Roasted tomato soup with crispy bacon

http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Roasted_Tomato_Soup_With_Crispy_Bacon.aspx

Lucy’s mum’s mackerel pate

Packet of smoked mackerel
Tub of cream cheese
Juice of one lemon
Teaspoon of horseradish

Whizz it all up in the blender. I tried lots of mackerel pate recipes, then just asked Lucy to text me. This is the best and a really good hors d’oeuvre.

Grand’mere’s Quails with Grapes

Thomas emailed this so I shall quote him verbatim:

“Our main course was dictated to me in a series of rather confusing answerphone messages, but I liked it as a chic alternative to the rough, Nigel Slater-ish ways of cooking quails that I normally like. For this one, you brown the quails, flambé them in brandy (this step doesn’t appear in the recipes, but, as Grand’mere said, it can’t do any harm), then braise them for 20 minutes or so in grape juice and a glass or two of white wine, adding a good number of real grapes for the last ten minutes. The proportions I had involved two pounds of grapes (half juiced, half for the pot) for six quails. I overcooked it (we had drunk quite a lot of champagne), which did the quails no harm, and meant I had a nice brown reduced sauce.”

Nigella’s Pea and Pesto Soup

750ml water
375g frozen peas
2 spring onions, trimmed but whole
Salt
1/2 teasp lime juice
4×15ml tablespoons pesto from tub not jar

Boil the kettle. Measure the amount of water you need into a pan and put it onto the hob to come back to the boil.

 Add the frozen peas, spring onions, salt and lime juice and let everything bubble for 7 minutes. Discard the spring onions and blitz the peas and their liquid in the blender with with pesto.

Sarah’s spiced parsnip soup

2 large parsnips
4 small carrots
1 clove garlic
50g butter
Tablespoon fromage frais
2 tbsp grated creamed coconut
1tsp mild curry powder
Pinch cinnamon
2pts chicken stock
1tbsp chopped coriander

Chop parsnips and carrots into small pieces and sweat in butter for 10 minutes. Add garlic after 5. Add spices and cook for further minute. Add enough stock to cover, bring to high summer then turn down to low simmer and cook until soft (15-20 minutes). Whiz in food processor or with hand blender. Add coconut, coriander, fromage frais and remaining stock and heat through

Gloriously delicious Two Fat Ladies’ Tomato summer pudding

This is originally from one of the Two Fat Ladies cook books but is now completely owned by Miss Laura Venning and should really only be enjoyed on a sunny Glyndebourne lawn while glugging champagne (the half empty bottles fall over, don’t you know)  before roast fillet of beef then profiteroles….

 

Fresh plum or vine tomatoes: enough to overfull the pudding basin you will use
Salt and pepper

Sugar
Tomato passata
Lemon juice
Worcester and Tabasco sauces
Good stale Italian bread, decrusted and sliced
Garlic
Good olive oil
Large bunch fresh basil Dip tomatoes in boiling water and peel. Chop roughly with salt, pepper and tiny bit of sugar. Pour some passata into soup plate and season with lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce and touch of Tabasco. Soak bread slices in this mixture and line bowl with them, leaving no cracks or crannies. To tomatoes, add crushed garlic, good measure olive oil and lots of basil leaves. Pour into bread-lined bowl. Seal top with more soaked bread. Place receptacle on top with weights and leave overnight in fridge.Serve with quails’ eggs, olives, peppers, capers, and sour cream or good home-made mayonnaise.

Butternut and sage soup

1 large butternut squash, peeled (or parsnips or celeriac)
2 medium onions, peeled and finely sliced
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
55g unsalted butter
1ltr water
125ml whipping cream
10 large leaves of sage, finely sliced

Cut squash in half and remove seeds. Chop into 2.5cm chunks. Put squash, onions, garlic, butter and 1tsp salt into large pan and sweat for 7 minutes. Pour over water and bring to boil. Boil for 15 minutes until soft. Purée then return to pot and add three-quarters of the cream. Heat through and season. Stir in the sliced sage, spoon over rest of cream and serve.

Thomas’s tomato and red pepper soup

8 plum tomatoes, cored and coarsely chopped
4 v large red peppers
50ml groundnut oil
200ml water
100ml extra virgin olivec oil

Heat large pan, add tomato and red pepper and cook until they caramelise (1/2 hour), blend with water, add olive oil, serve with chopped basil

Jerusalem artichoke and pancetta soup

Jerusalem artichokes (anything from 1 huge to six small)
70g chopped pancetta
1 onion, chopped
Large clove garlic or two
1.5pts chicken or other poultry stock
2tbsp double cream
Parsley
25g butter

Sweat onions and garlic in butter for five minutes, then add the peeled, chopped into discs artichokes. Sweat them gently for 15-20 minutes. Add chopped pancetta and fry for 5 minutes. Add stock and parsley and cook for 10 minutes. Whizz in blender, then stir into double cream. Add black pepper.

Rachel Green’s celeriac and mushroom soup

50g butter
1 medium onion, chopped
110g celeriac, peeled and roughly chopped
15g dried wild mushrooms, soaked for 20 minutes in 150ml boiling water
300ml stock
200ml crème fraiche
1tbsp fresh dill, chopped
1tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
Salt and pepper

Melt butter in a saucepan and add onion and celeriac. Cover and cook gently for 10 minutes. Strain mushrooms and reserve liquid. Chop the mushrooms, add to the pan and cook gently for about a minute. Add stock and strained liquid and bring to boil. Simmer until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. Cool a little and purée. Stir in crème fraiche and herbs and season. Gently reheat to serve.