Spicy Cauliflower and Chard Soup

Autumn is my absolute favourite season.  There's something special about crisp sunny days with a slight chill in the air.  Some people see it as sad because the leaves finally fall from the trees, but (provided it doesn't continue to rain buckets), there are piles of shiny brown leaves, just ripe for kicking.  I have been waiting for Miss A to reach two (and a bit now) just so that I can use her as an excuse for skipping through leaves, looking for shiny brown conkers.

One day, I'd love to holiday in New England in the fall.  I've had several failed attempts at getting there in the past but it's on my (overly long) holiday bucket list and I'm determined to make it there one of these days.

The other good thing about September 1st is that it heralds the start of soup making season.  I love soup and could quite happily live off of it most days - provided it was interspersed with lots of toast.  There's just something comforting about a piping hot bowl of soup that takes me right back to my childhood.  My mum was forever making soup when I was a child.  I think back then I really only liked it because it came with deep fried croutons but as an adult, it takes me right back to the tiny kitchen where I grew up.

My favourite was Mum's cream of cauliflower, closely followed by my Grandma's minestrone.  I still cook both of these regularly but don't really expand my repertoire past that.  I've made a few soups (this is #14) during the course of this blog and whilst they were all very acceptable, none of them really made me want to make them again in preference to the default two.  However, today, I may finally have come up with a contender.

I happened across the Soup Tuesday blog some time ago.  It's written by husband and wife team Dan and Kasari.  It's not just about Soup and not just written on Tuesday.  It's about cake too (this is how I found it as Kasari entered the Weekly Bake Off one week when I was judging it) and lots of other things as well.  Dan then participated in the Olympic Food Challenge, putting us all to shame by really pushing the limits of the game by eating Deep Fried Duck Tongues.  They're a great pair and if you're on Twitter, you should definitely follow them for their entertaining musings.

Anyhoo, this week, Dan blogged about the cauliflower soup and I knew I just had to try it.  So yesterday, I dropped in on one of our local farm shops to get the ingredients I needed and this morning, set about making the soup.  It's dead easy - just roast the veg, simmer it in stock and then blend.  What I liked about the method was that by using a potato, there was no need for the faffy making of roux sauce that accompanies my mother's cauliflower soup recipe.  In fact, next time I make hers, I may try potatoes rather than white sauce to see what a difference it makes.

With the subtle Indian spicing and the aromatic coconut flavour, I really enjoyed this soup and will definitely be making it again.  As I only had creamed coconut, I substituted this for the coconut milk along with a little regular milk although when I served the soup it was still pretty thick.  My chard wouldn't wilt either but the texture wasn't a problem.  My soup was also slightly less piccalilli-like in colour than Dan's because I didn't time how long I roasted my vegetables for and they were a little more brown than 'golden around the edges' but thankfully not burnt (just about) and it still tasted good.

You can find the recipe here, along lots of other recipes too.

Olympic Food Challenge: Swayweih and Kahwa - Oman

Like a lot of my other non-European countries, I new little about Oman before the Olympic Food Challenge began.  It's all been very educational.  I knew it was a Gulf state but would have been hard pressed to pinpoint it straight away on a map.  What surprised me was the cuisine because it seems to be heavily influenced by Indian food despite there being a tract of sea between the two.  I ended up discounting a lot of the recipes because they were things I'd associate with India like Biryani - although the husband might have eaten that.

Coffee wasn't quite thick enough to stand the spoon up

Instead, as Friday is a working from home day, I decided to go with a breakfast option.  Mostly because it is served with Kahwa - or ridiculously sweet coffee, spiked with cardamom.  If there's one thing the Middle Easterners do well, it's coffee.  Dark and thick enough to stand your spoon up in.  Sadly, I had to make do with Colombian (my favourite, but I doubled the quantity of coffee to water) and for someone who doesn't take sugar in her coffee (unless it's a caramel latte and that doesn't count as coffee), it was really enjoyable.

As for the pasta with scrambled eggs, coconut, onion and sugar or Swayweih to give it it's proper name.  Well it was different.  I was expecting horrible.  Onion, coconut, eggs and sugar?  Hardly sweet and sour but neither savoury nor sweet.  But actually, it worked.  Laced with more cardamom (love the stuff although I know it's a bit of a Marmite flavour) and stirred through vermicelli it wasn't half bad and although I polished it off quite quickly, it kept me going from 7am through til 1pm - something I can normally only accomplish if I have a protein bar or get stuck in a meeting at work.

Omani flag

Would I eat it again?  If I'm honest, probably not.  I like my pasta dressed with parmesan.  I like my scrambled egg slightly runny and smothered in Heinz ketchup on top of thick, crusty sourdough toast that's been liberally slathered with salted butter (a once in a blue moon treat).  Onions, sugar and coconut? Not mixed in with my breakfast all at the same time.  But if I ever find myself in Oman and it's on the breakfast menu, I would consider it again.

That said, I think it's probably a good post-run breakfast with plenty of protein and carbs.  The butter will help keep the speed of the sugar release from the white pasta down and the coffee is sure to keep the adrenaline and metabolism pumping for a while after (I wish I'd gone to nutritionist school when I was younger).  You never know, I might just change my mind one day.

You can find the recipe here along with everything you ever wanted to know about Oman.

Stove Top Coconut Rice Pudding

Now this is one of those times when I wonder if this will become my own recipe as it was inspired by Nigella's recipe, but I adapted it.  So is it now Rebecca's Stove Top Rice Pudding?  Or will it forever be known as 'Adapted From Nigella's Stove Top Rice Pudding'?  Answers on a postcard...

I'm not sure what got me into making this recipe today.  I'm in a bit of a post half marathon funk really.  You'd think I'd be ravenous, but I'm right off my food at the moment.  I think it's something to do with running 13.1 miles in blazing sunshine bringing back the lovely sinusitis and chest infection that I'd been battling with for three weeks prior to the run.  It held off for the big day and then came back with a vengance.  That coupled with post race stiffness is making me feel a little lacklustre.

Nevertheless, I'm still healthier than a lot of people and the blog still needs keeping up (post 172, day 169 due to a few double blog days).  So I settled on the rice pudding which I've been meaning to make ever since I got my copy of Nigella Bites back in 2001.  Eleven years is a long wait.  And was it worth it?

Well I adapted the recipe slightly because I had some coconut cream left over in the fridge.  I may not be here tomorrow as it said on the carton to only keep for two days after opening it.  I opened it 12 days ago when I made a Thai prawn curry.  It looked okay.  I couldn't tell what it smelled like thanks to a bunged up nose.  But what the hell.  In it went.

It looks a tiny portion, but it's Nigella sized....

The recipe uses arborio rice rather than the traditional short grain and involves lots of ladling and stirring just as if you were making a savoury risotto.  I must admit I was lazier than Nigella and just poured bits in every now and again.  She ladles hers tablespoonful by tablespoonful.  But then again, I believe her fussy husband only eats weetabix or boiled eggs whereas I had to cook a slightly more complicated meal for my husband tonight whilst also tending to the rice pudding.

I did also Google the recipe because it was easier than having the recipe book in the kitchen with so much going on.  The one review I found of it over at 41 feasts mentioned that it took just over an hour to cook which worried me a little.  Nigella cites about 35 minutes.  I found that with mine bubbling away at just shy of a simmer, it took under 40 minutes.  That works for me.  Just enough therapy time of mindless stirring.  And an indulgent rice pud without the nasty skin from a baked pudding nor having to zap it in the microwave.  The coconut cream gave it a lovely subtle flavour which worked really well with mango and a little lime zest sprinkled over

So here is my adaptation of Nigella's recipe from Nigella Bites

Makes 2 generous portions (or one Nigella portion)

• 500ml milk -Nigella suggests full fat, I used skimmed, but you can use any kind of milk
• 100g arborio risotto rice
• 150g coconut cream
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp caster sugar

1. Heat the milk and coconut cream in a saucepan until the coconut cream has melted.  Pour into a measuring jug (or you can leave in the pan and use another pan to make the rice pudding in).
2. Melt the butter and 1 tbsp of sugar in a clean pan over a medium-low heat.  Add the rice and stir for two minutes until well coated in the butter and sugar.
3. Add a small amount of milk to the rice and cook until nearly absorbed. I probably did mine about 75ml at a time, Nigella does this tablespoon by tablespoon.  Repeat until the rice is tender.  Start tasting after about 25 minutes but be prepared to wait for 35-40 minutes for the perfect texture.
4. Add the other tbsp of sugar (or more depending on your taste).
5. Serve topped with fresh mango slices and lime zest or other fresh fruit.