Watercress soup - recipe

There's something extremely soothing about a steaming bowl of homemade soup, particularly when the  the days start to get a little chilly around the edges. Soup is one of the easiest things you can make and you can use just about any old veg you have lying around.

Watercress, with its punch, peppery flavour, is great in salads but also makes a delicious soup, whizzed up with a bit of potato, onion and stock.  I particularly love the colour of this soup - a really intense, deep green.

Ingredients (serves 2):
Half an onion, finely chopped
1 small potato, cut into small cubes
Large knob of butter
500ml vegetable stock
1 bunch watercress, roughly chopped (including stalks)

Method:
Melt the butter in a saucepan.  Add the onion and potato and cook over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until softened. (Keep stirring to avoid sticking).

Add the vegetable stock and bring to the boil.

Add the watercress and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Using a hand blender (my absolute favourite piece of kitchen equipment!), blend until smooth.

Serve topped with a little dollop of creme fraiche.

Watercress soup

Thai cooking - Tom yam soup recipe

We've just got back from an amazing trip to Krabi in Thailand - some more pics to come.  We only had eight days but tried to pack in as much as possible, including a half day Thai cookery course at Ao Nang Thai Cookery School

For around £20 (1000 Baht) we got to choose five items to make and then eat the fruits of our labour.

The cookery school certainly wasn't high tech but it was in a beautiful setting and we'll definitely be making all the recipes again.

First up, Tom Yam soup.  This sour, spicy soup is ubiquitous in Thailand and we ate it most days of our holiday.  Typically this stuff is fire water and, although the flavours were always amazing, my delicate English palate meant I could rarely finish a bowl.

At Ao Nang cookery school, we were advised to add just two Thai chillis, although Sow told us she might add as many as ten when making it for her family!

Marc has definitely been inspired by our cookery course and came home today with all the ingredients for Tom Yam soup.  It was absolutely delicious - just the right balance of chilli, fish sauce, lime and sugar.  It's pretty simple to make, ready in about ten minutes or so, and you can get all the ingredients in an average supermarket.

Oh and you don't eat the lemon grass, ginger or lime leaves - they're just in there for flavour.  Whether you eat the chillis or not depends on how brave you are.

Ingredients (serves two for main or four as a starter):

2 tbsp lime juice

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp sugar

1 fish or vegetable stock cube

250g - 300g king prawns (raw if possible)

1 stalk lemon grass, bashed and chopped into 2cm pieces

1 piece of fresh ginger, peeled and thickly sliced (use galangal if you can find it)

3 kaffir lime leaves, torn (stem peeled out)

1 shallot, bashed and roughly chopped

2 Thai chillis, chopped

75g mushrooms roughly torn (oyster mushroom if possible, but ordinary mushroom will do)

1 tomato, roughly chopped

To garnish:

1 spring onion finely chopped

Handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Method:

Bring half a litre of water to the boil, add the stock cube, lime juice**, fish sauce and sugar.

Add the prawns (if using raw), lemon grass, ginger, lime leaves, shallot, chilli and mushroom and simmer for five minutes or so, until prawns are pink and cooked through.

Add the tomato (and prawns if pre-cooked) and cook for further two minutes.

Serve topped with spring onion and fresh coriander.

** You might prefer to add the lime juice at the end - it gives a fresher flavour.

Ao Nang cookery school, with little helper.

Ingredients fresh from the market

Tonight: Tom Yam soup back in Blighty

Marc, in traditional Thai dress(!), knows a thing or two about cooking....

Prawn somen noodle soup - recipe

I've become addicted to Japanese food.  So, another day, another Japanese recipe.  This one is super easy and can be adapted in so many ways, depending on what you fancy and what you have in your fridge.  I used prawns but you could use vegetables, meat, or eggs instead.

Somen noodles are skinny little white noodles, a bit like spaghetti I suppose.  You can use udon or soba noodles if you prefer.

Recipe is courtesy of Reiko at Hashi Cooking, with variations by me.

Ingredients (serves two):
750ml dashi stock (made with dashi powder, according to packet instructions, or fresh dashi stock)
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp sake
Pinch of sugar
Pinch of salt
Half a packet of somen noodles
1 packet fresh prawns
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 spring onions, finely chopped
Half a red chilli, finely chopped
Handful fresh coriander

Method:

Cook the noodles according to instructions on the packet (mine took 3 minutes).  Drain and put aside

Heat the dashi in a large saucepan and bring to the boil.

Add the soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar, salt and ginger.  If you're using fresh prawns add them to the stock now (if you're using ready cooked, add them at the end and cook for 1-2 minutes to heat through).  Simmer for 3-5 minutes.

Add the noodles to the stock.

Serve in bowls garnished with spring onions, chilli and coriander.  Slurp noisily.

Easily as good as Wagamama ;-)

Somen noodle soup

what to do with jerusalem artichokes? (recipe)

I've never actually cooked with jerusalem artichokes but when I saw them at Greensmiths, I couldn't resist buying them.

My plan was to try and recreate an amazing amuse bouche we had at Auberge du Lac recently (incidentally, probably the best meal of my life).  The dish in question was a jerusalem artichoke cream soup with grated truffle.

I have to admit, my soup didn't taste quite as good as the Auberge du Lac version, but it was yummy and very simple.  Jerusalem artichokes have a slight sweetness and a slight nuttiness to them, which goes really well with truffles.  I used a drizzle of truffle oil instead of fresh truffle.

Jerusalem artichoke soup recipe (serves 2 generous portions)

Ingredients:
500g jerusalem artichokes, peeled and finely cubed
1/2 a medium sized white onion, chopped
Knob of butter, or glug of olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 litre veg stock (you may need a little more if your soup is too thick)
100ml double cream (less likely to split than single cream)

To garnish:
Handful of chopped, fresh parsley
Drizzle of truffle oil

Method:
Gently fry the onions in the butter or olive oil until soft
Add the garlic and fry for a couple of minutes longer - without allowing the garlic to colour
Add the jerusalem artichokes and stock and bring to the boil
Boil for around 30 minutes, until the jerusalem artichokes are soft
Stir in the cream and season with salt and black pepper
Blend in food processor, or using a hand held blender
Garnish with parsley and drizzle with truffle oil