Chorizo, Chickpea and Lemon Tomato Soup | Food

I've been at it again! Adapting recipes, this evening for dinner. Originally from Rachel Khoo's Kitchen Notebook, and vegetarian before I got my hands on it... 

Originally intended for a starter I served this with lightly toasted ciabatta and in a slightly larger portion to make into a homely main course. As for adaptations I added a little more cream, so as a cream of tomato soup was made as oppose to a more tomato puree based one. I also used a meat based stock cube and added some cooked chorizo for a meatier twist. The crunchy chickpeas act as a citrus infused alternative to croutons when roasted with the lemon. To see how to make this yummy dish look below! 

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 35-45 minutes

Serves: 4 as a starter

Ingredients:

400g of chickpeas

1 unwaxed lemon

4 garlic cloves

1 tbsp vegetable oil

sea salt 

black pepper

800g good quality tinned cherry tomatoes

pork stock cube

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

120g chorizo 

170ml single cream 

1. Preheat the oven to 180◦c and line a baking tray with parchment paper. 

2. Drain the chickpeas and rinse fully. Place them on the baking tray along with thinly sliced lemon (shown above) and whole unpeeled garlic cloves. Top with sea salt, drizzle with oil and place in the oven to cook for 30-40 minutes, until golden and crispy. 

3. While the chickpeas are cooking place the tinned tomatoes in a medium saucepan and crush in the stock cube. Warm through bringing to a simmer. 

4. After approximately 15 minutes of the chickpeas roasting remove the garlic from the baking tray (placing the rest back in the oven to finish cooking) and squeeze it from its skin into the soup. Simmer for a further 5 minutes. 

5. Add the sugar and the vinegar to the soup and continue to simmer, season if necessary. While this is happening place the chorizo into a small pan and cook for around 3 minutes, until slightly crispy. 

6. Remove the soup from the heat and stir in the cream. Use a hand blender to process the soup mixture until smooth. 

7. Serve by ladling the soup into bowls. Garnish each with the chickpeas, chorizo and a slice or two of lemon, running a little extra cream through if presenting, and the lightly toasted and buttered ciabatta. 

Tip: Don't leave the soup on the heat while adding the cream as it is likely to curdle, no good for anyone! This dish is perfect for a starter or main (with supplements) this time of year when it is neither warm or bitterly cold. The crunchy chickpeas add a different texture to what would otherwise be a smooth cream  based soup, and the chorizo adds a little salty flavor. Have a go, it's really yummy!

Cheerio x

Easter Cake | Food

 

Easter is swiftly approaching and for me that means lemon drizzle cake. I have a pretty fail safe recipe, but today decided to stray from those boundaries and try the March Waitrose recipe card version. Though saying that I did adapt it a bit (who doesn't adapt recipes?!) so I thought I'd let you all know what I did! For example reducing the layer number and sprinkling with poppy seeds. 

This cake has a citrus lemon zing which counteracts the sponge, allowing for a refreshing nibble without much stodge. It is topped with ground almonds, crushed up pistachios and poppy seeds giving difference in texture too. There is also a layer of homemade marzipan in the middle as well making it the perfect treat for April afternoons! 

Prep time: 25+ minutes

Cook time: 30-40 minutes

 Cooling time 1+ hour

Ingredients for Marzipan: 

100g pistachios

50g ground almonds 

75g golden caster sugar 

75g icing sugar

1 medium egg 

Ingredients for Cake:

175g butter

175g golden caster sugar

2 lemons, zested and juiced

3 medium eggs 

225g self-raising flour 

1 tsp baking powder

50g poppy seeds 

Lemon Sugar Icing:

1 lemon, juiced 

150g caster sugar

Topping:

50g pistachios

30g ground almonds 

10g poppy seeds

1. Firstly preheat the oven to 180◦c (fan assisted). Grease a 20" cake tin with a piece of kitchen roll lightly dampened with vegetable oil. 

2. To create the cake mix, place the butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice, eggs, flour, poppy seeds and baking powder in a large mixing bowl and combine with a handheld whisk. It should look as above, pale and creamy with a batter-like consistency.

3. To create the marzipan process the pistachios until they reach an even and fine consistency, this can be done with a blender or food processor. Tip into a bowl and add the ground almond, caster and icing sugar, and egg and combine with a fork until a paste is formed. 

4. Spoon half of the cake batter into the cake tin and level the surface with a spatula. Flatten parts of the marzipan with your fingertips and lay them across the surface of the batter, until the surface is covered save an inch around the edge. Cover with the remaining cake batter and smooth once more. 

5. Place in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, the marzipan remains slightly gooey, so the cake prod method will not effectively test cooking here, instead press the middle, when firm the cake is complete.

6. While the cake is baking make the icing by juicing one lemon and adding the caster sugar, beat using a small whisk or fork until a slightly thickened runny consistency is formed. 

6.  Once out of the oven immediately pierce the cake in multiple places (around 20) with a cake prod or skewer and pour the pre-made icing all over. Don't worry if it pools slightly as it will seep into the cake. Straight after this top with the almonds, pistachios and poppy seeds as they will stick to the icing before it seeps in. 

 Tip: allow the cake to cool completely before removing it from the tin, to help keep the structure and allow the icing to fully seep through. The cake may look a little gooey in the middle, but don't worry as this is the marzipan within. Serve on a sunny spring day and enjoy!

Happy cooking!
Cheerio x

Rachel Khoo's Kitchen Notebook | Review

Rachel Khoo's Kitchen Notebook

Being one who enjoys exploring the culinary delights of the cooking world, recipe books are an integral part of my bookshelf. The newest addition of which is Rachel Khoo's Kitchen Notebook. A very welcome addition this book, as the title suggests, is a compilation of illustration, photography and recipes from Khoo's trips around the world; straight out of her own notebook. If her name is familiar to you this may be because she hosted a cooking show named Little Paris Kitchen, in which she showcased her cookery skill and flair for French cuisine. Khoo has 5 recipe books in both French an English, and this is my first of hers.

First of all it is an incredibly beautiful book. Filled to the brim with hand written notes, personal photos and watercolour illustrations, the book has an incredibly homely feel. It certainly is like delving through the jotted notes of a passionate foodie (albeit a very well produced one). The collage layout, painted ideograms and in depth instructions slotted in with 'paperclips' result in a happy and familiar look. Also being one of the crazies that enjoys a good book smell, this smells wonderful! Though that isn't strictly a review point...

Enough about the design though, what about what is inside? Well, I enjoy the exercise of bookmarking pages I want to return to in recipe books, and as you can see that was a fairly fruitless exercise in this case. Nearly every page has a tag! The first section is logically starters, Khoo suggests a starter should tantalise your taste buds and prepare you for the delights that await during the rest of the meal. Examples from this section include wonders such as: cream of tomato soup with crunchy lemon chickpeas, roasted cauliflower and caraway salad, and baked goats cheese cigars. The second section is for mains which includes: potato crumpets with maple mustard gammon, peeping mushroom pasta (which looks like something straight out of Alice in Wonderland), and sticky chicken with Malaysian salad. Next up is the sweet section, which is by far the best in my sweet toothed opinion. My favourites from this part include: edible forest floor (more Wonderland-esque beauty), plum jelly with elderflower chantilly, and berry tartlets with cream cheese frosting. The final section is Homemade Treats, a section to encourage you to make not buy. Some favourites are: chocolate bark, savoury gems, and various different types of grissini. Though if none of those treats sound like your bag there are over 100 recipes, so I fear it would be hard not to find something you liked! There is also a few pages at the back which are essential equipment bits and pieces, cooks notes & ingredients and some blank note pages for you to jot anything you like down (though the thought of writing in a book makes me feel rather uneasy...)

Lastly the format of the recipes. Each recipe has a detailed title, followed by how many it serves, prep time, resting time (if any), cook time (if any), and cooling time (if any) which is incredibly handy information. Next is a small description of the dish with the recipe underneath. In a small column are the ingredients listed in grams, and any specific equipment needed. The recipes are then written in paragraph order though without numbers, which is the one downfall as I much prefer numbered recipes to keep track of where I am. Occasionally there are also cooks tips at the bottom of the page in italics, just to help along making the cooking experience and results extra easy and delicious. The best thing about this book however I have left until last. Approximately 99% of the recipes have full page pictures of the dish next to them. This makes me incredibly happy as I always like to know what exactly what I am making is meant to look like. The pictures are large, clear and impossible to miss, making the book beautiful and easily followable.

Conclusively I cannot wait to delve in properly and make a good lot of these thing. At the incredibly reasonable price of £13.60 on amazon it is affordable, full of in depth treats and lovely to look at. This is certainly a 5 star cook book which has encouraged me to find more of Khoo's recipe books. If I only they were all at delightful as this one! The trick now is not to cover it in icing sugar explosions and sloshed melted butter.

Happy cooking!
Cheerio x 

Snappy Chocolate Cookies | Food

Yesterday, being incredibly bored, cookies happened! The return of the Great British Bake Off served as inspiration, though from last years cook book, for these lovelies. They're made fairly simply, though a little cooling time is needed. If you love chocolate these are for you! And being rolled in icing sugar a lovely sweet coating is created as well. 

They are also really quite adaptable! If you prefer a slightly chewier cookie bake them for a little less time, and a more doughy texture will be achieved. But if you're a drink dunker and prefer a bit of a snappier biscuit that can hold its shape under the pressure an unreasonably long tea dunk, bake them a few minutes longer a little longer and you'll be safe from surprise breakage! 

As I've mentioned before, sometimes reading recipe's on blogs can be a little bit of a pain. So instead of trawling it all out on this I'll provide a link to my Cook app site here. This is a site meant for recipes and displays them in a very easy and aesthetically pleasing way, do I feel it is a little easier. 

If you bake these please let me know! Or if there is a similar cookie you've made I'd love to hear about it. 

Cheerio! x