Chicken Vegetable Soup with Noodles and Harissa

It’s never too late in the year or too early for soup. I cleared out the fridge yesterday, a grocery delivery arriving today, so wobbly veg and stuff not sad enough for the bin became soup. The chicken was leftover from a weekend roast, so it was just matter of shredding it with two forks….

Summer Food

It’s been a summer of discovering new flavours and foods and techniques. I joined a group called “The Great British Chef’s Cookbook Club” on Facebook. Every month we cook recipes from a new book, from chefs who are featured on the Great British Chef’s website. There’s been classic food, French food, Vietnamese food, vegetarian  and…

Heston’s Perfect Roasted Potatoes

How-To-Make Perfect Roasted Potatoes Heston’s secret is two-fold: 1. Use fluffy roasting or baking potatoes. Red skin ones are best, and a large size so you cut them into to equal size chunks. Small ones won’t work well because you need three flat sides. If they’re too small, you’ll only have one flat side because…

Creamy Green String Bean Casserole with Crispy Onions

My grandmother used to make this for special occasions. She grabbed a can opener, and set about tipping the contents of tins, condensed cream of mushroom soup, Blue Lake tinned beans, and vacuum packed crispy onions, into an oven-proof dish. Then she cranked up the oven and baked it until it bubbled, and a thick…

Butternut Squash Soup with Benedictine Brandy

Butternut Squash Soup with Benedictine Brandy Ingredients (Serves 4-6) 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 large leek, white and light green part only, chopped (about 1 cup) 1 x 3-to-4-pound butternut squash, peeled and cubed 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Salt to taste (1/2 tsp) 3 tablespoons Benedictine Brandy (or Sherry)…

How-To Make Celeriac and Apple Soup

The Frugal Feeding’s recent post about celeriac soup reminded me that I haven’t made this bowl of fragrant warm comfort in a long time. Frugal’s soup looks wonderfully rich and creamy. Mine benefits from a subtle hint of sweetness and tartness from the apple. Some crumbled bacon also goes nicely on top with the toasted…

Today’s Lunch: Cauliflower Soup

How-To-Make Cauliflower Soup This will either taste deliciously subtle … or it will remind you of milky dishwater. It’s a very delicate soup with minimal ingredients: one large cauliflower cut into florets, one large onion thinly sliced, 4 cups of hot water, a generous pinch of salt (1/2 teaspoon or more to taste) and some…

Cannellini Bean Soup with Porcini Mushrooms

This is a variation on Rufus’s Food and Spirits Guide for Cannellini Bean Soup. The day that I made this soup I had the mother-of-all-head-colds coming on. I didn’t have the time or temperament to soak beans for 8-hours; I needed an injection of garlic and onion, and the only thing with the truffles on…