Best Roast Butternut Soup, with Roast Chicken Pieces and Broccoli Garnish

If you are are looking for a smooth Pumpkin/Butternut Squash Soup. This is the one
The addition of the large pieces of Roast Chicken just add another dimension
Plus little flavourful slices of broccoli on top
This is a complete meal
I found this soup on better recipes.com a website that sends me emails each morning
It is soup time at the moment and this was a little beauty
For those interested, it is gluten free and also Paleo 

Ingredients:
4 Bone-in, skin-on breasts, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 Medium Butternut Squash, peeled, seeded, chopped
1 Small Yellow Onion, rough chopped
2 cloves Garlic, peeled and left whole
2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
Sea Salt and Freshly ground black pepper

5 cup Chicken Broth
⅓ tsp Ground Cumin
⅓ tsp Ground Coriander
2 tsp Fresh Lemon Juice


Optional Garnish
Kale  sliced in my case or as I find Kale a little boring
Broccoli broken into florets, just enough to use as a garnish

To prepare broccoli
Slice broccoli thinly, I used a mandolin
Blanch the broccoli in boiling salted water for about 45 seconds
Strain immediately and plunge into cold water, to stop cooking
This will keep the fabulous bright green colour

In a frying pan, on medium heat, add about 1 tablespoon olive oil
add 1 clove of garlic, finely copped with sea salt and about 1 tbs of lemon zest
Just sauté gently for about a minute be careful not to burn the garlic

Throw in blanched broccoli and cook till heated through
Use to garnish soup

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 200C degrees
Place the chicken, squash, garlic, and onion on a baking sheet.
Season the chicken and vegetables with the oil, salt and pepper. 

Bake for 25 minutes.
Remove the chicken and set it aside.

Place the remaining vegetables into a blender with any excess oils.
Add the remaining ingredients, and blend until smooth.
Depending on the size of your blender, you may have to do this in two batches.
Strain through a sieve, into a stock pot and bring into a boil.
There was still some fibre from the squash, I though it needed to go
So I strained it
Reduce to a simmer and return the chicken.
Simmer the soup uncovered for 20 minutes.

If you really want to use kale, stir in it for the last 5 minutes.

Or again my case, I served the soup and topped with Broccoli Slices
Very pretty and tastes fab

Of course I had leftovers
Reheat it very gently, so that the chicken heats through

A Classic Cream of Mushroom Soup

Mushroom Soup

I had some chicken stock sitting in the fridge, thought I would make some soup
Had a glance through my Go-To Cajun Cookbook… that I bought on our first trip to New Orleans
in 1988. Le Bouche Creole, by Leon E Soniat Jr.
I don’t think you would go wrong with any recipe in this book.
Elizabeth David
Julia Child
Jacques Pepin
Marcella Hazan
and Leon
These authors have created little bibles for me, all well worn
I will never throw them away.
My heroes!

So, what jumped out at me, was
Cream of Mushroom Soup, even though I didn't have any mushrooms…
I did have to go to the Supermarche, so I bought some

It’s a little fiddly but well worth it

Serves 8-10 people

Voila Lunch
Take
500 gms mushrooms
125 gms butter
1 litre Milk
1.5 litres of Chicken stock
1 onion
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch spring (green onions)
8 tablespoons flour
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon Dried basil 
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco
2-3 tablespoon good chicken stock powder, I use the Vegeta Brand

Boil the onion, bay leaves and tops of green onions in the stock for 1/2 hour
Strengthen the stock with the powdered stock
Strain

In a heavy pot, melt the butter over low heat
Add flour
Cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly
Warm the milk then
Add the milk very slowly
Stirring all the time, to avoid lumps

When the sauce is well mixed and creamy
Slowly pour in the strained stock

Clean the mushroom, remove the stem and chop them finely add them to the stoup
While this cooks, slice the mushroom tops
After the soup has simmered for about 10 minutes
Season with Salt and pepper to taste
Then the Tabasco and the sliced mushroom

Let cook for another 5-10 minutes
stirring occasionally

When the soup is served garnish each bowl with a little green onions 

As I am always On my "Waste Not Want Not" Crusade
This soup, also made a wonderful mushroom sauce
That evening, I made myself dinner, using some leftover vegetables
and some beautiful Filet Steak

Just popped the vegetable into the oven and roasted them
Not too long about 20 minutes
After I had cooked the steak, I removed it from the pan and
Ladled in some of the soup into the hot pan

Mixed with the yummy meat juices, it reduced down a bit and the sauce was delicious
I forgot to take the picture before I dressed the steak, but you can get the idea
It was such a tasty dinner and no Waste

You may notice with the soup above there is a little Toasted Sandwich to accompany it
Very simple, It does need to be the old plastic white bread though, sorry,
There are times this just has to be
This filling was perfect
Quantities are up to you...depending on how many people you are serving

Slices of white bread, well buttered
A little beaten egg
Sliced ham
Grated cheese 
Sea salt and Black pepper
Chopped Green onion or chives

Lay the bread, butter side down onto a chopping board
Place all the other ingredients, into a small bowl and mix well

 Spread the ingredients Over the un-buttered side

Place the lid on and cook in your toasted sandwich machine, or you can cook on a non stick skillet

 Excellent and a lovely view, to go with my lunch

Beautiful Spinach, Corn and Feta Muffins - The Joys of Frozen Food

This morning I wanted to make some tasty muffins to take over to a friend
Of course I didn’t want to go out and buy anything, so I made do with what I had in the pantry, freezer and fridge.
The actual recipe called for courgettes and feta.
Vegetables, that I always have in the freezer, are peas, corn and spinach
I can do something with that, so I replaced the courgettes with spinach and corn and I created a delight

Also I didn’t have quite enough milk so I topped it up with some chicken stock
Should give some extra flavour

I defrosted the spinach, squeezed out the excess juice, quickly defrosted the corn

This recipe is from a post that I put up in 2007
Inspired by my blogging friend Anali click here to read her blog
Worth another go I reckon
They are delicious, I wolfed down 2 for my lunch

 Heat oven to 175C

1/3 cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ cups plain flour

1/2 cup chopped frozen spinach (well squeezed to remove excess juice
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels thawed
1/3 cup feta cheese crumbled

2 eggs
¾ cup milk
½ cup rice bran oil

Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl
Add spinach, corn and feta cheese and mix around to coat them
use you hands for the best result
Meanwhile beat all wet ingredients
Add to dry.

Just stir to mix
Pour into greased muffin tins
Made 9-10
Cook for about 16-18 minutes
take out of tins and cool on a wire rack

Delicious.

Pasta A La Norma - Everybody loved it

It seems I'm going Sicilian this week, tonight I am cooking A Sicilian Fish Dish Click here for the recipe and tomorrow I am cooking a lunch for friends
So continuing on the Sicilian Theme, I am making Pasta A la Norma
Apparently named after Bellini's Opera, Norma, I think I need to find the music on my phone and play it during lunch
I've made this a few times, and it has been very popular with the punters
A great vegetarian dish,
The fresh herbs really lift it, Fabulous Flavours, with the saltiness of the cheese giving that extra lift

There are many versions of this dish...but it seems this is one of the best
Of course I did cook too much... so
I did have some leftover and reheated it, to accompany schnitzel for the grandchildren
They loved it, all had second helpings.
Raving in fact

Ingredients
1 large eggplant
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for tossing
Sea salt
2 or 3 large ripe tomatoes (about 350 grams)
1 pound rigatoni or fettuccine ( I used rigate which was I think will be my preference now)
2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
Crushed red pepper flakes
1 bunch basil, leaves only, very roughly chopped (about 1 packed cup)
About 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
About 2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 scant cup goats Feta, crumbled or coarsely grated, optional
Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS
Heat the oven to 215°C.
Using a vegetable peeler or a paring knife, peel some of the skin from the eggplant in stripes (it’s nice to have some, but not all, of the eggplant skin in the final pasta dish)
Cut the eggplant into 1-inch dice, toss it on a rimmed baking sheet with oil and salt, and roast until browned and very tender, about 20 minutes.
The eggplant is done when you can easily squish a cube with your finger
 and it has a nice, creamy texture; under-cooked eggplant
can have a less appealing, cottony feel.

Bring a big pot of cold salted water to a boil.
Add the pasta and cook, stirring frequently, according to the package instructions.

If you’re in a hurry, cut the tomatoes into large dice about the size of, well, dice.
Don’t bother removing the skins and seeds.
BUT
If you have a moment to intensify the flavour of your tomatoes,
remove their skins and seeds and dice them, then place the diced tomatoes in a colander,
sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt, and let sit for 10 minutes.

To grab that extra flavour, its worth doing this step
I extracted the juice from the seeds and skin and added it into the sauce

Warm a large skillet over low heat and add the 4 tablespoons oil.
Toss in the garlic and crushed red pepper and stir a bit.

Add the basil and a sprinkle of salt,
raise the heat to medium and cook, stirring, until the basil is dark green and wilted,
being careful not to burn the garlic.
Add the tomatoes, sprinkle with the salt (if you haven’t already), and
cook until the tomatoes barely lose their rawness, about 5 minutes.

Add the roasted eggplant and let the sauce simmer gently until the pasta is ready.

Drain the pasta, reserving about 1 cup pasta cooking water.
Toss the drained pasta with the sauce, the mint, and the parsley,
tasting and adjusting the seasoning if necessary.
If the mixture seems dry,
add some pasta cooking water, a little at a time.
Toss in the Feta

 Grate the Parmesan over the top

Serve