The Condiment Queen

Holy blue potatoes Batman...

I used to love blue cornchips, they were sturdier and had a deeper corn flavour than their anemic yellow counterparts. Heirloom carrots in purple have been a winner recently as well so it was with some excitement that I pounced on these beauties at Borough the other day. These farmers in Kent make so many varieties its positively overwhelming but I settled on 'Blue Salad' because they were one of the oldest they had on offer. Apparently in this context salad didnt mean salad potatoes as they recommended boiling or roasting them. So I par boiled and then roasted them and served them with some sea bass baked over dill and lemon and gussied up with capers, purple sprouting broccoli and slow roasted cherry tomatoes. All from the borough of course.

So delicious!

The next week they really needed using so I decided to try them as a soup - but the idea of purple soup definitely appealed (god knows why). It started off ok but the final result was rather, um, greyer than I thought it would be. Not a bit grey I mean really quite an unappealing unappetizing grey. I suppose its not entirely unsurprising and I don't think only having red wine helped a whole lot but it did taste quite a bit better than it looks. Its pictured below.

Recipe really easy - In a soup pot or cast iron casserole fry 3 leeks and 1 onion in olive oil over low heat for about 10 mins until soft. Peel and chop 1.5kg potatoes. Add 1 glass (or so) of wine (probably white is better, or even sake, rice wine, sherry, whatever you have) and let bubble up and away to nothing. Add the potatoes then 1L stock and boil for 20mins until everything is soft. Zhuzh until as smooth as you like with your hand blender and serve HOT with some crusty bread.

Spiced Butternut Soup with roasted tamari pumpkin seeds

I've become completely obsessed with roasting nuts and seeds myself after years of searching in vain for tamari almonds which they have everywhere in the US and Australia. They are a nutritous snack but also a versatile garnish for instance in this seasonal soup. You could easily use pumpkin here instead of the squash.

Spiced Butternut Soup with roasted tamari pumpkin seeds

Serves 2

1 med butternut squash
1/2 tsp juniper berries
1/4 tsp star anise
1 tsp mixed spice
1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne (optional)
2 tblsp olive oil
1 med onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
400ml vegetable stock

Put the oven on to 200 degrees C
Chop the squash into even pieces for oven roasting, removing any seeds, place in a roasting tray skin side down
NB you can peel first if you want but it was suggested to leave the skin on and it added fibre and flavour so why bother?
Grind the spices (by hand in a mortar and pestle or in a spice grinder) then mix with 1 tblsp oil and pour over the squash and mix (remembering to leave the squash skin side down)
Roast for 30 - 40 mins until soft then leave to cool a little and chop

Heat or prepare the stock
Drain off the spiced oil from the squash if it isnt burnt or use fresh and heat in a large saucepan over medium heat
Fry the onion for 3 - 4 mins until transluscent
Add the garlic and fry for 1 minute more
Then add the stock and leave for a minute or two until its just coming to the boil

Puree all the soup using whatever you have to hand
Reheat and serve garnished with some tamari pumpkin seeds

Parsnip & Pear soup with corriander seed & mirin

As much as I love my online shopping, I tend to get into situations with fruit & veg shopping whereby I have bizzare combinations of fruit & veg leftover and no energy to cook them in hugely exciting ways. Normally I resort to compoteing for fruit and soup for veg. Trawling online for parsnip soup recipie inspiration to get rid of a particular glut I came across one for Parsnip & Apple - a combination I have oven roasted to great effect in the past. But I didnt have any apples, only some pears that were about to go off. 

At first I thought this combination might be too sweet (and it was) so tarting it up slowly with some vinegar & mirin really was the key to making this work. The fabulous leftover wine probably didnt hurt either. Leaving it overnight for the flavours to develop worked wonders and the result was a sophisticated, complex dish.

Serves 2 - 4 (depending on how big your bowls are)

1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
4 parsnips, peeled  and sliced into chunks
2 soft pears, cored, peeled and sliced into chunks,
175ml of white wine (a glass), I used a delicious Stellenbosch Chardonnay which was a bit OTT
600ml of vegetable stock
1 tsp corriander seeds
1 tblsp white wine vinegar
1 tblsp mirin

In a deep saucepan, sweat the onion in the olive oil over low heat until soft but dont brown
Add the wine and turn up the heat a little for about 2mins to let the alcohol burn off
Add the parsnip & pears, put the lid on the pan and cook for about 5 mins - dont let it dry out though, this is steam/saute not frying!
add the stock and cook until the parsnips are very soft, 10 - 15mins
Puree the soup - i always use a handheld blender, dont understand why anyone would bother dirtying up a food processer or blender (i guess people who have dishwasers, but anyway)
Roast the corriander seeds and grind to a powder and sprinkle, on season the soup.
Taste the soup - if its feels a bit too sweet for a starter, add more seasoning and half of the vinegar & mirin. Taste again. If you still think it needs to be mellowed out add the rest. But be careful -too much vinegar wouldnt be quite so nice.
Rest overnight and serve the following day, garnished perhaps with some extra ground corriander