Leek, potato and stilton soup

I was making leek and potato soup, and I just thought: 'You know what? This is far too healthy.'

2 large leeks

2 large potatoes, peeled and chopped small.
100-150g stilton (less if stilton is stronger).
1 and a half pints of vegetable stock (or enough to comfortably cover the leeks and potatoes in the pan)
4 large cloves of garlic, crushed then chopped.
2 large handfuls of fresh parsley, chopped finely.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Bring the stock to the boil and add the potatoes and leeks. Boil for 30 minutes until tender and then throw in the garlic and blend. Crumble in the stilton, add the parsley, leaving a few leaves for garnishing, and blend once more. Reheat the soup until lovely and steaming hot (but simmer it, don't boil again), sprinkle the remaining parsley leaves on top and serve with crusty bread.

This is a really hearty soup. Swimming for about an hour, or running around a bit, should help you feel better about your arteries after you've consumed this.

Fire and cake

I have long maintained that the North does a lot of things far better than the South. Two of these things are undoubtedly fire and cake: fire is always more welcome when you're freezing cold to begin with; cake involves stodge and fat, two Northern staples.

It is for this reason that I decided to spend Guy Fawkes' Night in the North. Standing near a bonfire in nearly-always-sweltering, always-orange-skyed London didn't seem that much fun, and so I headed up alongside some friends to a private bonfire we regularly used to politely gate-crash as teenagers.

My friend Lyndsey (her flickr stream is here) took some funky pictures:

 

My Dad, who has long refused to associate himself with anything with a hyperlink, made some parkin. I have never seen parkin in the south, and my Hampshireian boyfriend still has trouble pronouncing it's name or beleiving it exists. Parkin is basically an edible bonfire. It should be sweet, deep orange, spicy and stodgy. You should eat it outside in the freezing cold whilst you try and peer through the inevitable Northern drizzle at the fireworks. Basically it's the consolation for the bits of the bonfire where you're wholly wet and uncomfortable and not drunk yet. 

The recipe my Dad started with is here. He then doubled everything and, from what I can discern, poured in any left over treacle.

The stuff to the left is far too neat looking to be proper Parkin. It shouldn't be spongy, it should be so dense that when you swallow you can feel large blocks thumping into the bottom of your stomach. Consume with lots of very alcholic ginger beer.

Carrot and coriander soup

Apparantly we are still having an 'Indian summer'.

That's all very well and good, but in my opinion there is nothing wrong with having an autumn. Here is something which is sort of Indian (it has coriander in it), and sort of autumnal. 

Carrot and Coriander Soup

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion , very finely chopped (red if you want more colour)
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 potato, chopped up small
• 450g carrots , peeled and finely chopped
• 1.2l vegetable or chicken stock
• handful coriander (about ½ a supermarket packet

1. Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion, then fry for 5 mins until soft. Stir in the ground coriander and potato, then cook for 1 min. Add the carrots and stock, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat. Cover and cook for 20 mins until the carrots are tender.
2. Tip into food processor with the coriander, then blitz until smooth. Return to pan, taste, add salt if necessary, then reheat to serve. 

Note: I've only said: chop things up small because my food processor is actually one of those whizzy stick things. I discovered whilst making this soup that if it goes anywhere near an actual chunk of food, it by all means chops it up, but in the process it sprays that food, and anything else surrounding it, all over the kitchen.

Coriander flavour is reduced by heating, so if you use soup for what I do (cooling and then reheating to take to work later) I would either keep adding fresh coriander or, less bother and less money, chuck a few cloves of garlic into the soup before blending.

Carrots have lots of Vitamin A in them, so this should help you get through the winter without suffering too much with colds. However, whisky also does that and drinking whisky doesn't involve spraying carrot up your walls.

White chocolate brownies

Recipe for white chocolate brownies - or Blondies - written for RunningInHeels.co.uk. Enjoy....

Blondies