Nettle Soup, take 2

One of the exciting things about being back in the UK is being able to go and forage once again!  We did try this in Brunei, managing to gather some mangos before the local monkeys got to them, but foraging in the jungle was always a little risky in my mind, so we didn't really dare.

But now is the season for one of the most satisfying foraging of the year, nettles.  We have a field ajoining our garden than is currently full of young nettles, and as they need clearing anyway we thought we'd kill the proverbial two birds with one stone and eat some of the ones we cleared.  OK, I say 'we', but this was Rob's job - he picked, washed and cooked them with delicious results.

We had made nettle soup before (as blogged about previously) but this time Rob used a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe, found on guardian online.  Personally I wouldn't have bothered with a recipe, but he wanted to so I didn't interfere!

It was delicious anyway.  The nettles just taste 'green', but healthy and nutritious, rather like spinach I suppose.  Ted enjoyed it too!

Soup to cheer up an Invalid

I have an ill husband - and despite my teasing, it's definitely not man-flu!  He has a 48-hour feverish thing going on; he had it once before, and it will most likely be gone by tomorrow, but I suspect he's in for an uncomfortable night (I am debating whether the ill or the well partner should move to the spare room in situations such as these...).  Anyway, he says he's not hungry and is feeling a bit queasy, but I couldn't very well not feed him at all, so I've just made what I hope is a cheerful soup.

It's cheered me up anyway as I have saved myself from feeling too daft for having accidentally bought another bag of carrots this afternoon, completely forgetting that I already had a bag in the fridge (a hazard, I have discovered, of having a gigantic fridge!). And I've also used up 2 half-empty things that were lurking in the back of the aforementioned gigantic fridge.

The colour's pretty darn cheery too!

Full of vitamins, soothingly smooth and rich, with a slight kick of chilli heat.  Perfect (I hope) for anyone in need of a little restorative sustenance.  I'll be enjoying it too.

'Thai' Carrot Soup

Chop 3 large carrots into rough chunks and simmer until tender in a pan of chicken stock (about 500ml I guess).  Stir in a heaped tablespoon of Tom Yum Paste (or however much you can scrape out of the jar), and about 100ml of coconut cream (made up with half a packet of coconut cream powder).

Blend until smooth, taste and season as desired.  Mine was extra thick (it also had several chunks of chicken meat in it from the homemade stock), so I thinned it with a little extra water.  I'm sure some chopped coriander on top wouldn't go amiss, as well as complementing the vibrant orange colour.

Thai Food - Tom Yum Goong

So much for promising to post again soon about Thai food.  It's been the usual start-of-term hecticness (which is not a word, but should be) and somehow I find myself in the middle of the second week back at school.  Despite my lack of blogging there has been plenty of Thai cooking going on.

Our first Thai meal when we arrived back in Brunei was Tom Yum Goong.  This hot and sour soup was never a favourite of mine...  until I had it in Thailand.  Now I'm a convert.

When I first met Rob he had an ancient jar of Tom Yum paste in his fridge (he had a lot of ancient foodstuffs in his fridge and cupboards actually...) and I recall him making us Tom Yum soup for lunch one day.  It was vile!  It was so hot (temperature-wise) that you had to slurp it off the spoon (which incidentally had to be stainless steel as the soup would tarnish silver cutlery) and as you slurped it it hit the back of your throat, and the heat (of the chillies) induced a violent coughing fit!  Even when it cooled down it wasn't pleasant; too 'abrasive' in its flavours.  Not our most successful meal.

Perhaps it's one of those dishes that can be adapted to personal taste, but I've found a way that it works for me.  Maybe it's not traditional, I don't know, but it needs coconut milk.  Not too much - I find the richness of coconut milk can be too heavy - but just a little to take the edge off the strong flavours. 

The first time we had it was actually on Christmas Day, in the evening.  We sat at a waterfront restaurant and enjoyed a fantastic meal.  Rob had the Tom Yum, and I had a Green Curry.  My curry was delicious, but I have to admit that my meal was slightly spoiled by the fact that I thought Rob's was better!  I hate it when that happens.  I ate as much of his as I dared, but demanded that we return to the same restaurant later in the week so that I could have a whole portion to myself.

On our return visit we both ordered it, and it came in this great steamboat with a burner underneath to keep it warm.  Again it was delicious so we determined that we would recreate it at home.

While other people may go to Bangkok to hit the bars, we went to hit the supermarkets!  We bought several sachets of various Thai pastes with which to cook at home.  These pastes are very good - all the ingredients are natural, they just save a lot of work with a pestle and mortar!  When we arrived home we found that we already had a sachet of Tom Yum paste...  Remember those 'ancient foodstuffs' I mentioned earlier?  Well, this sachet had a 'use by' date of 1997.  That's got to be a record, surely?!

The antique one is on the left.  Believe it or not I actually tried the old one - just mixed it into boiling water and had a taste - but the overriding flavour was of stale oil, so I tipped it down the sink and started again with the new sachet.

It could hardly be simpler - just follow the packet instructions.  The packet said to use 2 cups (500ml) of boiling water, but I used about 150ml of chicken stock and about 50ml of coconut milk (made from powder - perfect for small amounts).  The recipe on the sachet said to simply add prawns and mushroom, but I went a little further and threw in large (and very mild) chillies (sliced), chopped spring onions, chopped coriander leaves, thinly sliced kaffir lime leaves (what an amazing flavour they provide), and oyster mushrooms (cheap and plentiful here), as well as some raw shrimp.

We served it with wedges of lime to squeeze over, and fish sauce to taste, as well as the obligatory mound of jasmine rice.

The paste ingredients include lemongrass which is an important flavour for this soup.  I pondered adding some more fresh lemongrass but in fact it didn't need it as the flavour came through strongly enough.  It was hot but didn't blow your head off - just right (bearing in mind that our tolerance for chilli has increased dramatically since moving to the Far East!).  We'll definitely be repeating this meal.

Nettle Soup

When I tell people that I enjoy foraging for food, I am often asked if I have ever made Nettle Soup.  It seems to embody the very idea of free food from the countryside.  But the answer has always been no.  Last year I fully intended to make some, but left it too late - for the best results you need to gather the nettles when the leaves are young and tender - about now is great.

This year the unseasonably sunny weather kicked me into action, so Rob and I set off this afternoon, armed with gardening gloves, to forage for some nettles.

They're not exactly hard to find!  Once you start looking in any hedgerow or field boundary you soon find plenty - I think they're so common that I often don't even notice them.  We chose a patch that wasn't too close to any well-used footpaths (hoping to avoid nettles fertilised by dog-wee!) and got picking.

The gloves were, of course, invaluable.  Had I thought ahead I would have also worn boots but set off in sandals, only to find my ankle got stung.  But one sting from all those nettle-tops didn't seem too much of a sacrifice (although I had forgotten how much it hurts!)

When picking nettles, you need to pinch out the tops, so you end up collecting the 4 smallest leaves from each plant.  It's immensely satisfying, as foraging usually is, but this time with the added bonus of being able to feel that in some tiny way you're keeping the spread of these pesky plants in check!

We soon managed to gather the requisite half-carrier-bag-full needed, and rinsed them well in cold water (wearing washing-up gloves this time!).  They're really quite pretty leaves when you look closely at them - but it's those fine hairs that cause the stings.  Luckily boiling water neutralises them within seconds.

I found many recipes online, but ended up making up the soup using what I had, including a handful of the wild garlic leaves collected yesterday, making it a well-foraged soup!  This is what I did:

Nettle Soup

Chop one large onion and one large potato (unpeeled) and gently soften in a large pan (use olive oil or butter).

Add half a pan full of stock (I used chicken) and bring to the boil, simmering until the potatoes are tender.

Add the nettles (half a bag full) and a large handful of wild garlic (or saute a chopped clove of garlic with the onion and potato at the beginning of the process), stir, cover and bring back to the boil for 3 or 4 minutes.  The leaves will darken a little and wilt down, much as spinach does.

Blend the soup until smooth (I used a stick-blender), and stand back and admire the vibrant green colour!  Sample and season with salt and pepper as needed; I found that it needed quite a lot of both.

When I reheat it I will stir a little cream through each bowl just before serving, to make it a little more luxurious.  I have sampled some already of course...  the nettles don't have a strong flavour, it just tastes quite 'vegetabley' to me, but delicious all the same - and virtuously healthy too!

Whilst foraging, we were passed by a couple out on a walk who were intrigued by what we were doing.  I think foraging for food appears rather eccentric to those who don't do it..!  The woman said that she had once had Nettle Beer... could this be our next project?!

And I eat them too!

Pumpkins carved and ready I then faced a kitchen work-surface spattered with pumpkin flesh, a bowl of pumpkin-innards (to replenish the 'puke' if necessary!) and a sad-looking tin of pumpkin puree...

Flicking through my Martha Stewart Hallowe'en Holiday Special I came across a recipe for Spiced Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares. I love the pumpkin-spiced flavours that are such a culinary feature of this time of year, plus the recipe called for a cup of tinned pumpkin puree, so this seemed like an ideal thing to make. It was simple and delicious - a lovely moist spicy cake which can be cut into squares of whatever size you choose. Martha says it makes 2 dozen squares; I cut 18. Go figure.

Here's the recipe:

Spiced Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares

2 cups all-purpose (plain) flour

1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice (or use 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/8 tsp each of allspice and ground cloves)

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/4 cups of sugar

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla extract (I used just one as this seemed overly extravagant)

1 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pie filling)

12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used a mixture of semi-sweet, white and butterscotch chips, to use up 3 already-opened bags)

Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Line bottom and sides of a 9x13" baking pan with parchment paper. Leave an overhang on 2 sides.

Mix together flour, spice, baking soda and salt.

Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla, then the pumpkin puree. The mixture may appear curdled. Reduce speed to low and beat in flour mixture until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spread batter in pan. Bake, rotating halfway through, until edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out with a few moist crumbs - about 35 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack.

Using parchment overhang, lift cake from pan. Peel off parchment and cut into squares.

You'll see that it provided an excellent reason to use the seasonal sugar decorations that my friend Christopher sent me!

I then picked through the pumpkin goo to extract a handful of pumpkin seeds. I mixed them with some melted butter, salt and some spices (I used smoked paprika and Old Bay Lemon and Herb seasoning) and roasted them in the oven for half an hour. I really enjoyed them as a nibble-with-beer before supper but Rob said it was like eating cardboard. You can't please everyone, so you may as well please yourself.

I regaled Rob with these facts from the extremepumpkins website, but he was still unconvinced.

Pumpkin Seed Eating Facts:

1. Some types of pumpkin seeds have less husk than others.

2. You can eat the whole seed, husk and all. Don’t worry.

3. 50 grams of seeds has 5 grams of dietary fiber. That will keep you regular.

4. Pumpkin seeds are also said to be good for Gout, Prostate Health and are supposedly an aphrodesiac.

5. Both German and Bulgarian folk medicines say that eating pumpkin seeds prevents impotence.

6. Roasted pumpkin seeds will keep for about a week in the fridge.

Domestic-goddess-like I also whipped up a quick pumpkin soup using some pumpkin flesh, some stock and the rest of the tin of pumpkin. It's in the saucepan in the picture behind, but as it's just orange gloop it doesn't really warrant its own photo. It tastes nice though, and feels virtuously healthy as it contains no fat. I'll put extra butter on the toast that I eat with it to make up for that.