Dr Pepper and Mr Fennel

It was time to crack open a can of Gin and Tonic, left over from my birthday party in August, as I had a bit of a break from the busy professional life I lead.

I'd heard the weather was on the turn and the chilly weather, that froze my tailored suit trousers during a wonderful curry with great company the previous week, was to return. As a result my thoughts turned to making a strong soup with some Fennel Seeds that I'd purchased.

The ingredients for the soup were as follows:

1 Red Pepper, de-seeded, topped and cut in half lengthways.
1 Large Red Onion, topped and tailed and cut into large strips.
5 Cloves of Garlic, topped and tailed and cut into small pieces.
2 Teaspoons of Fennel Seeds.
2 Teaspoons of Italian Seasoning (containing Rosemary, Thyme and Marjoram).
2 Teaspoons of dried Parsley.
1 Tablespoon of Red Wine Vinegar.
0.3 litres of water.
1 Teaspoon of Chilli Powder.
1 Teaspoon of White Pepper.

On the player was an excellent collection of BBC recordings by the Who showing how vital their early live work was when they were trying to establish themselves in the mid 1960s as a viable force in contemporary music.

To start the preparation I covered the bottom of my Le Cresceut Dish with cooking oil and put the halves of Pepper in there with the inside facing up. I then filled them with the herbs, spices and the Garlic.

Next I put the Onion pieces in the dish and spread them out between the halves of Pepper and I added the Red Wine Vinegar evenly.

After this I turned the heat up to medium on the hob and sweated the contents of the Le Cresceut for twenty five minutes with the lid on. I turned them occasionally and adjusted the heat to stop them burning too much while still keeping the temperature high enough to smoke the peppers.

After twenty five minutes I added the water and let the food cook on the hob for another twenty minutes until it was a little more softened. I then turned the heat off and left the food to cool for a time.

Later I blended it and returned it to the Le Cresceut dish and warmed it through prior to serving. I served it in a soup dish with a healthy sprinkling of fiery Cayenne Pepper on top. Keeping the skin of the Pepper on gave the soup a real texture and the garlic, fennel seeds together with the other herbs and spices gave this soup a kick and an energy that went well with my lunchtime cheese and biscuits as I enjoyed some time out.

Spark to a flame; this soup has an orange glow to it.

Straight outta tuck shop

Saturday 12 November 2016. There was Pea Soup everywhere and not in my kitchen either; rather outside as the November Rain was causing visibility to be of the same consistency as that well-known starter dish. Eventually this gave way to weak beams of sunshine in the late afternoon, but still with weather like the stuff we'd had earlier a bit of comfort food was definitely needed.

I remembered the sweet yet hard-edged biscuits we used to get served at break time from the tuck shop during my school days twenty years previously and that, together with the fact I was seeing two close mates from my schooldays later that evening, inspired me to make some very sweet biscuits.

The ingredients for the dough of the biscuits were as follows:

150 grams Caster Sugar.
200 grams Margarine.
250 grams Flour.
A tablespoon of Madagascar Vanilla Essence

In a mixing bowl I creamed together the margarine and Sugar using a wooden spoon until  it was fluffy. I then added the flour and Vanilla Essence and mixed it in until I had created a cookie dough that was about the consistency of dough or slightly damp clay.

I then rolled out the cookie dough and then cut it into eleven circles. Next I put the pieces of dough on a greased baking tray and then cooked on Gas Mark 4 for forty minutes before leaving them to cool on the worktop.

While all this was going on I listened to the Who Live at the Royal Albert Hall, a live album from the early 2000s that found the band reinvigorated and forging a fresh new direction. This was something I could definitely relate to.

After the biscuits had cooled down I mixed together 350 grams of Icing Sugar with quarter of a pint of boiling water. I spread a little bit on each biscuit and before the icing dried up I added a Glace Cherry to the top of each of the freshly iced biscuits.

The next day a good friend of mine came round for afternoon tea and we had an enjoyable time chewing the fat on life and the vagaries of well-known housing estates. We also chewed up some of the biscuits and I found that the sweet taste and the crumbly consistency made it feel like I'd travelled in time to a wet November breaktime in 1996. Nothing wrong with that.

Cherries aplenty on these delicious throwbacks.

Romanesco Dynasty

"I'm wet and I'm cold, But thank God I ain't old" - lyrics from the song "Sea and Sand" which is one of the best of an excellent bunch on the Who's 1973 masterpiece Quadrophenia. They were lyrics I could well relate to on a wet mid-week evening in November with the weak daylight already gone and the heating turned up to eleven at my house.

With the prospect of another busy day before the weekend rolled around I needed something that was quick to make, spicy, filling and full of protein. Having been on the lookout for new ingredients and recipes for some time I stumbled across one for an Italian Winter Dish that uses Romanesco. My local fruit and veg shop sells these unusual vegetables, which are a hybrid of Cauliflower and Broccoli and so I was able to pick one up from there for this excellent seasonal recipe.

On the player was a live album, that was meant to be the last farewell from the Who, called Who's Last that documented their 1982 tour. I hadn't heard the record myself since Autumn 2001 when I was in my first semester as a fresher at York University and made new friends, tasted new alcohol and picked up a new type of Freshers' Flu.

I cut up the Romanesco into medium sized pieces and discarded the leaves and the core. I then steamed it for twenty-five minutes until it was soft enough to almost pick apart with a fork.

During the period the Romanesco was cooking I boiled some pasta shells and pasta twists for around fifteen minutes in a pan of boiling water.

The other key part of preparation was, in my Le Cresceut, lightly frying two cloves of Chopped Garlic, the juice of a Lemon, a diced Green Pepper with the core and seeds removed, three tablespoons each of Chilli Powder and Dried Parsley and two tablespoons of Pesto and Pine Nuts (thank you local farm shop) during the period that the Romanesco was steaming away. 

When the Pasta and Romanesco had been steamed and boiled respectively for the appropriate length of time I put them in the Le Cresceut with the other ingredients, warmed the food through and served it.

The Pasta gave this dish the protein to help give me extra energy for the last day of the working week. The pine nuts, lemon and other spices elevated the taste of the Romanesco from semi-bland and obscure winter vegetable to flavoursome pleasantness. This recipe is a great one to have as a lighter alternative to the numerous roast dinners and one pot recipes out there on the standard winter menus.

Green and Gold- pasta, spices and Romanesco are a winning combination.

Pumpkin Soup (to warm you through the night)

It was around Halloween, I'd dodged the local trick or treat posse/ rude boys (take your pick) and bundled myself onto the bus. It was the weekend, time to take a step away from the inferno of an intense week and have a night out in a place that was very familiar but, most importantly, on this particular evening it was a night out that was chock full of things that were exciting, new and wonderful.

The next morning the weak Autumn light crept through my lounge curtains and although I felt a little drained I also felt rejuvenated and positive. Slowly I acclimatised and thoughts turned to cooking a soup to set me up for the week as my batteries recharged following the best evening out I had experienced for some time.

I had purchased a large pumpkin the day before from the local fruit and veg shop, it's the best place around for fresh fruit and veg, cakes, obscure canned products, liquorice allsorts and exotic flavoured Lion Bars. Plus you can get a week's supply of decent fruit and veg for under fifteen quid. Beat that mainstream supermarkets.

The first job was to prepare the Pumpkin and I achieved this by taking a sharp knife and slicing the top and the bottom off the Pumpkin. I decided not to do a carving with the parts of the pumpkin I didn't use in the cooking as I got a grade F in GCSE Art and so didn't trust my carving skills. Instead I removed from the Pumpkin all the seeds and the stringy flesh. Next I proceeded to halve the Pumpkin and cut the flesh from it which I then cubed and set to one side.

Next on the list to prepare were two white onions which I topped and tailed and then diced. After that came the preparation of two Sharon Fruit, thank you again local fruit and veg shop. Sharon Fruit have a short season between October and December and to get the best out of them you should ripen them for around a week after purchasing so that they taste very sweet. I topped and tailed these two Sharon Fruit, removed the thin cores and then cubed them.

Now it was time to cover the bottom of my Le Cresceut with sunflower oil and add the Pumpkin, Onion and Sharon Fruit pieces. I also added two table spoons of coriander and two table spoons of curry powder. I stirred the ingredients together, put the Le Crescent lid on and sweated the food for around twenty-five minutes on a medium heat stirring occasionally so that the food did not stick to the bottom of the dish.

After twenty five minutes I added seven hundred millilitres of vegetable stock and simmered the food for another half an hour. I then turned off the heat and left the food to cool for a time.

Later on I blended the contents of the Le Cresceut and returned them back to it. I added 300 millilitres of sweetened soya milk and warmed the food through. I served it in a bowl with a dash of curry powder thrown on top; the results were very satisfying. Pumpkin on its own has quite a bland, plastic taste but when given life by the Curry Powder and the sweetness of the Sharon Fruit it takes on a new life and is rich and tasty.

I had prepared so much soup that it lasted me until the middle of week and gave me lots of energy as I pushed through the working week with renewed purpose.

Golden Brown: a hint of curry powder helped spice this winter dish up a lot