An Onion and Cream cheese Curry

Continuing my current obsession with onions how about a sweet and interesting curry, not the usual curry flavour and probably one of the cheapest dishes out there . . .

- Put some oil in a frying pan to heat on high.

- Peel and slice some onions into biggish slices. You’ll need lots, for myself I used four smallish onions.

- Pop the onions into the hot pan and cook stirring now and then until the slices start to brown and blacken at edges.

- Turn the heat down low and add the spices - a teaspoon each of dried thyme and mint, half a teaspoon of turmeric, a pinch or two of chilli flakes and a couple of teaspoons of cumin seeds.

- let the spices cook for a minute or two (take the pan off the heat if they look like burning) then add a slice of butter.

- Leave to sizzle gently until the onions are well cooked and have gone a honeyed brown.

- season with a pinch of salt.

Serve with some lumps or splodges of cheese, say feta (careful with the salt) or cottage cheese or as I did some philadelphia (cream cheese). And some bread or rice of course or roll it up in a pancake like I did.

I like it quite dry but for rice it might need more of a sauce so I would add some water or yoghurt or even cream at the end.

Roast Onion and Thyme soup with Feta

Intensely savoury, dark and interesting this one, quite salty from the feta and with a depth that if you look into it for too long will show you your future . . .

- Put the oven on to hot, say 200 centigrade.

- Peel and slice some onions. Mine were a little bit smaller than an apple so for a pint of soup ( 2 peoples worth ) I used 5. Slice them to the size you want in the soup.

- Put the onions into a roasting dish and add in a clove of garlic crushed, peeled and chopped, the leaves and tips from a handfull of fresh thyme sprigs and a tespoonful of whole cumin seeds.

- Pour over enough olive oil to coat everything and lob in a tablespoonful of butter and some ground black pepper.

- Place in the oven and cook, stirring occasionally until the onions start to blacken and char at edges. Ten to twenty minutes probably.

- Turn the oven down low, maybe 130 centigrade so that it is just bubbling and leave to cook nice and slowly until the onions are soft and honey coloured. This will take a while, another twenty minutes to half an hour or more even. The slower the cooking the more the sweetness of the onions will come out.

- Once cooked transfer into a saucepan, oil and everything and top up with a pint and a quarter of vegetable stock.

- Simmer gently for ten minutes or so to allow the flavours to blend check for seasoning and serve with some creamy feta crumbled in.

I had the oven on at the time so roasted the onions but there is no reason you cannot cook them in a frying pan on the stove. Just keep the heat down low and watch that they do not burn,

Mushroom, Bacon (or Celery) and Marscapone soup

Australia has decided to send a storm across to us and as Spring has gone into hiding, I have gone back to Autumn for inspiration today. Something warm, heavy and comforting is called for and mushrooms and bacon fit the bill here for me, along with some marscapone to add a thick, creamy comfortness. Oh, and a touch of thyme as well, just to remind us that Spring will soon be back again. I used free range smoked bacon but if you are vegetarian I would swap it for a stick or two of celery which will taste different of course but give the same effect.

- Peel and chop an onion and set to cook slowly in some olive oil along with a couple of rashers of bacon chopped up.
- Leave to cook slowly until the onion is soft and turning golden.
- Add in a small palmfull of thyme leaves and a couple of handfulls of mushrooms roughly chopped.
- Pour over a pint and a quarter of vegetable stock and leave to simmer until the mushrooms are cooked, ten to fifteen minutes I should think.
- Blend the soup smooth and return to the saucepan.
- Spoon in a tablespoon or so of marscapone cheese, some salt and ground black pepper if it needs it and reheat gently.

Coursely ground black pepper is pretty well compulsory when I am cooking and the lemonyness is a lovely foil to the mushrooms, and occasionally I’ll squeeze in some lemon juice as well if I feel like it to add in a bit of freshness.

Cream of Fennel and Roast Garlic Soup

Nicola found some fennel bulbs at the farmers market and brought a couple home for me. At the same time I really enjoyed the garlic in the mushroom and garlic soup last week and so decided to combine the fennel with garlic and cream aiming for a creamy consoling soup. When cooked fennel has quite a subtle flavour so I have roasted the garlic which mellows it beautifully. You could roast the fennel and onion as well if you like but I didn’t.

-Begin with the garlic. Put the oven on to 190 centigrade. Take a whole bulb of garlic, snip off the top with some scissors, put on a baking tray and pour over a little olive oil and some salt.
- Pop in the oven and roast until the cloves are soft enough to squash between your fingers, twenty minutes to half an hour probably.
- Meanwhile peel and chop up a small onion and a couple of fennel bulbs.
- Cook gently in a tablespoon or two of olive oil
- Take the garlic out of the oven and allow it to cool. Then separate the cloves and squeeze them out into the onion and fennel pan. The flavour really is quite mild so use the whole bulb.
- Add in a small palmfull of thyme leaves and stir it all about.
- Pour over about three quarters of a pint of chicken or vegetable stock and leave to simmer until the fennel is soft, maybe another twenty minutes.
- Allow the soup to cool a little and then blend smooth.
- Reheat again adding some salt if neccessary, black pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice, and then some cream. I never add much cream, a dessertspoonful or two is all that is required to give the soup a creamyness without over powering the rest of the ingredients.

Enjoy.

Pumpkin and Roast Beetroot soup

I have grown up not liking beetroot. To me it was always something that came in a jar tasting of vinegar and earth. And then one day I had it roasted, in a salad I should think, and everything changed . . . .

- First roast your beetroots, I like to speed things up by boling them first, so scrub a couple and pop them in a pan of cold water.
- Bring to the boil and boil for fifteen minutes or so until just tender when poked with a knife.
- Put the oven on hottish, say 190 centigrade and pop a dish in with some olive oil in to heat.
- Meanwhile you can get on with the pumpkin part which is my usual recipe, so cook slowly an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic along with a thyme stem or two in some oil until soft and golden brown.
- Once the beetroot has boiled drain and allow to cool so you can peel them and chop them into chunks.
- Take the dish out of the oven and put the beetroot into the hot oil along with a clove of garlic peeled and crushed and a few more thyme stems. Pop it back into the oven to roast for another fifteen to twenty minutes.
- To the onion and garlic add in half a small pumpkin, about a breakfast bowl full, peeled and chopped into thumb sized pieces, turn up the heat and cook until the pumpkin browns at the edges, stirring now and again.
- Add a pint and a half of vegetable stock and turning the heat down leave to simmer until the pumpkin is soft.
- Once the beetroot is roasted take it out of the oven and pour in a dessertspoonfull or two of balsamic vinegar and stir around.

There are two recipes going on at once here of course, but why not? - if I am going to all the trouble of roasting beetroot I am going to roast some extra. This mixed with some feta cheese and some more thyme leaves (I like thyme!) makes a lovely salad and if you then add a handfull of that new fangled microsalad, and some bread, you'll have tomorrows lunch. Anyway back to the soup.

- Add the rest of the beetroot to the soup. How much depends on how strong you want the flavour to be, I used about half as much as the pumpkin which gave a distinct but not overpowering taste.
- Allow to cool a little then fish out the thyme stalks and blend the soup until smooth - it will go a beautifull rasberry red colour.
- Squeeze in half a lemon and serve with crumbled feta cheese and still more thyme leaves.

One of the prettiest looking soups I have made for a long time and a gorgeous flavour, comforting and earthy with an orangy hint in there as well.




And thinking of rasberry red here's a memory from the past . . .

Sweet Potato and Red Pepper soup

I don't know about you but in the heat of Summer my thoughts constantly turn towards strong flavours. For dinner tonight I made a punchy combination of chorizo, courgette, and apple all fried with some garlic and a sprig of rosemary, and then served with spaghetti, a salad of lettuce and spring onions and lots of salty pecorino cheese. For lunch we had a sweet potato and red (bell) pepper soup which whilst milder was certainly no wallflower by comparison.

As I have mentioned before I am not a great fan of raw pepper but roasting them first loses that harshness that I do not like. This is a soup made by roasting the base ingredients rather than frying - ideal if you already have the oven on for something else, the sunday roast perhaps.

- Peel and roughly chop into big chunks an onion, a couple of cloves of garlic. Roll them about in an oven proof dish in a tablespoon or three of olive oil along with some salt and a sprig of thyme if you have some. Chop up the pepper the same, remove the seeds and add to the onions and oil etc.
- pop it all into the oven and leave for a good twenty minutes until soft and blackened at the edges. A hot oven is best, as hot as it will go but it depends what else is in there. I often put them in when the roast first goes in and then turn the heat down when the peppers etc come out.
- Pour the oil from the bowl into a saucepan (keep the vegetables of course!) on high heat and pop in a big sweet potato (kumara here in New Zealand, I got the right one this time) that you have peeled and roughly chopped, big chunks again.
- Stir around until the kumara blackens at the edges then add in the pepper, onion etc.
- Pour in a pint and a quarter of half strength vegetable stock and turn the heat down to a gentle boil.

I suppose you could roast the kumara as well but I have a theory that stock made from powder is better cooked for a good while so I usually do it this way.

- Twenty minutes or so later the kumara should be soft so blend the whole lot smooth. Oh - remember to take out the thyme stalks first because they just stay as irritating little bits after blending.
- Reheat and serve.

We had ours with some bread made with my favourite curry spice mixture (I used ground cinnamon and chilli powder) and topped with mint leaves. The bread was not that exciting on its own but went really well with the soup.

Courgette and Lemon soup

Sunday 5.30pm

It may be winter in most of the populated world, but here in the southern hemisphere it is 20 degrees centigrade, bright sunshine and now after a week of showers the courgettes are growing abundently huge in the garden.
So I make no apologies this, a light summery soup that would be great served chilled. Courgettes, lemon and thyme three things made for each other.

- Start with a small onion and a clove of garlic peeled, chopped and set to cook in some olive oil.
- Add in a big courgette and a potato chopped into chunks.
- Allow to fry for a minute or two then add a pint and a half of half strength vegetable stock ( I use Rapunzel ), and cook until soft, twenty minutes or less.
- Liquidise until very smooth.
- Reheat and add the juice and zest of half a lemon and a little salt and pepper if it needs it.
- Go carefully with the lemon zest because the flavour will intensify as the soup reheats.

Or chill, of course.

I served mine with a herb butter made with a handfull of young thyme leaves mashed into the same amount of butter with a little salt, but to be honest it didn't add anything to the soup. Next time I'll maybe add just the thyme leaves and some feta or philadelphia.