Luke Nguyen's bac ha chicken in ginger

sources
bac ha chicken in ginger - Luke Nguyen, The Food of Vietnam c/o Delicious, January 2014

Nigel Slater's green chicken and coconut soup

sources
green chicken and coconut soup - Nigel Slater, OFM

spiced chicken and lentil soup

sources
spiced chicken and lentil soup - Waitrose Kitchen - January 2012, p89

tom norrington-davies' chicken noodle soup with mint and lemon

sources
chicken noodle soup with mint and lemon - Tom Norrington-Davies, was Delicious now The Owl Book

nigella's hot and sour soup

sources
hot and sour soup - Nigella Lawson, Nigella Bites c/o Delicious, February 2009, p83

minestrone di orazio

sources
minestrone di orazio - Sainsburys circa 2004, now the black book. Although to be honest, I pretty much make my own minestrone up these days, and fill it with as much left-over veg as I can find in the fridge...

katrina kollegaeva's borsch

sources
borsch - katrina kollegaeva, Delicious, January 2014, p34

katrina kollegaeva's borsch

Looks afterbirth, actually is borsch...

sources
borsch - katrina kollegaeva, Delicious, January 2014, p34

bill granger's puy lentil soup

sources
puy lentil soup - Bill Granger, Sydney Food, p76

hugh fearnley-whittingstall's chestnut and sage soup

Being unable to use my fingers due to the bleeding and discomfort caused by the chestnut shell splinters aside, this is one of the tastiest soups I've ever made. Nothing tastes better than the flavour of scrumped produce:

sources
chestnut and sage soup - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, River Cottage Veg Everyday, p158

tom norrington-davies' chicken noodle soup with mint and lemon

sources
chicken noodle soup with mint and lemon - Tom Norrington-Davies, was Delicious now The Owl Book

hugh fearnley-whittingstall's roast pumpkin soup

sources
pumpkin soup - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, River Cottage Year, p 199

hannah thompson's kaukswe noodles

There’s nothing like making things hard for yourself when time is short to really get the blood pumping. Usually this ends up in complete disaster but for some reason definitely not related to the fact Ana is out with Kendra, not only does all of the following get done, it gets done well:

• One out two pumpkins is carved for Halloween tomorrow. Iron Man turns out to be surprisingly easy, even allowing for the tiny canvas I’ve got to work with;
• Rather than discarding them, I make Gizzi Erskine’s cumin, paprika and salt-roasted pumpkin seeds as a delicious snack:

• Wash up and tidy the kitchen
• Glue new go-faster red handles onto my beloved Brompton
• Watch the new Poirot. Well ‘new’, but you know what I mean
• Do some research on Comedy Central ahead of my interview tomorrow morning
• Make possibly the pfaffiest, messiest soup I’ve ever made, featuring rubbing chicken legs with turmeric, cooling chicken legs, removing the meat and chopping it, making a curry-paste, making a thickening paste with gram flour (which didn’t thicken and just stayed a gloopy splodge later discovered on my spoon), and then and only then, mixing it all up with coconut milk to make the soup proper, before adding noodles. Oh, and boiling an egg for garnish.

Unsurprisingly there’s more carnage in the kitchen than in the country house Poirot is lurking around but it is well worth the effort, and just in time to be brainwashed into going on a Viking River Cruise.

Even better, I can see some shortcuts I can make with the recipe which hopefully mean there will be less mess and fewer steps.

sources
kaukswe noodles - hannah thompson, Delicious, October 2013, p34

hugh fearnley-whittingstall's porotos granados

sources
Porotos granados - HFW, River Cottage Veg Everyday, p146

vietnamese beef noodle soup

There’s a definite touch of winter in the air in SW14, not least because everybody is suffering some sort of cold. Milo for one is pleased as he can finally have his favourite menthol vaporising nightlight in his bedroom, which he’s been banging on about since the evenings started drawing in.

Even better (for me) is the unexpected appearance of 36 bottles of beer on my doorstep, care of Dr R P Manwaring, all the way from Australia via Beer Hawk.

Best. Birthday. Ever.

Anyway, faced with the spectre of snot, hacking coughs and a dramatic increase in front room blankets, emergency intervention is required in the form of our favourite ginger-infused, spicy Vietnamese beef and noodle soup, after the last of the black forest gateaux of course...

Just the smell of the spicy broth simmering away is enough to clear the sinuses, although once again I forgot about the lemon grass:

Amongst the many beauties of this recipe is once you’ve got the base broth (cinnamon, star anise, ginger, chicken stock, fish sauce, and erm lemon grass), you can add any variety of chopped veg to it depending on your mood. We didn’t have pak choi because I forgot it, but we did have beansprouts and red pepper, and I’ve also been known to throw in matchsticked carrots, mini corn, tenderstem broccoli and shredded cabbage – all delicious additions.

sources
vietnamese beef noodle soup - Waitrose Kitchen, Feburary 2012, p88 

spiced chicken and lentil soup

sources
spiced chicken and lentil soup - Waitrose Kitchen - January 2012, p89

tom norrington-davies' chicken noodle soup with mint and lemon

It’s a Monday so naturally we’re both struggling with the howling wolves of starvation that take up residence in our stomachs each week, crying out for food. Just a nibble, for the love of Pete…

For a couple of reasons I seem to fair okay-ish this week, partly I suspect because of roast overload yesterday, and also because I’m on a training course for most of the day, so I’m otherwise too engaged to notice any pangs of hunger. Having said that, my stomach rumbled all the way through the late afternoon session, which turned out to be a boon as its growling woke me up from my powerpoint-induced slumbers before too many people noticed.

Back home, I’ve noticed another corollary of weekly fasting other than being grumpy, losing weight and drinking lots of tea/coffee, and that’s the unexpected benefit of massively increased efficiency in putting Milo to bed. I’d like to claim this is because we’re both highly caring parents, completely focused on his well-being, but it’s not. The truth is we’re starving, so the longer he stays up, the later we get to eat our daily allowance of calories, and in fact if Ana had her way he’d be in bed by 4.30.
At least the pfaffing around in the bath and fannying around reading stories allows one of us time to poach some chicken ahead of making our by-now-traditional chicken noodle soup, with lemon and mint:

And no noodles, obviously, as they’re far too calorific.

sources
chicken noodle soup with mint and lemon - Tom Norrington-Davies, was Delicious now The Owl Book

slow-cooked onion and cider soup with gruyere toasts and roast chicken

Having had a good dump of snow after Christmas, and enjoyed the first good summer for what seems like years, 2013 looks like delivering the full monty as autumn seems to be developing in some style: Warm, sunny but with a little edge in the air and a tang of wood smoke on the breeze. In fact, what better way to spend a sunny afternoon (whilst Ana is getting her hair styled), than kicking around the golden leaves by Barnes pond looking for conkers?

The obvious answer is ‘getting our arses back home to start cooking Sunday lunch for the impending arrival of guests’, but as ever we spurn the sensible option and fill up our bags with conkers, thus allowing the minimum time possible to make a two-course lunch for four adults and three children.

The usual complexities of turning out a roast, on time, at the same time, are further banjaxed by the mysterious disappearance of the potato peeler. Still, a mere two hours later than planned, we’ve got an experimental cider onion soup:

Followed by a roast with cauliflower cheese, roast potatoes, carrots (slightly under done), roast golden beetroot and over-tired, hyper-active children, who finish the evening sat in their pants in the bath.

Still, it’s not as late as my famed New Year’s Eve meal of 2000, which due to a combination of not allowing for the size of the oven and being drunk, saw a gap of six hours between a starter of stuffed squash & gruyere soup at 19.30 and a main meal being ready at 02.30.  Ana, Kendra, Greg, Amanda, Bill, Nicky, Ellie and Rob know what I'm talking about...

sources
slow-cooked onion and cider soup with gruyere toasts - Delicious, November 2009, p86

allegra mcevedy's karma soupra

It’s remarkable how quickly you settle back into the routines of work, and I include all three of us in this sweeping statement: Ana gets up unfeasibly early and gets ready whilst pretending to be quiet and occasionally making me tea. I’ll get up, make two lots of packed lunches and wrangle Milo out of pajamas and out the door.

In the evening Ana does the wrangling, and get back in time for some stories and to cook, whilst she does her homework. It’s like the last year hasn’t happened.

Our precarious financial state make things are even slicker, even allowing for a mild Milo tantrum, as we’re raiding the freezer in the countdown to payday. Tonight it’s a re-run of Allegra Mcevedy’s fabulously warming Karma Soupra, with an added handful of lentils to bulk things out:

sources
karma soupra - Allegra McEvedy, Delicious circa 2005, now the Parsley Book

allegra mcevedy's karma soupra

sources
karma soupra - Allegra McEvedy, Delicious circa 2005, now the Parsley Book