Toffee Apple Crumble

Oh my, this might just the best thing I have eaten all winter. I am not usually a huge fan of desserts, and particularly those stick-to-your-bones, winter warming desserts so many people love in the cold weather but the flavours in this crumble are unbelievable morish. A dessert, perfect for february when local produce is running low and pickings are thin at the farmers markets. Waiting for spring to arrive with its new season rhubarb and asparagus isn't quite so hard with recipes like this at your fingertips. Rich caramel brings out the best in the apples and a little oatmeal in the topping adds extra crunch and nuttiness to the crumble, all that is missing is a jug of thin cream to drizzle over.

Toffee Apple Crumble

100ml water

225g granulated sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
30g butter
1kg apples, peeled, cored and chopped into chunks
250g blackberries or other berries

75g plain flour
100g oatmeal
150g butter
150g sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4

To prepare the toffee apples, put the water and sugar, syrup and butter into a saucepan and heat till simmering.  Reduce the heat after the sugar has melted and add the apples and cook, stirring gently, until just soft. Put the apple mixture into an ovenproof dish, dot with blackberries and set aside.

To make the crumble, rub the flour, butter and sugar together in a bowl with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir through the oatmeal then sprinkle the crumble evenly over the toffee apple mixture and bake in the oven for 20mins, or until golden and bubbling,

Serve with a drizzle of cream or custard.

Smoked Trout Mousse

Smoked trout mousse livened up with a little caviar and cucumber - isn't it pretty? I think the colours on the plate are amazing, and its a great quick canape for holiday events.

The past few weeks have already been packed full of parties, family gatherings, end of term parents get-togethers and dinner parties. So full in fact that I am running out of time to do the usual Christmas things like shop for presents and plan Christmas dinner.

In store this weekend is a book group night in, a friend's drinks party and a day out at the movies with the family. The only way to manage hectic days like these is to have a repertoire of very quick, but very beautiful, festive and tasty dishes to turn out of your kitchen. This one has minimum effort and maximum impact on a plate.

Smoked Trout Mousse with caviar

450g smoked trout fillets
250g cream cheese
5tbsp creme fraiche
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Freshly ground black pepper

to serve:
1 cucumber
a small pot of caviar (or some thin strips of roasted red pepper)

Flake the fillets of smoked trout into a food processor making sure none of the skin is attached.
Add the cream cheese, creme fraiche, lemon and cayenne pepper.
Blitz until light and fluffy. If its too thick, add a little more creme fraiche or a dribble of milk to thin the mixture down. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

to serve:
Slice the cucumber into 1/2cm slices, top with a dollop of the mousse and a tiny dot of caviar or a little roast red pepper if you prefer.

Indian Spiced Scones

I've not posted for a few weeks but with good reason I promise. I've been making hundreds of Christmas Cakes for our lovely cafe customers and developing a range of chutneys and relishes inspired by my wonderful big sister and her San Francisco based Chutney Company McQuade's Celtic Chutneys. This is one of the best recipes I've come up with to show off the products. I've been meaning to post this recipe for months but every time I make them, they are wolfed so quickly, I've not managed to stop and take a photograph.... really!

Unlike a regular scone, they are not served with sweet jam and cream but instead with strong gutsy flavours to complement the chilli heat in the dough. Sweet onion chutney takes centre stage inside a warm scone seasoned with chilli, garlic, ginger and Indian spices. This is a gorgeous canape for those upcoming holiday parties, lovely with a full flavoured red wine and cheese or cut slightly larger and served on the side of warming lentil soup.

Indian Spiced Scones

250g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp garam masala
125g butter (straight from the fridge)

1 clove garlic, crushed and finely chopped
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 red chillies,  finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
4 tbsp natural yogurt
2 tbsp mustard seeds

Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. 
Sieve the flour, bicarbonate, baking powder, salt and garam masala into a large bowl. 
Add the cold butter and rub in until it resembles breadcrumbs. 
Stir in the garlic, ginger, chillies, egg and yogurt and bring together into a soft dough. 
Place on a well floured surface and roll to about 2cm thick.
Cut into rounds, either large to serve with soup or small to use as canapes.  
Brush each scone with milk and sprinkle with mustard seeds.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until risen and golden. 
Serve as canapes with cheese and chutney or warm and buttered with soup.

Curried Lentil & Coconut Soup

It is definitely September, on the first day of the month the weather seemed to take a turn for the autumnal. Suddenly, a t-shirt was not enough in the sunshine, jumpers were looked out, boots come to the front of the wardrobe... hats and scarves don't seem too far away, and in the middle of all this wind, rain and cool temperatures, Now despite being later in the month and the nights drawing in, I am planning a camping trip. It seemed like a great idea a few weeks ago, now I'm not too sure. A flask of soup and a flask of rich beef stew will be coming with us just in case the wind blows out the flame of the camping stove.

My round-up of camping food will come next week but this recipe fits more into the planning stage as I am making it before we leave and eating it after we pitch on friday night.

So so so easy, this is the most beautiful smooth, creamy and light flavoured soup,child-friendly in its spiciness though easy to heat up if you add a teaspoon of chilli with the tikka masala paste. No-one has tried it without asking for the recipe and almost no-one believes there are only 4 main ingredients.

Curried Lentil & Coconut Soup
1 onion, finely chopped
1tbsp olive oil
2tbsp tikka masala paste
2 large handfuls of orange lentils
1 tin of low fat coconut milk

Warm the olive oil in a heavy based saucepan.
Saute the onion until transluscent, don't allow it to brown.
Add tikka masala paste, and saute a minute longer to allow the spices to warm up.
Throw in the lentils, coconut milk and a cupful of water.
Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the lentils have cooked and broken down.
Blend until smooth.

Thai- style Mussels with Lime and Lemongrass

Sorry I've been offline for a couple of weeks. I have spent New Year on Phuket Island in Thailand. It was tough but someone had to do it! A fabulous holiday, a true foodie getaway, but very limited internet access so I've had to save all the best ideas, recipes and local insider knowledge until I got back. Having a local tour guide at the market was a real boon, daily lessons in how to prepare the most basic of Thai food and explanations of the more unusual fruits and vegetables has sent me home with a whole new palate of flavours to play with. Getting away from all the snow, the cold, the undelivered Christmas presents and the burst pipes was just the icing on the cake!

These mussels are light, healthy and full of bright, fresh flavours. Good for a January health kick when low calorie, low fat and full flavour are on the menu but good too for a chilli hot blast to banish those winter colds and flus that have been hanging around for the past few weeks.

Thai- style Mussels with Lime and Lemongrass
1kg large fresh mussels
100ml white wine
Juice of 1 lime
2 lime leaves, ripped into large pieces
2 tbsp Thai fish sauce
1 hot green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, left whole
2 sticks lemon grass, outer leaves removed and chopped
50g galangal or fresh ginger, peeled thinly sliced
large handful fresh basil

Clean the mussels and throw out any that are cracked.
Tap any open mussels and discard those that don't close.
Place the mussels in a large saucepan, add all the remaining ingredients except the basil. 
Cover, bring to the boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes until the mussels are open. 
Discard any that remain closed.
Remove from the heat, sprinkle over the fresh basil and serve in deep plates with steamed rice or crusty bread to mop up the fragrant juices.

Red Cabbage with Cranberries and Rioja

Time to get cracking:  a week long creative project, interspersed with lots of parties, a significant amount of chocolate and far too much Champagne. I am trying to lay down a few more things in the freezer, just to get ahead of the game for the weekend and to ensure that I don't spend the whole of saturday in the kitchen when I could be playing with the toys and relaxing with guests.

There are traditional dishes that a Christmas table needs to keep the ancestors happy. Roast potatoes, root vegetables and red cabbage are just a few of them. Even if there is only one person remaining in the house who likes red cabbage, you can't miss it out. This version has the sharpness of cranberries and Granny Smiths melded with the warmth of Rioja and a little zing of chilli to finish. A perfect foil to the richness of a Christmas roast.

Red Cabbage with Cranberries and Rioja
1tbsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced thinly into half moons
1 small head of red cabbage, finely shredded
2 sharp eating apples (I used Granny Smiths), grated
100g fresh cranberries 
3tbsp soft brown sugar
350ml rioja or other fruity red wine
1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
Salt

Heat the oil in a large saute pan. Add the onion and fry slowly until softened but not coloured.
Add the cabbage, apples and cranberries to the pan and mix together well.
Sprinkle the sugar over the mixture and add the wine and hot pepper flakes (if using).
Cook at a very low heat for around 1 1/2 - 2hours until soft and melting together.
Season to taste with a generous sprinkle of salt and allow to cool.
The dish is now ready to freeze or leave in the fridge for up to 2 days until needed. The flavours improve with age.

Kilted Sausages and Cranberry & Apple Stuffing

Living in fear of being snowed in has led me to a new and very lovely place in my life: I am really quite organised for Christmas. Presents have been bought or (hopefully) are on their way. Cakes have been baked for home and for the Green Apple Cafe, canapes have been made and frozen and only interesting side dishes remain to be considered.

There is something so depressing about kilted sausages in a supermarket pack. Usually 12 miniature sausages with a wafer thin wrapping of bacon in a huge plastic pack. Why depressing? Well either you need lots of packs or you are getting one or at best two tiny sausages with your Christmas dinner. "That's enough for me," you might say, and while I might agree with you on the day, it is simply too frugal for that particular meal. So I need to make mine at home. Not rocket science but one of those little side dishes that is worth a little bit of time and effort sourcing the ingredients. A good butcher for the chipolata sausages (get lots), well cured bacon, I found some maple cured streaky bacon. Then simply run the flat of a knife along the streaky bacon to stretch it out a little thinner, then wrap each little sausage in a little kilt of bacon. Cook alongside the turkey as you would a very small pack of supermarket sausages. It is well worth a drizzle of maple syrup with a light hand just a few minutes before you take them out of the oven to accentuate the sweetness of the bacon.

A proper recipe this time for Cranberry stuffing. Another simple recipe but with the best ingredients, it makes a special addition to Christmas dinner. Either buy good sausages and split their skins to remove the sausage meat or speak to your local butcher and ask for their best shop-made sausage meat. This stuffing can be used in the traditional way to stuff a turkey but I prefer it cooked seperately

Cranberry, Apple and Pork Stuffing
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
500g good quality sausage meat
100g fresh cranberries, roughly chopped
2 green apples, peeled and grated
zest of one tangerine or small orange
1 egg

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
In a heavy frying pan, heat the oil, add the onion and saute until transluscent but not coloured.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
In a large bowl, stir the onion together with all the other ingredients until well combined. The easiest way is to knead with your hands.
Either roll the mixture into small balls the size of walnuts or press into a loaf tin.(If you must, use it to stuff the turkey but this makes the turkey even harder to cook so I prefer to cook it seperately as a side dish)
For walnut sized balls, bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until cooked through. For stuffing baked in a loaf tin, bake for 45-60 minutes until golden and cooked throughout. Serve with turkey or with any roast dinner.

Brandied Chocolate Cranberries

Now this is a proper Christmas recipe to get you in the mood: cranberries, chocolate, alcohol all encased in a wee nothing-at-all of a nibble. Seasonal music is playing, snow is falling heavily outside so I am having an urge to create completely frivolous food , the sort of food you only have time and inclination to make during the holidays.

I found these Chocolate Cognac Cranberries in the American Oprah Magazine and such is my love of those extremely Christmassy berries, I was excited to find a new way to play with them. This recipe is fiddly to make and very messy but so grown-up and delicious it is worth all the effort. 

Brandied Chocolate Cranberries
300g sugar
juice of one lemon
300g fresh cranberries
150ml brandy
100g good dark chocolate (I used Green and Black's maya gold)

Put sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with 500ml cold water.
Bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Lower the heat to a simmer then add the cranberries and heat for 1 minute.
Strain the berries and allow to cool.
Toss the cranberries in the brandy and marinate for a few hours or overnight.

When you are ready to coat in chocolate, drain the cranberries (reserve any remaining liquid and use as the base of a champagne cocktail) and allow them to dry a little  on some greaseproof paper.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave, then use two forks to toss each cranberry in the chocolate then place on greaseproof paper to set. Store in the fridge or freezer. Serve after dinner with coffee.

Butternut Squash and Beetroot Crumble with Dunsyre Blue

 

Ok, so we live in a small village - the shops here are great, but even they have been challenged this week with erratic deliveries and limited stock. I have been desperate all week to make a huge pot of winter beef stew (maybe with a touch of dark chocolate and a little cinnamon, reminiscent of a mole sauce) or a pot of my mum's amazing lamb stock soup but instead of beef or lamb bones, I left the ravaged shop with a pack of beetroot and a large butternut squash. 

Butternut squash risotto? Goat cheese and beetroot salad? I wanted (needed?)  rich, warming, comfort food. Something to match the weather, to warm us up after a day of sledging and trudging and shivering. This was rich, creamy and so calorific, it almost defeated the purpose of eating such healthy vegetables. Next time, I might make it with a base of tomato passata and marmite instead of cream but either way, with crusty bread, it will make a wonderful snow day lunch. Tomorrow however, I am venturing out to the big shops in Edinburgh and I WILL come back with beef and chocolate so bring on the beef stew.

Beetroot and Butternut Squash Crumble

1 butternut squash, peeled (approx 500g)

1 250g pack of vac-packed beetroot

1 284ml carton double cream

75ml milk

salt and pepper 

Preheat your oven to 190C.

Thinly slice the butternut squash and beetroot and layer in an ovenproof dish. Season each layer with a little salt and pepper.

Whisk together the cream and milk and pour over the vegetables.

for the crumble mixture:

100g butter

100g flour

75g oatmeal

100g Dunsyre Blue, (or other earthy blue cheese) crumbled

50g Parmesan cheese

Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. 

Stir in the oatmeal and blue cheese. 

Scatter the crumble mixture over the vegetables then sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 45 minutes.

  

Split Pea Soup with Spiced Butter

(Aka my favourite soup in the whole wide world ever).

So simple, so luscious, and quite bizarrely - given the frugal nature of the ingredients - so decadent.  Based on a Nigel Slater Moroccan soup recipe but with alternative spicing, this has been a staple of my winter kitchen for years. 

I make this soup at least once a week, it is perfect for small children and anyone who hates spicy food as the spice mixture is added fresh at the end.  Although the soup is elevated to a new level with the zing of fresh spices, omitting them altogether still leaves a rich, comforting and nourishing soup.

Split Pea Soup

1 onion, finely diced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons olive oil

500g yellow split peas

2-3 pints chicken or vegetable stock 

Heat the olive oil in a heavy based saucepan, add the garlic and onion and saute till transluscent and aromatic. Add the split peas and stock and simmer for at least an hour. Keep an eye on the level of stock and top up with water if required. Split peas can absorb an astonishing amount of liquid on their way to tenderness. When the peas are beginning to soften and break up, blend the soup in a blender or food processor until smooth and creamy.

Spiced Butter

100g soft butter

1 clove garlic, crushed

4cm fresh ginger, grated

2 fresh red chillis, chopped finely

2 spring onions, chopped finely

1 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped finely

Squash all the ingredients together till well combined. 

Roll into a log shape, wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge to harden.

Serve the soup just a little too hot with a slice of spiced butter melting luxuriously on top.

Muscovado Baked Beans

Will this winter never end? Will the snow never go away? Will the temperature ever rise above zero again?

I've never felt so desperate for spring to arrive as this year. Even on days like today where the air is crisp, the sun bright and the buds beginning to emerge - you know, the very best kind of winter day that reaffirms all you believe about living and loving the seasons, I am desperate. I have to brace myself to even leave the house now because I am dog tired of thick snow, extreme cold, black ice, wearing layers and seeing my own breath.

The only thing to do in the face of such despair is cook. So back to winter warmers, I've been hunting through my vast cookbook collection and through piles of newspaper clippings and recipes written on scraps of paper to find something that I have not made in a while, something to simultaneously warm our bones against the onslaught of this endless Scottish winter and properly cheer me up.

Muscovado Baked Bean Crumble (a mouthful in more than one way)

A good glug of olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tsp paprika
2x 400g tin haricot beans (or 250g dried beans, soaked and cooked according to pack instructions)
1x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
3 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tbsp dijon mustard












(optional 2 tbsp plum chutney)
150ml beer (I used corona)
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
Salt and freshly ground pepper

For the crumble topping:
100g cold butter
100g flour
75g porridge oats
100g strong cheddar cheese

Pre-heat oven to 200C.
To make the beans:
Heat olive oil in a heavy based pan and saute the onion and garlic till soft.
Add paprika, beans and tomatoes. Stir well then add the sugar, ketchup, mustard and chutney if using. Stir well then add beer to thin the sauce a little. Season with thyme, a few grinds of black pepper and a hefty pinch of salt. Allow to simmer gently for around 20 minutes to allow the flavours to combine. Add a little water if required.

For the crumble:
Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then stir in the oats and cheese.

To assemble:
Put the beans into an ovenproof dish and top with the crumble mixture.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until golden and burbling.

Lanark Blue and Leek Tartlette

I love cookbooks, actually I love all books, but the more cookbooks in my collection the better. I have shelves and shelves filled with them. Some I pick up in charity shops, some were Christmas presents, birthday presents, the results of late-night Amazon shopping, others I have inherited from family and friends.

One of my many new year resolutions is to cook more from the beautiful collection of books I have, however this recipe, like so many we use regularly in our kitchens didn't come from a glossy magazine or cookbook, instead its a version of a quiche I had at a friend's house which she made from a recipe her mum passed on to her. I have messed around with it a little: I wanted small tarts to serve at breakfast, but the recipe started life as a full size quiche served with salads for lunch and would make a gorgeous starter at dinner.

The kitchen fills with a fug of steam as these emerge, the tang of leeks hangs in the air and the salty pungency of strong blue cheese makes your mouth water as they cool. These are a Scottish take on a traditional French recipe.

Lanark Blue and Leek Tartlette
200g shortcrust pastry
1 egg, beaten (for sealing pastry)
2 leeks, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
50g butter
2 eggs
100ml cream
1 tbsp grainy mustard
100g Lanark Blue Cheese (or other strongly flavoured blue cheese)
Freshly grated nutmeg and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C .
Roll the pastry out as thinly as possible, cut 12 rounds and line a muffin or tart tin with them.
Allow the pastry to stand higher than the rim of the cups to allow for shrinkage.
Prick the bases and brush with beaten egg.
Blind bake pastry for 8 minutes until lightly cooked.
Cook the leeks and garlic gently in the butter until tender, around 10-15mins. Do not allow the leeks to colour.
Beat the eggs, cream and mustard then add leeks and blue cheese.
Season to taste with a few grinds of nutmeg and pepper, the blue cheese should add enough saltiness so no salt should be required.
Spoon the mixture into the tart tins then bake for around 15 minutes until golden and puffed up.

Baked Chicken with Cider and Apples

...or Back In The Swing of Things Chicken. I am trying so hard to get back to normal after our extended christmas holidays, back to quick weekday meals, back to the treadmill of after-school sports classes and back to the routine of shopping, cooking and eating after weeks snowed in and living on lentils.

We are still in the depths of winter and rich, warming, satisfying, comfort food is all I want to eat despite all my new year healthy-eating resolutions. Sometimes I think the new year should come in March when the weather is lightening up, the days are getting longer and resolutions seem so much more achievable. I do love winter though, all this rain, sleet and snow allows us to enjoy the central heating of a soothing casserole without too much guilt.

I first ate a version of this in Normandy in France, all the specialities of that region feature: thick creme fraiche, local cider, crisp apples and free-range chicken. I have more recently found it in pubs in Scotland and restaurants in Devon -a recipe created wherever the apples are crunchy and the cream is fresh.

Baked Chicken with Cider and Apples

25g butter

2 tbsp olive oil

1 chicken, jointed (or 6-8 portions of chicken)

2 onions, cut into eighths

4 apples, peeled and sliced into wedges

300ml dry cider

100ml cider vinegar

1tbsp fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

100ml creme fraiche

Preheat the oven to 180C. Heat the butter and oil in an flame-proof casserole, then saute the chicken portions till golden brown all over. Transfer the chicken to a plate then add the onions and apples to the pan and saute for a few minutes until they begin to colour. Return the chicken to the pan and add the cider, cider vinegar, bay leaf and thyme and heat till simmering. Place the casserole in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove the chicken, apples and onions and reduce the liquid by simmering gently to about half its volume. Stir in the creme fraiche then return the meat, apples and onions to the sauce and place in the oven for 10 minutes. Serve with new potatoes or rice.

Cold Hands, Hot Pastry

The snow has been falling for weeks now, my car has disappeared under driven snow. Between snow showers, the world freezes, the sky becomes clear blue and your breath is like fog. Beautiful maybe but I can not escape the village to break out to the shops and we are living entirely on storecupboard concoctions.

My hands have not warmed up since I ran to the logpile for firewood this morning. My fingers are numb so I am carrying my own winter warmers with me when I go out to play. Wrapped up in foil, hot and crispy with a delicate chilli hit, I'm hoping they will take the sting out of the cold and make it easier to hang out sledging and igloo making in the garden without needing to come indoors and cuddle a radiator every ten minutes.

Versions of these turn up in every bakers throughout Asia. Made with puff pastry or samosa pastry, they are breakfast fare in Malaysia and tiffin in India but I like them baked not fried, and although they can be filled with anything from spiced chicken to minced lamb and vegetable, I am having a post Christmas, vegetarian week so hot potato curry it is. 

Curry Puffs

2 large baking potatoes

4 tbsp vegetable oil

1 small onion, diced

1 clove garlic, crushed

3 cm ginger, finely chopped

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander seed

1/2 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp hot chilli powder

1/4 tsp mustard seeds

100g frozen peas

2 balls of frozen spinach

Small bunch of fresh coriander

1 package filo pastry

2oz butter, melted

Peel the potatoes. Chop them into small dice and boil till just cooked then drain and set aside.

Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan and add the onion, garlic and ginger. Fry gently till soft and aromatic.

Add the cumin, coriander seed, garam masala, chilli, mustard seed, spinach, peas and potatoes and cook together on a low heat for 5 minutes until well mixed. Remove from heat and add a good handful of finely chopped coriander.

Cut the pastry into long strips, approx 6cm x 25cm. Place a teaspoon of the mixture at the top of a pastry strip and fold over to cover the potatoes and make a triangle. Keep folding the triangle over until you reach the end of the pastry sheet and your filling is well enclosed. Brush the filled triangle with melted butter.

This makes around 20 pastries which can be frozen uncooked and baked from frozen. Bake 180C for 8-10  minutes until golden brown (10-12 minutes if frozen).

Serve with raita and fruity chutney.

Minestrone d'Inverno

Soup is the most comforting of my winter staples. It is always warming, often frugal, and incredibly easy and quick to make. And it uses up all those weird and lesser known vegetables found in the best farm shops at this time of year - celeriac, rainbow chard, unusual members of the cabbage family, cavalo nero, curly kale - you know the ones I mean.

Summer minestrone might be filled with fresh borlotti beans, green beans, courgettes and fresh tomatoes. Winter minestrone makes the most of the few vegetables still growing or stored from summer; potatoes, tomatoes and carrots and takes its iron from winter greens like chard, spinach or cabbage. Although it is an Italian recipe by birth, I think it could hail from any country that finds itself relying on cabbage in the colder months!

Minestrone d'Inverno
2 onions, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 sticks celery, chopped
(keep the celery leaves if there are any to throw in)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tins tomatoes
2 tins borlotti (or cannellini)beans
A parmesan cheese rind (if you have one)
1 head savoy cabbage (or other greens) chopped finely
1 litre stock or water
100g small pasta or spaghetti broken into little bits
1 bunch parsley
Salt and Pepper
freshly shaved parmesan to garnish

Heat the olive oil and saute the onions, carrots and celery and stir until softened. Add the tomatoes, beans and cheese rind - this gives the soup a beautiful slightly grainy texture. Cook for a further few minutes until combined. Add the shredded cabbage and pour in the water or stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the pasta, most of the parsley and season liberally. Simmer for a further 10 minutes until the pasta is cooked through.  You may have to add more water if the beans and pasta have absorbed too much but this is a soup so thick, its almost a vegetable stew. Serve with lots of crusty bread and top with a little chopped parsley and a generous helping of shaved parmesan.
This soup is also beautiful with a spoonful of pesto stirred in just as its served.

Cullen Skink

My camera is not working.... but I wanted to post this anyway. The wind is howling a gale outside, the rain lashing against the windows and I have a huge list of things to do but can't be bothered so am staying home to make soup. It is time, finally, to lay aside the hot weather food of summer months and embrace winter flavours, I need to make food to warm our bones and comfort us as we pack away the holiday clothes and break out the thermal underwear.

This truly Scottish concoction is not just a soup, more of a stew, a bit like an American chowder, rich dense and warming - perfect for a day like this. Although my version is not entirely authentic, it is exactly what I crave today. Hot garlic, potatoes and cream all flavoured with salty smoky haddock.

The village we live inis a good drive to the nearest fishmonger so we rely on a couple of salt soaked vans travelling through each week to provide us with our fish course. This week its the smoked haddock I can smell as I walk through the village square.

Cullen Skink
500g smoked haddock fillets (undyed if possible)
500ml milk
25g butter
2 leeks, white only finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
500g potatoes, peeled and chopped into 5mm dice
Salt and Pepper
Double Cream to finish

Put the smoked haddock fillets in a pan with 200ml milk. Add a little water to cover the fish if necessary. Boil for 6-8 mins depending on the thickness of the fish, until the fish is just cooked. Remove the fish (reserve the liquid) and flake into chunks.

Add the potatoes to the reserved milk. Boil for 10-15 mins until the potatoes are soft. remove the pan from the heat and mash the potatoes into the liquid until thick, smooth and creamy.

Melt the butter in a large pan and saute the leeks and garlic until they are meltingly soft. Do not allow them to colour, this soup should be a pallid creamy shade, no speckles of green or brown.

Combine the potato mixture and cooked fish in one pan with the leeks and add the remaining 300ml milk. Season well with lots of pepper (white if you have it). Smoked haddock can be very salty so taste before you add salt - you may not need any.

Warm through at a low heat for a few minutes then serve with a swirl of double cream on top some buttered soda or country bread on the side.