A warming leek and potato soup for autumn days

Despite the blue skies and warm glow from the sun, there was definitely a chill in the air this weekend; a sure sign that autumn is on its way early this year. The nights have started to draw in earlier and when I woke up this morning at 6am the darkness sat like a blanket over the moor. We very nearly got the fire going on Sunday night and that prompted me to make some warming dishes to help lift our spirits.

Autumn is my favourite time of year. I love wrapping up in woolly jumpers and snuggling down on the sofa of a Sunday evening with a steaming mug of hot chocolate and a BBC costume drama. I love watching the leaves change colour, from vibrant greens to the more burnished tones of autumn, and I love going for walks when it’s cold and crisp outside and I can come home to a big log fire and a proper hearty dinner.

Halloween and fireworks night are probably my favourite events of the year- there’s something magical about gathering outside with friends to watch the crackle and sparkle of fireworks, swaddled in hats scarves and boots, or the smell of a pumpkin as the tea light singes the moist flesh of the jack-o-lantern lid.

In tribute to the coming of my favourite season, I decided that soup was just the thing I needed for lunch this week. My mums’ tried and tested leek and potato recipe did just the trick…

Ingredients
Serves 4 people for dinner or makes 5-6 work-sized lunches (see photo)

• Three large leeks
• 3-4 large baking potatoes- any kind
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2.5 pints chicken or veg stock (I use 2 stock cubes)

To serve

• Handful of grated cheddar cheese
• Crusty bread and lots of butter (real butter, no spreads please!)

Method

1. In a large saucepan heat the olive gently
2. Prepare the leeks by chopping off the root and all of the green leaf end to leave the white part- leeks can be very muddy so I find that chopping off the leaf end down to the first split in the outer leaf is a good guide for how much to remove. Make a shallow slit down the length of the outer leaf and remove just one layer to get rid of any grit. Rinse and chop into rough rounds.

3. Chop the potatoes roughly- don’t bother to peel them (its going to be liquidized no-one will know) just scrub well
4. Add the leeks to the pan and sweat gently over a low heat for 5 mins until slightly softened
5. Add the potatoes and the stock, cover with a lid and bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 20 mins.
6. After this time remove the pan from the heat and liquidize the soup- I do this using a little hand blender but you can use a regular blender or a food processor. Just remember that the soup will be hot so cover the lid with a tea towel if you go for the latter options.
7. Taste the soup and season well with black pepper, serve with the grated cheddar on top and big hunks of liberally buttered bread.

Chicken paprika

This recipe belongs to my auntie Debbie. After having had it for dinner several times at her house I had to recreate it at home and it has since become a staple in my repertoire. It is both delicious and thrifty, and saw me through my three years as an undergraduate at Brighton University in style.

Ingredients
Serves 3-4 people for dinner

• 6 chicken thighs skin on and bone in
• ½ a jar of paprika (I use regular paprika in those little supermarket jars, but Debbie says you can use ½ smoked paprika and ½ regular for an extra kick)
• 2 small onions roughly chopped
• Approx 200gms chopped pancetta, lardons or bacon bits
• 500gms closed cap or chestnut mushrooms roughly chopped into large chunks
• Big handful of pearl barley
• Roughly 1 pint chicken stock
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 tbsp crème fraiche or sour cream
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Rice or green salad to serve

Method

1. Preheat the over to 175 degrees C and find a big casserole pan with a lid- the kind you can put on top of the stove as well as in the oven.
2. Warm the oil in the casserole pan on the hob over a low heat and add the onions. Fry for 2 mins until softened then add the pancetta to cook through.
3. After another 2 mins remove from the heat, add the mushrooms and pearl barley and stir well.
4. Pour the paprika into a small bowl and add the chicken thighs one at a time, rubbing well to coat them all over in the spice. Place the thighs on top of the onion mixture.
5. Stir the tomato puree into the stock and pour over the chicken to just cover the thighs, you may not need all of it
6. Put the lid on and place the pan in the oven for 1 hour to cook, then remove the lid and cook for a further 40mins to an hour depending on the size of the thighs. Alternatively, you can cook the whole dish on a lower heat- say 100 degrees for 3-4 hours with the lid on if you’re going out or have guests over.
7. Remove from the oven and lift the thighs out on to the awaiting rice/plates. Stir the crème fraiche into the sauce (to avoid curdling, mix the crème fraiche with a ladle full of sauce first then add to the main pan and stir) and season to taste

8. Add some sauce and a spoonful of bacon and mushroom mix to each plate and serve

Lemon drizzle cake

Mum was on the quest for the perfect lemon drizzle cake earlier this year and after several promising, but disappointingly un-lemony results from cookbook recipes, she conjured up this little gem.

Ingredients:

• 6oz margarine
• 6oz caster sugar
• 6oz self raising flour
• 3 large eggs
• Zest and juice of 1 large, unwaxed lemon
• 2-3tbsps caster/granulated sugar for topping

Method

1. Preheat the over to 150-175 degrees C. Grease a small loaf tin (I use cake release http://www.lakeland.co.uk/cake-release!REG/F/product/4198 it’s expensive but gives perfect results every time) and sprinkle with a little flour. This will help prevent your cake from sticking to the tin.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar, either by hand or in a food processor until pale and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time then fold in the flour using a big metal spoon and a figure of eight motion (if you’re using a food processor don’t worry about the folding, just mix)
4. Grate in the zest of the lemon and add one half of the juice. Stir well and pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin.
5. Bake for approximately 30 minutes (may need a little longer depending on your oven) or until a skewer or knife inserted in the cake comes out clean.
6. Allow the cake to cool for ten minutes in the tin, then mix together the remaining lemon juice and sugar in a bowl, poke a few holes in the cake using a knife and drizzle the mixture over the cake. It will sink it and make it all nice and tangy and moist.
7. After half an hour or so turn the cake out onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

back from the seaside!

Just got back from a week in Cornwall so there will be a few new posts to come in the next few days.

We stopped in at Margot's restaurant in Padstow last tuesday (I say stopped in, we had to book 2 months in advance to get an evening table!!) and had an epic feast in the form of their taster menu. Five courses of Michelin starred food (six really- they threw in an extra as were regulars!), plus a couple of drinks each came in at under £80 for two people- that is what I call value for money! the service was outstanding and the atmosphere warm and welcoming as always.

We had espresso sized portions of creamy fish soup; fat, sweet juicy scallops with crisp parma ham and a lemon dressing; a gorgeously mild, yet smoky, risotto of wild mushrooms, spinach and bacon; I had a huge portion of tender roast guinea fowl with spring onion mash plus fresh vegetables for mains; the worlds best sticky toffee pudding; a local cheese board with homemade bread; and finally coffee and hand made petit fours.

 If you're down that way, book in for lunch or dinner (see my favourite links), I cant recommend this place highly enough.

We also made a few visits to Bre-Pen farm which is situated on the headland between Watergate bay (where Jamie Oliver has a restaurant) and the little village of Mawgan Porth- Bre-Pen farm. Having spent nearly every summer in the area for the last 25 years, I feel well qualified to say that Jill makes the best cream teas in Cornwall. Her scones are meltingly soft and served warm, the strawberry jam is homemade and just the right side of soft set, and the clotted cream is from the farm up the road. The best bit is that you can buy all of the elements separately from the farm shop as well, in case you would like to take home a little slice of holiday.

Frozen banoffee pie

I got the idea for this recipe when watching Nigella’s Christmas series on TV a couple of years ago. She makes an icecream cake with a biscuit base, vanilla icecream filling and butterscotch sauce on top- so it seemed like a natural move (to me anyway) to add some bananas to that!!

The first time I made it was for Christmas 2008 and thanks to my over excitement and the lack of space in Sue’s freezer, we took it out too soon and were faced with a big, (but still delicious!) banoffee puddle for pudding. The second time around it was perfect. It’s incredibly moreish and the butterscotch sauce is heaven. In fact, you could make the sauce to go with any kind of icecream… or pudding really! If pushed for time you could use dulce de lech sauce from a jar, but the real stuff is amazing- try it just once.

By the way this cake cant be made all in one go, you have to freeze it for a few hours in between the icecream stage and topping it, so its handy for dinner parties, Christmas etc. when you want to do all the faffing around before hand and no hard work on the day.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ packs of Maryland double choc chip cookies or equivalent cookies (you may not need all of them
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 big tub of good quality vanilla icecream or two smaller (ben and jerry sized) ones- I use Green and Blacks with Madagascan vanilla
• 2 large ripe bananas
• 200ml double cream
• 150gms unsalted butter
• 185gms soft brown sugar
• 8inch springform tin

Method

1. About ½ hour before you want to make this get the icecream out of the freezer to soften- you want it to be spoonable but not liquidy.
2. Grease the springform tin then crush the packets of biscuits to crumbs. I get a rolling pin, and leaving the biscuit packets closed, bash the hell out of them- don’t do it too hard or they’ll explode!
3. In a large saucepan melt the 4tbsp butter and once melted, stir in the biscuits until well coated
4. Spoon the biscuit mix into the tin and press down with the back of a spoon to make a base (almost as if you were making a cheesecake).
5. Spoon in the icecream on top of the biscuits, smooth down until the base is fully covered and put the tin back in the freezer. It can stay there until you need it- probably up to a week if you cover it with some cling film.
6. Then make the butterscotch sauce, again this can be kept for up to four days in the fridge until you need it. Just put the butter, cream and sugar into a saucepan with a medium heat, once it has all melted bring to the boil and simmer for around 3mins stirring occasionally then leave to cool completely before refrigerating. Be careful- this will be hotter than Daniel Craig’s backside- you will get third degree burns if you get molten sugar on yourself and certainly do not lick the spoon!! Nick nearly learnt that lesson the hard way!
7. When you’re ready to serve the pudding, take it out of the freezer 20mins beforehand so the icecream can soften up.
8. Peel and slice the banana and arrange it on top of the icecream. Either take the butterscotch sauce out of the fridge an hour beforehand or warm it up for 10 seconds in the microwave.
9. To serve, lift the cake out of the tin and on to a plate (keep the base in place or it will all go tits up) then pour the sauce over and cut everyone big slices.

p.s. try and eat it all, or return it to the freezer once you’ve cut a few slices, you can’t re-freeze icecream once it has melted.

Green thai curry

This isn’t a traditional thai curry but I make no apologies for that! It’s my version which I think I pilfered from a Nigel Slater book about 5 years ago. I’ve tweaked the ingredients to my taste- I like it hot so feel free to cut down the chilli content or use larger milder varieties if you prefer milder curries.

I’ve included a meat and vegetarian version at the request of Sophie- hope its useful! Call me if you decide to use it and need clarification on anything. This serves 2 really hungry people or 3-4 normal people

Ingredients
For the paste

• 2 sticks lemon grass roughly chopped
• 5cm piece of ginger peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 4-6 green birds eye chillies (depending how hot you like it!) deseeded
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• Big bunch coriander (I use the large one from the supermarket herb section) roughly chopped

For the curry

• 1x can of coconut milk (400ml) can use low fat if you like
• Either- 400-500gms chicken (I use 2 large breasts but thighs are really tasty too) or the equivalent weight of vegetables. Use a mixture of peppers, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts (both can be bought canned) pack choi, baby sweetcorn, mange tout, courgettes- whatever you fancy really! You could also use a mixture of both.
• basmati or thai fragrant rice for 3-4 people

Method

1. Put the rice on to cook, I use a rice cooker which makes it perfectly every time but do it whichever way you are happiest with.
2. Put all the ingredients for the paste into a food processor and mix until a smooth paste, or if you have a hand blender, put it all into a bowl and blend until smooth. You may have to stop and stir a few times to get all the coriander in properly.
3. Chop the chicken or veg into bite size chunks. If you are using chicken, heat a little vegetable oil in a wok and fry until sealed on all sides then add the paste. Cook for 5 minutes stirring constantly until fragrant (if you are using veg add the oil and then the paste right away.)

4. Add the veg if using and stir to coat well.
5. Add the coconut milk, mix well and bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the veg is tender, the meat is cooked and the sauce has thickened a little.

6. Taste the sauce and season with a little extra fish sauce if necessary.
7. Serve with the rice

Spaghetti Carbonara

This is a brilliant dinner which only takes ten minutes to whip up and tastes like you’ve gone to loads of trouble making it, when really it’s very easy! I think the recipe originally came from a Nigella or Jamie Oliver book but to be honest it’s been so long now I can’t remember.

It's also one of Chloe (my nearly sister in law)’s  favourite dinners. I passed the recipe on to her a few months ago when she went to uni and it is to her that I dedicate this now…

Ingredients

• 200gms pancetta, bacon or lardons- I use the little packets of pancetta lardons that you get in the cooked/cured meats section of the supermarket.
• 2 egg large yolks
• 1-2 big handfuls of freshly grated parmesan (please don’t use that saw dust that comes ready grated in cardboard pots, it’s worth buying a block of the cheese and doing it yourself)
• 150ml double cream- the smallest pot you can get in supermarkets
• 1 garlic clove
• Pasta/ spaghetti for 2-3 people
• Freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Get a saucepan of water on to boil and when its ready add the pasta.
2. While this is cooking start warming up a frying pan on the hob with a tiny drizzle of olive oil. Chop the bacon/pancetta if that’s what you’re using (remember to remove the rind if you’re using a proper block of pancetta) and add to the pan, or if not just empty in the lardons.
3. Fry the pancetta and after about 2 minutes crush in the garlic clove. Fry until the pancetta is golden and crispy (about 3-5 mins) and remove from the heat.
4. In a little bowl mix together the egg yolks, cream and parmesan.
5. When the pasta is ready, drain it and return to the saucepan. Add the pancetta and give it all a good stir then pour in the cream mixture and mix quickly for a minute until the pasta is well coated with sauce. The heat from the pasta will cook the eggs so don’t worry about eating them raw, although you should always choose fresh, free range eggs. Make sure you stir the pasta as soon as the cream goes in, if you leave it to sit the eggs will scramble!
6. Season well with lots of black pepper and serve, the pancetta is quite salty so don’t add any extra salt until you taste it.

p.s. make sure you eat it all, this dish doesn’t reheat well for some reason! Also, it’s really nice if you add some finely diced courgette while the pancetta is cooking.