Soups & Starters

John Cage once read in a book that “catsup” is a thin liquid. So, as he likes it thick, he calls his recipe “dogsup.” This can be done with any kind of edible mushroom and must be kept at least a year before being used.

Mushrooms
Salt
Ginger root
Mace
Bay leaf
Cayenne
Black pepper
Allspice
Brandy

Break the mushroom caps in small bits; slice the stem. Place in an earthenware jar with 1 tablespoon of salt for each pound of mushrooms. Let stand in a cool place for 3 days, stirring and mashing several times a day. On the third day, put over a low fire, in an enamel or Pyrex pan, until the juices flow freely. This takes about ½ hour. At that moment, a “catsup” is strained through a sieve; the “dogsup” is just mashed. Simmer for 20 more minutes. Measure the mash, add to each half pint: 1 ounce ginger root, chopped or grated; a blade of mace; a bay leaf, broken up; a pinch of cayenne; 1 ounce each of black pepper and allspice. Boil down to half the quantity. Add, for each half pint, a teaspoon of the best brandy. Bottle, cork, and seal.

5-6 potatoes
1 leek
2 big yellow onions
1 cube of vegetable boullion
2 dl or 7 oz of cream
salt
white pepper
olive oil
7 dl or 24 oz of water

Peel and chop the potato and the onion.
Fry the potato and the onion in a pot with oil.
Split and rinse the leek. Chop it into small pieces.
Fry the leek together with the potato and the onion.
Pour water into the pot, add the boullion and let it boil.
When the soup is boiling, pour the cream into the pot and let the soup cook until the potato gets soft.

Add salt and pepper.

Serve with brown bread and milk.

2 avocados
1 med. tomato, chopped fine
1 small onion minced
1 tbsp. chopped canned green chilles
1 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. sherry
Dash cayenne, optional
Salt, pepper

Peel and mash avocados. Add tomato, chilles, then stir in lemon juice, sherry and seasonings to taste, blending well.

Serve as a dip for tortilla pieces or corn chips or as a canapé spread. Makes 10 to 12 appetizer servings.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

1 x Red Onion
1 x Vegetable Stock Cube
2 x Cans of Cider (doesn’t have to be fancy (Strongbow, Magners, etc.). However, do not use White Ace or White Lightning or similar, this is not a good thing to put into your body under any circumstances)
Salt/sugar/mixed herbs to taste
Olive Oil

1. Chop red onion into small rings
2. Heat a blob of olive oil in a saucepan and sauté the onions
3. When onions are translucent (but not browned), add the cider and the stock cube
4. Simmer on a medium heat for roughly 20-30mins. At around the 15-20min mark the cider should start to reduce and the alcohol should have evaporated. This sometimes takes slightly longer, so taste the mixture periodically. When the alcohol has evaporated, add the salt/sugar/mixed herbs depending on your taste (it’s trickier to gauge the overall flavour before the alcohol has gone)
5. Continue to simmer until the soup has reduced to a nice, thicker consistency
6. Serve in a back garden with black pepper and interesting bread. Note pinkish colouration from the onions.
The means are slightly crooked, but the end results are amazing.

Pistou is French for “Pesto” – this soup is a celebration of home-grown
summer vegetables and olive oil…

Soak about 300 g of dried beans (according to taste) in cold water over
night. (You could use tinned beans if you really must).

The next day, chop up 3 or 4 small-ish, freshly picked courgettes, 3 or 4
waxy new potatoes, fresh broad beans (all to about half-inch cubes or slices),
and a de-seeded tomato.

Heat a dash of olive oil in a large pot, add all the above (having drained
the dried beans), along with a big sprig of fresh basil, and stir gently
before covering with cold water. Let it come to the boil, then simmer until
the potatoes and beans are cooked – the courgettes shouldn’t be too soft.
While the soup is cooking, use a blender to purify as much fresh basil as
you can find with 2 cloves of garlic and the de-seeded flesh of 2 oxheart
(cuore di bue) tomatoes, a generous pinch of sea-salt and a really generous
glug of best extra-vergin olive oil. This is the pistou.

Salt the soup. Then, to serve, pour the pistou into the soup at the table,
and eat with toasted bread with olive oil. Accompanied by a nice crispy
young white wine.

Free Range corn fed chicken breast and legs
Parsley root and leaves
Leek
Red and yellow carrots
Celery
Fennel
A couple of small tomatoes
One large red onion
Salt and pepper

Chop onion in half and place in a large saucepan (like a woman’s breasts).
Heat on stove until brown.
Halve the other vegetables and add to the pan.
Throw in the parsley.
Add 2 litres of water to the pan.
Add the chicken.
Gently cook for 3 hours.

Optional: add noodles/dice vegetables.

As you serve, chop ingredients into smaller pieces and add liquid and noodles if required.

[From dinner eaten on April 1st 2011…]

In a saucepan, bung together:

leftover rice
sajoer (mixed veg & spices and coconut milk)

add water and/or more coconut milk and part of a tablet of mushroom bouillon

heat well and devour

Sampled and enjoyed on April 3rd 2011

5 courgette plants are getting ready to deliver their crop in the Touch garden… there will be far too many to eat daily, so I had a look at freezing them, but apparently they go a bit squishy when defrosted. So I investigated a courgette soup recipe… either this or lucky neighbours!

Ingredients:

2 lbs (900 g) courgettes
½ lb (225 g) potatoes
4 cloves garlic
1 onion
1½ pints (900 ml) water or white vegetable stock
Salt and Pepper (best is Madagascan pepper – thanks, Philip!)
1 tablespoon chopped basil
1 tablespoon chopped oregano
1 tablesepoon chopped chives
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 oz (56 g) grated parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons cream

Method:

Wash the courgettes and chop into chunks. Peel and cut the potatoes into small cubes.
Peel and slice the onion. Crush the garlic.
Heat the olive oil in a large pan and add the onion and garlic. Lightly fry for about 5 minutes to soften.
Add the potatoes to the pan, cover with half of the stock or water, bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for about 15 minutes until half-cooked..
Add the courgette chunks, salt and pepper to taste, chopped oregano and basil and the rest of the stock or water, bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are fully cooked.
Either rub through a sieve or put through a blender to make a smooth pureee.
Return to a clean pan, re-heat and add the cream, grated parmesan and chopped chives without boiling.

Serve immediately with a sprinkling of cheese on the top of the bowls.
Serves 4.

spinach 500grams
plain yoghurt 1 pack
garlic 1-2 slices
spring onion 1 branch (optional)

This is a very easy quick and yummy to make side dish. its best for summer night dinners!
Wash the spinach and put it in a pot, add some salt and let it cook by itself without adding oil or water. Spinach is a juicy vegetable and we cook it until it lost its water! then put it in a bowl and let it go cold while chopping your garlic.

Add the yoghurt, chopped garlic, and some black pepper to the spinach and mix it well, put it in the fridge for half an hour and then bring it on the table! you can make decorate it with some rose also (also dried rose)

First you need to hunt down an Italian white truffle, tuber magnatum. For this you will need a dog that has been trained to get very excited at the smell of one. Pigs get excited, but they are harder to wrestle away from the treasure when they find it. You also need to know where to look, which is still a bit of a mystery to be honest (Plutarch decided they occur where lightning meets thunder, if that helps). To save time, buy one in a shop, at mind-boggling expense.

Really you should eat it as soon as possible, but if you can bear the wait, place the truffle in an airtight container in the fridge, accompanied by a few eggs and some unsalted butter out of its wrapping. Leave overnight and they will absorb a little of the smell.

Before you cook, bring the eggs to come back to room temperature out of the fridge. Melt some of the butter until it starts to foam a little, then add the eggs. You can fry them, but to preserve every bit of the aphrodisiac perfume, cover the pan and use a low heat. Serve on a hot plate, add salt and grate (using a truffle slicer or a potato peeler) enough tuber magnatum over them to disguise the fact that they are eggs.

Stick your head right over the plate, take a very deep breath through your nose, then eat.

1 bag frozen shelled edamame
2 tbs peanut oil
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1/4 cup rice vinegar
salt & pepper
3 scallions
chunk of fresh ginger, chopped

Boil the edamame for 4-5 minutes, then drain.
Put the scallions and ginger in a food processor and mince very fine.
Add the rest of the ingredients and process until smooth.
Add more rice vinegar, salt and pepper to taste

The original recipe has much more oil but I don’t think you need it.
If the hummus is too thick without the oil, add a little water.