Ayurveda and Kerala, India

I've recently got back from an Ayurvedic and yoga retreat in Kerala, South India. For anyone who doesn't know what Ayurveda is there is more information here, but basically it is an ancient form of wellbeing and health which focuses on prevention rather than cure and if medicine is necessary using natural herbal options. The doctors train for longer than Western doctors and there seems to be growing research based evidence supporting this and similar approaches (unsurprisingly as much research is funded by drug companies there is tends to be more focus on chemical medicine). A large element of this is the way you eat with a focus on certain food suiting different types of people. The food is mainly vegetarian.

Whilst I was away I had a cooking course into how to make an Ayurvedic meal. The course was taken by the chefs from the hotels kitchen.





Apologies in advance for the quality of the photos but I didn't take my proper camera with me as I was packing light and it was pretty dark in the room we were in.

Dhal Maharajah

We started by making a Dhal Maharajah, which was a yellow lentil dish.

Pre-cook 100g of yellow lentils according to the instructions on the packet.

Then you need to add 1/2 tsp of cumin seeds to a little oil, add three cloves of crushed garlic, an equal quantity of grated gingered one large onion very finely diced. Sauté until golden brown and soft. Add 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp cumin powder, 1/2 tsp chilli powder and one tomato chopped finely. Cook the spices in for a few minutes.


Add the pre-cooked lentils along with a little of their cooking water. Put the lid on the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are thick.


Stir though some chopped coriander and serve.



Vegetable Thoram

Next we made a Vegetable Thoram. A Thoram means a dry dish which often has coconut in it.

Start by heating a little coconut oil in a pan and add to it 1tsp mustard seeds, 5-10 curry leaves. Cook until the mustard seeds start to pop and add 1/2 tsp grated ginger, 1 crushed garlic clove, a very finely chopped onion, 1/2tsp salt, 1/2tsp chilli powder and 1/2 tsp turmeric. Cook until the onion is soft.



Very chop finely chopping your vegetables, we used carrots, green beans, cauliflower and cabbage and add to the pan with a little water. Cook, stirring occasionally to ensure they don't burn until the vegetables are cooked through and soft. Stir in 2 tbsps of grated dried coconut (unsweetened desiccated coconut) and serve.




Lemon Rice

Finally we made a lemon rice. Pre-cook 100g of basmati rice.

Start by adding 1/2 tbsp if cashew nuts and 1/2 tbsp of raisins to a little oil. Add 5-10 curry leaves and 1/2 tsp turmeric powder and cook the spices in.





Stir in the pre-cooked basmati rice, along with the juice of a lime and 1/2 tsp salt and serve.




Here are some of the pictures of the buffet that the chefs prepared each day

One day I also went on a trip out to a local food market. I think my taxi driver thought I was mad, but as I've probably mentioned before I think going to a food market really gives you a feel of a places food and culture. It was only small but there were still many fascinating things. As I didn't have anywhere to cook I couldn't buy much but I did buy some mango for me and the driver. 

One Week in Sarah's Kitchen: Wednesday

Again it was an early start in the office. I had breakfast before I left home and took my gym kit with me as I had planned to do a spin class after work. As it turned out, I didn't leave the office until almost 10pm so that unfortunately didn't happen.

Food and Drinks:

Breakfast: first thing I had lemon, ginger and hot water. Followed a little later by two poached eggs one one slice of rye with half an avacado

Morning snack: a green smoothie with a teaspoon of spiruluna powder added and sweetened with dates rather than agave syrup

Lunch: tomato and lentil soup followed by an orange cut up with a little lemon jucie squeezed on it



Afternoon snack: four protein ball 'truffles' made from dried fruit, nuts, cocoa powder and cinnamon.

As it was a late night in the office I also had a cocoa made with oat milk and a few nuts to keep me going

Dinner: As I finished in the ofice even later that Tuesday night I didn't even make it to the freezer for my dinner. Instead I had some left over Moroccan spiced houmous with some celery, carrot and cucumber sticks and some mange tout. Followed by mackerel in tomato sauce on wilted spinach topped with a little cheese.

Water: 2 litres
Other drinks: 4 mugs of decaf tea with skimmed milk
Organised for tomorrow: only snacks, it was too late for anything else

Exercise and Walking

Walking: 20 mins
Exercise: Rest day - enforced by a very long day in the office

Relaxation and Sleep

Relaxation: none
Meditation: none
Bed time: 10.40pm
Estimated hours of sleep: 6.5 hours

Before bed I always eat a few walnuts and take a magnesium supplement. I also sleep with a black out blind and sleep mask and use a pulse aromatherapy oil made of relaxing oils.

Porridge with Spiced Apple

On a cold day like today a steaming bowl of porridge is a great start to the day.
I try not to add any sugar and also use non dairy milk so have to be fairly inventive with the toppings so it doesn't become bland and boring.
The recipe can be found in my guide

Check out How to Cook Porridge With Spiced Apple by Sarah's Kitchen Diary on Snapguide.

Here is the finished result




Tasty!

Chai Tea Latte

One of my favourite hot drinks is a sweet and spicy chai tea latte. I'm not sure this is entirely authentic but tastes good to my western palate!

Basically I just mix black tea, spices and brown sugar and infuse some warm milk. I like to make up a large mixture of the spice and keep it in a jar so it's quick and easy to make when I fancy a chai.





To make 4 mugs I would suggest trying the contents of 4 tea bags of black tea (throw the actual bags away), 1 tbsp soft brown sugar, 20 whole cardamom (slightly crushed), 20 whole cloves, 2-3 sticks of cinnamon, 10 black pepper corns. You can then adjust the spices to your taste. This can then be stored in a air tight jar.

When you wish to make up the drink place the spice mix in a saucepan along with 4 mugs of milk. Bring it slowly to the boil on a low heat and simmer for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off the pan and leave to infuse for a few minutes before straining into mugs. Yum!

Vegetable Thai Green Curry Soup

I love Thai green curry, especially a recipe I learnt when I was in Thailand (I really must write a post on it next time I make it) and at this time of year I eat soup for lunch most days. I had a small amount of coconut milk in the fridge so decided to combine the two and make a slightly more soupy vegetable curry.

I started by dicing the vegetables to a size easy to eat with a spoon, far smaller than I would for a true curry. I then heated the coconut milk with the water, added the green curry paste, ginger, fish sauce, sugar and soy followed by the veg and cooked until the veg were all fairly soft but still holding their shape. I finished by squeezing in lime juice and some sliced red chilli. You could also top with fresh coriander if you had some. I also normally add some torn kaffir leaves but forgot!

Here it is cooking in the pan


Recipe

Makes two generous bowls of soup and is easily doubled/halved etc. You can also substitute the veg for whatever you have in the fridge that you think would be tasty

1/2 tin coconut milk
2-3 tablespoons of green Thai curry paste to taste
1 tsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp sugar (or natural sweetener)
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp fresh ginger grated
1 courgette
1 red pepper
1 large carrot
2 onions
1/2 red chilli
Juice of 1/2 lime
3-4 torn kaffir leaves (if you remember!)
A bunch of torn coriander (if desired)


Dice all of the veg

Heat the coconut milk with the curry paste, ginger, fish sauce, ginger and sugar.

Add the veg and cook until it is soft but still holds its shape. Approx 20-30 mins

Add the lime and kaffir leaves. Serve topped with slices of red chilli and corriander

Diana Henry's Vietnamese Chicken with Nuoc Cham

I have admired Diana Henry's simple but very tasty recipes in the Waitrose magazine, Waitrose Kitchen, for some time. When I saw the fantastic reviews her recipe books had on Amazon I had to put one on my Christmas list. I was lucky enough to find a copy of her book Food from Plenty under the Christmas tree.


Here is the first recipe I have tried from it. It is in the section which is a collection of recipes to use up left overs. This one is for left over roast chicken, which I had in the freezer from the last roast I made. I've made a few adaptations, some for choice and some through need, as I haven't been shopping in a while!

I started by making the nuoc cham which is a Vietnamese sauce which is hot, sour, salty and sweet in equal measure.


I then cooked the rice. She uses white rice but I prefer the taste of brown rice, plus it's healthier so I substituted this for brown rice (and slightly smaller quantities). It's cooked using the absorption method. Brown rice needs about 40 mins cooking time.


I also didn't have any spring onions so used some lightly stir fried cabbage and also added a few thinly sliced carrots. I also didn't have shallots so used onion instead and cooked them for a little longer than she suggested.


Finally it was a case of assembling the dish by mixing the chicken, rice and veg and topping with the onions and a sprinkling of nuoc cham and shredded mint leaves.



This really was a delicious way to use up leftover chicken and this dish is definitely a sum of more than its parts. The only thing I would do differently next time is to either reduce the amount of garlic or cook it a little first as for me the raw garlic flavour was slightly strong.

Recipe

Serves 4

For the nuoc cham:
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red chilli, finely chopped
Pinch of salt
Juice of one lime
2 tbsp fish sauce
4tsp caster sugar

For the chicken and rice:
300g brown rice
600ml chicken stock
4 slices of fresh ginger root plus a little for grating
1 tbsp oil
1 onion thinly sliced
400g leftover roast chicken shredded
6 large cabbage leaves
2 carrots finely sliced
A handful of mint leaves, torn
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Start by making the nuoc cham by mixing all of the ingredients together in a small bowl. Set to one side

2. Put the rice, sliced ginger, seasoning and stock in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Put the lid on and reduce the heat and leave to simmer gently for about 40 mins. Do not stir but if the rice starts to stick add a little boiling water. Remove the ginger slices, add a little finely grated ginger and set aside with the lid on.

3. When the rice is almost cooked fry the onions in a little oil until golden and slightly caramelised. Set to one side.

4. Stir fry the carrots for a couple of minutes. Add the cabbage and the chicken and cook until heated through.

5. Stir the chicken and veg into the rice and share between 4 plates. Top each one with the onions and mint leaves. Serve with the nuoc cham.

Alternative Christmas Dinner

For the first year (I think ever) we didn't have turkey for our christmas dinner. We bought a beautiful joint of sirloin fore-rib of beef to have with a parsnip, shallot and sausage mixture, roast potatoes, green veg and red cabbage.

For the beef we placed a few roughly chopped carrots, onions, celery and garlic in the bottom of a roasting tin and then placed the seasoned beef on top with a good slug of olive oil. To roast it we put it in the oven at 230C for 20 mins before turning it down to 180C for 18 mins for every 500g. This resulted in roast beef which was medium rare. Once it was down we took it out of the roasting tin and wrapped it in foil and covered it in tea towels to rest.




To make the gravy take the roasting tin with the veg and the meat juices in and carefully spoon off most of the fat and discard or put to one side for beef dripping. Put the whole tin on the hob, stir in a couple of spoonfuls of flour and get it nice and hot before pouring in a large glass of red wine. Now use a potato masher to mush all of the veg up scraping all of the yummy goodness from the bottom of the pan as you do. Add some boiling water to thin the stock to the right consistency and simmer for about 5 mins. To finish sieve out all of the vegetables and other lumps and you'll be left with a yummy gravy. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. This is probably vaguely a Jamie Oliver recipe.

Whilst the meat is cooking thinly slice half a red cabbage and half an onion. Place it in a pan with a grated apple, two teaspoons of sugar a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, seasoning and a stick of cinnamon. Cook on a medium to low heat for about an hour until it is nice and soft. This is a recipe I have been given by my mum, which we have been making for years (it originally used malt vinegar but I tend to use balsamic vinegar now).



For the potatoes we used Jamie Oliver's perfect roast potatoes and had garlic, rosemary and red wine vinegar as our chosen flavour combination. They really are great roast potatoes.



For the shallot, parsnip and sausage mix we took 8 good quality sausages (ours were from a local farm) and twisted each in the middle and cut to make 2 mini sausages. We placed these in the bottom of a roasting tin along with halved parsnips, shallots and sprigs of rosemary and then poured over a mixture of 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tbsp of sweet chilli jam and 2 tbsps of maple syrup and then roasted at 180C for 45 mins, turning every so often. This was adapted from Waitrose Kitchen magazine.



We served all of this with a bowl of mixed greens including some tendersteam broccoli and sugar snap peas. Overall it was a great dinner even if there was no turkey!

Festive Clementine Cake

Unfortunately I can't take the credit for this one, but it was a bit of a gem so I wanted to write a post on it anyway. So this is a guest post made by my mum. Last week was my dad's birthday and my mum made a lovely meal of butternut squash soup with a swirl of pesto oil, roasted quail with apples and this lovely cake/dessert.

It is a Diana Henry recipe, but from the Waitrose Kitchen magazine not from one of her lovely books.

It's very simple and a similar method to the flourless chocolate orange cake in my previous post This also means it is gluten free so great for any allergy suffers.

Boil 5 unpeeled clementines in water for about 1.5 hours until they are totally soft. Whizz them in a food processor (skin and all). Allow to cool slightly and blend in 6 beaten eggs, 225g light brown soft sugar, 250g ground almonds, 1tsp baking powder and the finely crushed seeds of 8 cardamom pods. When fully incorporated pour the batter into a lined and greased 20cm round cake tin and bake for about 50mins in a oven preheated to 180C/gas mark 4. Cool in the tin. She suggest pouring over a glacé icing made with 150g icing sugar and 2tbsp clementine juice and 1/2tsp of orange blossom water and then pour over the top and allow it to drip down the sides. We simply dusted with icing sugar.




This would make a perfect festive treat due to the clementines and spice.

Spiced Lentil and Butternut Squash Soup

At this time of year I mainly eat soup for lunch so like to try different ones. Here are some more recipes
Today's recipe is a lightly spiced but still very tasty squash soup. It could also be made with pumpkin or other squash.








Ingredients
1.5 litres of chicken stock (use vegetable if you need the dish to be vegetarian)
200g dried red lentils
1-2 tsp crushes sumac
6 garlic cloves
1 small, diced carrot
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tap paprika

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C. Place the peeled, deseeded and cubes squash, garlic and carrot in a large roasting tray in a single layer (use two trays if you need to) drizzle with olive oil, spices and season and bake for about an hour or until the veg is soft and caramelised. Put the veg in a clean pan along with the stock and roughly blend so there is still some texture. Add the lentils and cook for about 20 mins until they are soft. Ladle into bowls and serve with a dollop of yoghurt and a sprinkle of sumac.

Christmas is coming....

I have always loved the run up the Christmas, probably more so than the actually day if I'm honest!

For years my mum and I have made the mincemeat, pudding and cake in plenty of time for Christmas and even though I haven't lived at home for years I still like to carry on the tradition.

Traditionally we have always relied on Delia Smith for these recipes. However, a few years ago I stepped away from tradition and started making a tropical fruit and nut cake instead of the normal fruit cake. It is far lighter and doesn't need to be made until nearer the time and I personally much prefer it. This year I decided I also wanted to try a different Christmas pudding and found a lovely recipe in Peyton and Byrne Bitish Baking that I decided to give a go.

We started by making the mincemeat. It is so easy to make and so much tastier than shop bought. It is literally a case of mixing all of the ingredients togther (apart from the brandy) and soaking it overnight and then baking it in the oven. The hardest part is juicing so many oranges and lemons!

Once it's cooled the brandy can be stirred in and then the mincemeat can be transferred to steralised jars.

I did tweak the Christmas pudding recipe slightly. It didn't say to soak the fruit, but I decided to do so over night seeing as I was soaking the mincemeat fruit anyway. It didn't say to put the zest of the orange in (only the lemon) but I thought the extra flavour would be good. I also subsituted the citrus peel for dried apricots as I really don't like citrus peel and the glace cherries for dates as I'm not convinced by glace cherries, they are just so far removed from the fresh fruit.

First we mixed all of the fruit with the liquid and let is soak over night. we then added the suet, flour, sugar, eggs and breadcrumbs and continued with the recipe as stated. The mixture was supposed to make one 1 litre pudding, but we made one large pudding and 4 small.

Here is the mixture ready to bake, but before we pushed it down and smoothed off the top

Here is the large pudding with the top smoothed and a disc of baking paper put on the top

Here is the pudding wrapped in two layers of foil, ready for steaming

Here is one of the small puddings once it was cooked. I ended up cooking the small puddings for about 3 hours and the large for about 4.5hours. I obviously haven't eaten one yet, but I was evry impressed with the recipe. Yet again Peyton and Byrne prove that British Baking is a classic, must have recipe book and as it is so beautiful is perfect for presents!

Mincemeat Recipe, from Delia Smith

1lb cooking apples, peeled cored and finely chopped
8oz shredded suet
12oz raisins
8oz sultanas
8oz currants
8oz mixed peel (I subsitute this with a mixture of the other dried fruits)
12oz soft dark brown sugar
Zest and juice of 2 oranges
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
2oz flaked almonds
4tsps mixed spice
1tsp ground cinnnamon
Half a nutmeg grated
6 tablespoons of brandy

Mix all of the ingredients together in an oven proof bowl and soak overnight. Bake in the oven at 120C for 3 hours. Once cool stir in the brandy and transfer into steralised jars.

Christmas Pudding, adapted from Peytin and Byrne, British Baking

200g raisins
150g currants
100g flaked almonds
75g dried chopped apricots
75g dates chopped
1 large cooking apple, peeled, cored and grated
1 medium carrot grated
1400g suet
140g plain flour
140g demerara sugar
75g fresh breadcrumbs
2 beaten eggs
4tbsps stout
Juice and zest of one orange
Juice and zest of one lemon
2tbsp brandy
1tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Place the dried fruit and all of the liquid (apart from the eggs) in a bowl and soak overnight. Add the remainder of the ingredients and place in well greased pudding bowls. Cover ythe top of the mixture with a small circle of baking paper and then cover the whole of the top of the bowl with two layers of foil, securing with string. Place the basin in a saucepan on a trivet or a srunched up piece of foil and fill the pan approx half full with boiling water. Place on the heat, bring to the boil and then turn down to a gentle simmer and put the lid on. Once you think it is cooked check by carefully unwrapping the pudding and inserting a skewer. If it comes out clean it is cooked. For me the small puddings took about 3 hours and the large 4.5 hours.

Once cooked put clean baking paper and foil on the pudding and leave to cool. Once a month carefully peel back the cover and 'feed' with a splash of brandy. Store in the fridge or a cool dark place until Christmas.

To reheat repeat the steaming process but for 2 hours this time (I'd suggest about 1.5 hours for the small puddings). Turn out the pudding onto a serving dish, sprinkle with sugar and top with a sprig of holly. Pour over some brandy and set alight. Serve with brandy butter.

Random Bakes of Kindness 3: Cake and Cookies

I've been promising to take some baked goodies into work for ages so decided a Random Bake of Kindness was in order. I had the oven on anyway so it was easy to make a little extra.

I started by making some Millies Style Double Chocolate Chip cookies. They are always a crowd pleaser and very quick and easy to make. I forgot to take any photos but it is the same recipe as my very first post and there are photos there if anyone wants to take a look. The full recipe is below but basically you cream the butter and sugars together, add an egg and then add flour, cocoa powder, salt and chocolate chips. I always chop a bar of chocolate up as I prefer chunks to the small drops. I also tend to use white as I like the contrasting colour, but any chocolate works or even nuts, raisins or chunks of toffee. Bake them in an oven pre-heated to 180C for 7 mins before cooling on a wire rack. Don't be tempted to cook them for any longer if you want the lively chewy middle. Even if you don't think they're done I promise they will firm up! Once cool either serve as they are or drizzle with a little melted chocolate.

I also wanted to take a cake, but wanted to try a new recipe. Here in the UK there is definitely an autumnal feeling in the air. The nights are drawing in, the weather is getting colder and the leaves are falling from the trees. This time of year always makes me think of spices and warming flavours so it is the perfect time to try a recipe I've fancied making for a while. It's a Spiced Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting and is adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days recipe book and also used some of the many apples I have waiting to be used.

The full recipe is below but you start by cooking the grated apple, sugar, spices and apple juice in a pan. While it cools a little cream the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time followed by half of the dry ingredients the soured cream and the rest of the dry ingredients. Finally mix in the apple mixture and the walnuts. Put the mixture into two 8'' tins. Make sure they are lined and greased especially well as I found the cakes very sticky once baked. Bake for about 30 mins until a skewer pushed into the middle comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. I found the cakes to be very sticky and crumbly so handle them carefully.

In the meantime make the icing. Put the egg whites and sugar in a heat proof bowl (make sure the bowl is scrupulously clean and no yolk sneaks in otherwise the whites will not whip) and place over a pan of water, taking care that the bowl doesn't touch the water. Whisk on a high speed for about 8 mins until the mixture forms stiff peaks and allow to cool for about an hour.

Once everything is cool sandwich the two cakes with approximately 4 tablespoons of icing and use the rest to cover the top and sides of the cake.

It was a really unusual cake and everyone was very complimentary. Especially about the icing which was very yummy!




Millies Style Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

125g butter, softened
100g light brown soft sugar
125g caster sugar
1 egg lightly beaten
175g self raising flour
50g cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
200g choc chips

preheat oven to 180
cream butter & sugars, then add egg
sift in flour, cocoa & salt, then choc chips
roll into walnut sizd balls or cut slices
place on ungreased paper
bake for 7 minutes for doughy cookies or 10 for golden edges
take out of oven & leave for 1 min before transferring to wire rack.

Spiced Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Icing

For the cake:
140g (5oz) unsalted butter or margarine
50g grated granny smith apple (around 1 apple)
60ml (2floz) apple juice
250g (9oz) soft light brown sugar
1tsp cinnamon
1/4tsp ground nutmeg
1/4tsp ground ginger
2 large eggs
230g (8oz) plain flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
60ml (2 floz) soured cream
150g (5oz) walnuts chopped

For the icing:
3 large egg whites
125g (4 1/2 oz) soft dark brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 170C (325F, gas mark 3) and line and grease two 8'' cake tins

1. Melt 20g of the butter with the grated apple, the apple juice, spices and 75 g of the sugar until the liquid has reduced by about three-quarters
2. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add one egg at a time
3. Stir in half of the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt
4. Stir in all of the soured cream
5. Stir in the remainder of the dry ingredients
6. Stir in the apple mixture and pecans
7. Divide between the two tins and cook for about 30 mins until a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean and then cool on a wire rack before icing
8. Make the icing by mixing the egg whites with the sugar in a heat proof bowl (ensure the bowl is scrupulously clean and no egg yolk gets in otherwise the eggs will not whip).
9. Place the bowl over a pan of water but make sure that the bowl doesnt touch the water. Whisk on a high speed for 6-8 minutes until it forms stiff peaks. Set aside to cool for about an hour.
10. Once cool place about 4 tbsp of icing onto one cake and then sandwich the other on top. Use the remainder of the icing to cover the top and sides of the cake.

Adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days

Autumnal Soups

I intended on posting this last night in order to keep up with my aim of writing a post everyday for a week but unfortunately ran out of time.

I always love soups, especially for lunch, but as the weather starts to turn autumnal soups come into their own. Warming and filling they are decidedly satisfying.

I made three batches of soup which I have optioned up and put in the freezer to take out for lunches either at work or home.

As most of my previous posts I'm afraid I haven't got a 'proper' recipe'. I have a tendency when cooking to cook by tasting as I go and experimenting with flavours I know complement each other, borrowing from memories of recipes I may have followed at some point in the past.

The first soup I made was a Spiced Pumpkin Soup with Mint Yoghurt. I started by peeling and roasting a pumpkin with 2 onions and 3 cloves of garlic (I know this sounds a lot but once roasted it takes on a lovely sweet and mellow flavour). I then added this to a large pan with some homemade chicken stock I had in the freezer, some ground chilli, cumin, corrinader, turmeric and garam masala (which I had dry fried for a few seconds first) and seasoned it well. I left it simmering for about 30 mins and the. cooled slightly before blending it until smooth. Taste to check the seasoning and add more if needed.

It's great served with a generous blob of mint yoghurt (I use Greek yoghurt mixed with chopped mint and seasoning).






A couple if years ago I went on a wonderful cooking course in a farmhouse in the hills just north of Rome, Italy http://www.cookitaly.it/recipes.htm

Twice daily the cook came down from the village to teach us to cook and this soup is one of the recipes I've made many times since. The original had a small potato in it added at the beginning and some risotto rice added about 15 mins before the end so feel free to revert to the original. The result is a very thick, filling soup so could even be eaten as a light dinner.

You start by frying a diced carrot, onion, celery tops and a clove of garlic in a pan. Once slightly browned and softened add a cup of dried green lentils, about 5 diced cherry tomatoes, seasoning and about a litre of stock. Simmer for about 45 mins, checking if more liquid is needed every so often. It should be thick by the end but you don't want it to dry out or burn on the bottom of the pan. About 5 mins before the end add another 5 diced cherry tomatoes and a handful of chopped parsley. Check the seasoning and serve.






The final soup I made was a Chicken, Vegetable and Barley soup. I love barley anyway and think it's a wonderful grain but in something like this simple soup it comes into it's own.

I started by sautéing finely diced carrot, onion and celery as a base (the same idea as an Italian sofritto) I then added a crushed garlic clove, a cup of barley, seasoning a handful of shredded roast chicken (don't worry you really don't need a lot) and about a litre of brown chicken stock (this is made by taking the carcass from a roast chicken and putting it back in the own until the bones and any remaining chicken are quite brown. The carcass is then boiled in plenty of water for an hour or so to make a very tasty stock. You can also add veg to the stock pot but on this occasion I didn't). Cook this for about 45 mins until the barley is soft. Check every so often that there is enough liquid and add more water if necessary. About 5 mins before the end add a handful of chopped parsley.

Sorry for the less than pretty serving bowl but this was ready to go into the freezer when I thought to take a photo!