Category Archives: Light Lunch

Today’s Lunch: Springtime in Bangkok

ThaiCrabSoup1

This recipe has a hint of familiarity with Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks Ginger Coconut Milk Soup . It has grated ginger, noodles and a tin of coconut milk in common. Otherwise it’s not her recipe at all, but I reckon inspiration is 90% of the task done, so credit to her given for combining coconut milk and ginger. Coconut milk is very high in calories and fat solids, so be aware of that if you’re on a fat or calorie restricted diet. But it is quite tasty. Mr Misk says that this is reminiscent of Thai soup but without the inferno – he likes things hellishly hot. I call this soup Springtime in Bangkok, as surely it’s springtime somewhere in the world. It’s not here; snow on Dartmoor this morning, and it’s mid-May.

ThaiCrabSoup2

Springtime in Bangkok

(serves 2 hungry people or 4 as a starter)

Ingredients: coconut milk, chicken stock, fresh ginger, onion, garlic, chilli flakes, asparagus, thin dried noodles, crab sticks, chives to garnish.

Method: In a large heavy-bottom pot add the following, stir, and bring to a simmer -

one tin coconut milk (note: this is high calorie and high fat)
500ml mild chicken stock from stock cube is fine
2T freshly grated ginger
¼ cup finely chopped onion
½ cup chopped/sliced mushrooms
2 garlic cloves grated
pinch of chilli flakes
zest of one lemon

In a separate large pan, bring salted water to a boil, and add:

8-10 asparagus spears, cut into bite-size pieces and blanched quickly in boiling water for maximum 2 minutes. Remove the asparagus with a slotted spoon, and chill in a bowl of iced water. Set aside.

Bring the pan of water back up to a boil, adding more water if needed, and add:

sufficient dried noodles for two people. Cook as per package instructions. I used wheat vermicelli noodles. Cook al dente as they’ll continue to cook in the coconut milk mixture later when all the ingredients are combined and warmed. When the noodles have finished cooking, drain and keep them in a bowl of iced water until needed. Set aside.

Cut up crab sticks into bite-sized pieces, and add to the simmering pot of coconut milk/stock. Drain the noodles; add to the pot. Drain the asparagus; add to the pot. Slowly bring the soup back up to a simmer, and heat until all ingredients are hot.

Taste and adjust seasonings if required. I added more chilli pepper, as a pinch wasn’t enough. Garnish with fresh chives or chopped parsley – something green.

Mr Misk liked it ….. ‘nuff said.

Why Do We Peel Portobello Mushrooms?

Well, it beats me. I don’t know why. Facts are facts though, and every chef on telly peels their Portobello mushrooms. Even Jamie peels his. The contestants on Master Chef do, too.

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So I decided to try it both ways. One peeled, and the other not. Same ingredients. Both on the same tray, baked at the same temperature for the same length of time.

Guess what? No difference whatsoever. If anything the unpeeled one held its shape a bit better. Now I don’t know why the professionals bother, and I wondering what’s up with it. Do you peel your large, flat mushrooms? Is there a benefit?

By the way, these were really yummy. A drizzle of olive oil, then topped with the chopped up stems, sautéed chopped garlic, fresh chives, and thin shavings of cheddar cheese and lots of pepper. We like pepper. Baked in a medium oven for about 12-minutes until the cheese blistered. I’ve also made these with pesto smeared into the dark gills, then sautéed garlic, chives and parmesan shavings. That’s good too.

I’d be very interested hearing if you peel your mushrooms!

Today’s Lunch–A Bit of Salad

lunch_8May13

It’s the beginning of May, which means that it’s salad season again. Hurrah! I love salads. I love creating colour from bits of mixed and matched stuff hiding in the fridge, and since the house is crawling with workmen again, a salad was the easiest solution.

This salad was lunch today, and it had a coddled egg, 1/2 an avocado, lambs lettuce, spinach, romaine, two cooked beet roots, a tin of tuna in spring water (the empty tin didn’t go into the salad), cherry tomatoes, grated parmesan cheese, and a smashed-up nutty mixture of pine nuts, walnuts, lots of garlic, chopped dates, parmesan and olive oil tossed into a food processor until it’s chopped roughly and then flash fried in a hot frying pan until warmed through. That same mixture is also good mixed through cooked pasta. Salads – love them!

What did you have for lunch today? I’d love to share lunch ideas with you!

How-To Make Celeriac and Apple Soup

The Frugal Feeding’s recent post about celeriac soup reminded me that I haven’t made this bowl of fragrant warm comfort in a long time. Frugal’s soup looks wonderfully rich and creamy. Mine benefits from a subtle hint of sweetness and tartness from the apple. Some crumbled bacon also goes nicely on top with the toasted walnuts and bread cubes.

celeriacSoup_16Feb13

So, having decided what was for lunch, I was off to the supermarket in hope of finding celeriac. It’s a pity that this root vegetable isn’t as commonly used as other veg. Can you image only 4 carrots available in the produce bin? – that was the fate of the celeriac at the supermarket. Wedged in a tiny space, squeezed between two bins of curly greens – there sat two shrink-wrapped balls of celeriac. I grabbed the roundest and least scabby one. And a Granny Smith apple. And a large sweet onion. And I was ready to cook lunch.

Celeriac and Apple Soup

Ingredients

30g butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
500g celeriac, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 firm, tart apple, peeled and cut into small cubes
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
750ml hot chicken or vegetable stock (from cubes is okay)
handful walnuts or pecans, chopped in chunky bits
a handful of cubed bread
Salt and white pepper
Celery salt, optional

Method

Prep all the ingredients beforehand: peel/cube the celeriac, slice the onion, peel and cube the apple (I used a Granny Smith), make the veg stock from a cube, chop the walnuts and cube the bread. This recipe moves fast, so it’s helpful to have everything ready.

If you need help peeling the celeriac, refer to this very good tutorial.

celeriacCollage

Heat the butter and oil in a pan until it sizzles, then add the sliced onion, stir, reduce the heat to low, clap on the lid, and sweat until softened. This takes about three minutes. Then add the celeriac, stir and clap the lip back on, and sweat for five minutes. Now pour in enough hot stock to cover the celeriac and onion. Reserve any leftover to thin the soup (if needed) when blitzing the soup smooth with your hand-blender.

Keep the pot covered and simmer for 15 minutes until the celeriac is soft. Add the cubed apple and cook for another two minutes. Turn off the heat and blend using a stick blender/hand-blender until the ingredients are smooth. If the soup is too thick, add a bit of the reserved stock. Taste, and adjust salt if required.

For the garnish, melt a nob of butter in a small frying pan, toss in the walnuts, and then add the cubed bread. Sauté them until the bread is golden and crisp. Place on top of the soup, and serve.

Based on a recipe by Angela Hartnett (as shown on telly, UK Food)

Today’s Lunch: Cauliflower Soup

How-To-Make Cauliflower Soup

cauliflowerSoup_8Feb13This will either taste deliciously subtle … or it will remind you of milky dishwater.

cauliflowerSoup1

It’s a very delicate soup with minimal ingredients: one large cauliflower cut into florets, one large onion thinly sliced, 4 cups of hot water, a generous pinch of salt (1/2 teaspoon or more to taste) and some white or black pepper. If you wish, you can add a swirl of olive oil or melted butter with some black pepper just before serving.

Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large thinly sliced onion
1 large head cauliflower (approx 1 kg/2 lbs) cut into small florets
120ml/g or ½ cup boiling water
900ml/g or 3 ½ cups boiling water (to add when cauliflower is tender)
½ teaspoon salt (or a bit of chicken bouillon granules)

Method:

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Slice the onion, and cut the cauliflower.
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Sweat the sliced onion over low heat in 3 tablespoons olive oil for about 15-minutes until soft.

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Toss in the florets, add 1/2 cup hot water from the total 4 cups, clap the lid on the pan tightly and simmer 20-minutes until cauliflower is tender. Turn on the kettle and heat the remaining 3-1/2 cups of water, and then pour it into the pot, simmer *UNCOVERED* for 20-minutes.

Purée with a hand-blender until smooth. Allow to sit for 15-20 minutes, as it will thicken slightly as it sits. Rewarm and serve, adding a swirl of olive oil or melted butter with some black pepper.

Based on Paul Bertolli’s recipe

Today’s Lunch: Quick Noodle Soup

noodleSoup_6Feb13

How fast can you snap your fingers? Well, it’s not that fast, but this soup is pretty fast to make. Within 5-minutes you could be seated before a bowl of steaming noodle soup, spiced-up (or down if you don’t like spicy!), with meat or without meat, garnished or ungarnished, with veg or without. You are only limited by your imagination! All you need: thin noodles (these are rice noodles), broth (this is chicken), a shot of chilli sauce (Nando’s), and some chives.

And don’t cut up the noodles. It’s unlucky. You’ll cut short your luck!

Cannellini Bean Soup with Porcini Mushrooms

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This is a variation on Rufus’s Food and Spirits Guide for Cannellini Bean Soup. The day that I made this soup I had the mother-of-all-head-colds coming on. I didn’t have the time or temperament to soak beans for 8-hours; I needed an injection of garlic and onion, and the only thing with the truffles on the package was a red box of Lindt’s Lindor. So this is my quick and easy version of Greg’s more time-consuming and probably tastier Cannellini Bean Soup with Porcini Mushrooms. Do you have a quick and easy favourite soup recipe?

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Cannellini Bean Soup with Dried Porcini Mushrooms

Ingredients:
2 tins cannellini beans, net weight drained 450-470g
500ml/2 cups chicken broth made from a cube
1/2 cup dried porcini mushrooms
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ yellow onion, medium chop
1 large garlic clove, grated
a splash of cream
salt and white pepper to taste
pinch dried chilli flakes (optional)
sprinkle of finely chopped chives

Method:
Drain and rinse the beans. Set aside. Toss the chopped onion and grated garlic into a large pot with the olive oil. Stir to moisten with oil, and then lower the heat, and pop the lid on tight. Let them sweat until transparent but not browned. While that’s going on, place the dried mushrooms in a one cup measuring jug and cover completely with boiling water so they turn from the texture of cardboard into mushrooms. This takes at least 30-minutes. Set several of the more nicely formed mushrooms aside, but toss the rest into large pot. Add the beans, the water from the mushrooms (watch out for grit and sand at the bottom!) and the chicken broth, and bring up to a simmer until warmed through completely. Take the pot off the heat, and with an immersion/hand blender whiz until everything is smooth. Adjust the seasonings: salt and white pepper. Add the chilli flakes, if you wish. Serve in big warm bowls, swirl in some cream, and then garnish with the reserved mushrooms and sprinkle the chives on top.