Spiced Butternut Squash Soup

Ah, it's definitely autumn now - wet, windy and freakin' freezing! But when the lighting is right and the weather hits that perfect mix of chilly and fresh, crisp and clear, I realise just how much I love autumn. I mean, who in the food world doesn't?! The incredible produce all around and the replacement of green salads with rich stews, burnished fruit pies and comforting soups. 

Now, I'm not a soup person. Not at all. After a rather unfortunate incident about 5 years ago which meant I had to live off nothing but soup for 2 weeks (tip of the day - cycling with a pen in your mouth is a bad idea) I find it hard to get excited about it. With one or two exceptions, I just don't do soup. The two exceptions? Jerusalem artichoke soup and this soup. Jerusalem artichokes aren't in season yet but when they are, I'll share as it's a winner. This one epitomises autumn in a bowl. Just heaven. And, by total coincidence, it's super healthy! Yum...

Rosy xx

Spiced Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sage leaves, finely chopped
1 tsp thyme leaves, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and diced
2 carrots, chopped
1 large leek, sliced
1 large potato, peeled and cubed
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 celery sticks, diced
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp garam masala
2 pints vegetable or chicken stock
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Toss the butternut squash in 1 tbsp of the olive oil. Season with a little salt and pepper and roast in the oven for about 25 minutes until soft and caramelised around the edges (that's where all the flavour is).

While the squash is roasting, heat the remaining tbsp oil in a large heavy based saucepan. Fry the onions, leeks, carrots, celery and potatoes for about 5 minutes until the onions are soft and translucent. Add the garlic and fry for about a minute, being careful not to let it burn. Add the herbs and spices and fry for another minute or so. Add the stock and the roasted squash and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 30 mins until all the vegetable are soft. Let cool a little and blitz with a handheld blender (or regular blender or food processor) until the desired level of chunkiness has been achieved. Can be served with a drizzle of cream, a little olive oil, a sprinkling of herbs or even some crumbled up bacon. Tastes even better when left for a day or so!

Oh, and of course, don't forget the bread...

Spiced Apple Cake

Erm, yeah, so it's been a while since I did one of these post malarkies! Oops... Life kinda got in the way there. Speaking of which... We got married!

I can highly recommend it - we had the best day and were so lucky to have so many of our friends there to celebrate with us. We also moved! Here's a pic of the new 'hood.

Looks like we live in the country, right? Well... We cheated - we moved south of the river to a stunning part of London called Richmond. Just about the prettiest place within the M25. And it's still on the underground (so within the civilised world) but with parks and wildlife and stuff. Squirrels! And deer!

And I baked! And you should bake too. Seriously, go to the nearest supermarket/farmer's market/member of your family's house with an obliging tree and get some apples - you really really want to bake this. It's made our flat smell like Christmas and I can't tell you how excited that's made me! Only 8 weeks to go...  Granted, there's a small amount of hassle with the apple puree making, but it's super easy and I could eat the stuff neat. Apart from that (and hey, you could just buy pre-made puree. I won't tell a soul, I promise) it's a breeze to make and is sooooo moist and tasty. Amazing with or without the icing but hey, I've never been one to turn down a perfectly good opportunity to slather a cake with cream cheese icing...

Rosy x

Spiced Apple Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

260g Plain Flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
115g unsalted butter at room temp
218g light brown sugar (I didn't have any to hand so I used about 160g dark brown and topped up with caster sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
365g unsweetened apple sauce

Preheat oven to 350F/175C. Line a cupcake pan with liners or grease a 9" square pan*.

First, whisk together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices in a large mixing bowl. Then place the butter and sugar in a stand mixer and beat until paler in colour and fluffy, around 3 mins (or use a hand mixer or good old elbow grease).

Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, then beat in the apple sauce and vanilla. On low speed, add the flour mix until just combined, careful not to overmix. Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake for 15-18 mins, until springy to the touch and a cocktail stick comes out clean.

Cool completely before icing.

*You could probably use almost any shape of pan you fancy for this - I used a large canele mould as I've just bought one and couldn't resist, but this would work in a circular pan too. Or even a bundt pan - the recipe would probably need to be tripled for that.

Cream Cheese Icing
Adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

300g icing sugar, sifted
50g unsalted butter at room temperature
125g cream cheese

In a stand mixer beat the butter and icing sugar together. Add the cream cheese and beat on high speed until light and fluffy. Chill thoroughly if you want to pipe it or just spread straight onto the cakes if you can't wait that long!

Some chewies and some changes

So things are a-changing over here! In case you haven't been reading for very long, there's an impending wedding that's been keeping us busy. And it's now less than 2 months away! I can give it in days, but I shan't as that's just a stage of sad too far. But yes, it's super close and I'm SUPER excited!!

But you've gotta take the good with the, um, slightly less good! I don't want to go all out and say bad. Some of it's not bad at all, such as this is officially my last week at work. That's great!!! Freedom. But on the other side of that, there's the fact I currently don't have anything to go to. Scary... Intentional, yes, but still scary!! I kinda wanted to wait until some other pieces had fallen into place before talking about all the changes that are happening but then some pieces were just taking far too long to fall into place! One of those such pieces provides a bit more insight into why I'm taking some time off but I shall remain aloof about that for now!

And no, I'm not pregnant. I re-read that and realised that's what it sounded like! Nothing like that.

But some of it is bad. Really really sucky. Remember this? Well, it happened again. Words can't really describe how incredibly frustrating it is! We're doing ok on the emotional side of being burgled, but on the getting-our-lives-into-some-semblance-of-order side, we're struggling! Ooo, which reminds me, there are some workmen I have to phone...

So yes, I am yet again without camera. Or laptop. Joined with the fact I shall very soon not even have access to a work computer, that puts a bit of a roadblock in the way of the ol' blogging schedule. But when normality is restored, you shall be the first to know! In the meantime, a trawl through my flikr photostream revealed a picture of some cookies I baked up an age of makind ago and just never got around to telling you about them. They're great. Make them - they'll warm your soul when you're unemployed, broke, burgled and blue*.

Rosy xx

*Disclaimer - I'm not really that blue... Whilst 3 out of the 4 are true, again, re-reading this sounds like I'm about to leap out of a window. I'm not - I'm just obviously a little prone to exageration this afternoon!

Ginger Chewies
Adapted from Joy the Baker. I love her a little bit... And she in turn adapted it from Big Fat Cookies by Elinor Klivans.

280g all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
215g light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup black treacle (or molasses if you have it)
about 1/2 cup turbinado or demerera sugar

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 170C/ 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. In a mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and spices until smoothly blended, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Add the egg and molasses and mix until blended and an even light color, about 1 minute. On low speed, add the flour mixture, mixing just to incorporate it.

Spread the turbinado sugar into a small bowl. Roll 2 Tablespoons of dough between the palms of your hands into a ball, toss the ball sugar to coat and place on the prepared baking sheet. Continue making cookies, spacing them about 2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm but they are still soft in the center and there are several large cracks on top, about 12-14 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. It took me a batch or two to get the right baking time for my crunchy on the outside, chewy in the middle preference, but have a play and bake them until they’re right for you.

The cookies can be stored in a tightly covered container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Rhubarb and Custard Crumble Tart

Having gone from loathes to loves on the rhubarb front, I seem to be unable to stop making sweet treats from rhubarb at the moment. Well, this one wasn't really my fault as it was a Sweet Melissa Sundays treat, but I've also made this, this and kind of interesting coffee style cake that used so many recipes from all around the interwebs I don't know where to start linking. All in the hunt for perfection in rhubarb cake form. I know it exists! I ate it at Ottolenghi. But can I recreate it? Of course not! And those other imposters to the crown of awesomest rhubarb cake were just not the real deal. Whether it be a disappointing crumble or just a bit too 'wholefood' tasting, they were all fine, but not worth writing home about. Or to you about, should I say dear reader!

Then, as I was whiling away an hour or so with a cup of tea and a new cookbook, I spotted this tart. Not at all en route to my rhubarb dream cake, but an appealing diversion, especially with JJ's parents coming to tea.

The idea of combining rhubarb crumble, custard and a tart all in the one dessert sounded pretty incredible to me - so off I set with the recipe in one hand. Only to fall very flat at the first hurdle. Apparently the initial step of blending butter, flour and sugar should form a dough to be rolled out (like shortbread). Mine looked like dust. No matter how much I blitzed in the food processor and even resorted to smooshing with my hands, it just would not come together. Major concerns about the recipe started to form in my mind. But I soldiered on! Baking up the crumbs in a slightly squished together layer (no rolling out happened) seemed to work well. In a second attempt at the tart a week or so later, I added more butter and it helped, but still didn't form a dough, so not a clue what's supposed to happen at that stage!

I won't even bore you with the pastry dough and how impossible I found it. I hate sweet tart dough - it's official. I shall, of course, persevere to find one that doesn't take one look at me and grab the counter with such force only hacking at a knife will get it off. Or maybe it's the way I look at it that scares it into shrinking about a mile away from the tin on all sides. Phew. So anyway, Pastry 2 - Rosy 0.

But! Ah yes, there's a but. This tart is amazing. Whilst the recipe was, um, well, quite wrong in places and I'm gonna suggest you find your own way on the sweet tart dough front for the moment, the filling is heaven. Utter rhubarb and custard flavoured, creamy, dreamy, sweet heaven. Ya know what it reminded me of? Those rhubarb and custard boiled sweets. I love those. But better - less sickly. More elegant and flirty. A true lady of a tart. So lady like in fact, it's the prettiest of pale pinks! I think it would be just as tasty without the crumble but not very attractive... I've toyed with alternatives but whipped cream would just compete for creaminess and there is something pleasing about the buttery crumble contrast, even if it is a touch on the faffy side.

Just make sure to eat it the day you make it - room temperature, it's perfection, but I tried it the next day and both the crumble and tart shell were soft. If I hadn't lost all enthusiasm by the end of this, I would've made a rhubarb sauce from a little extra rhubarb poached, pureed and strained. I think I'll be doing that next time - when I can face sweet tart dough again...

Rosy xx

Rhubarb and Custard Crumble Tart
adapted from here.

For the Crumble
100g plain flour
60g unsalted butter, cold
40g caster sugar

For the Custard
360g rhubarb
130g caster sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
130ml double cream

1 pre-baked tart shell

Preheat oven to 180C.

In a food processor, blitz the crumble mix until it looks like breadcrumbs. Turn out onto a tray lined with parchment paper, give a bit of a smoosh together with your fingers (but don't worry too much!) and bake crumble for 15 mins, until lightly golden.

Mix the rhubarb with the sugar and place in a roasting tin. Cover with foil and roast for 20 mins until soft. Break up with a fork and leave to cool slightly.

Lower the oven to 150C.

Place the cream in a pan and heat gently to simmering point. Meanwhile, beat the eggs with the vanilla. Add the hot cream, slowly at first to temper, and the rhubarb. Fill the pre-baked tart case and bake for around 15 mins until no longer wobbly in the middle. Break up the baked crumble mixture and cover the rhubarb custard with the crumble. Leave to cool to room temperature and eat the same day.

The Daddy of Chicken Caesar Salads

I've found since leaving University that my ability to sleep in has greatly diminished. It's so frustrating! I find myself wide awake at 7am on a Saturday, my body clock fully expecting me to dash off to work, when all I want to do is embrace the joys of not having to get up and go to work. JJ does not suffer from such an affliction. He would sleep in til noon if I let him. He's one of those people that can nap anytime, anywhere. It's one of the main points of difference in our relationship, made worse by our extremely open plan flat with very creaky floorboards. Try as I might to potter away quietly downstairs, I'll end up crashing and banging around, waking him up anyway.

So to try and avoid disturbing his lie in this past weekend, I sneaked out super early to spend the day wandering around Borough market with a very lovely blog buddy - why can't I spend my whole life wandering around produce markets in the sunshine with awesome friends talking pretty much non-stop about food?? Heaven! The resulting haul included rhubarb, which will feature in the next post, some stunning Sicillian lemons (so pretty I couldn't resist but no idea what to do with them - ideas welcome!) and a rather magnificent chicken. The chicken was simply roasted up and served with Jersey Royal potatoes and English asparagus and enthusiastically devoured Sunday evening. But, given that there's only two of us, there was plenty left over for last night's supper. Enter the king of all chicken salads - the Chicken Caesar!

Salads have such a bad rap. Those lip, lifeless green leaves thrown onto a plate are the root cause of the problem - I've never really understood how restaurants get away with charging so much for them! Side salads. Urgh. Even the name is enough to make me skip the salad and order something far less healthy.

But with the wedding looming ever closer and my diet being ruined by oh so much temptation (mostly my own fault, I'll concede) it's time to get salad happy! And there are so many incredible salads out there. I've never had such praise for a meal as the one I prepared the other night of a selection of deliciously different salads. This could be something to do with a rather amazing cookbook I'm now the very proud owner of, but I'm also going to go ahead and take a little credit. (not much though... It's really all down to the cookbook!)

With the left over chicken, it had to be chicken salad and, of course, there's no chicken salad quite like a chicken Caesar salad. This salad started off innocently enough - chicken, lettuce and a bit of dressing. But somewhere between the lettuce aisle and eggs aisle, we got a little carried away. So this version would, I'm sure, make Cardini roll in his grave, but I'm willing to live with that. You can, of course, par it right back and just serve the dressing on the lettuce but that's just a touch too much like a 'side salad' for my liking!

Caesar Salad
Serves 2 for supper or 4 for a starter

For the croutons:
2 slices white bread, cubes
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper

For the salad:
1 crispy lettuce (Romaine ideally, but hey, it's lettuce. Use whatever you've got)
Half a cucumber, diced
Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
Diced, cooked chicken, around 1 cup.
Freshly grated parmesan
4 anchovy fillets, minced (optional)

For the dressing:
2 cloves garlic
2 egg yolks
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 floz/125ml olive oil

Place the rashers of bacon on a tray and pop in the oven. Turn the oven to 200C. Apparently, this stops the bacon from shrinking or something...

Toss the bread cubes in olive oil, salt and pepper and place on a baking tray in the middle of the oven to toast, about 10 minutes or so (until golden - this depends so much on how dry your bread is so be prepared for this to take longer).

Crush the garlic into a paste with a pinch of salt. A pestle and mortar would work great here - we don't own one though so just chopping it very finely works well too! Add the egg yolks, worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and dijon mustard and give a whisk around.

Continue to whisk while slowly drizzling in the olive oil. This sounds tough but I have a VERY low tollerance for hand whisking and it took no time at all. Once it's all added it should have the consistency of slightly thickened double cream. Give it a taste and season with pepper and lemon juice. I wouldn't add any more salt as we used anchovies, bacon and parmesan, but if you're not using quite such an excessive number of salty ingredients, do season to taste with salt too.

On a large platter (or individual bowls) lay the lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and chicken. Add a good couple of dollops of dressing and a grating of parmesan and toss to distribute. Crumble over the bacon and scatter with croutons. You can serve with bread too, but it's really hearty in its own right. Devour immediately! The dressing will keep for about a week in the fridge but, as with any lettuce-based salad, leaves should be dressed immediately before eating.

If you're worried about the raw egg component, apparently they can be coddled before hand. I've never tried this but though as I like to live dangerously. That, and I'm lazy. But of course, this might be one of those salads to avoid if you're pregnant!

Rosy xx

Lemon Blueberry Scones

I have a major problem I have to confess to and I hope you'll understand and love me all the same... I am totally, utterly and completely addicted to watching cookery shows. Having spent the past couple of days under a duvet on the sofa with a rather grotty cold, I've watched pretty much nothing but cooking tv for 2 days straight. Sky is amazing - whole channels dedicated to food! I don't know what it is about cookery shows and the ever perky, enthusiastic presenters, but I just can't help but watch them. Even sometimes when I'm not overly keen on the person, or even the food, I just can't seem to stop myself. Case in point, Sophie Dahl's tv series. Did I find her excessively annoying? Yes! Do I particularly want to cook what she was making? No! Was I constantly confused by the show's premise and why on earth she roasted an entire chicken to make chicken soup?? Oh hell yes! (seriously, why??!) But did I record every single episode and watch it anyway? Or course!!

There are some exceptions. Like other dear friends of mine, I love Nigel Slater. He has a way of writing about food that just makes me want to lick the page but his show just did not float my boat at all. Just couldn't watch it!!

But the one show I could (and indeed do) watch over and over again is Barefoot Contessa. I get the impression that Ina Garten is super well known in the US - on a par with Nigella and Jamie over here. But to us Brits, she's relatively unknown - indeed, if it weren't for the wonder that is sky tv (and aforementioned food channels) I wouldn't have the faintest idea who she is. But I'm so so happy she came into my life! Oh how I adore her. Incredibly informative but never condescending, and she genuinely seems to be the loveliest person ever. And her kitchen! Wow. Just wow. What I wouldn't give for her pantry. And I LOVE the way she gives so much thought to the table! There’s one episode where she hosts a lunch for a group of carpenters and she uses tools rather than flowers as a centerpiece. Seriously had me in stitches (in the best possible way). Oh and Miguel! How JJ and I love Miguel’s guest appearances.

The part I love her for the most? The recipes. I don't think I've made a single recipe that hasn't worked and they're always so so packed with flavour. This one, though a modification on her cranberry orange scones, is no exception. A very American scone - buttery, sweet and fruity - rather than the typical (I'm going to say it) bland British scone, so no adornement in the way of butter or jam is necessary. More of a pastry in its own right. Breakfast, a sweet treat or afternoon tea, it doesn't matter - these are just perfect.

Rosy xx

Lemon Blueberry Scones
Adapted from Ina Garten’s recipe
Makes about 20 large triangles – halve the recipe if you’re not feeding an army!

500g flour plus 30g extra
100g sugar*
2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp grated lemon zest (ca. 3 lemons)
345g unsalted butter, diced and cold
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
240ml double cream
About 2 cups fresh blueberries
Egg wash for the tops (1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water)

For the glaze:
Juice 1 lemon
Icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the 500g flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon zest. Add the cold butter and mix on low speed until the mixture resembles coarse sand, with butter in pieces no larger than peas. This takes a bit of time – maybe a couple of minutes or so – so have patience and it will happen.

Combine the eggs and cream. With the mixer on slow, gradually pour in to the flour mixture. Mix until just blended. Combine the berries with the 30g flour (to stop them sinking apparently) and carefully mix until blended. I do this by hand to prevent the berries getting smooshed.

Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface – it’s quite sticky! Pat or roll to around ¾” thick. Keep the dough moving so it doesn’t stick to the surface and use more flour if necessary.

Flour a cutter or knife and cut to your desired shape – I like triangles. There’s no reason for this, other than you don’t have scraps left over to re-roll out which can affect how flakey the scones are, much like pastry. Plus I’m lazy that way.

Pop the scones on parchment lined trays and brush with the egg wash. You could sprinkle with sugar if you’re not going to make the glaze, but I highly recommend the glaze!

Bake for 20-25 mins until the tops are nicely browned. They will be firm to the touch and the undersides should be golden too. Allow to cool for 15 mins before glazing.

To make the glaze, mix the lemon juice with icing sugar until the desired drizzling consistency is achieved – Ina recommends ½ cup plus 2 tbsp icing sugar to 4tbsp juice. I don’t really weigh this bit – I just stir until it looks right! Drizzle over the scones.

As I've modified the recipe, so too could this be switched and swapped to your heart's content - orange choc chip, anyone??! Ooo, or raspberries....

*This is twice the amount quoted in the original recipe, following on from some commenters' advice. It needs it! They're really not that sweet, even with double. I would think the original amount of 50g would hardly make them sweet at all.

Almond Rocket Pesto and a Tart

I'm on a bit of a pesto kick at the moment - especially the more random combinations. We've had a great recipe for regular pesto that's been on almost weekly rotation for a while now but basil and pine nuts can be expensive. And hey, it's always fun to mix things up a bit! So this time it's almond (because they were lying around) and rocket (because, um, it was lying around). And? So good!!! I think I may be obsessed. So many different flavour possibilities!

Pesto's one of those things that's just great to use in a huge variety of dishes. I think stirring it into pasta has to be one of my least favorite things to do with it (although, of course, we still eat it that way a whole lot). A recent discovery was aubergine wrapped halloumi with a smear of pesto on the inside - absolutely delicious but oh so ugly! The photos really don't do it justice so I shall have to make it again and pay a little more attention to its visual appeal before sharing it with you. JJ was close to tears it was so good. Or that might have been the quantity of garlic used... No, it was the halloumi, I'm sure!

Anyway, no matter what kind of pesto I have on hand, I LOVE to use it in tarts. Especially vegetable tarts - it really ups the flavour and helps contrast the sweetness of the vegetables. In the winter, it's a blind-baked tart shell, a coating of pesto, a heap of roasted veggies and a basic quiche filling. But I really don't feel inclined to roast up vegetables in the spring, especially when the season is all about the vibrant greens of new life rather than the dusky reds and russets of autumn. So, very much inspired by this recipe, I went for a substantially lighter, cleaner tart with a thin layer of filling - something that I'll definitely be doing again! Makes the whole thing much lighter and the eggy base doesn't overwhelm the other ingredients.

All in all, this was incredible. I'm ashamed to say that I managed to demolish the whole thing before JJ even got a look in (over two nights, mind - I'm not that bad. I did have to physically restrain myself from eating it all on night one though...). This pastry is surprisingly forgiving - I struggle so much with pastry but I've made this countless times. This time, I really thought I'd done it when I carried on messing around with it but it was just as flakey and perfectly savory as always. Now to perfect my sweet pastry...

Recipes - I will add them later this evening as I totally forgot to copy them down before I left the house this morning!! Oops... But the inspiration for the tart can be found here.

Rosy xx