Cauliflower & gorgonzola soup with pear relish

I mentioned few days ago that I had a soup crisis and did not eat the soups for weeks until I have finally found inspiring recipes. There was a recipe that really impressed me and I wanted to make this soup as soon as possible. It is a recipe for a cauliflower soup that I have found in Good Food, October 2010 issue (I have made few alterations). Very unusual, very good for Autumn, very comforting and pear relish takes it to a very exciting new level. I hope it will interest you too and you are going to make it. It is definitely worth it.


Soup

Serves 4


1 medium cauliflower
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 small yellow onions, peeled and diced
few thyme springs
bay leaf
1 l vegetable stock
200g gorgonzola
2 tbsp crème fraîche
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Remove the outer leaves from cauliflower and cut into florets, saving the stalk and chopping it into pieces.

Melt the butter in a pan add the onions and fry until translucent and soft. Add cauliflower, thyme, bay leaf, stock, little salt and pepper. Cover and simmer until the cauliflower is soft.

Remove bay leaf, crumble in gorgonzola, add and stir to combine. When the cheese is melted whizz the sup until perfectly smooth. Reheat gently.


Pear relish

2 tbsp dried cranberries
1 tbsp currants
2 firm pears
1 firm apple
75ml cider or red wine vinegar
2 tbsp caster sugar
tbsp picked thyme leaves
half tsp ground cinnamon

Soak cranberries and currants in little warm water for about 10 minutes and drain.

Core and dice pears and apples, leave them unpeeled.

Melt the butter in a small pan over a low heat, add the diced fruit and cook for 5 minutes. Next add all the remaining ingredients and cook for about 10 minutes. The relish should be shiny and slightly translucent. It did not work with mine and I was afraid of overcooking the pears and apples so I drained them. I added 2 tbsp caster sugar to the pan and left it until it turned to caramel. Next I added the drained fruit and left it to caramelised a bit.

You can keep the relish in a covered bowl in the fridge for a week.

Serve a soup with a little warm relish in the centre, sprinkled with some pepper and fresh thyme.

Food heaven.

Sour chunky cauliflower soup

I have been trough a culinary crisis recently. A soup related one. I cooked soups for my partner but did not eat them myself for few good weeks. I did not fancy any soup that I already knew; I was looking for something new, something rehashing and exciting.

Recently I saw two recipes for cauliflower soups I was excited about. These were what I have been looking for. One of them I still have not made and it is Good Food magazine recipe (I will make it though, as I have all the ingredients in my fridge now), the other one I have found on one of the Polish culinary blogs. It may sound weird to you, but believe me – if you like sour and salty taste you will love it.

It is similar to Polish soup made from gherkins from a salty brine (ogórki kiszone or ogórki kwaszone), not pickled in vinegar! I would made some of those if only I could get hold of fresh gherkins but unfortunately I have not seen them in the shops or on local market. Therefore I decided I will prepare cauliflower the same way I would do gherkins and then cook a soup. Very, very interesting. Are you afraid to try it? Should not be.



First of all you need a big, clean jar to prepare cauliflower in brine. Then in the jar place:

2 small cauliflowers cut into florets
2-3cm piece of fresh horseradish, unpeeled
2 garlic cloves, peeled
tbsp of dill seeds (suva seeds)

And just cover with warm salted water. I would think about 1 tbsp of salt for a pint of water. Leave it in warm place for 2-3 days, until it smells and the water looks bit cloudy. Remove the cauliflower from a jar, keep the water and discard dill seeds, horseradish and garlic.

In a pan boil some vegetable stock, and next add the following peeled and diced vegetables:

2-3 potatoes
2 carrots
parsnip
garlic clove

and

bay leaf
2-3 allspice
few whole black peppercorns

Boil until the vegetables are soft and add the cauliflower and salty water accordingly to your taste. The more water you add the more salty and sour the soup will be. Boil for another 5 minutes.

Chop a handful of fresh dill, add to the soup and if you like you can add some crème fraiche. Serve hot.

It is not that scary, is it?

Spicy roast leg of lamb

I like living in the countryside. Sometimes I complaint about cinema or shopping centre being so far away, but I rather go shopping few times a year (it is whole day challenge) or travel to nearest fitness centre twice a week but come back from work to quiet and peaceful environment. Here a walk to the river or Pennines hills is a matter of minutes. Also I have an opportunity to buy some products from local producers such as free range eggs or meat. I pay a good price and I know exactly where the meat comes from and this is extremely important for me.

Few weeks ago my partner ordered a half lamb from a local farmer I mentioned some time ago. Surprisingly the meat was ready to collect few days earlier than we have expected so my partner went to get it and I was trying to empty our small freezer. I have managed to place everything in there and now we are stocked for good few moths.

Today I am going to show a recipe from “Indian food made easy” by Anjum Anand that I love and it would be perfect for those who do not love the smell of lamb. It is marinated for long time and spices make this meat very aromatic without a typical lamb smell. Although the smell is not totally gone. I have changed the quantities and method slightly.


approx. 2 kg leg of lamb


For the marinade

2 tbsp vegetable oil
5 tbsp lemon juice
approx. 5cm fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
6 large cloves garlic, peeled
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander
¼ tsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp garam masala
salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp water


For the honey rub

100g almonds, blanched
150ml Greek yoghurt
2 tbsp honey

Blend together all the ingredients for the marinade in a blender or food processor.

Trim the excess fat and membranes from the leg of lamb. Make deep regular cuts all over the flesh with a short, sharp knife. Rub in the marinade, making sure you get it into the deep cuts. Place the lamb in a plastic food bag with the marinade and leave in the fridge, ideally for 24 hours.

Next day for the honey rub place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend. Take the lamb out of the fridge and remove the plastic bag. Rub the honey blend into the lamb and ideally leave the lamb for another two hours, covered, in the fridge.

Remove the lamb from the fridge and bring to room temperature before cooking and preheat the oven to 225C. Place the lamb in a ovenproof dish with cover and roast for 15 minutes then lower the temperature to 180C, add half glass of water and cover. Roast for another 1 hour 40 minutes. Uncover for last 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven, cover with kitchen foil and leave to rest for about 10 minutes.

Carve and serve with potatoes and vegetables.

First day we had it with roast potatoes and Vichy carrots. Next I have carved all the meat off the bone, placed the bone in a pan added some water and boiled for about 1 hour over a low heat. I used the stock to cover meat leftovers and made sure all the almonds from roasting are added to the gravy as well. Next day I served lamb with this gravy and creamed potatoes and green beans. Any meat leftovers I freeze and going to use it when making pate or for Polish dumplings (pierogi) filling.

Goats' cheese & vegetable melts

Like I mentioned few das ago I like goats' cheese a lot. If you like goats' cheese to please check out this lovely caramelised onion.

Today I am going to show a different way to have a goats' cheese which I love, as it is simple, tasty and you can have a half job done in advance. I like to make more vegetables and store them in a plastic container in a fridge and just reheat them slightly in a microwave when I fancy this melt. They will last few days refrigerated and preparation is only a matter of minutes.

It is ideal to have with glass of your favourite wine, you can serve it as a lunch, light supper or a starter.


red bell pepper, cut into bite size chunks
small courgette, cut into bite size chunks
small aubergine, cut into bite size chunks
tbsp olive oil
handful of fresh thyme
few slices of goats cheese
few slices of good quality bread, one-two days old (I used sourdough bread with olives and sun dried tomatoes)
2 garlic cloves
few sun dried tomatoes from olive oil
freshly ground back pepper
salt

Preheat a pan/skillet and add the olive oil. Next add peppers, courgettes, aubergine and picked thyme leaves. Fry until al-dente, stirring from time to time making sure the vegetables are not browning too much. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Using a food processor or pestle and mortar mash sun dried tomatoes and garlic until smooth.

Place bread slices on a baking tray and put into the oven for 3 minutes.

Spread tomato paste on the bread slices, top with vegetables and slice of cheese. Bake until the cheese is melted.

Remove from the oven and garnish with fresh thyme. Serve warm.

Lemon & courgette risotto

We both love risotto and sour dishes. This risotto seems to be an ideal dinner for us and when courgettes are in season we eat it quite often. We tend to cook risotto on Friday night when we know we can totally relax and have our favourite bottle of wine. There is no shopping to do, there is no need to rush anywhere – we can have this refreshing, comforting bowl of risotto and enjoy ourselves. I have to admit we always regret when our bowls are empty even our bellies are full.

As I am a great fan of risotto I have to say it again – it has to be creamy and oozy, so please do not trust the recipes giving 400ml of stock to 200g of rice which I have come across recently. It will be too dry. I assume that some people rather have stylish picture of dry rice than a real classic dish.


Serves 2-3

small shallot, finely chopped
200g arborio or carnaroli rice
approx. 30g butter
juice + zest of one lemon
approx. 150ml dry white wine
approx. 1 l vegetable stock
small courgette, sliced
handful of fresh basil
2 handfuls freshly grated parmesan
freshly grated black pepper


Keep the stock hot all the time. In a separate pan heat half of the butter, add the shallot and fry very slowly without colouring until softened. Then add add rice and turn up the heat.

Fry the rice, stirring all the time. After a minute it will look slightly translucent. Add the lemon zest, juice (reduce the amount of juice if you do not like sour dishes) and wine and keep stirring until alcohol will evaporate. Season with pepper.

Once the wine has cooked into the rice, add a ladle of hot stock and turn down the heat to a simmer so the rice doesn’t cook too quickly on the outside. Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring – you will notice a creamy starch from the rice. This is why you have to allow each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. This will take around 15-20 minutes, until the rice is cooked.

For the last five minutes add courgette and stir gently so you do not tear up the slices.

Remove from the heat and add the remaining butter, half of parmesan and whole basil leaves. Stir well and allow to rest for 2 minutes – this will make risotto really creamy and oozy. Sprinkle with the remaining parmesan, some more pepper, garnish with basil and serve immediately (as risotto cannot be reheated!).