Friday 20 July 2012

Plenty: Grilled vegetable soup

I love butterbeans! I've never had them in soup before though, until I made the grilled vegetable soup from Plenty. It's a hearty one, and easy to make. It just took me a little longer in my tiny gas-run oven since I had to grill everything one at a time. It also means that the vegetables weren't grilled as such, but rather, roasted as I don't have a grill setting. So mine was more of a roasted vegetable soup. Still, it was lovely! Although, oddly enough, when I ate the leftovers the next day, it had a bit of a sausage flavour that I wasn't all too fond of...


 

Thursday 19 July 2012

Plenty: Chard and saffron omelette

All the very in green superfoods seem to be finding their way into Finnish supermarkets. The other week I got my hands on some kale, and now I've stumbled across chard. Which doesn't come cheap, I might add. Still, Plenty has several recipes with chard on the list of ingredients, so I took a stab at one of them, the chard and saffron omelette. It was wonderful. I'm going to be putting in the extra cash for another stash of chard and making this again soon, what with the lovely summer potatoes available as well. 


 

Wednesday 18 July 2012

Plenty: Socca

This is Socca, a sort of savoury pancake made of chickpea flour, topped with slowly fried onions and gently roasted tomatoes. I've made this three times now, each time as a starter for dinner with friends and family. Each time I've been in a rush to prepare the next course that I haven't been able to snap a photo. It's easy and a real treat. The pancakes have a light savoury flavour, topped with onions and cherry tomatoes sweetened by slow cooking. There are always a couple left over, which I finish off for brunch the next day.


 

Sunday 15 July 2012

Plenty: Garlic soup with harissa

Yum yum yum! I don't know why I didn't try this garlic soup with harissa earlier. You might be a little skeptical about the 25 cloves of garlic that go into this... but don't be. You cook them and they lose some of their potent flavour. It's still garlic, of course, and if you like garlic, this is a feast. I was a bit lazy this time and skipped the harissa. Maybe next time. Harissa from the shop sufficed this time around. It's an easy one, so do try. Vegans, no yogurt. It's not really necessary anyway, to be honest.


 

Wednesday 11 July 2012

Classic meringues

The moment I saw the merginue photos in the Ottolenghi Cookbook my mind was set on making them. The closest I've come to making meringues is when I made macaons, and though they came out fine in my gas oven, I remember that I had to be very careful with heating up the sugar to exactly the right temperature. Meringue recipes don't usually call for heating up the sugar, but Ottolenghi's does, and apparently it makes them extra shiny and crispy, or something. Anyway, the technique worked wonderfully, though I still need to find a way to lower the temperature in my gas oven even further. The lowest I could get it was 130C, which seems to be just a little too high as the meringues didn't come out snowy white, but cream coloured. I don't mind the pinkish cream colour, which is quite beautiful too, and they taste wonderful, but it would be nice succeed in making pure white treats too. 

Here is the recipe. It's very straight forward and easy. Enjoy!


 

Monday 9 July 2012

Kale speltotto with goat's cheese

Kale this kale that. I've been reading about kale for a good two years or more and finally came across it in my local supermarket. I promptly bought a bunch and came home to dig for a recipe. This is the one I ended up with by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall from his River Cottage Veg Everyday (am currently unable to find a link to the recipe.. maybe later). It's basically a risotto, but made with spelt, hence the name speltotto. I made it from pearl barley however so I guess mine was more of a barlotto! Anyway, it was interesting. I can't say it was my favourite experiment, though my lack of enthusiasm may have something to do with the nausea I've been feeling after meals due to the intake of strong antibiotics. Still, both kale and barley have flavours very much their own -- ones that I'm not quite sure what I think about, put together at least. It did look very pretty though, and smelled great, and that counts for something, surely.


 

Pasta with fennel, rocket and lemon

I'm finally back in the kitchen after two weeks of being sick and surviving on staples. I tried something quick and simple to get back in the swing: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's pasta with fennel, rocket and lemon. I don't use fennel so often, and was happy to try something where the fennel flavour becomes beautifully enmeshed with the garlic, piqued by the lemon, and tempered by the rocket. I think I just ended up finding a new staple meal.