Lemon & Ginger Soba Noodles with Tofu and Salmon Gari and no Matcha ice-cream...yet

This month's country for Bloggers Around the World hosted by Chris at Cooking around the World was here.
Japan.  I love oriental/asian food generally but hadn't cooked anything specifically Japanese before so went on search on t'interwebs for a suitable clutch of recipes.  I had soba noodles in the cupboard to use up as well as tofu so picked this tasty sounding lemon and ginger recipe from Steamy Kitchen.
Incidentally there's a great recipe resource here on the Eat-Japan site that allows you to pick by ingredient type, seasoning, time needed etc.
I wanted to try more than one recipe out and in my travels I came across this baked salmon recipe with gari - the pickled ginger you get with sushi.  I love this stuff so this recipe intrigued me and sounded super simple and quick to make.  Turn oven on - lay salmon in greased dish and scatter gari over the top.  Bake.
I'm not going to put the whole soba noodle recipe here - you need to visit the link to check it out but with lemon, ginger, honey, cayenne, soy, rice vinegar and sesame oil in the dressing plus toasted sesame seeds

you know it's punchy and flavourful.  I halved the amounts of noodles and tofu as the recipe is for 4, although I realised afterward I used the amount of dressing that was for 4 peoples noodles on the halved amount - it was very well flavoured!
The tofu was tasteless - the recipe says to fry until browned - I'm now convinced (having never cooked with tofu before) that this is an unobtainable fallacy as no matter how high I turned my pan and how long

I left the tofu no browning was occurring.  It just started sticking instead.  :-( I think for tofu in future I'll stick to my instinct that says it needs a lot of marinading first to make it taste of anything.
The salmon I liked - but then I love salmon anyway.  I did find it a little on the sweet side but gari can vary in sweetness a lot - a different brand that I have a jar of at work is nothing like as sweet as the one I had here.  I think this dish would be improved vastly by using a less sweet gari but it was interesting to try as a flavour combination.
Lastly - it must be dessert surely?  Well - I had a sachet of Matcha (green tea) powder in the cupboard I've been looking to do something with for a while and after having had Matcha ice-cream once at the local 'Steaks n Sushi' restaurant which I had loved this seemed the obvious answer.  So - I found this very simple sounding recipe at Just One Cookbook - one of many great Japanese food blogs out there.  Then - I ran out of time.
This post should have been up yesterday and although I made the salmon and noodles yesterday I only got to writing it up now so....the ice-cream will have to be a different post.  I shall make it though and let you know how it goes.

Yesterday we had to scarf down the noodles - super yum we decided - then run to catch the rugby bus to see Chiefs beat London Irish 27-6 to get us into the top 6 that would mean we're in the Heineken Cup again next year.  Fingers crossed we can stay there!!

Aaannnnd......first foraged meal of 2013

Open the fridge and see what sad things need using up to add to your free wild garlic and nettles.  Having 'foraged' within the fridge as well as along the river bank go forward thus:

Heat a little olive oil and sweat off a sliced onion (mine was red) and a bunch of slighly limp spring onions.
Add plently of freshly ground black pepper, 1tsp dried basil, 1tsp dried oregano / marjoram (they are pretty much the same thing aren't they?) and about 0.5tsp dried sage.  You may need a little splosh more oil at this point as the herbs will suddenly soak it up.
Slice the last handful of cherry toms in half and add.  Give everything a good stir each time you add stuff - I don't actually need to say that do I?

Rinse your wild garlic and nettles well and seperate the two if you only had one bag on you to forage with, as I did.
Reserve a few of the smaller leaves of the garlic and roughly chop the rest.  Add to the pot.
Slice a few mushrooms (I used 5 chestnut ones and 3/4 of a white one that had randomly been left in the fridge - that was deffo the Chap and not me!) and add to the pot.  Cover to gently cook down whilst you get the beans.
Open mahoosive tin of cannellini beans.  I got 3 tins on my last Approved Food order for the princely sum of £1.20, ie 40p each and only when they were delivered did I realise they were the big 800g / 480g drained size!!  Absolute bargain!!  Drain and rinse well then add to the pot and stir some more.
Add 100ml dry white wine.  TBH ours was just a cheap bottle from Aldi I got to cook with.  Cover again (after some more of your finest stirring action, natch) and let simmer for 10+ mins. 
We weren't actually that hungry yet so I let it go for about 10/15 mins then turned it off.  Do stir every so often whilst it's simmering so it doesn't catch or stick.
Once you're ready to eat stir in your washed and picked over nettles - get rid of as much stalk as possible is my personal advice, they can be a little on the tough hairy side!  Add the reserved garlic too and wilt them both in for 3-5ish mins.
Taste and season; you will need salt as the beans soak everything up but beware of adding it earlier as it can apparently make beans go hard.

We had ours topped with a salmon fillet and a handful of mussels each which I did quickly in a little water and a splosh more wine with a few of the wild garlic leaves in too.  Leave the fish off to make it even more frugal and veggie/vegan if you make sure the wine is. 
Nom for free!!!  Well - kind of.  :-)

Massively late - it's my Caribbean recipe - Jamaican Veg Soup

The rather fantastic blog Cooking Around The World by Chris has food from every continent on an almost daily basis it seems. Chris writes in an endearingly idiosyncratic style all of his own that I love. To make things even better he has a newish monthly challenge ‘Bloggers around the World’. Each month he picks a different country (or group of, this time round) and one should cook a recipe from that country. This month was the Caribbean. As the title may have hinted I’m somewhat tardy in getting this post up, I should have had it written and published by the 13th! Anyway, having made my recipe I figured I’d share it anyway. Maybe I can sneak it in the comments section of this month’s round up…
I had problems finding a recipe for the Caribbean. The Caribbean covers a lot of countries; mainly islands, all of which have a very different climate to our own and therefore a very different selection of ingredients readily available. Each time I looked for a recipe it seemed it had breadfruit (??), or there would be meat sneaked in. Looking for fish recipes I realised a lot of them used salt fish – not readily available in my corner of the West Country. So – I eventually settled on this veg soup recipe. Ok not as exciting as some of the recipes on this rather good resource site but at least do-able. It said it serves 8. I must say on reading the ingredients list we scoffed at this. However this is how it went – their ingredients in black, my differences in purpley-blue:

Jamaican Veg Soup

3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion chopped – 3 small red onions
2 sticks celery – 3 plus the inner small sticks to use it up
4 cloves garlic – ours were huge so I used 3
2 tbsp root ginger minced – grated mine on the zester
1 tbsp demerara sugar – had none so used 2/3 white and 1/3 dark brown
2 tsp sea salt – 1 tsp only [sea salt is stronger than normal salt]
0.25 tsp ground turmeric}
0.25 tsp ground allspice } I added some later on as you’ll see to make a heaped 0.5 tsp of each in total
0.25 tsp ground nutmeg }
2 potatoes peeled and diced – we only had small ones so I used 4 then added another 2 when I realised I was short on courgette = 6 in total

450g courgette chopped – my courgette was small and was only 220g
1.5 l veg stock
1 pinch cayenne – 2 pinches
30g fresh spinach chopped – I added extra so about 80g in total
½ red pepper minced to garnish

Heat the oil in a large pot and add the onion, celery, garlic ginger and sugar. Fry gently for 5 mins until softened.
Add the salt – having added 1 tsp I decided against the second one as it seemed too much, especially as I was using stock cubes for the veg stock which have salt in already. Add the turmeric, allspice and nutmeg then the spuds and courgette. At this point I added only 0.25 tsp of each spice as per the recipe.
Add the stock and bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 mins until the spuds are soft.
Turn off / remove from the heat and stir in the cayenne and spinach – at this point I added the 30g spinach quoted.
Blend. At this point it’s an entertainingly vibrant green colour and tastes of…not anything that zingy to be honest. It was a nice veg soup, but that was it. So…
Having only blended half of the soup I then added the extra spice to the unblended portion still in the pot and brought it back to a boil then simmered for a couple of mins extra to cook off the spices. Turn off the heat then added the extra spinach. Blended that portion then mixed the 2 batches together.

Verdict now – much tastier. Still not sure it’s shouting ‘Jamaican’ at me but then I’ve not exactly had a lot (any?) Jamaican food in my life to compare it to. It was nice and a good thick warmer for the colder weather we’re apparently headed for. I’m not so sure I’d bother again though.
The Chap liked the contrast provided by the minced red pepper, I was less of a fan finding the bits too cold and watery against the thick warm soup.  Oh, and that 'serves 8' thing - well it did make a mahoosive pot full.  :-)
Soooo – that’s my Caribbean recipe. Chris’s next country for us to visit is Mexico – now I just need to find a recipe, cook it and post it all on time….

Slow Cooker Carrot and Coriander Soup

Short on time and heavy on carrots?  [They were on the Aldi super 6!]  Knock up this slow cooker soup with a bit of chopping and finish it off when it's wanted.  Time frugal as well as cost frugal!  I'm good to you aren't I?  [Well - to myself!!] Although carrot and coriander is one of my favourite soups I realised I don't have a single recipe written down for it, the horror!!  I made this up with a bit of looking at a parsnip recipe from Sophie Grigson's veg book.  It can just as easily be made conventionally on a hob as well as in a SC [in fact I finished it off on the hob] - just simmer for long enough until the veg are soft enough to blend rather than leaving them in the slow cooker for several hours.
Carrot & Coriander Soup
2 red onions (or use one decent medium sized yellow one - I happened to have red ones in the cupboard)
2 lg / 4 sml cloves garlic

1 tbsp EVOO
'Thumb' of fresh root ginger*
1.5 lb / 700g-ish carrots
0.5 lb / 225g-ish spuds
1.5pt veg stock plus 0.25pt or
0.25 pt milk to slacken soup if liked
Living plant coriander (69p-ish Aldi!) / big bunch of it
Knob butter
S + P
0.5 tbsp lime juice
A little grated cheese - medium - mature cheddar or red leicester I'd suggest

Put the oil in the SC and turn it onto 'high'.
Roughly chop the onions and add them to the SC.  Add the finely chopped garlic and stir.
Grate / zest or finely chop the root ginger and stir into the SC pot.

Roughly chunk the carrots - being frugal aware make sure you get all the veg from round the tops - see pic.
Peel and chunk the spuds.  (Most of the time I don't bother peeling veg but for a smoothish soup you're blending you really need to.)
Add both to the SC and pour on enough stock to cover.  Mine needed 1.5 pints.

Trim the leaves from your coriander and put them in a glass of water in the fridge.  Chop the rest of the stalks (you've probably got about 2-3"), ensuring you get all you can from the pot and stir them into the SC.
Turn the SC down to medium or low, depending how long you've got / are out of the house for.  Mine was on low for 6.5 hours.
Blend.  Don't be disappointed by the taste at this point.  Once we add the seasonings it comes into it's own.
When ready to eat retrieve the coriander leaves from the fridge, reserve a few for garnishing if liked and chop the rest.  Stir into the soup and gently reheat on the hob. 
It'll be quite thick so slacken with a little more stock / milk at this point if liked, or leave thick if that's your preference.  I added 0.25 pint milk.
Stir a knob of butter in and add salt and pepper to taste.  It did need salt to bring the flavours out.
Remove from the heat and stir the lime juice through. 
Serve scattered with a little grated cheese and the reserved coriander leaves.

This was really good - the zing added by the lime worked so well but next time I'd up the amount of ginger used.  Guess it depends how big your thumbs are!!* Adaptable too - just leave out the cheese, butter and milk for a vegan dish.  I can also see it working with a little coconut milk in place of the extra 0.25 pint liquid at the end.  As ever with any 'recipes' I make up it's adaptable as you wish / are dictated to by the fridge & cupboard contents.  More of a guideline than a strict recipe.  Just so long as it's enjoyed.  :-)
[I've noticed this post gets a fair few hits, if you try it out - and I hope you do, please leave a comment and let me know how you got on.  It'd be nice to find others enjoyed it too!]

* What in the world is a 'thumb' of ginger?  It really is one of the most useless measurements in the world.  What if you're a big burly bloke or a dwarf - the size of your piece of ginger will bear no relation at all to each others.  I can cope with a 'knob' of butter and a 'glug' of olive oil - in fact I now believe them to be measurements which mean 'enough to add the desired flavour to the dish and that you're comfortable with in relation to your waistline' but a 'thumb' of ginger?  I ask you!  (Although I suppose that it could be argued there's a potential for difference in 'knob' size as well...)

Veggie 'meat' FTW

I finally got round to trying out home made fake meat using the wheat gluten Littleblackfox so kindly sent me a little while back. I used this recipe on the net I've had kicking around for some time. It's got a lot of ingredients but that's essential for the flavour - you can experiment and adapt to what works for you or what you may need for a specific recipe / cuisine. The lovely Jeni from the Heathen Vegan site has very kindly given me permission to post the recipe so here it is, in her words:

Quick Homemade Seitan
Dry Ingredients
1 cup wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tsp garlic salt
2 tsps pepper (I use white)
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp rosemary

Liquid Ingredients
3/4 cup Bisto gravy (made really thick) [Red bisto is veggie - fact!]
2 Tblsp Tamarind Sauce
2 Tblsp Olive Oil
1/2 Tblsp Soy Sauce
1 Clove of garlic squeezed through a garlic mincer
2 Tblsp Water

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, really well. Mix liquid ingredients in a separate bowl then add to dry ingredients. Whisk well with a fork so as everything is incorporated and forms into a dough. Knead dough for a few mins.
Double wrap in lightly oiled tin foil. If you want to shape the dough into a sausage then do so, rolling the foil round tightly and then twisting the ends.
Bake in a pre heated oven at 200 degrees [Gas 6] for 90 mins - turning over halfway through. Unwrap the seitan and leave to cool completely.

When I got to the kneading stage I halved the mix and left one half as was and added to the other half:
0.5 tsp basil
0.5 tsp smoked paprika
0.25tsp cayenne
0.25tsp fennel - I had seeds rather than ground and am similarly bereft of a pestle and mortar so did my best to crush them in my fingers. Needless to say the result wasn't exactly even but hey - I'm sure I keep seeing 'rustic' on menus these days so it's virtually de rigueur to have lumps nowadays isn't it? :-D
The idea of this was to get some sort of spicy Italian sausage style end product.
Now I'd never made this before so had no idea how, or indeed if, it would work. I was very hopeful that it would prove to be tasty, have a good texture and be versatile enough to use in a variety of dishes. This would then mean I had a whole new panoply of fake meat options to explore!
Well - I like it. It was very very easy to make, took hardly any time to mix up, a quick and easy knead [I did add a sprinkle or so extra wheat gluten at the kneading stage as I found it quite sticky] then was happily bunged in the oven. They mention turning half way through cooking - I think this is a 'needed turn'; my 2 foil wrapped sausages were turned after an hour and there was a detectable difference in colouring from one side to another so I think if they were left for the whole cooking time unturned the difference would be too much. ['Needed turn' as opposed to things like oven chips / hash browns which tell you to turn them but I routinely ignore. Life's too short y'ken?]
I have to say I will be tweaking the flavourings next time - halving the tamarind as 2 tbsp means you can taste it too clearly in the end product, rather than amalgamated into part of the overall flavour. Also at least halving the white pepper - this much was a bit hot for me at the expense of the other aspects. The Italian type I made was pretty spicy - I guess having used half the mix with the original flavourings already in and then adding cayenne to it might have something to do with that...
All in all a very definite win for the 'fake meat' brigade - even the meat eating Chap gave grudging approval - meaning that he'd eat it rather than it being totally minging like some pretend meat products are, as we all know. [Linda McCartney - I'm thinking of your sausages here.] This was so quick and easy I'm looking forward to experimenting with flavour combos and cooking methods. So far we've tried it fresh roasted as it came out of the foil, and thickly sliced then oven braised with celery and leeks as part of a roast. Both worked. As long as you can get your hands on the *wheat gluten I urge you to try this. I can see it becoming a bit of a pet project with me!
*Wheat Gluten seems to be one of those things widely available in America [where many of the recipes I've seen come from judging by their use of cups as measurements] but not however quite so easy to come by here in the UK. Littleblackfox kindly told me they sell it online at The Flourbin, although it must be said they have a minimum order value of £10 (at time of writing) and you'll need to add £6.95 P&P to that. Otherwise search it out locally or there is a manual extraction method that I don't know and am hoping to get away with not knowing. Good luck. ;-)

Roast Spudato Experiment

Having had a 'discussion' [ie - not quite an argument] recently about the best way to roast potatoes - in particular concentrating on the oil used; I decided to hold a little totally-non-scientific and arbritrary test as I was making roasties last night. [Yep - we missed the traditional Sunday slot - so?] As my roasts just consist of spuds, veg, yorkshires and gravy the quality of the roast spuds is important. I've always used olive oil and sea salt after my mother [I believe she got this habit from Nigel Slater] but in the aforementioned discussion was being told in no uncertain terms that this was all wrong because of the boil/heat points of relative oils. Well no-one likes being told they're doing it all wrong - especially when it's Ma's recipe so I thought I'd test this out. I cooked 2 dishes of roast spuds - 1 in EVOO and 1 in Vegetable oil. Both were otherwise done in my regular style:

Put kettle on.

Put oven on to preheat to Gas 6.

Put oil in ceramic baking dish and put in oven to heat up.

Wash and chop spuds. Leave skins on. Parboil for 5 mins and drain.

Return to pan and shake about to fluff up edges.

Spoon into dishes with hot oil being careful of splashes.

Grind sea salt over and stir round well with a spoon.

Roast for 1.5 hours, stirring every 20-30 mins.

Here's the final result. On the left are the veg oil, on the right the EVOO. Chap thought initially that the veg oil ones looked crispier but I don't see much in it myself. I know I definitely preferred the flavour of the EVOO potatoes. Chap said on initial tasting the veg oil ones then on second try couldn't discern a difference.

Verdict - doesn't make a lot of difference but I prefer the taste of the EVOO ones so will continue cooking them with it.

Conclusion - my friend's talking rot - or at least as far as roasties are concerned!! :-D

A Parsnip duet - sweet music in the mouth

I made a duo of parsnip soups on sunday and I'm very pleased with how they turned out if I say so myself. They were both roasted but there all similarities end. One was a roast version of spiced parsnip soup, the other however was an idea that I've been tossing around in the back of my mind for some time. It's not one I've seen anywhere though that's not to say no-one's thought of it before - I'm resisting googling it until at least after I've posted this!

Roast Balsamic Parsnip Soup

EVOO - splosh

1lb trimmed peeled parsnips

2.5tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 small-med onion

2 sticks celery inc the leaves

1.5 pints veg stock

Put oven on Gas 6 to preheat. Splosh of EVOO in a ceramic dish in oven to heat up.

Peel and chop the parsnips into chunks.

Place in preheated dish and pour balsamic over - stir well.

Roast for 45mins-1 hour stirring every 15ish mins. (How long dep' on size chunks / age of your parsnip.)

As come to end of cooking time peel and chop onion. Small splosh more EVOO in large pan and fry onion off gently.

Chop celery and add to pan. Fry both off gently for a few mins to soften up.
Add stock and chunks of parsnip - putting a little stock in the roasting dish to deglaze. Give it a good scrape to ensure you get all that lovely balsamic goodness.
Bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer covered for 10mins until all veg soft.

Remove from heat and let cool slightly then blend in batches.

Gives a fairly thick soup so could loosen up with a little more stock if preferred.

This is actually a very simple soup to make but the taste belies this. It allows the flavour of the parsnip to come through but cuts across it at the same time; preventing it from being too sweet. I really really like this and considering I tried it as a pure experiment I'm pretty chuffed. I wouldn't complain at being served this in a gastro pub. It's pretty cheap as well; even more so if your parsnips were from the CFC at 50p for a 750g bag. :-)

Souper Sunday!

I know, I know, I should be writing for a parish magazine with titles like that eh? It's more of a wry nod to Red Dwarf than a crap pun all of my own though, honest.

Anyway, I made 2 lots of soup on Sunday; an Iranian Barley soup and a Leek, Potato and Stilton one. The Iranian one I've been meaning to try for some time whereas the other's a recipe I've made before and I had leeks to be used up in the fridge. As the barley effort takes a long time simmering I thought I could make the other in between as it were. I'll post them seperately to avoid any confusion though. Most likely mine rather than yours... ;-p

Ash-e-jow, Iranian barley soup

2 tbsp EVOO

2 onions

1 litre veg stock*

0.5 litre water*

0.5 tsp black pepper

1tsp turmeric

1tbsp parsley - dried [or mint but I used parsley]

1 cup pearl barley

0.5 cup lentils [I used green]

Put oil in big soup pan and put on low-medium heat. Chop onions and add to oil.

Put kettle on.

Cook onions for a few mins to soften.

*Recipe calls for plain water but I was a little concerned at that as I thought it may give a bit of a bland dish so I made mine with 1.5l water and 2 cubes designed to make 450ml (or near enough 0.5l) stock each. So in essence 1 litre veg stock and 0.5 litre plain boiling water. Whichever way you want to do it add this now. [You may want to try with 1 stock cube and taste further on in the cooking process to see if you think it needs the second cube. I used Quixo veg stock cubes from Aldi as seen in this pic, I find they're not so distinctive in flavour as Oxo's. Previously discussed here and since down in price to a bargainous 65p for 12.]

Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil.

Reduce to a simmer and simmer covered or 1.5 hours. Stir every so often.

Expect it to get thick and frankly not very soup like to my western eye.

Hmm - I was hoping for more from this I must admit. It was nice and simple so bonus points there - another time-frugal thing really, though you must stir it so it doesn't stick on the bottom of the pan. I just thought it a bit lacking on flavour really, it needs something extra. Looking at some reviews on another site it seems some people agree with me. What I may try is adding the half tin of chopped toms I've got in the fridge and some extra spices with a squeeze of lemon and see what that gives us. Hey ho, we have to try these things!

Time frugal cooking - spudato wedges

An easy standby to knock up then bang in the oven. Ok - it's about an hour from start to finish so Jamie's 30 Minute Meals this aint but unlike his where you spend the entire 30 minutes cooking; [personally I'm skeptical; and a little tired of him telling me to "get your 30 minute meal head on" - ok Jamie, just get the brand tattooed on your forhead why don't you then you wouldn't have to keep mentioning it. Also - perhaps think that some of us may watch more than one episode therefore can remember from one to the next to get ourselves ready] this is more like 5-10 prep then walk away - wedges FTW time wise!! [Sorry - bit of a sidetrack mini-rant there.]

It's incredibly simple so I feel a bit of a fraud calling this a 'recipe' - more like a base plan or blueprint to then adapt at will. Much like a lot of my 'cooking' [making it up as you go along]. :-D

Potato Wedges

Spuds

EVOO

S+P

Seasonings / herbs / spices to your taste

Put oven on to preheat - Gas 6. [In case you hadn't noticed there's a handy link to a conversion chart on the right bar.]

Wash spuds. Do not peel. There's enough ways to waste our life time out there already [eg ironing] let's not let peeling veg be one of them.

Chop into 6-10 wedges depending on spud size. I generally look at spud stood on 'end' and chop it half down through the longest axis. Then lay each half flat and slice into wedges. See pic.

Wow - realised this really is me teaching y'all how to suck eggs. Just slice your spud into wedges - you know how to do that.

In a bowl large enough to take all the spuds with room for stirring about splosh some EVOO -amount dep's on amount of spuds you're doing.

Add S+P and your choice of seasonings. I used seasoned salt, cayenne and some ground coriander but this would work with most spice combos or herbs and a sprinkling of lemon juice; either fresh or bottled. Any flavours you like the taste of basically. I like the cayenne for a little warming kick, especially this time of year!

Spread out on a baking sheet/tray - try and get in a single layer, then chuck in the oven. Full cooking time will vary depending on your wedge size and how crispy you like your spuds but you're looking at 40 mins plus. Turn approx half way though. It's not the end of the world if you don't though!

I'm afraid we scarfed these all up before it occurred to me to take a pic but if you've never seen a potato wedge before; well frankly - get making some!! Easy, time frugal as you can be getting on doing other things whilst they cook, and cost frugal too.

And remember: "Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so." Douglas Adams

Quick, quick, [slow] - food

Whilst I am staunch supporter of the Slow Food ethos; sometimes life doesn't give us that luxury, particularly on a week night. Monday called for a quick food solution, this then is a dish you can knock up with what's in the cupboards, and jazz up with some of the endless selection of herbs and spices you have if you're me. :-) (Adapted from a recipe in this book, incidentally a pretty good book.)
I'm afraid there's zero photos as once it was on the plate in front of us the hoover mode went on. The third left over that should have been my lunch the next day disappeared into the bottomless pit that is t'bloke in double quick time as well so that didn't get it's picture taken either!

Quick Red Beans

1 onion / leek [I used half of each.] chopped

1 field / 3-4 regular mushrooms sliced
1 fresh / dried chilli finely chopped [deseeded or not up to you]

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 carrot, chopped

1 tin kidney beans

0.5 tin chopped / whole tomatoes

2tbsp tomato puree

4tbsp water

Worcestershire sauce and/or Mushroom ketchup

Smoked paprika

S+P

EVOO

[If you want an accompaniment rice goes well. As I was chopping and stirring the bean dish I wanted to ignore the rice so just chucked the rice in the microwave. Rinse rice - put in bowl with 2x amount of boiling water and a veg stock cube. Bowl must be big enough for water to boil and rice to expand. Put on high for 12-16 mins - check packet.]

Heat oil in a decent sized saucepan over a pretty low heat.

Chop onion and leek and chuck in pan. Ditto mushroom.

Chop chilli [I used 2-3 wee dried ones - plenty] add to pan and cook all for a few mins to soften slightly.
Add garlic and coook few mins more.

Meanwhile drain and rinse beans well.

Add chopped carrot to pan.

Add beans to pan, stir.

Add about 0.5 tin toms - I tend to try and scoop out more of the chunks at this point, leaving the juice 'til later. If they're whole toms pull some out and roughly chop before adding to the pan. [Or if you want use the whole tin and either reduce before eating or have as more of a thick soup type dish]

Add the puree and water, stirring well to combine.

Add worcestershire sauce / mushroom ketchup to taste. [Remember Worcestershire sauce isn't truly veggie having anchovy in. You want the depth of flavour this or the MK gives; the kick should already be there from the chilli added earlier.]

Add smoked paprika - I find it's a very distinctive taste so a little goes a long way, I probably put in about 0.5tsp to this. Also add plenty of black pepper.

Cook all together until hot through - kidney beans should have at least 10 mins boil! Allow the flavours to meld and reduce the sauce as wanted. If it gets too reduced add some of the juice from the tinned toms / more water.

Dish up in a bowl with a spoon or on a plate with rice and just a fork and enjoy.

That's it - you could make it with any beans you happen to have in the cupboard. The original recipe doesn't use the tinned toms; just the puree so again, feel free to adjust as you like. I think it's worth having a couple of tins of 'value' range kidney beans and toms in the cupboard for these occasions. I also added the carrot and mushroom because I had them to hand - add what you have or just use the tin of beans. Quick, simple and cheap. :-)

Pic - the Slow Food Devon snail

Roast Onion Soup

This soup came about through me watching the Channel 4 programme 'Lakes on a Plate'. Basic premise is bloke traipses round the Lake District cooking a few bits as he goes. Not the most cohesive of programmes I thought but pleasant enough idle daytime watching. This recipe was from an episode in week 4 - have to say looking at the C4 website seems like all the other weeks sounded far more interesting and local-food based which is what I imagined on seeing the title of the programme.

Anyway, the presenter chap served this soup up on there to the CEO of the Vegan society and it sounded a) tasty and b) simple so I thought I'd give it a go. I went from the recipe as given on the programme which differed from that which I've now seen on the C4 site as you will see.

Roasted Onion Soup

3 large and 1 med onion (Prog' suggested 6-8 smaller ones)

2 bulbs garlic

2 pints veg stock

1 tbsp flour

S+P

Preheat oven to gas 5-6. (Mine was at 5 as I had another lot of beer bread in but more of that later.)

Place onions and garlic whole; with some skin left on, in a roasting dish. Roast 45 mins - 1 hour depending on your oven and size of onion - until softened and 'squidgy.' Let cool.

Place stock in a pan. Whisk the flour into the stock really well.

Once the onions and garlic are cool enough to handle snip off the base with scissors and squeeze the innards out into the pan. This bit's messy! [Tip - when washing your hands after handling garlic always use cold water as hot water 'cooks' the smell onto your skin.]

Blend well with either a stick blender or FP. Add lots of freshly ground black pepper and return to pan.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 5-10 mins.

Now don't - like me, taste this after the blending and think "yeurgh - how disappointingly bitter and raw tasting." Wait until it's cooked on the hob and it transforms into a 'golden' tasting soup.

That said... I did after half a bowl conclude this was a bit one-dimensional as a soup. It needs something else to give it depth. As a base for an onion gravy or something it'd be good though, I even thought you could freeze smallish amounts for a 'stew starter.'

The Channel 4 site recipe has the addition of olive oil, thyme and rosemary at the roasting stage. I'm not convinced this'd add enough to elevate this to something I'd do again as a soup.

The stew base idea lurking in the freezer though - that's a possibility when the onions are cheap. (These were the Aldi Super 6 39p for 3 big 'uns deal from last week - still on now!)

Pearl Barley and Carrot Soup

This was a bit of an experiment on my week off with a view to submitting it to the No Croutons Required challenge, which for this month was based on carrots. In the end I wasn't happy enough with how this turned out to send it in but with a few small tweaks I think this could be a nice satisfying warming autum or winter soup at a fairly frugal cost. I'll document how I made it and what changes I think it needs.

Warming Barley & Carrot Soup
1 cup pearl barley (dried)
0.5 cup yellow split peas (dried) [leave out next time]>Pour boiling water over to cover and leave to soak overnight / mine was 24 hrs.<
3 pints veg stock
2 tsp cumin seed
2 tsp black onion seed
1 tsp fennel seed [leave out next time]
1 tsp celery seed
0.5-1 tsp dried chilli flakes; to taste
0.5 onion finely chopped
2 tbsps EVOO
1-2 cloves finely chopped / crushed garlic
200g grated carrot [Up this next time to 300g]

Drain off and rinse barley & split pea mixture. Add 2 pints of veg stock and bring to the boil. Simmer covered until done. [The barley was done in 15 mins but the split peas took a lot longer. Next time I'd lose the peas altogether and put more carrot in. It'd be a shorter cooking time then as well.]
After 30-40 mins in a clean large heavy based frying pan dry fry off the seeds and chilli flakes for a few minutes to release the flavours. Add the oil to the pan, then the garlic and onions. Saute gently to soften. [Next time leave out the fennel seed; you couldn't detect it in the medley of flavours so no point in having it in.]
Meanwhile grate the carrot. Add the onion mix to the barley. Add the 3rd pint of stock and the grated carrot. Simmer for 15 mins.
Can leave as is for a rustic finish or blend for a far silkier texture. If blending do so in batches loosening with a little extra stock or water to your preferred consistency. [I added an additional 0.5pt water.]