Category: Soups etc (Page 3 of 4)

Swedish Pickled Herring

12/04/2017 / Neville / 0 Comments

First catch your herring! (See www.boat-angling.co.uk) This apparently is a classic recipe for Swedish pickled herring called glasmastarsill, or glassblower’s herring. You need:

450gm herring fillets (or as many as you can fit in)
1/4 cup salt
4 cups water

Mix the salt with the water (if you use boiling water let it cool completely) the soak the fillets in the brine for 24 hours in the fridge. Meanwhile…

1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups distilled vinegar
2 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp whole allspice
3 cloves

Boil that lot for 5 minutes and let it cool completely.

3 bay leaves
1 red onion sliced
1 lemon sliced

Drain the herrings. Now assemble the herrings, cooled pickling liquid, bay leaves, onions and lemon in jars, dividing the spices between the jars. Try and make the jars look pretty by showing the skin side of the fillets, lemon and bay leaves. Fill to the top and jiggle about to release any air pockets. Leave in the fridge for two days before sampling. It will keep in the fridge for up to a month.

Lebanese Fried Fish and Tarator Sauce

20/02/2017 / Neville / 0 Comments

We seem to be on a bit of a Middle Eastern theme at the moment. I had a solitary whiting and a hungry Olwyn on her way back from Pilates so I thought why not add a quick starter to our chicken with pomegranate molasses? You can use Tarator Sauce for falafels as well. Nutty, lemony, garlicky, good. Here are the base ratios, add your garlic and salt as you like.

Tarator Sauce:

2 scoops tahini paste
1 scoop lemon juice
1 scoop water
salt
garlic puree

OK if it helps I used a tablespoon for a scoop, with one garlic clove and half a teaspoon of salt. Just mix it all up. You can added chopped parsley if it looks a bit ordinary without.

Fried Fish:

Skinned, boned fish fillets cut into chip-sized strips
oil for frying
Enough flour. OK, for a more scientific measure I used 60ml for two medium-sized whiting fillets-worth of strips
Season with white pepper, salt and ground cumin. For the above I used 1 tsp cumin, half tsp salt, quarter tsp white pepper

Put oil in a pan to 1 cm depth and heat until a lump of bread goes golden in 30 seconds. Mix the flour and seasonings. Dip the fish in the flour then straight into the oil for about a minute or until it looks cooked. Serve with shredded lettuce, a lemon quarter and Tarator sauce.

Real (ish) Tomato Soup

08/02/2017 / Neville / 0 Comments

Quick too!

2 sticks celery
1 onion
2 carrots
2 cloves garlic

Chop and sweat in a dash of olive oil for 10 minutes

2 tins good quality tomatoes (that is the -ish bit)
6 proper tomatoes
1 litre vegetable stock (a stock cube is fine)

Simmer 15 minutes

Add a small handful of fresh basil leaves and whizz with a stick blender. Adjust the seasoning and job done. Idea to table in 30 minutes. From a Jamie Oliver recipe. Great with our Irish Soda Bread recipe as you can see in the picture.

Caldo Verde (Chorizo and Kale)

03/11/2016 / Neville / 0 Comments

Tastes even better than I hoped. This is a thick, rich tasty bowl of soup/stew from Portugal that is a meal in a bowl with bread on the side. Enough here for 6 small bowls or 4 full-on meals.

1 onion
1 garlic clove
600g floury potatoes peeled and cut into small chunks
220g chorizo cut into chunks
1.5 litres vegetable stock
300g kale finely shredded
olive oil
Dried chilli flakes

Heat the oil in a deep pan. Gently fry the onion and garlic until starting to soften. Add the chorizo to cook a bit and release their oil. Add the potato and stock, bring to the boil and simmer 20 minutes. Mush the potatoes down with a masher to make the soup thick. Add the kale, a teaspoon of salt and a mad twist of black pepper. Cook 8 minutes more. Serve in bowls and sprinkle chilli flakes on top.

Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup

31/10/2016 / Neville / 0 Comments

This is made once a year in our house, using the remains of Mr Pumpkinhead above.

750g to 1kg pumpkin, seeds and skin removed (and grit and candle wax) and cut into chunks.
1 onion, chopped
500g sweetcorn, frozen is fine
750ml vegetable (vegan) or chicken stock
250ml milk (or vegan equivilent)
oil or butter for frying

Method: sweat the onion in a heavy based saucepan for 5 minutes. Add the pumpkin, sweat 5 minutes more. Add stock and milk, and 300g of the sweetcorn. Simmer very gently for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, fry the rest of the sweetcorn on a hot pan in butter or oil or under a grill until it looks a bit tinged brown. When the soup is done, zap with a blender or stick. Adjust the seasoning, pour into bowls and top with the toasted sweetcorn.

Ham and lentil soup

30/10/2016 / Neville / 1 Comment

Make this with the stock left after you have boiled your ham.

2 litres of ham stock (remove the cloves, bay leaves and peppercorns!)
All the vegetables used to flavour the ham joint
Dried red lentils: from 420gms for thin soup to 620 gms for really thick soup.

All you do is simmer the lentils in the stock for 20 minutes, stirring from time to time to avoid it catching on the base of the pan. Whizz with a blender or stick and adjust the seasoning.

Parsnip Soup

30/10/2016 / Neville / 0 Comments

Another easy one.

250gm parsnips, peeled and chopped
1 potato, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon curry paste
800ml vegetable stock
120ml cream
Butter/oil

You know what is coming – all soups are made more or less the same way. First sweat the veg in the oil for 5 minutes. Add the curry paste and sweat another minute or two. Add the stock and simmer for 20 – 30 minutes or until the vegetables are very soft. Blitz in a blender or with a stick. Stir in the cream, reheat and serve. You can also make this with parsnip and potato leftovers (now there’s a Christmas idea…)

Anyveg Soup

28/10/2016 / Neville / 1 Comment

Like it says. You can make soup out of almost anything veggie, but a mixture is safest. For example, roots: carrot, onion, potato, parsnip, swede.

1Kg mixed veg, cleaned and chopped roughly
1 litre vegetable stock from a cube or powder
Oil or butter
salt and pepper to adjust seasonings (depends on your stock)

Method:

Heat oil gently in a large saucepan.

Sweat root vegetable for 5-10 minutes, other veg 2-5 minutes. Pour in the hot stock and simmer for 30-40 minutes. Zap with a blender or stick, then adjust the seasoning. Some stock cubes can be quite salty. You can also swirl in some cream and sprinkle on chopped fresh parsley for a posh touch.

Sour cream dip

28/10/2016 / Neville / 0 Comments

As approved by a real American.

2 cups sour cream or creme fraiche
1/4 cup mayo
2 tbs chopped fresh dill
1 tbs chopped fresh chive
1 tbs chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Mix
Dip!

Hummus

28/10/2016 / Neville / 0 Comments

You need:

1 can of chickpeas, drained
2tbs olive oil
1 garlic clove or equivalent (or more)
Lemon juice – 1/2 to 1 lemon
Salt
Optional – 1tbs tahini paste

Stick it all in a jar and blitz with a stick blender. That is all there is to it. Adjust the ratio of ingredients to find the combo you like.

Ottolenghi version:

250g dried chickpeas

Wash and put in a bowl. Cover with at least twice the volume of cold water and leave overnight. Next day, drain the chickpeas and add to a pan with

1.5 litres water
1tsp bicarbonate of soda

cook for 40 minutes ( or Instant Pot 15 minutes). Drain, then process until you have a thick paste. Add

270g tahini paste
4tbs lemon juice
1tsp salt
4 garlic cloves crushed

Process until smooth. Drizzle in iced water (up to 100ml) to loosen and keep mixing until you get a smooth creamy paste. Refrigerate until needed, but it is best served at room temperature.