Leek and Oatmeal soup

Tuesday 7.45pm

A simple restorative soup for when you are all bunged up with flu and feeling miserable.


Like me.



Fry a chopped leek slowly in some butter and olive oil until soft, translucent and faintly golden brown, ten minutes at least. Add in a good handfull of rolled oats, stir about a bit and leave to cook for a few minutes. Pour in a pint and a quarter of chicken stock and simmer gently until the oats are cooked but still have some bite, mine took a bit over half an hour. Season and serve.


I had mine with croutons and a handfull of chopped parsley.

How to butter toast

Sunday 3.38pm

1. To get the butter on to the knife, hold it at right angles to the butter and scrape across. The butter will rise up in a beautiful curl.

2. To transfer the butter onto your toast, place the knife almost flat against the toast, with the top edge slightly more raised than the cutting edge. Now press gently and slide the knife across. The butter will spread itself onto the toast. If your toast is still warm you can now wait a few seconds for the butter to soften before spreading again. This method works for bread as well of course, even the softest.


If there is one guiding theme in my life it is the constant search for simplicity. In work, in leisure, in deeds, words and actions. The best, the most elegant solution to any problem is usually the simplest.




Watching my eldest son struggling to butter some bread, using the point of the knife (and moaning vociferously about the bread tearing) led me to look at how I did it.

Today’s Daisy

Sunday 7.01pm

Today’s Daisy

Today’s daisy looks like an Indian woodcarving on a piece of furniture or a woodblock. But it is actually on the bottom of a mangosteen. Isn’t it great when you can go into a supermarket and find something you have never heard of before (neither had the checkout girl).

Mind you at $23.99 a kilo I could afford . . . . one.

Looks strangely grub like inside and tastes a bit like a lychee, by the way.

I’ll probably buy another one.



Life is never dull when you have a Mangosteen



With apologies to Nicola for stealing her theme :-)

Pumpkin and Cashew nut Soup

Thursday 7.40pm

There is a chill in the air telling me that although I cannot see it on this bright fresh day, winter is still here. Time for another creamy, comforting soup once again making good use of the warming fragrance of black pepper.

- An onion and a clove of garlic are set to cook slowly in some olive oil.
- About two ounces of roasted cashew nut are put into a small ziplock bag and bashed with a rolling pin to a lumpy flour. I used my youngest for this as it is the school holidays and he was looking bored. (he did the bashing that is, I didn’t use him as the rolling pin)
- Pop the nuts into a small amount of stock and left to soak.
- Meanwhile I have peeled a three or four inch piece of pumpkin and chopped it into chunks.
- Now the last time I made soup I burnt the onions when I added the pumpkin and upped the heat, so this time I scooped out the onions, put the pumpkin in, stirred it around a bit until blackened at the edges.
- The onions go back in along with a pint and a quarter of vegetable stock and the heat turned down to a simmer.
- Twenty minutes later all is cooked.
- Into the liquidiser go the cashews and their stock to whizz them a bit finer then the soup is added and blended together.
- Back into the cleaned saucepan it all goes with a little bit of salt and lots of black pepper to warm through.

This will be my lunch tomorrow at work, a small quiet oasis in what will probably be a hectic day.

Zen and the art of Cookery

Thursday 8pm

I have just been making packed lunches for myself and smallest child. Cheese sandwich for myself, cheese and ritz crackers for youngest. And whilst doing so I was munching upon some biscuits, Squiggles, that I came upon in the larder. And being a tidy soul (or fat pig if you prefer), once I had finished I scraped up all the left over bits of cheese from the counter top and stuffed them into my mouth along with the biscuits.

And the tastes went together beautifully. So beautifully in fact that I got some more and forced Nicola to try them. And she agreed with me, unless that is she was just humouring the mad man to get away, but I don’t think so.

And in that instant I realised what cookery is all about. It is the blending of flavours, textures and colours to make something nice. The rest of it, all those methods and rules are just ways to create new combinations without poisoning us. And cookery books of course are just lists of flavour combinations that people have discovered over the years.

Just for fun I think I will write a cookery book, because if it is all just painting with different tastes then we can all do it, can’t we ?

Star Anise

Sunday 8.55am

I was feeling lazy. Nicola had asked for Sweet and Sour Pork for tea but I just wanted something I could put in the oven and forget until it was ready. Spare Ribs popped into my head as the answer, served with plain boiled rice and a simple crunchy green salad of lettuce and cucumber perhaps, perfect. I found a recipe in Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries that sounded good but required some of these things in the picture – Star Anise. I have only ever seen these in books and have always imagined them to be so hugely expensive that I have always substituted Fennel seeds instead. But seeing as I had to go out for the pork anyway . . . . .

The local supermarket didn’t have any so it was off to the delicatessen - Boldersons for a look, I could have coffee and watch the posh people at the same time. And there they were, nestling in little cellophane packets amongst all the other spices and only $1.90 a packet ! Pretty as they are, the thing about anise is the smell and flavour so once seated with my coffee (and lemon cake) I had to open the packet to investigate. And the intensity of that smell just blew me away. The purity of it was just incredible, fennel is nice but the seeds have a sort of musty or dusty smell in comparison. I am not sure what the other customers must have thought, but like a cat rolling in catmint, I was instantly hooked and repeatedly had to have another hit. Happiness.

Life is never dull when you have spices

Carrot, Cardamon and Coconut soup

Sunday 2.22pm

This is just such a, well there is no other word for it, pretty soup. Pale orange in colour, delicately scented, smooth in texture, just pretty really. I have a recipe for a delicious carrot cake by Madhur Jaffrey that has Indian spices in it and cardamom features heavily, so why not a soup I thought and of course if you are going down the soft creamy route then coconut milk would be an ideal companion.

- start with half an onion and a small clove of garlic, and one or two green cardamom pods gently fried till soft.

- Add in two or three carrots chopped and mix around

- Then a pint and a quarter of half strength vegetable stock

- Simmer until the carrots are soft, half an hour or so

- Fish out the cardamom pods if you like, I left them in, and liquidize it all

This of course gives Carrot and Cardamon soup which is very nice but I went that little bit further and added a small amount of coconut milk, no more than 100ml or so (taste it) – you do not want to overpower with coconut. The rest of the tin I put in a couple of pots and popped in the freezer to see if it will freeze for some other time.

With two pods I thought the cardamom flavour was quite strong and would probably try one pod next time, but Nicola said she could not taste it at all. Mind you she is bunged up with flu at the moment.

We had ours with toast cos there is a lot of bread to eat up but better I think would be some sort of thin, slightly crispy flatbread or potato cake, perhaps next time.

Chocolate chip scones

Thursday 10.46am

So, Saturday morning, Nicola is off out thrifting with Kerrian and I am happily making scones. Youngest child is in his bedroom playing on the playstation (lego starwars), the sun is shining and all is good.

“Whaaaaat !“ comes a cry from the bedroom, I may have spoken to soon.

“You stupid pile of junk !”

Yep – here it comes. Crash! - the controller has been thrown down, Stamp, Stamp Stamp - a small stormtrooper is marching up the hallway, then luckily for me he takes a left turn into Poland, I mean the sittingroom, slam goes the door and on goes the telly.

Peace reigns again. I continue meditatively rubbing the butter into the flour and wonder what John McEnroe is doing now. The volume from the television suddenly increases, I look up. Smallest child is standing on the other side of the counter looking at me severely. He starts to talk, a long rant about the injustices of the playstation world. But you know, although I am looking at him I’m not actually listening, no I am thinking – time for some distraction, a father/son activity as youngest would say.

“ I’m making scones would you like to make some as well ?”

He stops mid sentence, mouth hanging open as his brain slowly comes to a halt and changes gear to think about what I have said. He looks at me, then the mixing bowl, then back at me.

“ What are scones ?“

“Small cakes made from flour, you like them“

“Ok”

“These are going to be date scones”, then thinking quickly in front of his incredulous look,

“But yours can have chocolate chips in them if you like”

I had forgotten that he is allergic to anything remotely healthy.

Youngest is then sent off to wash his hands whilst I separate the mixture into two bowls. Whilst I mix the milk into mine youngest is set to happily bashing a bag full of chocolate drops with a rolling pin. His mixed, mine are in the oven, and he is now beating his dough into submission. Once the dough finally admits defeat, all the pastry cutters come out and a whole menagerie of chocolate chip scones appear. Mine come out of the oven, the smell is gorgeous, and his go in. Youngest now skips happily off to watch the telly with my promise to call him once his are cooked.

Mission accomplished - the stormtrooper is now ready to put flowers in his hair and move to San Francisco, the sun is shining and all is good.

Life is never dull when you have an eight year old.

Kumara and Coconut Soup

Sunday 12.50pm

For Christmas this year Nicola’s work took us all out to Glen Etive restaurant in Hastings. After the bread and dips the soup came along – Kumara and Coconut. Kumara are of course a sweet potato grown in New Zealand, having originally been brought here by early Maori settlers, and make a beautiful, delicately comforting soup with a floury texture. This is my version, the restaurant one was fairly plain but being autumn just now, and raining, and with me being a bit bunged up with flu, I have put ginger in mine to give a warming background.

– One small chopped onion goes into some oil and butter in a pan along with a crushed clove of garlic and a walnut sized piece of ginger also peeled and chopped

– This is left to cook gently while the kettle boils for the stock and the Kumara are peeled.

Kumara are come in different colours inside, red orange and white, so I chose the red skinned ones thinking the orange flesh would make a nice looking soup. But . . . . of course when I peeled them they are white inside. But there you go, should have bought the orange ones !

- Once the onions are translucent turn the heat up a bit and add the peeled and roughly chopped Kumara along with a quarter teaspoon of Turmeric.

- Stir everything around a bit and add a pint and a quarter of vegetable stock.

- Now just turn the heat down and leave to simmer until the Kumara are soft twenty minutes or so.

- Leave to cool for a few minutes then liquidize it all and return to the now washed saucepan.

- taste and season, it will taste quite gingery now, but that's Ok.

- pour in half a tin of coconut milk and reheat , if it is like mine the ginger will disappear into the background and the soup will have a gentle Thai influenced flavour. (Nicola likes ginger of course so if you are not sure just use a half walnut sized piece.)

Enjoy – we had ours with some feta, Nicola’s idea – the creamyness and slight citrus tang went together with the Thai influence beautifully.

Fejoias

Saturday 8.35pm

Funky little fruits these, piled in a bowl they remind me of a whole lot of cartoon mice with their fat bodies and little ears. Their colour is incredible – an intense deep grassy green beneath a veil of misty white. The depth of colour is more than matched by their smell which to me is tropical but slightly alien, like nothing else I have smelt before and yet leaves me strangely unfulfilled because I cannot place the smell anywhere in my past. Or is it perhaps because of their taste ? This I cannot get used to. I keep trying them, cutting them in half and scooping out the squashy insides with a teaspoon - and every time it strikes me as more like something from the Bodyshop, something to be worn not eaten.

But the fruity sirens just keep calling to me, and I cannot resist.

Potato and Parsley soup with black peppered bread

Saturday 5.45pm

Potato soup, another creamy comforting soup for autumn this one with some parsley for freshness.

- heat some oil hot in a saucepan

- add a couple of rashers of bacon chopped anyold how and turn the heat down (if you are vegetarian of course, just miss out the bacon)

- when it is just sizzling add an onion and three small sticks of celery all chopped

- leave to cook gently until it all smells glorious – a good ten minutes I should think. You - want people to come into the kitchen and ask what you are cooking with a dreamy longing look on their faces.

- Peel and chop three potatoes , add them to the pan and leave for a few more minutes now, stirring to mix and stop it sticking.

- Add a pint and a half of vegetable stock – I used Rapunzel vegetable boullion mixed half strength as usual.

- Once the potatoes are soft, say twenty minutes to half an hour, whiz the lot in a liquidiser

- Bung it back in the pan, check seasoning and add a tablespoon of chopped parsley as you warm it through.

As say, creamy and comforting this one with a hint of onion, celery and bacon for depth. It still needed a bit of a kick though so I made some bread topped with olive oil and lots of crushed black pepper. The pepper seems to take on a lovely lemony tang when cooked with a warmth to match the soup.

Strangely enough after I added the parsley the soup took on a slightly fishy taste which gave me an idea. How about for a dinner party starter – grill some nice firm white fish with salt pepper and butter. Put the soup in some warm shallow bowls and place a fish fillet in the centre with the hot salty peppery butter poured over. Sounds good to me, and I’ll probably have a go one day, but not for Nicola – I cannot really describe the shape of her face when I mentioned this idea but it was not encouraging !

Mind you, she also compared my soup to packet soup as well, and I can see what she means, I think it is the onionyness in the background, but there is nothing wrong with packet soup if that is what you want at the time. Or actually I should say there is probably lots wrong with packet soup but I have still eaten it !

Nicolas’ breakfast

Monday 9.10am

Sunday morning, out late last night so a quiet lazy morning is planned. I have eventually got up but am alone in that – Nicola is still in bed reading, and the children are asleep. I like Sunday mornings like this, when there is time to gaze out of the window over my teacup and reflect on things. Around me wafts the smell of toast and mushrooms cooking – Nicolas’ breakfast produced in response to her comment “ Oh, I thought you had brought me something nice to eat “ as I went into the bedroom to borrow her camera.

Buttered toast, mushrooms sliced and fried in a little oil and butter until they brown a little and their juices run. All served sort of café style perhaps to christen a beautiful blue and white striped bowl that Nicola has recently bought.

Life can be good sometimes.

Sunday morning music ? – how about “Fat old sun” by Pink Floyd.

Swiss Chard or Silver Beet Soup

Friday 1.00pm

Got up this morning thinking of celery soup. Celery soup and walnut bread. Celery and walnuts, a classic combination really. I knew there was some celery in the bottom of the fridge, but when I got there I found that nature had got there first, leaving me with three small stalks and another bag of green soupy mush. Well off to the worm farm for the green mush but what else might be there . . . . two slices of bacon, some mushroom stalks ( Nicola does not eat the stalks ) and, well that’s it really apart from potatoes. The lettuce and red peppers are for tea tonight.

Ok so I have the makings of a base for a quite autumny soup.

- 2 slices of bacon, 3 sticks of celery, some mushroom stalks and a peeled potato are chopped and left cooking slowly in some oil while I search for a main ingredient.

And gazing outside I spy Nicola’s beautiful swiss chard or silver beet as it is called here. Problem solved.

- Once everything is soft and fragrant add a pint and a quarter of vegetable stock and simmer till the potato is cooked, ten/fifteen minutes or so.

- Now strip the green leaves off the silver beet stems wash them, tear them up small and add to the soup.

- Simmer for another few minutes until cooked then liquidize the whole lot.

- Put the soup back in the pan to warm through and season – I like quite a lot of black pepper.

The walnut bread is easy to make. I don’t really like flavoured breads as such, preferring plain bread with ingredients on top, so I just make some white dough in the bread maker, flatten it out onto a tray and top with some walnuts rolled about in some of olive oil (so that they toast rather than burn) squashed into the dough.

A rather nice soup I must say with a beautiful chard taste and a warm depth of flavour from the base ingredients. Of course the reason the silver beet was there is because I am the only one that likes it ! So I’ll be freezing some for my lunch next week. Extra earth mother points for me !

And todays musical accompaniment ? - Statesboro’ Blues by the Allman Brothers Band, Live at Filmore East, a classic album featuring Duane Allmans slide playing big time.

Passion fruit

Friday 8.36pm

What can I say . . . . passion fruit. Everytime I see one I think isn’t nature wonderfull. Like phoenix eggs, flame blackened and crinkly on the outside, cut them open and the most intense tropical smell and golden green colour flecked with charcoal seeds is revealed. And to taste ? well, a Bounty bar is very nice but to someone from Scotland this is the true taste of paradise. And what would you make with them ? You know, I do not think it matters it will all be glorious. If I had to pick a favourite though I suppose it would be Nigel Slaters pavlova ( quite appropriate as I now live in the home of the pavlova ) A big sweet squashy meringue topped with whipped cream splodged on and the passion fruit pulp poured over. Simple and clean - just three flavours synergistically playing against each other whilst still able to shine in themselves against the background of the other two.

A simple lunch

Monday 8.30pm

Sunday lunch for Nicola and me, out in the garden after a successful mornings hunter gathering at Hastings farmers market. Bread by Haralds bakery, some zingy Hohepa tasty cheddar, tomatoes from the garden, butter of course and tea for myself and a smoothie for Nicola.

The best things in life may not be free but they do not have to be expensive or complicated either.

Potato Scones

Thursday 7.50am

Sunday morning, I’m up and dressed and gazing into the fridge wondering about breakfast. Nicola is still in bed reading because she is bunged up with a cold, tight chested and coughing and feeling miserable and tired because she hasn’t slept very well. To be honest there is not a lot in the fridge at the moment, but there on the middle shelf are a couple of big baked potatoes left over from last night. There are a lot of things you can do with left over potatoes but my favourite, the most homely and comforting, are potato scones. Call them scones or cakes these are another traditional recipe from . . . . well, everywhere that eats potatoes. Usually made with boiled potatoes, I like them made with baked potatoes for the flavour. And, like an unexpected visit from an old friend who is always welcome and fits in with anybody, these scones will go with anything, from soup to curry but especially butter, bacon or cheese

- Scoop out the insides of the potatoes and mash them by hand or in a food processor

- Add in salt, pepper and enough flour to make a soft but not dry dough

- Roll out thinly say a quarter of an inch and either make the proper big circles cut into triangles or use a pastry cutter

- Some people fry them but I always grill mine until speckled golden brown on both sides and puffed up a bit. A dry frying pan would also work, like the traditional ‘girdle’ or hot plate and thinking back when I was little one of our cookers had a flat hot plate on it beside the rings for just this sort of thing.

Eating them is easy, I poke through the leathery tops with a knife and put butter on the warm surface to melt. After taking a plateful to Nicola I sit outside with mine and remember the past – all the places I have lived, what I was doing and how I felt at the time.

Annette Hope also has a lovely description of potato scones in her book A Caledonian Feast

Tomato and black olive soup

Friday 1pm

Picked a huge bowl full of cherry tomatoes earlier, and there are still lots ripening up so I have no guilt about making half of them into a simple tomato soup.

- Half an onion and a clove of garlic are gently fried in some oil and butter till soft.

- Meanwhile peel and chop a couple of small potatoes for thickening and add them to the pan.

-Then the tomatoes – about three pounds in this case, along with a basil leaf or two.

- Stir and mix everything then add some stock, vegetable or in this case some chicken stock from the fridge that Nicola had made. I added a pint but the soup was a bit thin cos of the amount of liquid from the tomatoes and had to be boiled down a bit until it thickened up so next time I’ll only add half a pint I think.

- Anyway simmer now until the tomatoes and potatoes are cooked and soft about twenty minutes.

- Now the skin and seeds need to be removed which I do by putting a metal sieve over a big jug, pouring in the soup and pushing it through firmly with a wooden spoon.

- Wash the pan and put the soup back in to warm through, season and voila – tomato soup.

And that is how we ate it Nicola and I, sitting outside - a nice simple soup.

But all the way through the cooking I kept thinking it was a bit one dimensional, a though kept popping into my head - black olives. So today (Sunday) I finally got a jar.

- Draining a handful of olives I chopped and squashed them into a paste, then stirred a small desertspoonfull into the rest of the soup and warmed it through.

Delicious and quite pretty – the reddish orange colour speckled through with aubergine flecks. It will be my lunch tomorrow at work.

A runner bean stew

Sunday 8.25pm

Roast lamb for Sunday dinner, but seeing as we are going out to the circus this afternoon I think I’ll cook it early and serve it warm with some salads that I can make before we go. So lamb roasted slowly with just salt and pepper rubbed in, the flavourings will be in the accompaniments – potato salad, plain boiled potatoes, mushrooms a la grecque, a mixed salad and some runner beans from the garden cooked as a stew in a tomato sauce to be served at room temperature.

Into a deep frying pan goes a clove of garlic and a chopped red onion to cook slowly in oil and butter whilst I wash and top and tail the green beans then cut them into one inch pieces, nice tender ones these with no strings down the sides. Once the onion is clear, in goes half a glass of dry white wine (sauvignon blanc in this case), a tablespoon of tomato puree (left over from the mushrooms) the juice of half a lemon (from next doors tree, I am sure they will not mind) a teaspoon of sugar, half a teaspoon of ground cumin, salt, pepper and of course the beans – a couple or three big handfuls.

Just have to wait for the beans to cook now, ten minutes or so in this case, keeping an eye on it, and adding some water if it all gets too dry and at the end turning then heat up a bit to end up with a thick sauce. Once cool I sprinkled on some coriander before serving.

A nice simple dish, with the feel of a Spanish tapas dish, and even better - some left over for my lunch tomorrow, but only just , I think Nicola was hungry.

Roast tomato sauce

Wednesday 4.15pm

Keriann has sent me a recipe for roast tomato sauce, which I have not tried yet but will soon ( Nicola’s tomato crop is ripening like crazy at the moment ) In the meantime here is a quick and easy roast tomato sauce that I make quite often. Great for tomatoes in the fridge that have just gone past their best.

Put the oven on to its hottest.

- Then in an oven proof bowl put –

- a handful of tomatoes, cherry left whole, bigger ones cut into chunks

- a clove of garlic peeled and squashed

- a bunch of thyme

- and salt and pepper

Mix a tablespoon or so of olive oil through and bung in the oven.

Twenty minutes to half an hour later when the tomato skins are blackening and the kitchen smells like a Mediterranean holiday, take the bowl out and push the whole lot through a sieve into another bowl.

Makes a great soup mixed with carrot soup or with pasta it becomes more of a coating or glaze than a sauce. It would also make a cool salad dressing I should think with some lemon juice added perhaps.

Talking of pasta I used to always add it to spaghetti when I did most of the cooking and Nicola worked. Later on, when positions were reversed the kids asked – why does mum’s plain pasta not taste the same as peter’s ? It is an idea if you worry about such things as why kids don’t eat vegetables ( I don’t )

Mushroom Soup

Saturday 1.40pm

Keriann kindly gave us a big bag of mushrooms which was presented to me along with Nicolas request for mushroom soup. – So here it is.

I have made double the quantity ( two pints ) I usually make cos I had lots of mushrooms and because it is near the end of the month and having no money left, I want something in the freezer to take to work for lunch.

- Into a pan goes some olive oil along with a half inch slice of butter to warm gently.

- Then in goes an onion, a clove of garlic and a stick of celery all roughly chopped.

- Leave to simmer gently until soft

- A pound of mushrooms wiped clean and roughly chopped and a bunch of parsley if you have it are added

- The mushroom have a lot of water so keep simmering until it all evaporates, this takes ages so I usually entertain myself by dancing round the kitchen in my usual manic and rather scary style. (“Walk on By” by The Stranglers was playing. You can find it on Youtube)

- Once the liquid is all gone, or you just get bored waiting a tablespoon of flour is stirred in and left to cook for a few minutes.

- two and a bit pints of half strength rapunzel vegetable stock then goes in and the whole lot left to cook

- ten/fifteen minutes is probably all that is required.

- I usually liquidize the lot now but you can eat it as it is of course. Oh and check for seasoning, with stock powder it probably will not need any salt but a good few grinds of black pepper are good.

- At this point I usually feel it needs a squeeze of lemon juice. But even better, to give that citrus edge, serve it with a dollop of Philadelphia. Or yoghurt. Or parmesan perhaps or that Hohepa cheese with cumin seeds in. Or go the other way to creamyness with a splodge of marscapone along with a zingy fresh salsa.

- And some walnut bread of course.

And thinking of walnuts, I have not tried it but I have a feeling that mushroom soup would be good thickened with nuts – walnuts or cashews, in which case I would miss out the flour of course and add the nuts at the end, having ground them and leaving them to soak in some stock whilst the soup cooks.

Mushroom soup – earthy, autumny, comforting.