The big freeze...

Until last week I was still swimming in the sea without batting an eyelid. Now the autumn storms have arrived. The dusty roads are puddles again and the rain seems to have sent the message to the ferns to turn rusty brown. Scilly changes immediately once the autumn arrives. It's suddenly much quieter although you still see happy visitors lying with their backs on warm rocks enjoying the seclusion of a beach to themselves. 

It's time to start filling the freezer too. The last of the apples I used to make jam with have been sitting waiting so I made them into apple sauce and froze it into portions ready for crumbles, granola and roast pork. Blackberries are all bagged and frozen and the herbs in the garden have all been picked and frozen or made into jellies. I had a basket full of mini butternut squashes leftover from the Food Festival  so this week I decided to make my winter soup base. I make it every year- a really basic vegetable soup with a freeze into portions and then add things to so I don't get bored. Ideas to add to this one include...

* Toasted nduja (you can stir through or just place on top)

* Add coconut cream and  1tsp of thai red curry sauce

* Add leftover chopped vegetables and shredded chicken from a roast dinner

* Fry some pancetta and stir through then crumble in some Cornish Blue cheese

* Or spread it on to pizza bases as an alternative to tomato and top with crispy chorizo, goats cheese and fresh rocket

Winter Soup Base.....(serves 16 portions) 

12 mini butternut squashes or 4-5 larger ones

2 small white onions

2 tbsp olive oil

4 garlic cloves

4 pints of chicken stock

In a large pan put the finely sliced onions and oil on a low heat and cook until soft. Add the cubes of butternut squash (about the size of a 10p piece) and continue cooking for around 10 minutes. Add the stock and crushed garlic and bring to the boil. Boil until you can cut through the squash pieces easily. 

With a hand mixer blend until smooth. Leave to cool and portion up and freeze. Use within 6 months. 

Autumn souper...

There's been a wierd fog around for the last few days. It rolls up the channel amoothering the sunshine and forcing the temperature to plummet. It is like autumn giving the last of our summer sunshine a sharp shove and reminding us it's just around the corner. As we walk to the vegetable stall in the morning our flip flops get sodden with the cold dew and we have to talk them off and brave the damp muddy pathways. The stall is at its best at this time of year. The summer vegetables I've missed for myself are still there. Ripe fat tomatoes, cucumbers as long as a ruler, bunches of bright green basil and shiny purple aubergines of all different sizes. But now there is the autumn crop as well. The jars of strawberry jam have appeared for us to stock up on and green and orange squashes.

Yesterday we did our changeovers at the B&B and still had two hours before our guests arrived on the boat. So I made an autumny soup with the leftover Kabocha squash in the fridge and we sat on the patio watching the fog roll in....

Roasted kabocha squash and nduja soup with herby crumbs.......(serves 3-4) 

1/2 a kabocha squash (about 14oz/455g)

olive oil

1 small onion

2 cloves of garlic

a tsp chopped fresh chilli

11/2 pints of chicken/vegetable stock

3oz nduja sausage

4tbsp herby crumbs (see below recipe) 

Preheat the oven to 200'c. Peel, deseed and chop the squash into rough pieces (not too small). Drizzle with oil and pop into the oven for about 30-45 mins until you push a knife through with no resistance. Put to one side.

In a large pan add a little oil and add the finely shopped onion and garlic on a medium heat. Allow to cook for about 5-7 minutes although don't let it brown. Add the squash and the stock. Let it simmer for 5 minutes then add the chopped chilli. (I do this right at the end so you still get a nice kick of chilli.) 

Put the crumbs in a baking dish and pop into the oven for 5-10 minutes to crisp and brown. 

Blitz with a hand blender carefully until smooth. Add more of less stock if you like it thinner or thicker. Season with salt. 

In a small pan add the nduja and a tbsp of olive oil and fry (mixing while you do) until you almost have a thick nduja dressing. Ladle the soup into a bowl and spoon the nduja and warm herby crumbs over the top. 

Herby crumbs.....

I use these a lot for stuffings for roast dinner and for stuffing mushrooms and they are a great way of using up stale bread.. They are also great on gratins and vegetable bakes so I keep a big bag in my freezer. 

1 small loaf of white bread

4 handfuls of herbs. (At the moment I am using parsley, fennel, sage, savoury, thyme and chives)

Rip up the bread into a food processor and blitz with the crumbs. Store in the freezer in a carrier bag. 

Souperficial......

The other half has crossed the Tamar for the weekend leaving me and the laptop all alone. It means I can wear tracksuit bottoms all weekend and eat the food he hates.....Here are the top three...

1) Couscous (or mini rice as he calls it. He hates it because it gets every where).
2) Leftover red cabbage with spices (he doesn't like cinnamon and cloves apparently...first I'd heard!)
3) Roast dinners...(I think I'll only fit one of these in as he's only gone for the weekend. I've booked a table at the Victoria Inn. My first visit this year! I'll post photos tomorrow)

Most weekends I'm desperate to lounge in bed but I was surprisingly restless this morning and decided to head into Truro.

If you haven't been there before it's the most lovely city to shop in........

There's lots of small alleyways and streets to wander around.....

I was scouring the charity shops along River Street for vintage cookware. There's quite a few pieces I need but I can't bear the thought of buying new ones which are so stupidly expensive.

But today there was nothing worth buying. I may head to Penzance this week...the charity shops there are amazing. But I did find this vintage bag....£3.99!

I love it! It's so thick it feels like it's been made out of a horses saddle. By the time I got home my toes were freezing...I'm not sure how much longer I can get away with wearing flip flops. I needed something to warm me up....

Thai Green Chicken Soup.....


Thai Green Paste:

1 clove garlic
1 inch fresh ginger chopped
3 kaffir lime leaves
1 tsp shredded galangal
2 pieces lemongrass
2 green chillis
1 small onion
1 handful coriander
1 squeeze fresh line
1 tbsp fish sauce

Put all the ingredients in a mini chopper and process.

Soup Ingredients

Thai chilli paste
1 can coconut milk
1 chicken stock cube
1 handful shredded roast chicken

In a wok put the paste and stir around a bit. Add the coconut milk. Put the stock cube in the tin and add hot water right to the top. Put in the wok with the rest of the ingredients. Add the chicken. Simmer until slightly thicken (about 10 to 15 minutes). Serve with homemade garlic
bread.

Souper drug.....

My mum swears by soup. At any opportunity she grabs her aga pan, chops up as many leeks, potatoes and onions as she can find it and boils them away happily. Before she reads this and takes offence.... I love everything my mum cooks from her juicy roast pork with crispy crackling to her eton mess style lemon lapis. She is what a cook should be. But she likes thicky hearty soups and I can never get past the idea that it is just pureed vegetables. I want a thin consome or a creamy light mushroom soups. For me potato has no place in a soup bowl.

I've been off work sick for the past few days (cough cough splutter splutter). Today I finally braved the kitchen to make something for my lunch and noticed the leftovers of a roast chicken. It seems criminal not to make a chicken stock for the next roast dinner....but then realised I could kill two birds with one stone and have a lovely chicken soup.

Be warned this is a very light, subtle chicken soup only suitable for eating while in pjs watching Loose Women.

PS. I would rather be here.....


Chicken Soup/stock (makes 3 tubs of stock and 1 bowl of soup)

1 leftover chicken
4 carrots
1 parsnip
1 large onion
1 bay leaf
fresh parsley
salf and pepper

Put the bones in a big pan and cover with water. Add all the other ingredients. Simmer for about an hour until the chicken starts coming off the bones.

Sieve into a large container. (That's the stock done.) If you are making soup, pop some in a warm bowl. Take out some chicken from the sieve. Chop up the hot vegetables and add to the soup. Eat.

If you are sticking with the stock pop it in a tub and freeze until you need it. This is why I always keep take away boxes!