Pumpkin Soup

Winters here and craving warm lunches it's a soup kind of day today! My Mum & Dad gave me a pumpkin when I got sick back in April but told me to let it sit for a bit first, craving that warm liquid today it was my go to ingredient!

So it's a throw together Sonia style recipe today. I love the roasting vege technique from my Tomato Soup with cashew sambal
http://fafamilyrecipes.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/tomato-soup-with-cashew-and-coconut.html

So that's where I started into a large roasting pan I added
Drizzle of olive oil, sprinkle Murray River Salt, http://www.sunsalt.com.au/
Grind black pepper. Then onto chopping 1/2 Queensland blue pumpkin peeled and cubed about 4cm, small kumara peeled and chopped about same size, 1 red capsicum de-seeded chopped, 2 red onions peeled and quartered, 6 cloves garlic peeled.
Toss to coat with oil, as I didn't have enough oil I then sprayed the tops with some spray olive oil. Put into oven about 200 degrees for an hour or till smelling cooked and soft to a knife poke

Remove from oven

Onto the stove top into a Large saucepan or soup pot sauté in a little spray oil and a nob of butter 2 diced red onions and 1 diced brown onion, teaspoon of grated fresh or from the jar ginger, about the same of chopped chilli, and about 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder, till fragrant and onions are softened.

Tip the veggies from the roasting pan into the soup pot
Put the roasting pan in the stove top and deglaze with a little of 2 litres of vegetable stock before adding it and the remainder if the stock to the soup pot.

Get in with the stick blender and blend till smooth. Check for seasoning and adjust to your taste.

We served it with a crumbling of goats feta and a sprig of basil with a slice of toasted rye sourdough

Corries 3 Hour Meatballs

Well earlier today, Corrie from Retromummy Blog, posted on facebook about her 3 hour meatballs....well with the weather being cold and wet it sounded like a great idea.

So, quick phone call to the Dad Taxi who was off dropping off Miss B at the Manly Ferry for her winter holiday shopping spree. I got Dad Taxi to whizz via Harris Farm at Manly to pick me up some more tomatoes.

But Being a girl who likes to tweak recipes and fly by the seat of my pants, I thought mmmm soup for lunch sounds good, and I love my Tomato Soup with Cashew and coconut Sambal. So it was off to the kitchen.

So here is my version of Corries Recipe including my Soup for lunch

I started with 2 buckets of Tomatoes from Harris Farm which I chopped in half tossed into the largest baking tray drizzled about 1/2 cup olive oil and lots of salt and pepper, to coin the phrase from Good Chef Bad Chef, tomatoes love salt and salt loves tomatoes. Topped with one head of Garlic, cloves all peeled. Roast in the oven at 160 degrees for about 1 hour and half.

Whilst I was doing this Hubby, organised the meatballs he took the just purchased from Harris Farm1kg mince, added 1 finely diced red onion, 2 beaten eggs, 2 slices of  organic spelt bread grated into breadcrumbs2 slices bread made into breadcrumbs about 1/4 cup water and a mix of parsley, oregano and basil all fresh from the garden finally chopped. Once it was all combined it sat in the covered in the fridge till dinner.

Back to the sauce and the soup.

I chopped 2 red onions and added them to my large non stick roaster pot with a drizzle of olive oil. In a smaller pot I added another drizzle olive oil and one diced red onion and 2 diced carrots, letting both post saute for about 5 minutes.. To the smaller pot I ladled 3 large ladles of tomatoes, garlic and juice. The remainder of the oven roasted tomatoes went into the larger pot.

To the Sauce/larger pot I added almost 2 cups the last of the bottle of Red Pinot from the weekends drinkies. brought it to the boil and then poured in 3 cups of vegetable stock, simmered this for about 1 hour. Process this till smooth. Set aside ready for the meatballs. This is so rich from the red wine, it is delicious almost tempted to have this as soup too....

To the smaller pot I added 1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds, 1 teaspoon cumin, and a squirt of chilli paste, and 1 cup vegetable stock and let come to the boil and simmered till the carrots where cooked. Then processed this till smooth. this made 2 bowls for hubby and I which I topped with some processed cashews, coconut and parsley and a little water sambal....oh so YUM

OK back to dinner, the sauce has been tuned off for the afternoon. So I turned it back on and brought it up to a simmer, then got Dylan to roll small walnut sized meatballs, dropping them into the sauce, bring up to a boil and simmer meatballs till cooked about half hour give or take. Shred a little fresh basil and some fresh Parmesan over and serve with either pasta or a salad we didn't have either just an awesome traditional sour dough roll to help mop up that sauce!!! OH MY !!! the plates were wiped clean with that bread!!

Tonight's weather was perfect for it too!!!

Tomato soup with Cashew and coconut Sambal

Well growing up, I had a thing about textures and soups and casseroles, not sure if it was that we had dogs and mum cooked the dog food in a pressure cooker or what but well needless to say I was a fussy child and didn't eat much when it came to soups or casseroles, but as I have grown up I have learnt to enjoy them, as long as I cook them...yep definitely a deeper issue there but we are not going into it...where I was headed with this post was that one of the soups I loved and still do is canned tomato soup....but let me tell you having cooked this little recipe, not sure if I can ever manage to eat tomato soup from a can ever again, this recipe is simple quick and well let's just say delicious, having eaten a bowl for lunch I just new I had to share it with you today!!!

Recipe from Bill Graingers cookbook Bill's Basics

Ingredients
2kg plum tomatoes, halved
1 red capsicum, halved and deseeded
6 garlic cloves, peeled
1 small carrot, diced
60ml olive oil
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
a pinch of dried chilli flakes (optional) (I added it, and it made for a nice warming glow)
250ml (1cup) chicken or vegetable stock
125ml (1/2 cup) coconut milk

to serve cashew and coconut sambal (see below)

MethodPreheat the oven to 200 C. Put the tomatoes, capsicum, garlic and carrot in a large casserole dish, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with the spices and season with sea salt and ground black pepper. cover with a lid or foil and bake for 1 hour. Uncover and bake for a further 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are well cooked.

Transfer the vegetables to a food processor or blender and mix until smooth.

Return the mixture to the casserole dish or a large heavy-based saucepan and add the stock and coconut milk. Stir well and cook over medium heat until warmed through. Ladle into serving bowls and serve topped with a little cashew and coconut sambal.



Cashew and Coconut Sambal
50g (1/3 cup) cashew nuts
50g (1/3 cup) flaked coconut
a large handful of coriander leaves

Put the cashews, coconut, coriander leaves, a pinch of salt and 60ml(1/4 cup) water in a blender or food processor and process until roughly chopped.

I dare you not to enjoy this one, and whats more perfect is the high dose boost of vitamin C and well, on a wet cold winters day, just the colour alone is bound to warm you up and make you feel good...well it did for me!!!

Mulligatawny Soup

Image Source www.flicker.com

Ok - this is a favourite in our house, a soup that is requested by the kids has to be good in my books.and was for dinner last night....so yum and oh so warming.

It was also a major favourite at Retreat 14. I always get mixed reactions when dishing up this soup to people who have never had it before ...it's the “Mulliga-what?” reaction, I love it, really its just a curried chicken soup. It’s pronounced mull-eh-gah-TAH-nee, and once you have tried it, your chicken soup world will have been rocked to a new level.

This soup, was brought back to England from the colonies in India. It is spicy but not too hot.

YOU WILL NEED

• 2 tbsp butter or oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp desiccated coconut
• 1/4 cup white rice
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 small banana, sliced
• 1 apple, quartered and sliced
• 1 chicken fillet, cut into small strips
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tbsp mango chutney.

Method

1. Melt butter or oil in a saucepan and fry the onion, ginger and curry powder over medium heat until the onion is tender.
2. Add the flour and cook for a minute more.
3. Stir in the coconut, rice, stock and tomato paste and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 15 mins.
4. Add the banana, apple and chicken fillet and simmer gently for a further 5 mins.
5. Add Lemon juice and chutney, adjust seasoning and serve.

We love this with warm baked at home rolls, or as a luxury, the local indian take-aways Naan breads.

(Serves 4)

Chicken & Sweet Corn Soup

image source

Its winter and it's soup time, sadly i didn't end up with a photo share, but we had this for dinner last night. But I made my own stock, from the carcass of a BBQ chicken that I had purchased during the day for sandwiches, just popped the chicken in a pot with loads of vegies on hand, no peeling and very little chopping, filled it too the top with water, added salt, pepper, head of garlic and a bouquet garni...then bring to the boil and simmer for about 3 to 4 hours.....then follow below.

Chicken and sweet corn soup
Preparation Time 5 minutes
Cooking Time 10 minutes

Ingredients (serves 4)
1 litre chicken stock
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon finely grated ginger
310g can corn kernels
310g can creamed corn
3 small chicken breast fillets, thinly sliced
3 green onions, chopped

Method

Place the chicken stock in a large saucepan with the soy sauce, ginger, corn kernels and creamed corn. Cook over medium heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the chicken and green onions and cook for 3-4 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Serve sprinkled with extra chopped green onion.