Pea shoots, pea and leek soup for Bonfire Night

Tomorrow is the Bonfire Night. Weather permitting, many families will be holding garden parties with bonfires and big bangs. I'm not a fan of fireworks, when they are conducted in private gardens. They are beautiful but also quite a menace for many reasons. And the local dimwits start the big bangs days before the Bonfire Night and continue many days later.
Comfort food and cosy warm clothes are a must if you're out in the garden on a frosty November evening.
Soup in mugs is always a crowd pleaser on the Bonfire Night. What could be better than a mug of hot steaming soup to keep you warm and toasty, when you are out in the cold.

I loved the look of Pea & watercress soup found on Rachel's Organic site. The plan was to follow their recipe, but as it often happens, I ended up using whatever I had in the kitchen, so the recipe has got diverted from the original recipe.

Pea shoots, pea and leek soup
Ingredients:
2tbsp (flavoured) butter
5-6 baby leeks
2 stalks of celery
100g fresh peas
75g sweet pea shoots
1 medium potato
200ml chicken stock
plain yogurt (to serve with)

I used Lurpak Infusions Chilli & Lime flavoured butter in this recipe, as it needs to be finished asap, but any butter will work here, then you just a bit of spices if you use plain butter. Melt 2 heaped tbsp of butter in a medium frying pan, and sweat finely chopped baby leeks for about 5-7 minutes, together with chopped celery. Make sure you check that the dirt is removed from inside of the green leeks. Gritty leeks are not very tasty.
Peel and cube a potato, put it in a medium sized cooking pan, add the leeks and celery, peas and pea shoots, chicken stock and about the same amount of water. Bring to boil, then simmer for about 15 minutes until the potato is cooked. Add more water if needed. Season with sea salt.
Blitz to creamy consistency with a hand blender.
Serve hot, with a dollop of plain yogurt.
I used Rachel's Organic yogurt, but any good quality yogurt will do.
You can substitute pea shoots for watercress for the more peppery taste, or use spinach. For a vegetarian version, use a vegetable stock.

What will you be serving tomorrow for the Bonfire Night?

Adding this recipe to #KitchenClearout linky run by Cheryl at Madhouse Family Reviews, as I used the butter spread and the remains of the chicken stock which needed to be used asap.

Leek and potato soup with flaked almonds

Souping is one of the foodie trends for 2016. Apparently souping is the new juicing, being made trendy by super healthy Gwyneth Paltrow and clean eating blogellas. Actually the word souping makes me shudder.
And what's so new about it? It's one of the oldest ways of cooking, known for thousands of years. The history of soup is as old as the history of cooking.
The Chinese workers who were excavating the base for a new airport, have dug out a bronze cooking pot which was sealed so tightly that the soup inside it was still liquid. The archeologists confirmed that the pot and its contents were at least 2400 years old. It still contained bones and turned green due to the bronze oxidation. Eat your heart out, Gwynnie.

Soup has never been out of fashion, has it?! Growing up in Russia, soup was served on a daily basis. Nurseries, schools, factory canteens, hospitals etc - soup was considered to be part of a healthy diet. And believe me, the Russians know their soups.
And what about the UK? There are so many British soups to choose from.
So I'm sorry, souping might be a new word (and silly at that too), but the actual soup has never left our tables.

Last week's Superb Souping Box from Abel and Cole had ingredients enough for three different soups.
One them of them was a twist on a classic leek and potato soup. This is one of our favourites which I cook quite often in winter, it's always easy to make and so tasty.

Leek and potato soup with flaked almonds
Ingredients:
3 leeks
1 celery stick
2tbsp sunflower oil
2 big potatoes
1 clove of garlic
1 bay leaf (optional)
1 vegetable stock cube
100ml coconut milk (standard milk would be absolutely fine as well)
flaked almonds

Slice the leeks finely, making sure that you get rid of all the grit in the green part when washing them. Trim the celery and chop it as well. Place the leeks and celery in a deep frying pan with the sunflower (or olive) oil, don't season yet, as you might find the stock cube salty enough. On low fry for about 10 minutes, stirring infrequently. Chop the garlic and add to the leeks, cook for another couple of minutes.
Place the fried vegetables in a medium sized pan, add the peeled and chopped potatoes.
Make the stock with 1 vegetable stock cube and hot water, about 600ml. Pour over the leeks and potatoes, add a bay leaf or any other dried herbs you like, cook simmering for about 25 minutes. In the last 5 minutes add the coconut milk. This is entirely optional, I had a carton of coconut milk so used that, but usually I add just plain semi-skimmed milk.
In a dry frying pan toast a handful of flaked almonds for about 2-3 minutes, tossing them so that they don't get burnt.
Blitz the soup with the hand blender and serve hot with the flaked almonds scattered on top.
The almonds add an extra texture to an otherwise smooth and creamy soup. A nice touch (though I confess I prefer my usual spoonful of soured cream or thick Greek style yogurt for a hint of sourness).

And here it is, a simple yet delicious soup (and I don't even need to flog a fitness DVD or a cook book, lol).

What's your favourite winter soup? And what do you think of the word "souping" - yay, nay or meh?

Turkey, leek and potato pie

Another after-Christmas day, another dilemma on what to do with the leftovers. Yesterday we had a Boxing day turkey soup. Today I spotted a nice recipe for Turkey, leek and mashed potato pie recipe from Delicious magazine which conveniently arrived by email. I have adapted it, and though we had some Stilton and pancetta, I didn't want the pie to be too fatty and rich, so I skipped those ingredients altogether.
Once all the leftovers and cheese is gone, I really fancy just a plain salad.
I also don't like the taste of the roast potatoes the day or two after they were cooked, and mashing them for the pie didn't appeal at all, so I cooked fresh mashed potatoes just for the pie.

Turkey, leek and potato pie
Ingredients:
2 leeks, finely sliced
1/2 red onion, finely sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
dried basil
450g white turkey meat, cubed
1tsp fresh thyme leaves
4 medium potatoes
1 tub single cream + more (about 300ml)
2tsp butter
100g Cheddar, grated

Slice the leeks and onion and fry with the olive oil for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Sprinkle with the dried basil. Cube the turkey and place in an oiled medium sized ceramic pie dish or casserole. Layer the leeks and onion mix over the turkey. Pour a bit of cream over.
Cook potatoes in salted water. Drain, leaving some of the liquid in a mug. Mash the potatoes, mix with the single cream and add a bit of potato liquid to make the mash slightly lighter in texture and easier to spread.

Spread over the turkey and leeks. Add a little bit of butter on top. Place the dish in the oven preheated to 180C. Cook for about 25+ minutes. Add the grated cheese in the last 8-10 minutes of cooking. Once the cheese has melted and turned golden brown, it's ready.
Serve hot.

This variation on the shepherd's or cottage pie with the leftover turkey is a real winner. It might not be a great looker, but it tastes lovely, and it's an easy recipe too.

Leek, mushrooms and cranberry gratinata

Today I went to M&S to pick up the turkey crown I've ordered for Christmas. To say it was crowded would be an understatement. And of all days the tills in the whole shop were playing up, with one till refusing to process cards after another. I came home battered and grumpy. When I arrived home, our Christmas fruit and veg box arrived from Abel & Cole. I looked at the lovely vegetables and decided to cook an Italian-inspired dish of leek gratinata, with mushrooms and Grana Padano cheese.

Leek, mushrooms and cranberry gratinata
Ingredients:
77g pancetta cubes
3tbsp + olive oil
3 leeks
200g brown button mushrooms
1tsp dried thyme and basil
4tbsp single cream
a handful of dried cranberries
60g Grana Padano
a handful of pine nuts

Start frying pancetta cubes in the olive oil. Add finely sliced leeks, fry stirring for 5 minutes. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook for another few minutes, stirring. Season with salt and dried herbs.
Put the leek and mushroom mix as well as dried cranberries into a deep ceramic roasting dish, pour the single cream over it. Scatter the grated Grana Padano cheese and cook at 180C for 10 minutes, until the cheese has melted. Add a handful of pine nuts in the last couple of minutes of cooking. Serve hot with a nice crusty bread.

Honey and soy sauce glazed salmon

Honey and soy sauce glazed salmon
Ingredients:

2 big fillets of salmon (about 350g each)
1 lime (zest and juice)
3 tbsp soy sauce (I used Amoy Special Selection)
2 tbsp runny honey (for example, Clarks)
3tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 clove of garlic
1tbsp grated ginger (or frozen ginger flakes)
3 baby leeks

To make the glaze mix the following ingredients: the olive oil, honey, soy sauce, fish sauce, zest and juice of 1 lime, 1 finely chopped clove of garlic and some grated ginger (I confess I have a packet of ginger flakes in the freezer from Waitrose, very convenient for when you need just a small amount of ginger.) Don't worry about the amount of honey, 2tbsp might seem a lot for the fish, but as you add the juice and zest of 1 lime, it will counter-balance the flavours. But by all means, experiment yourself, this is not written in the Scriptures.
Slice the baby leeks.
Place the salmon fillets in a deep baking tray (the sauce will be splattering quite a bit, as you can see from the photo below). Scatter the leeks over the fish and leave it to marinade for at least half an hour before roasting/baking in the oven at 180C for about half an hour.
Serve hot with the rice.

The flavours are pretty amazing: the salmon is zingy and spicy, and very-very tasty. I had a medium piece left, and the next day made a potato salad with chopped potatoes, sliced apple and flaked fish (with the olive oil/lime dressing). It was lovely cold as well.

Many thanks to Darlene Schmidt for the inspiration. I have stumbled across her recipe for Salmon in Asian Soy, Honey & Ginger Sauce on About.com. I have adapted the recipe to suit the ingredients I had (I omitted the hoisin sauce and changed the quantities of the other ingredients etc but it was her recipe that inspired me. I have found quite a lot of soy and honey recipes for the salmon online, but this one was the most exciting).

Abel and Cole fruit & veg box

It's been about a year and a half since we started to receive a vegetable box from Abel and Cole. For the first year I was buying the gourmet veg box, which I recently changed for a small fruit and veg box, as they had most glorious blood oranges (all gone now, sadly, will have to wait for the next season).
And though I know what will arrive in the next box (well, most of the products, as I ticked off some things on the list which I don't fancy, and you never know what will be sent as a substitute), I am always excited to get a new box. Eddie and I open it together.
Our recent box included:
a box of tomatoes
a bag of potatoes
a bunch of beetroot with leaves
2 courgettes
onions
mango
oranges
pears

Tomatoes are Eddie's favourites, he is happy to eat a whole box given a chance. They are sweet and juicy, and disappeared almost at once.
Mango was quite hard, so I left it to ripen with the other fruit in the fruit bowl, and later made a mango smoothie (no pictures): whizz 1 cubed mango, a small tub of Greek style yogurt and semi-skimmed milk for the most refreshing drink.
Beetroot came with the very fresh greenery, and I cooked a lovely spring borscht with the beet leaves, beet and nettle. For a recipe, please visit my post Spring borscht with beet leaves and nettle. The other day our friend Jay had popped in for a morning cup of coffee, and I mentioned the borscht and said "I love beetroot". He laughed and said: "Of course, you do. You're Russian"

Potatoes went in the chicken soup that I cook for my older son (it's the only soup he agrees to eat, so I cook it most days for him), and as the side dish for the roast chicken with stuffing (one of the onions used).

Slightly parboil the potatoes cut into chunks in the salted water, then place them in a roasting tin or dish, drizzle with the olive oil, add the garlic cloves, sprinkle with nutmeg and roast in the oven at 180C until golden brown.

I also had some leeks left over from the previous week's box and decided to cook a side dish of courgettes, leeks and pear.
2 courgettes
2 leeks
1 pear
2 tbsp green jalapeno sauce
olive oil
salt, pepper
Slice the courgettes, pear and leeks and fry in the pan with the olive oil. Season well. Add the green jalapeno sauce. Stir regularly, add a bit of water and cover the frying pan with the lid to speed up the cooking.
Serve as a side dish to any roast meat or the toad in the hole.

The oranges, zested and juiced, became an orange polenta cake. I bake this cake every week, as it's my guys' favourite, only minus the blood oranges now, which were used for decoration in the original post.
We ate the rest of the fruit, and I still have one or two onions left, which I plan to use this week.

I did a series of posts of recipes for the produce of Abel and Cole.
To see them all please follow the tag Abel and Cole on my sidebar or this link.

Whether you receive a veg box from Abel and Cole, Riverford or any other local brand, you might like to join in the #TheVegChallenge onKirschplunder's blog (link removed as old).