Spiced Butternut Squash Soup

I made this as a combination of two recipies for a creamy butternut squash soup. It came out truly amazing and I just have to make a note of what I did to recreate it exactly next time.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 50 minutes

Total time: 70 minutes  

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 500ml Chicken or Vegetable Stock
• 800g-1kg Butternut squash, seeded and peeled
• 4 tbsp Olive oil
• 4 small Thai chillies choppped
• 1 tsp Ground cumin
• 1 tsp Garam masala
• 6 Garlic cloves, peeled, whole
• 1 Onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 large piece of ginger (about 10cm) very finelly chopped
• 400ml Coconut milk (1 can of Waitrose half-fat)
• 1 Lime, juice (I used half a lemon)
• Double cream, to serve
• Fresh basil leaves
• Fresh Thai chillies chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C, gas mark 6. Cut the squash into 5cm chunks, drizzle with 2 tbsp olive oil and toss with the chillies and spices. Roast for 20 minutes than scatter over the garlic and roast for a further 20 minutes or until tender.
2. Meanwhile, heat the remaining olive oil in a large saucepan; add the onion and ginger, cover, and allow to soften. Saute for about 10 minutes. Add the roasted butternut squash, stock and coconut milk. Simmer for 10 minutes, add lime juice or lemon juice to taste and season. Liquidise with a handheld blender or a processor.
3. Serve with a drizzle of double cream, add fresh basil and chilli to garnish the soup.

Variations on the puff pastry theme

A variation on Prawn, tomato and ginger parcels, using the same pastry – JUS ROL All Butter puff.

Ingredients

Serves 2 for lunch or light dinner

1/2 of 375g JUS ROL All Butter Puff pastry
100g ham – I used a thicker sliced roast ham
1 1/2 tbs of spicy sweet chilli sauce2 large fresh red chilli peppers – deseeded and sliced (didn’t have any other crunchy fresh veg)
1 mozzarella in brine – sliced
generous sprinkling of za’atar all over – can be substituted with dried oregano
few leaves of basil to serve – used my own
Preheat over to 220C (200C for fan assisted over)/Gas 7

Roll the pastry into a rectangle. Place on a metal sheet

Spread the chilli sauce as far to the edges as possible. Evenly distribute small pieces of ham, then the slices of fresh chilli peppers and finally the mozzarella.

Bake for approximately 15 minutes until pastry is risen and golden. I find that leaving it a couple of minutes doesn’t hurt anything.

Slice into four smaller pieces and enjoy. We had this with the fennel soup for starter and there was enough for a light dinner.

Summer dinner

It started with the idea of a dinner on a terrace or garden in occasionally warm weather this spring and ended as a delicious dinner inside. The menu was positively spring-like:

Fresh cucumber, pea & mint soup, griddle herby lemon chicken with jersey royal potatoes with butter & parsley, and a side of stir-fried courgettes with ginger and chilli. Served with white wine, of course.

Fresh cucumber, pea & mint soup

Serves 4
Nutrition: 305kcal/25g carbohydrate/5.3g sugars/19.8g fat/12.8g saturated fat/2.5g salt per serving

1 fresh cucumber, medium to large, peeled and diced
25g butter
1 small onion, chopped
300g Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
250g podded fresh peas or frozen peas
2 sprigs fresh mint, plus shredded mint for garnishing
4 tbsp creme fraiche
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
pinch of paprika

Wash the cucumber and cut off 5cm to reserve for the garnish. Cube the rest. Melt the butter in a large pan and add the onion, cucumber and potato and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes stirring. Add the stock and bring to the boil, then simmer for 12-15 minutes until the potato is almost tender.

Add the peas and whole mint springs to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes until the peas are tender. Remove the mint sprigs and add 6-8 ice cubes to the pan and stir until melted. Blend or process until smooth, then chill. Serve with a dollop of creme fraiche in each bowl and a scattering of shredded mint, diced cucumber and sprinkle of paprika.

Griddled herby lemon chicken

Serves 4
5 minutes preparation
1 hour marinating time
15 minutes cooking time

1 unwaxed lemon, plus extra lemon wedges to serve
100g natural yoghurt
15g pack fresh oregano (I used lovage from my garden)
20g pack fresh flat leafed parsley, chopped
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
4 British free range skinless chicken breast fillets

Grate the lemon zest and squeeze the juice, then place both in a blender with the yoghurt, oregano, parsley, garlic, olive oil and seasoning. Whizz until smooth. Place the chicken breasts in a shallow dish and poor over the marinade. Cover with clingfilm and leave to marinade in the fridge for at least an hour, turning once.

Heat a ridged griddle or non-stick frying pan. I used a flat non-stick pan as was making a mess of it on the griddled one. Cook for 6-7 minutes each side, turning once until golden and cooked through with no pink meat (this is important). Serve with extra lemon wedges, new potatoes and a green salad or a lightly stir-fried greens.

With the last piece of chicken in the pan almost done, I added the marinade and cooked it well, served it as a top up sauce with the meal.

Jersey royal new potatoes with butter and chopped parsley

600g new potatoes
15g butter
15g parsley, chopped

Cover the potatoes with cold water in a pot, bring to boil, simmer for 20 minutes or until tender. Add butter and parsley, let stand for 2 minutes before serving.

Stir-fried courgettes with ginger and chilli

1 courgette per person
half-inch chunk of fresh ginger, peeled, thinly sliced, then chopped very finely
1 large clove garlic, thinly sliced, then chopped
1 fresh red or green chilli, very thinly sliced
1 tsp groundnut oil
soy sauce
cut courgettes in about four portions, then cut each portion in half. Place each cut section face down on a cutting board and slice very thinly into fine little strips, about 2mm thick.

In a wok or frying pan, heat up groundnut oil. When it is hot (but not too hot), throw in the chopped garlic, and stir fry for about a minute. Before it takes colour, throw in the ginger, followed by the courgette-strips and the chilli. Stir fry until the courgettes begin to go translucent. Season with soy sauce and sesame oil, if you’ve got any, then serve.

Chicken with garlic and cider

This is a wonderful impromptu dish I made for my mother when looking at what ingredients I had at hand. From my trusted source of ocado recipes.

Don’t be put off by the large quantity of garlic, as the flavour will mellow in the cooking. Good with boiled new potatoes and green beans.

Serves 4

Total time required 50 mins

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

15 Garlic Cloves, unpeeled

1 pinch Salt

1 pinch Black Pepper, freshly ground

2 tbsp Olive Oil

30g Butter, unsalted

4 Chicken Breasts, skin on

1 Bay Leaf

450ml Dry Cider

200ml Apple Juice

200ml Double Cream

1 tbsp Thyme, leaves

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4). Cook the whole, unpeeled garlic cloves in a pan of boiling salted water for 4 minutes. Drain, cool slightly, then peel and set aside.

Heat the oil and butter in the casserole. When sizzling, add the chicken, skin-side down, and cook for 4–5 minutes, or until deep golden brown. Turn the chicken over and add the garlic cloves, bay leaf, cider, and apple juice. Cover and transfer to the oven for 20–25 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.

Lift the chicken out of the pan. Remove half the garlic cloves and discard. Bring the remaining juices up to the boil. Crush the garlic into the juices with a fork, then boil until reduced and thickened slightly.

Add the cream, season to taste with salt and pepper, and simmer for 1 minute. Return the chicken to the sauce and baste with the juices; add the thyme leaves and serve immediately.

Venison Sausages with Sweet Roasted Vegetables

Last weekend we got some lovely venison sausages at the Duke of York market from Wild about Game, together with the steaks for the previous recipe. I thought let’s do something more than just grill them and eat them with mash, venison deserves better. But, sadly, when the time came to put the sausages in the over, we discovered they were off, one day before the use-by-date. Not impressed. Fortunately, I had a back-up of Waitrose sausages, so all was not lost.

Ingredients

2 tbsp redcurrant jelly
2 tbsp red wine
1 red pepper, deseeded and quartered
1 orange pepper, deseeded and quartered.
1 yellow pepper, deseeded and quartered
1 large green courgette, thickly sliced
1 large yellow courgette, thickly sliced.
2 red onions, peeled and quartered
4 tbsp extra virgin cold pressed rapeseed oil.
1 1/2 teasp coriander seeds, lightly crushed
1 1/2 teasp cumin seeds, lightly crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 Glenlyon Venison sausages
350g (12oz) cherry vine tomatoes, washed
A few fresh basil leaves

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C/ 400 F/ Gas 6. Line a large baking tray with baking parchment. Put the redcurrant jelly in a small saucepan with the red wine and heat very gently, stirring occasionally, until melted together. Set aside.

2. Arrange all the vegetables evenly on the prepared baking tray. And drizzle with all but 1 tbsp oil, turning the vegetables to make sure they are well coated in the oil. Sprinkle with the seeds and plenty of seasoning.

3. Arrange the sausages on top of the vegetables, then brush the sausages with the redcurrant glaze. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Turn the sausages and brush with more glaze. Arrange the tomatoes around the edges of the baking tray, brush with the remaining oil, and return to the oven. Bake for a further 10-15 minutes until tender and cooked through. Serve straight from the baking tray, sprinkled with fresh basil and accompanied with a green salad and some crusty bread. (I made some parsnip puree, which was similar to the celeriac one and tasted amazing with the sausages.)

Venison steaks with cranberry sauce and celeriac puree

I love venison, especially in winter and this year I decided to try as many ways of preparing it as I can find. I think steaks are the best way, though I am partial to venison sausages with red wine (used to get them at the Kingsland Edwardian butchers in Portobello Road).

This recipe is a combined one. The venison steaks with the cranberry sauce are a Delia recipe, the celeriac puree is from BBC food site.

Venison steaks and cranberry sauce

For the steaks
2 venison steaks (about 14 oz/400 g total weight)
1 tablespoon groundnut or other flavourless oil
2 level teaspoons crushed peppercorns
2 medium shallots, finely chopped
salt

For the sauce
2 rounded tablespoons cranberry sauce
zest and juice ½ orange
zest and juice ½ small lemon
1 rounded teaspoon freshly grated root ginger (about 1 inch/2.5 cm cube, after peeling)
1 level teaspoon mustard powder
3 tablespoons port

If you want to, you can make the sauce way ahead of time (even several days). Take off the outer zest of half the orange and the lemon using a potato peeler, then with a sharp knife shred it into really fine strips, about ½ inch (1cm) long.

Then place the cranberry sauce, ginger and mustard in a saucepan, add the squeezed orange and lemon juice, and place over a medium heat. Now bring it up to simmering point, whisking well to combine everything together, then as soon as it begins to simmer turn the heat off, stir in the port and then pour it into a jug to keep till needed.

When you’re ready to cook the steaks, heat the oil in a medium-sized, thick-based frying pan. Dry the steaks thoroughly with kitchen paper, then press the crushed peppercorns firmly over both sides of the steaks. When the oil is smoking hot, drop the steaks into the pan and let them cook for 5 minutes on each side for medium (4 minutes for rare and 6 minutes for well done).

Halfway through, add the shallots and move them around the pan to cook and brown at the edges. Then 30 seconds before the end of the cooking time pour the sauce in – not over, but around the steaks. Let it bubble for about 20 seconds, season with salt, and then serve the steaks with the sauce poured over.

Celeriac puree

700g/9oz celeriac
70g/2oz unsalted butter
70ml/2fl oz double cream or 100ml milk
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
pinch of nutmeg
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook the celeriac in boiling water for 20-25 minutes, if you want, add 2 medium sized potatoes. Drain well and blend all of the ingredients either in a food processor or a hand blender (I use the latter). Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper and blend to a purée.

Spaghetti with cherry tomatoes, pancetta & courgette

This tasted very Italian and wonderful. Tomatoes, courgettes, basil and oregano all from my own garden. Fresh pasta from Waitrose, bacon from the butcher’s in the North End road market,

Ingredients

250g fresh cherry tomatoes, halved
2 small courgettes, chopped into small pieces
200g of pancetta or smoked bacon cubed
250 fresh spaghetti
1 fresh red chilli
1 shallot
1 garlic clove
handful of basil
handful of oregano
pecorino or parmesan, shavings

Preheat oven to 220C. Arrange the cherry tomatoes densely on a tray and sprinkle with olive oil. Season. Roast for 15-20 mins so the tomatoes are soft but do not fall apart.

In the meantime, chop finely the garlic, shallot and chilli, fry in a little bit of olive oil for 2-3 mins. Add the pancetta and fry for another 2-3 mins, finally add the courgettes cooking them till they are soft.

Boil water, put the pasta in, bring to boil and cook for 4 minutes. Drain. In a large bowl combine the pasta with tomatoes (don’t forget the juices from the tray), pancetta and courgettes. Add fresh oregano and basil leaves. Serve with shavings of parmesan or pecorino and good Chianti.

Hot chorizo salad with butternut squash & baby tomatoes

This is from a magazine I picked up at the airport and a recipe by MasterChef 2005 winner Thomasina Miers. It is also a bit fussier than I would normally put up with – it was the squash-cumin combination that got my attention. I am told that the effort was worth it, hence blogging it here for reference and others’ enjoyment.

Preparation time: 15 minutes (that’s optimistic, it’s more like 30 minutes what with peeling the squash).
Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

1 small butternut squash de-seeded and cut into 5cm pieces
1 dried chilli, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin seeds
handful of oregano or marjoram
olive oil
2 red onions, chopped
punnet of baby tomatoes
small bunch coriander, chopped
4 large chorizo cooking sausages, bias cut into long rounds
150g cooked borlotti or pinto beans (I didn’t have any of these so left out, hardly noticed!)
baby spinach
100g Pecorino cheese

Step 1: Preheat oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5. Put squash, chilli, cumin and oregano in a roasting dish, coat lightly with oil, season. Roast for 15 mins and add onion. Roast for 10 mins then add tomatoes. Roast for a final 10 mins.

Step 2: Pound the coriander leaves to a paste with a pestle and mortar, then add a pinch of salt. Cover with olive oil.

Step 3: Over a medium heat, fry chorizo 2 to 3 mins. Drain.

Step 4: Mix the veg and beans with coriander oil, spinach and chorizo. Add shaved Pecorino and oil.

The result is very tasty indeed.

Prawn, tomato and ginger parcels

This is one of those chance recipes that just click into place and become favourite. I was investigating the range of chilled puff pastry dough in Waitrose (as you do) and my recipe radar went beep when I spotted the one on the back of JUS ROL All Butter puff. Go figure:

Ingredients

375g JUS ROL All Butter Puff pastry
150g prawns – cooked and peeled (I used frozen tiger prawns)
2.5cm piece root ginger – peeled and finely chopped
3 medium tomatoes
small bunch of watercress – stalks removed (I used chives from my garden)
beaten egg
1 fresh chilli green or red finelly chopped
handful of petite pois
(the last two are my additions, not part of the original recipe)

Preheat over to 220C (200C for fan assisted over)/Gas 7

Divide the pastry into 4 and roll each part into a square approximately 12.5cm across

Combine the prawns, ginger, tomatoes and watercress and divide between the pastry squares, piling into the centre.

Brush the edges with beaten egg. Bring corners to the centre to meet over the filling. Pinch the parcels firmly at the corners to seal and fold back the point of the pastry from the centre to reveal the filling.

Brush pastry with egg and bake for approximately 15 minutes until pastry is risen and golden.

Having piled on more stuff than could fit the result was more flat than parcel-like. However, it was delicious and next time I will try to be less generous with the filling.
—

As it happened the king prawns were 20% off at Waitrose meat & deli counter, I had just the right amount of ginger left over, my tomatoes were ripe and in sufficient quantities to use them for cooking – the augaries were good and I obviously needed to make this that night. The sticky chicken I was planning to make that night could happily marinate in its juicy goodness for another day…

Friulian apple, nut and poppy-seed pie

I made this based on a recipe I got some time from one of my sources. The ingredients just sounded too good to ignore. I searched for it online and found it in the Telegraph’s recipe section.

Ingredients:
Serves 8

250g (9oz) plain flour
125g (4½oz) butter
100g (3½oz) caster sugar (I used 90g as it’s my policy to use 10% less sugar than any recipe calls for – it tends to bring out the other flavours)
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cold whole milk
grated zest of 1 lemon
3 tart eating apples (didn’t use tart ones, which wasn’t a problem but will use at least one more to make the filling a bit more moist)
1½ tbsp grappa (of course, I used 2 tbsp, otherwise what’s the point of even opening the bottle!)
60g (2oz) raisins (didn’t have enough raisins so added cranberries and chopped figs)
175g (6oz) walnuts or hazelnuts, chopped
3 tbsp poppy seeds, plus extra to serve
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
ground seeds from 4 cardamom pods
icing sugar, for dusting (didn’t use but recommend as the cake it not sweet at all)

Instructions:
To make the pastry, put the flour and butter into a food processor and whizz until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and baking powder and whizz again. Add the milk and half of the lemon zest and process again. The pastry should come together in a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5 and put in a metal baking-sheet to warm.

On a floured surface, roll out two thirds of the pastry and use it to line a 23cm (9in) spring-form cake tin so that the pastry comes about 4cm (1½in) up the sides. Roll the other piece of pastry into a circle slightly larger than the tin and put on a floured metal sheet. Refrigerate the cake tin and the circle for an hour.

Peel and core the apples and grate the flesh. Mix with the grappa, raisins, nuts, seeds, spices and remaining lemon zest. Pile into cake tin and put the circle on top. Pinch the edges together, then indent the rim with the tines of a fork. Cut a star in the centre to let out the steam.

Cook on the baking-sheet in the oven for 30 minutes. Let it cool in the tin then carefully remove. Sift icing sugar over the top and scatter on poppy seeds. Offer cream whipped with grappa.