Thursday night is date night here. I cook, he brings the wine and we both relax. It started as an excuse for me to try out new dishes using the Chief Taster as the guinea pig but with all that’s being going on this summer we went a little off track, The night we resorted to shop bought pizza I knew it was time for a rethink.
So this week I sat down with my ‘Books For Cooks’ collection and went through each one, listing all the dishes I wanted to to try.
If you haven’t heard of Books for Cooks, it’s a treasure trove in Notting Hill that stocks only cook books and has a little cafe in the back where they cook their favourite dishes. The sort of shop I would love to run . They also produce books of recipe collections from the books in the shop – as far as I know I’m up to date with these 🙂
This week the CT decided he needed to paint some external walls so while he tackled this I prepared a veritable feast in the kitchen to reward his efforts.
To start we had
‘Corn Soup with Roast Pepper Purée’
Followed by
‘Indonesian Style Chicken served on Roast Sweet Potatoes and Peppers’
And for the finale
‘Fantasy Chocolate Cake with Fresh Raspberries’
The soup and the chicken have been added to the favourites list – the fact that he was talking about the chicken today confirmed this. Neither of us are big dessert fans but we still managed to clear our plates during our weekly ‘ House of Cards’ fix.
I had some leftover soup for lunch today and if anything it was better than last night. Fresh corn on the cob is widely available at the moment – I got my ears for 39c each 🙂 So if you want to make this satisfying soup here is the recipe ( I may have made a change or two )
Corn Soup
Serves 4 generously
What you need:
- 25g butter
- 1 tbsp oil ( I used Nubie Oak Smoked Rapeseed Oil for extra flavour )
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 1 leek
- 1 litre vegetable stock
- 4 ears of corn
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 60 ml cream
What you do:
- I took the easy way out and chopped the onion, carrot and leek in the food processor but feel free to do it by hand. The original recipe includes garlic but we’re not big fans so I left it out.
- Melt the butter and oil in a heavy based saucepan, add the chopped vegetables and a little salt and cook for a few mins covered with a piece of butter paper.
- Add the stock and allow to simmer for approx 10 mins until vegetables are cooked.
- Meanwhile with a sharp knife strip the kernels from the ears of corn.
- Bring the soup to the boil, add in the kernels. Cover and turn off heat.
- After a few minutes purée the soup wither using a ‘soup stick’ or your food processor (this took two batches in mine)
- Return the soup to a clean saucepan and stir in the lemon juice and cream. Check for seasoning.
To make your soup look ‘posh’ drizzle on some roast pepper purée – blend a roasted pepper (peeled) with a crushed clove of garlic , a dash of tabasco and a tbsp of stock. Sieve before serving to remove any lumps.
Now to check what’s next on my list – and to make something with the rather large marrow I was presented with during the week 🙂
Happy Cooking !
PS for the observant among you Date Night was changed to Wednesday this week to allow the CT’s entertain business clients tonight
If you would like details on upcoming cookery classes or our catering service you can contact me on 087 2488124 or yvonne@heypesto.ie
Hey Pesto! 