour, now just signalled certain disaster. There was nothing for it but to roast the bejaysus (technical term) out of the vegetables before they came anywhere near the pastry. The benefit of roasting the vegetables in advance is that it concentrates the flavour no end as well as driving out those potentially catastrophic juices.

War On Waste: Because this is cooked in two stages, you could pop the vegetables in to the oven with another dish and finish the tart the next day, or you could cook something else in the oven while the vegetables are cooling (This is what I did, making this banana bread - with walnuts instead of coconut)– WOW is about energy efficiency too.

 

For 1 savoury tarte tatin you will need...
... to preheat the oven to 180°C

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 medium tomatoes (about the side of a tennis ball), halved across the waist
4 small bell peppers (again, think tennis ball), halved top to bottom, seeds removed
2 onions (yep, tennis ball), peeled, leaving the root intact, then sliced into 4 wedges through the root
1 fat clove of garlic, grated
½ teaspoon dried basil
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1 x 250g ready-rolled puff pastry sheet 

Fresh basil, parsley or mint leaves to garnish 

1                    Put the olive oil into a medium roasting tin and add the prepared vegetables. Dot with grated garlic and sprinkle with the dried basil, salt and pepper. Roast in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until the edges of the vegetables start to brown. Remove and leave to cool.

2                    Line an 22cm (9”) round cake tin with parchment paper (this stops the vegetables sticking)

3                    Pack the cooled roasted vegetables snugly into the cake tin in one layer, bearing in mind that you’ll be inverting it to serve, so best side down...

4                    Cut the pastry sheet to fit neatly over the top of the tin. Place on top of the vegetable layer and transfer to the preheated oven.

5                    Bake for about 30 minutes (again in a preheated oven at 180°C) or until the pastry is golden and risen. Leave to cool for about 10 minutes before carefully inverting onto a serving plate. Scatter with fresh basil, parsley or mint leaves. 

Note: Although this tart didn’t hang about long enough to get a soggy bottom, I suspect that the juices would leak into the pastry by the following day so feed this to a hungry appreciative crowd who will demolish it before it has time to disgrace you.

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Crainquebille Potatoes – a tummy hug like no other!

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Crainquebille Potatoes - a saucy little side

We are turning our culinary backs on the potato. In Ireland and the UK, pasta and rice are replacing the spud as the national carbohydrates. Some of the reasons offered are “too much work”, “can’t do a whole lot with them”, “the family don’t like ‘em”

Too much work... Depending on the dish you choose, potatoes can be very quick or take hours to cook, but often the actual preparation time is minutes.

Can’t do a whole lot with them... Oh Ye of Limited Imagination!

The family don’t like ‘em... Related to the two reasons above. If you can’t be bothered to spend a few minutes preparing them and have absolutely no imagination beyond mash, mash and more mash, the family are probably sick to death of ‘em.
Potatoes can give you a tummy hug that you just cannot get from other carbs. Smooth, buttery mash is the ultimate comfort food but what a range of dishes you can make! Tartiflette... Tortilla Española  ... Patatas Bravas... Boxty... Pandy... the most amazing chocolate cakes, bars and truffles...  chips... Pommes Anna... Gratin Dauphinoise... Boulangère... I must have at least a thousand potato recipes on my shelves.

Crainquebille Potatoes are a side dish I love to serve with roasts and while the Gruyère topping is non-traditional, I think it adds to the dish.

Potatoes are social vegetables - often seen in the company of garlic, herbs and other party vegetables

For 6 servings you will need...

50g butter

2 onions (each the size of a tennis ball) roughly chopped

500g potatoes (prepared weight), diced into 2cm cubes

1 teaspoon fresh thyme, very finely chopped

1 teaspoon fresh rosemary leaves, very finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

400g tinned chopped tomatoes

¼ teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper

½ teaspoon salt

250mls good quality chicken stock

100g fresh breadcrumbs
50g Gruyère cheese, grated

Potoates, tomatoes, herbs, crunchy breadcrumbs, melted cheese = tummy hug

Pre-heat your oven to 200°C

1                 Melt the butter in a medium sauce over a medium heat and add the chopped onions. Cook without colouring for about 5 minutes or until soft and translucent.

2                 Add the diced potatoes, herbs, garlic and chopped tomatoes, salt and black pepper and stir until well combined. Transfer to an oven proof dish, approximately 21cm x 21cm (8½” x 8½”) and 6cm (2½”) deep. Add the stock. It should barely cover the potatoes.

3                 Transfer to the preheated oven and bake at 200°C for 20 minutes. Then, turn down the heat to 180°C and continue cooking for a further 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft and easily pierced with a fork.

4                 Remove from the oven and sprinkle with an even layer of breadcrumbs. Finally, sprinkle with Gruyère and return to the oven for a further 10-15 minutes or until golden brown and the cheese has melted. Mmmmmmm.

If like me, you love potatoes, here are two more of my favourite potato recipes...
 

Tartiflette with Chorizo - a swim across the bay is essential preparation

"In a moment of madness brought on by a rare glimpse of blue sky and sunshine, I went swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. The water was wild and breathtakingly cold, so when I say “swimming” I really mean a vigorous flailing of limbs in the direction of the shore, the main purpose of which was to avoid being swept out of the gorgeous little bay, next stop America.

There is only one dish to help the post-swim thawing process – a dish well known to skiers – and one which caused me a little anxiety - Tartiflette.

‘Patatas Bravas’ with Garlic Mayonnaise – Aioli! Ole!

“Growing potatoes couldn't be easier. Pop seed potato in ground, cover with earth, and forget for several months. ..Today, I am going to celebrate the crop Spanish–style, with Patatas Bravas, a tapas dish I first tasted in Barcelona. Crispy potato chunks are topped with a ‘fierce’ tomato sauce and a cool aioli (garlic mayo) on the side. It is traditional to have a chilled glass of wine or beer ready to quench the chilli heat.” Pin It

Mushrooms à la Grecque – a mayo-free zone

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My Aussie pal, Elena, made an observation about Irish salad/sandwich bars... “What’s with all the mayonnaise!!!!” she asked.

It’s true. It is practically impossible to avoid mayo in Ireland. We even have a county called Mayo.



Cute as a button...



As a broad generalisation, if you walk into a sandwich bar in Ireland your choices are limited: You may be offered tuna... mayonnaise; or egg... mayonnaise; or if you manage not to have mayonnaise in your main filling choice, the server will try and foist some “coleslaw” on you. What is this coleslaw, only shreds of cabbage and carrot drowned in a sea of... mayonnaise. If you manage to parry the coleslaw, they will launch a final offensive, the squeezy mayo bottle already in their hand, and smilingly offer you a squirt to glue the top slice of bread in place.

I have nothing against mayonnaise – the sort that has actually seen a fresh egg yolk or two, a spoonful of Dijon mustard, some garlic and a light olive oil can be unbelieveable good. And I’ll admit that sometimes even Hellman’s is just the thing – but all things in moderation.



We're hiding from the mayonnaise!



One ingredient that shouldn’t even be in the same room as mayonnaise is the mushroom. Yuk. Even thinking about mushrooms in mayo is making me queasy. If I am going to include mushrooms in a salad then here’s how that would go...

For 4 - 6 servings you will need...

5 tablespoons water

3 tablespoons olive oil

150mls passata, or two tinned plum tomatoes, finely chopped

1 teaspoon coriander seed, crushed

1 bayleaf

a sprig of thyme (lemon thyme is great if you can get it)

1 clove garlic, crushed

juice and zest of an unwaxed lemon

400g button mushrooms (or larger mushrooms cut into bite-sized pieces)

1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leafed parsley

1          Place all the ingredients - except the parsley – in a medium saucepan over a medium heat and bring to simmering. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.

2          Using a slotted spoon, remove the mushrooms and place in a serving dish. Now turn up the heat and allow the sauce to reduce and thicken for a further 5 minutes or so.

3          Taste the sauce and add salt and or pepper if necessary. Then pour the thickened sauce over the mushrooms and leave to cool to room temperature. Scatter with the parsley before serving. This dish will keep for a few days if refrigerated but is best at room temperature. Served hot, it is also wonderful with grilled meats.



Just add crusty bread

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