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We are off on holiday soon, so I have been tidying out the fridge and giving it a deep clean. I have also managed to plan meals using up left-overs from the freezer and taking into account those oddments of salad and vegetables which always seem to be lurking. I am really pleased with myself. Sometimes I just cannot resist buying new stuff even when I have things in the freezer which I should thaw out and use. So this week’s menus including beef tagine twice – once with jacket potatoes and salad and the second time with polenta and a tomato and avocado salsa.
Today I made some really lovely cold soup. Now it might have been gazpacho or it might not have been. I know people can get very hung up on the authenticity of recipes. I was very interested to hear Jay Rayner on Radio 4 yesterday saying that it is fine to put cream in carbonara as long as it tastes good! I always put cream in my carbonara by the way! He is also not keen on pineapple on pizza, but purely for flavour reasons, not anything to do with authenticity. Here is my recipe, using oddments from the salad drawer and supplemented from the store cupboard:
Sarah’s Summer Soup
- 3 small cucumbers (grown by our cleaner/handyman team)
- Some chunks of sad-looking cos lettuce
- A few celery stalks
- A handful of cherry tomatoes (not from the fridge of course, as who keeps tomatoes in the fridge?!)
- 3 cucumbers (grown by our cleaner/handyman team)
- A small pot of left-over canned tomatoes
- Another can of canned tomatoes
- A dash of tabasco
- A dash or 2 of pomegranate molasses
- A tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
- A splash of Worcestershire sauce
- A home-grown chilli (Hurrah! one of my few successes in the garden!)
- Some radishes
- A few anchovies
- Plenty of seasalt and freshly ground black pepper
Method:
Save a few radishes, anchovies and pieces of fennel to chop up by hand. You could save some cucumber and tomatoes too. Blitz everything else in a blender (works a bit better than a food processor) with a can of water, swilling out the tomato juices. Check the seasoning and adjust as necessary. Chop your saved vegetables and anchovies and mix in afterwards, or use as a garnish