Carrot and Coriander Soup

Just a quickie-

Here is one of my favourite soup recipes, its dead simple and one I make quite often.

Ingredients:

7 large carrots

1 large onion

chicken/vegetable stock (enough to cover the carrots and onions)

tsp dried coriander

1 tbsp butter

fresh coriander

salt & pepper

Method:

Chop the onions and sauté in butter until translucent. Whilst the onions are sautéing, chop the carrots and add them to the onions. Stir for 2-3 minutes and ensure carrots are coated in the butter. Pour over the stock, season and add the dried coriander. Cook on low until the carrots are soft (about 20 minutes) Remove from heat, add the fresh coriander and blend your soup. If the soup is to thick, you can thin it down with a little milk or cream, depending on how healthy your feeling....

Serve with a little chopped fresh coriander and soup bread and butter, because lets face it, what is soup with bread?!

Panzanella

Panzanella is a traditional Italian dish, made from left over bread and juicy tomato's. I first discovered it on Jamie Oliver's '30 minute meals' programme, which if you haven't watched, I recommend you do as it's full of delicious recipes that can be made in 30 minutes for family dinners etc. But back to Panzanella, it's yummy and pretty cheap to make. There are many variations, but the basics are torn stale bread, tomatoes and a tasty olive oil based dressing.

Panzanella for one

(adapted from Jamie Oliver's recipe)

Ingredients:
3-4 large tomatoes.

Vine tomatoes have the most flavour, and that is essential for this dish! If possible try to avoid buying salad tomatoes as they have little flavour! I chose red, orange and yellow ones from Morrison's in Wrexham.

A stale baguette or ciabatta torn into golf ball sized pieces (I used pumpkin seed bread as it was what we had in the bread bin)
handful basil leaves, torn
2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

a pinch of sugar

1 garlic clove
3 anchovy fillets, sliced into 2 long halves

Preheat the oven to gas mark 7-8.

 1. Tear your bread into small chunks, and place in a baking tray. Crush the clove of garlic over the bread, and drizzle with a little olive oil. Now toast them in the oven for roughly 10 minutes.

2. Take them out of the oven and place into a large bowl. Now chop your tomato's into chunks and mix them together with the bread. You can add you basil leaves here too. Don't worry if your heavy handed, it's useful as it means the juices from the tomatoes will run into the bread.

3. Mix together your balsamic, olive oil and pinch of sugar. Add some salt & pepper to taste, and pour over your bread and tomato's.

4. chop the anchovies into small pieces and scatter over the dish. Give it all another good mix, and there you have it!

Garnish with a few more basil leaves.

It's a lovely dish to have, and you can add anything else that you fancy too it, from chopped shallots, capers, torn mozzerella etc! Scott and I enjoyed this with some elderflower cordial, and followed it up with a cheeky raspberry donut!

Cheese on toast beth stylee

I love cheese on toast. It's one of those delicious foods that always makes you feel better, especially when your ill. This week i was not ill, but after making these as a snack before going to Abersoch a few weeks back, I have developed a new food obsession from them.

  

The recipe is from my grandma's cook book which she's had since she married my grandad, and its full of old recipes in a beautifully worn out handwritten book. It's become a bit of a family heirloom now and its been the source of many scrummy meals!

Ingredients:

1 egg

3 handfuls of grated cheese

2-3 Slices of toast (depending on how cheesey you want them to be)

Salt&Pepper to taste

This makes roughly 2-3 slices

1. Grate your cheese into a bowl.

 

2. Now whisk in your egg. Don't worry if it looks a little wet, it's meant to at this stage, and the egg will fully cook !

3. Add some salt and pepper

4. Toast your toast briefly for a minute, or until fractionally toasted. This is just so both sides are slightly firmer.

5. Now spread your mixture on your toast, and grill on high for roughly 5 mins or until browned. If your cheese has toasted too quickly, lower the heat to ensure all the egg has been cooked.

And there you have it! Wonderfully thick, creamy warm cheese on toast :) I find the egg lessens the grease that you can sometimes get from just grilling the cheese.

Raspberry & Peach Breakfast Rolls.

Ingredients:

  2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (active dry), 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 cup warm milk, 4 tablespoons melted butter, 3 egg yolks, 2 tablespoons honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 3 1/2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 can

of peach halfs, 2 handfulls of raspberry's. ( I used frozen because we didn't have fresh, they worked fine , but fresh ideally as they dont make the dough as wet).

Glaze:

1 Cup of icing sugar, squeeze of lemon juice, and a little water

Microwave the milk and butter until the butter is just melted. Add the sugar and yeast and let that just sit for 2-3 minutes (this lets it cool down before adding the egg).

 Stir in the egg yolks, honey and extract. Pour this into a large bowl with the flour and salt. Stir until well combined. Knead the dough a few times until it’s in a ball shape. Place this in a lightly oiled bowl and allow to rise in a warm spot for 1 hour.

Roll out the dough into a long rectangular shape. Add the peach half’s and raspberry's. (You could replace the fruit for nuts, butter, sugar or spices, whatever takes your fancy).

Roll up into a long log and slice into rolls. Place the rolls in a well-greased pan, then add little flicks of butter, and sprinkle with brown sugar, (this will caramelise nicely)
 Bake at Gas Mark 4, (350 F) for 40-45 minutes.

Make the glaze by squeezing the lemon into the icing sugar; add a little water until your preferred consistency. Then drizzle over the rolls.

Yummy :)