Fresh vegetable soup

 I only had 1 small portion of cauliflower, 1 onion and  1 small piece of turnip left, so I used those.  I also used one potato, but I usually have potatoes in the kitchen.   You can vary the ingredients depending on what you have in the kitchen.

RECIPE

2 vegetable stock cubes
1  1/2  pints of water
Small portion of cauliflower  florets  and outer  leaves
1 onion
1 potato
1 portion of turnip

The raw ingredients and the finished soup -

Vegetable Soup - Before and After

 METHOD

• Crumble the stock cubes into a pan.  Slowly add the water, stirring as you do.
  Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.  This is to make sure the stock cubes mixes in well with the water. 
• Peel the onion and cut into small pieces 
• Peel the turnip and cut into small pieces 
• Peel the potato and cut into large pieces 
• Wash the cauliflower and the leaves.

Put all the incredients into the ovenproof dish.  Cook in the oven at 190 for  1 to 1  1/2  hours.

This soup can also be cooked in a pan on the hob.

Enjoy -

Chunky vegetable soup

This is a quick and easy pudding, which can be made with fresh or frozen gooseberries.

ripe-gooseberries

350g gooseberries
1 tbsp water
75g caster sugar (or to taste)
284ml carton double cream
200g cold, ready-made, fresh custard

Method

1. Cook the gooseberries in a saucepan with the water over a medium heat. Simmer for 5-10 minutes until the gooseberries are very soft. Purée in a blender then press through a sieve to remove the pips. Stir the sugar into the sieved purée, and leave to cool.
2. Whip the cream until it holds soft peaks, then fold it loosely into the custard. Loosely fold in the gooseberry purée so the fool has a marbled texture. Serve chilled, in small glasses.

This gooseberry fool would make a good pudding for a special occassion.
topveg

This recipe for sea bass is quick, easy and tasty.  Sea bass has tender delicate flesh, and in this recipe we keep the natural flavours of the fish and accompany it with some tasty vegetables.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 2 Sea bass fillets, skin on, boneless
• garden peas
• leeks
• mushrooms, sliced
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• thyme
• butter
• olive oil

Method

Slice and blanch the leeks in boiling water and add the peas to the pan, simmer for 6 minutes.  Heat some butter in a large frying pan and cook the garlic and thyme for 1 minute, then add the leek, peas and some sliced mushroom.  Gently fry for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, fry the seabass in some olive oil on a medium heat.  Cook skin side down for 6 minutes and then flip once to cook the flesh through for a further 2 minutes.

Place the vegetables on the plate, topped with the sea bass.

Serve

This meal can be served with buttered crusty bread or with potato patties.

To make the potato patties take some cold (refigerated) mashed potato, make into patties and dust both sides with plain flour.  Fry in a little butter or oil.  If your pan is large enough you can fry in the pan with the vegetables, some of the peas and flavours can get pushed into the patties as they are cooking. Yummy!

This recipe for pickled runner beans is good for using up the surplus runner beans.

Ingredients:

* 1.5lb runner beans
* 1pint malt vinegar
* 1.5lb granulated sugar
* 1 level teaspoon ground allspice
* pepper

Method
1. String & slice beans
2. Cook in lightly salted boiling water for about10 mins. & drain.
3. Mix vinegar,sugar, allspice & pepper in pan, & stir over low heat till sugar is dissolved. Bring to boil, simmer for 5 mins.
4. Add drained beans to vinegar mixture & simmer for another 5 mins.
5. Take beans out of vinegar & pack tightly into clean jars. Top up the jars with the vinegar mixture so the beans are completely covered.
6. Cover with vinegar proof lids & label. Store for a fortnight before eating.

Today we had our first leeks & to celebrate we did the ‘leeks au gratin’ recipe.

Ingredients:

• 6 leeks – sliced across in circles1/2″ thick
• 250ml double cream – must be double!
• 2 handfuls grated cheese

Method:

• drop leeks into a pan of boiling water – bring back to the boil.  Simmer for one minute & drain well.
• place leeks in a shallow, greased oven-proof dish.
• cover leeks with the double cream
• sprinkle the grated cheese on top
• cook in oven preheated to 180C for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

This recipe for Leeks au Gratin could not be easier & produces a very special dish.

For more vegetable recipes, try this book from Amazon:

Champ is a recipe of mashed potatoes with butter and spring onions

Ingredients:

• 4 pounds (1.8kg) potatoes
• 1/2 pint (300ml) milk
• 1 cup (225g) chopped spring onions
• 1/2 cup (110g) butter
• Salt and black pepper

Method:

• Cook peeled potatoes in boiling water.
• Simmer milk and spring onions together for five minutes.
• Strain and mash potatoes, but keep them hot.
• Add hot milk, spring onions, salt, pepper, and half the butter.
• Stir in.
• Serve very hot, with a well of melted butter in the middle.

Try this potato recipe for Champ to warm you up!