Spring lamb, many assume, is lamb that is eaten in spring. Unfortunately, lamb that is eaten in spring is actually winter lamb that has lived all its short days inside, having had no time to gambol in the fields getting healthy on fresh grass and sunshine. Instead it comes closest to factory farmed that lamb gets (usually our lamb is the most ‘free range’ of meats, winter lamb excepted). Spring lamb is actually lamb born in the spring and eaten in early summer.

So what then to roast around Easter? Well we can still stay within the Ovis aries family, but will do much better to go for a bit more maturity with a hogget (1 year old) or, for an even fuller flavoured roast, mutton (2+ years), where the animals have been reared slowly, hung well and spent a good deal of time outdoors. You probably won’t find them at your local supermarket, but that just means you can have all the more confidence that your meat has been reared and slaughtered with care and respect.

This Sunday I am cooking mutton - mine is 5 years old, organically and lovingly reared by a farmer in Suffolk who is clearly devoted to his livestock, talk to your meat seller and it will quickly become apparent when they are genuine about their animal husbandry, certified organic or not. 

This is the first time I have ever cooked mutton, which needs serious slow roasting, so I am using a recipe of my dad’s (who is, ironically, a vegetarian), slow cooked lamb with turmeric and lemon a very simple dish with warm North African flavours. It takes about 5-6 hours but the delicious meat that falls away from the bone, suffused with subtle spice is well worth it (if a little maddening for the gorgeous smells emanating from the oven).

I will be serving it with dauphinoise potatoes (no cream or cheese, just a bit of milk and butter) which I find go surprisingly well with this dish. Or you could go the whole hog(get) and serve with a lightly spiced cous-cous. But I like potatoes on a Sunday, well I like potatoes on any day, but especially on a Sunday…

For the roast mutton

Ingredients
Serves 5

One decent size leg of lamb/shoulder of mutton
Three large lemons
A dozen cloves of peeled garlic
A half pot of turmeric powder
Roasting tray
Silver foil

Method/steps

1. Put oven on to heat to 180 C
2. With a sharp knife slice off any excessive white fat, pierce an inch to an inch and a half all over, filling each hole with a peeled clove of garlic, cover with olive oil and salt
3. Place in shallow roasting tray, squeeze over two whole lemons
4. Sprinkle the leg, top and bottom with turmeric powder - be generous, it’s hard to put on too much
5. Once the oven is hot, cover with foil and put in the roast
6. After 20 minutes take it out of oven, remove the foil (save it for later)
7. Baste with the juices in the tin
8. Turn the oven down to low, about 120 C
9. Continue to cook uncovered for at least 5 more hours, basting every twenty minutes with the third lemon to make sure the mixture in the tin stays moist, add a little water if necessary
10. The outside skin, orange from the turmeric, will turn a deep golden brown, the lemon breaks down the excess fat in the meat. If the fat is too plentiful spoon it out and discard
11. Rest the meat for 20 minutes (under the foil) and use the final juice as the sauce or gravy

For the Dauphinoise Potatoes

Ingredients
4 medium potatoes
1 generous slab butter (50g)
250ml milk
S&P

Method/steps

1. Heat oven to 170 C
2. Peel and slice the potatoes in half (lengthways) and then (widthways) into thin half coins
3. Butter a suitable deep dish
4. Put in a layer of potato, dot with butter and sprinkle with S&P, repeat until full
5. Gently pour over the milk and pop in oven for 1h-1h15 (top will be nicely brown and potatoes underneath meltingly soft)

Quite a lot on both counts, it would seem…

The debates were offered by 3 social scientists from the full range that the discipline offers:

• - a sociologist (Prof Anne Murcott, Uni of Nottigham)
• - an experimental psychologist (Prof Martin Yeomans, Uni of Sussex) 
  - ‘the man from the FSA’  Terrence Colins (Director of Comms, Food Standards Agency).

Prof Anne Murcott kicked things off by addressing the myth of the decline of the family meal. Using stats to disprove the myth (families eat together about as much as they always have), she then asserted that it has in fact been a fear for the last 100 years or so - people in 1910 were as worried as we are today - if the myth of the decline had been real, by now families would NEVER sit down together.

Interestingly though, she then suggested that the reason the myth had, and should, persist is that it gives people an aspiration which in turn makes them work harder to keep their family eating together.

So in fact, the myth of the decline may be what has prevented the actual decline of the family meal.

People are twisted aren’t they!

Well, if you think that demonstrates the topsy-turviness of human nature, wait till you hear about the next speaker, Prof Martin Yeomans - an experimental psychologist. Everyone loves experimental psychology, there is something endlessly fascinating about watching people’s behaviour (personally I think it is what glues us to the screen, stage or cafe seat, we love to watch each other ‘behaving’) and Prof Yeoman didn’t fail to deliver the goods.

His main assertion was that external factors, not internal sensors, actually control what we eat. To demonstrate this he used a wealth of experimental examples. My favourite, and the most telling, was an experiment on some hungry medical students (of course!) to establish whether the body was able to regulate itself internally based on calories and/or volume consumed.

Basically these students had a tube put into their stomachs and were also given a big bowl of pasta to eat. Over the course of several lunch sessions the students all had high cal/low cal/large/small volumes of soup pumped into their stomachs, whilst they were eating the pasta.

Surprisingly they all ate the full bowl of pasta (hungry med students, remember) regardless of how much extra volume or calorific intake of soup they had. Suggesting that our internal sensors are just not very good at working out how much we have eaten - they really only work the other way, to say eat more.

We basically eat what is on our plate…

The problem being that we have large plates, an over availability of food and food imagery at every turn causing us to over eat.  The other problem being that while an alcoholic can avoid all booze, a person who over eats cannot. In the good news though he did also prove that depriving yourself just makes you want (and eat) twice as much - so don’t deprive yourself - and that most of us still manage to stay within the realms of healthy. But, what of the future? Our biology won’t change any time soon, but our culture’s work the hard food sell more and more, it seems reasonable to expect that this trend for over eating will continue to grow…

Terrence Collins ‘the man from the FSA’ now came on to explain how the FSA was trying to be a force for good in our food culture, balancing out the hard food sell.

I had always been a bit suspicious of the FSA, which is much younger than I’d thought (barely 10 years old), but Mr Collins did talk a good talk. He explained how the FSA tries to be transparent, meaning that sometimes debates it is having are still forming when they go public and can be easily taken out of context - I’m not sure I know enough to really decide, but I am willing to cut them a bit more slack. He underlined that they had consumers’ best interests at heart.

Most importantly though, he talked about their support for the reform of the UK libel laws which often prevent scientists from entering into meaningful public debate. This is a really important topic, scientific rigour in the UK is basically getting suffocated by legal fear, which can’t be good for anyone.

Especially as we need to be careful about our myths, to make sure they don’t automatically turn into (destructive) realities…

Download podcasts of the debate (available soon)

Find out more about the campaign for Libel Reform

This is newest chocolate boutique from local artisanal chocolate makers Gerard Coleman (chocolatier) and Anne Weyns (General Manager). They have been making chocolates together since 2000, first on a stall in Borough Market and now expanded into Selfridges and two shops of their own.

They are truly local producers, the cocoa and many flavourings come, of course, from around the world but they are all mixed, refined and conched (aerated and smoothed out) in their Kent atelier, where the chocolates themselves are also produced by a small team of 10. They are already making waves, Heston commissioned his tobacco chocolates from them, Gordon has them at Claridges and Time Out listed their hot chocolate as ‘the best in London’, I tasted it and have to agree, chocolate ambrosia.

The shop casts a magical glow onto the street, its full height windows showing off the carefully balanced light/dark, curve/line play within. Inside most of the walls and cabinets are white, with the occasional contrasting rich brown, vivid orange or jungle green. The effect is lightly hushed and terribly chic, like a designer boutique crossed with an art gallery.

The chocolate is clearly the star here, and what a star it is, chocolate in all its forms. Truffles, fusion bars, dipped fruit peels, covered nuts, hot chocolate, lolly pops, pantry slabs, wafer thin Os, spherical pearls and screen printed squares – there is plain chocolate, fruit chocolate, spiced chocolate, herbed chocolate, tea and flower infused chocolate and, for the adventurous, tobacco infused chocolate*. I am giddy with choice!

A charming and passionate Zoe shows me around, guiding me through all the flavours, offering me tastes of everything. I can hardly resist any of it, each chocolate tastes better than the last and everything is beautiful.

The attention to detail is astounding, feasting the eyes as well as the tongue. The wafer thin mints are decorated like painted Moroccan tiles and melt rich yet fresh mint on the tongue, the house truffles look unassuming but are the best I’ve ever tasted, the Valentine hearts are vivid scarlet and darkly spiced and the salted caramels – well… forget your river of chocolate Mr Wonka, I’d like to swim in a river of the salted caramel (or at least sit with a pot of it and a spoon – entirely possible, and, apparently, not unknown for customers to do).

The salted caramels are becoming legendary and have been given suitably legendary packaging, channelling the Channel Numbers range exquisitely (see picture), I know what all my girlfriends are getting as presents from now on.

And, on the subject of girlfriends (and boyfriends) of another sort, their new Valentine range has charming ‘wood effect’ hearts, a love potion hot chocolate and heart medallions you can scratch your own message into, so if you want to win hearts this Valentine’s day make sure it is these ones you offer to your lover and watch them melt into your arms.

www.artisanduchocolat.com
Chelsea - 89 Lower Sloane street London SW1W 8DA
Notting Hill - 81 Westbourne grove W2 4UL
Also, Selfridges and Borough Market

* I tasted some of this, it was subtle and sweet, definitely tobacco-ish with that unmistakable tingle at the back of the throat. A very unusual but civilised smoke!

For evidence please see earlier posts on the cupcake - my nemesis.

However, there is nothing quite like home baked bread on a weekend morning. Biscuits, tarts and cookies make the very warmest of presents that everyone likes to receive, simple gestures of affection that don’t carry any financial baggage.

So, for the last few months, I have been trying my hand at baking, with the help of a bread machine for Christmas and a new sieve.

I had not a few early disasters, but I ploughed on with help from various cookbooks, forums and, most of all, from better bakers on Twitter (special thanks go to @scandilicious, @goodshoeday and @foodnetworking for genuinely helpful tips and tricks).

Now I have nailed the breadmaker thang, the last two loaves (a spiced fruit loaf and granary bread,  pictured) were fab and my ginger biscuits are truly scrumptious!

I’m not claiming to be a pro, but having now got a slightly firmer hold on this baking lark I thought I’d share the knowledge I have picked up so far, in case you have use for it.

Oh, and I’ve included the recipe for ginger biscuits at the end as these are really, really great.

Tips & Tricks

1. If a recipe calls for cold butter, make sure it is really, really cold butter – freeze for a few minutes before using then grate into your flour. Also, pop the formed biscuits into the freezer for a few minutes just before they go in the oven.
   (this helps the outside of the cookie to remain butter free)    

2. Creaming (room temp) butter and sugar with an electric hand-whisk - cream the butter first with the whisk then add the sugar bit by bit.
   (this avoids getting sugar all over the kitchen – see this vid)    

3. Use only quick yeast in the breadmaker – and make sure it is high quality and FRESH
   (I use Doves Farm, the Tesco quick yeast didn’t work very well)    

4. If you use olive oil instead of butter your bread will be more like a light ciabatta, very tasty!
   (I’ve only tried this with white – note when I say tried I mean experimented as had no butter and it was midnight…)    

5. Atmospheric pressures can have an effect on bread if it is raining and your loaf top is soft/bread a little doughy use 10-20ml less water.
6. Use the measuring spoon that came with the breadmaker.

BEST ginger biscuits

Ingredients

Makes about 20

100g butter (unsalted, at room temp)
175g golden caster sugar
250g plain flour
150-200g crystalised ginger
1.5 tbsp golden syrup
2.5tsp ground ginger
0.5 tsp bicarb of soda
pinch salt

1. Preheat oven to 180 C (Fan), lightly grease 2 baking trays with butter
2. Chop crystalised ginger quite finely
3. Whizz butter in a deep bowl with an electric hand-whisk, gradually adding sugar, cream well (3-4 mins – you can also do this by hand with a spatula, just takes longer)
4. Sieve flour into the bowl, mix well and then add other ingredients and mix again (to make a sticky dough)
5. Shape dough into 20 walnut size balls, lay on tray giving them enough space to spread.
6. Bake for 12-15 mins, they will look a little pale and will be very soft but they firm up out of the oven
7. Once firmed up (3-4 mins) transfer to wire rack to cool – can be stored in an airtight box for up to a week

They look great before you cook them and taste utterly divine cooked, all that melty sweetness. There is a simple formula with squash, match it with butter, bacon, onions or a combination of all 3.  I chose to leave out the bacon and use feta instead (it’s the saltiness that works, you see) in this simple supper dish that I’ll certainly be making again.

I used a squash from my aunt-in-law’s allotment, not sure what kind, a sort of long gourd with pale yellow skin and a thick green pinstripe, you can use whatever squash is to hand. I’m of the school who doesn’t like to eat the skin but I know there are those that do, if you are one - go for it!

Allow for one medium-ish squash per person for a main course or 1 between 2 for a tasty side to a simple grill of meat.

Ingredients

Makes 1 main course/2 sides

1 medium squash
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
big knob butter (30-40g)
100g feta (1/2 packet)
Rosemary and thyme
S&P

1. Heat the oven to 190 C
2. Cut squash in half, scoop out all seeds and fibres, squash garlic cloves a bit to split skin (leave on) and put in each cavity with butter and a sprig of rosemary, S&P
3. Put in oven and roast for 50 minutes
4. 15 minutes before end chop onion and fry gently in olive oil with a little salt
5. When squash is done take out of oven, discard rosemary branch, squeeze out garlic cloves and scoop flesh into a bowl (keeping shells intact)
6. Mash lightly with fork, crumble feta into bowl with rosemary and onions
7. Scoop back into shells and back into oven for 15 minutes until lightly browned on top (use the grill if you are impatient to eat, as I was!)
8. Serve with rice (I like brown) and a green salad

In one easy, inexpensive and tasty swoop you can get yourself well underway.

If you live in N/E London (Hackney/Tower Hamlets) you can sign up to this rather unique local box scheme - Growing Communities. I did 2 years ago and haven’t looked back. They do all the legwork for you, growing some produce themselves (Hackney salad anyone?) and sourcing the rest from local organic producers, a few select French and Italian co-operatives (for oranges, lemons and the like) and fair-trade organic bananas from further affield. This means that you get excellent local produce (81% from the UK last year) but you also maintain a good variety in your box.

All you have to do is pop by on one weekday night to your local pick-up point to get your seasonal fruit and veg - a real bonus if you live in a flat, as I do, and don’t have anywhere for deliveries to be left. You can check what you’re getting online before you pick-up - handy as it gives you time to work out what’s for dinner. They are a charming and welcoming bunch, plus there are often extras like fresh farm eggs to buy, free leftovers to top up with and a swap box if there is anything this week that you don’t like.

The scheme is surprisingly inexpensive, just £44 a month for a week’s worth of veg for two - they also do a smaller bag for one.

I say surprising because you couldn’t buy bog standard veg in the supermarket for that much, but here you’re getting really high quality, fresh organic produce. It hasn’t flown around the world accumulating thousands of air miles, or been picked green so that it lasts the weeks before it reaches your plate. And you’re supporting local communities and small producers to boot.

The boxes are always good and varied, you get a rich diet of fruit and veg balanced by the seasons - at first I wasn’t sure if I would like not being able to choose what I was eating, but actually it is rather liberating to get what nature gives you, it makes you a bit more creative in your cooking and you know you’re always eating a healthy amount of veg (if not the over-full veg drawers soon let you know it).

I have discovered the wonders of many new vegetables, like squash, so infinite in its varieties and rich in its colours. I have also learnt to appreciate the waiting for a fruit to come back in season, eating it only at its peak and enjoying it so much more. Of course if you do have a craving for passion fruit in January, so be it, you can happily buy the odd bit of tropical fruit or un-seasonal tomato as an occasional treat, but honestly, I very rarely feel the need.

There are 7 pick-up points around Hackney and Tower Hamlets - with a new Green Lanes pick-up opening in Feb (View Pick-ups on a Map). They also run the Farmer’s Market in Stoke Newington (10-2 every Saturday, William Patten School, Church St, N16) where you can shop for local fruit and veg and also meats, cheeses and more.

So as far as New Year’s resolutions go, this one is a really easy one to keep!

Find out more on the Growing Communities site

PS Growing Communities is the only one of its kind, so far. If you don’t live in Hackney but would like to get involved they are always looking for other groups around London to mentor to get their very own growing community up and running.

From the outside it looks like any other family home in this North London suburb of large square houses. But inside this house holds a special secret, there are glass flasks and coils, rubber tubes, liquid nitrogen streams and many unusual liquids bubbling about - from darkest amber to purest crystal clear - because, in this house, a master distiller is at work.

Before I got there I was a little unsure of quite what I’d find – a small factory distillery perhaps? – and was quite delighted to discover this sort of overgrown chemistry lab in a back kitchen, with the pump housed in the garden shed (all properly authorised and certified of course). Although it may look like a mad scientist kind of set up, Ian is more like a flavour alchemist, and the spirit he produces is about as far from home brew as a vintage champagne is from Strongbow.

Ian has always loved wine and spirits, he’s been collecting wine since he was 18, and has a fine, fine palate, coupled with a passion and curiosity that has urged him into setting up this boutique micro distillery.

And when I say passion I really do mean passion, he has created this very unique gin using an ancient gin recipe and a lot of trial and error. Nothing is automated, it is all done by hand, with a care and attention to detail that shines through in the final product.

And I’m not the only one who thinks so, Ian has been nominated for spirit producer of the year, and Sacred Gin is for sale in Fortnum’s and on the bar of the Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, amongst many others.

Each of the 12 different botanicals are distilled separately to maintain their individual flavours, first in a hand warm distil (no overheating here to burn the flavours), then a cold one and finally a nitrogen super cooled one. This means that every subtlety in the flavour is extracted, and because they are mixed post distillation you really can taste the individual flavours as they bloom in the mouth.

I came to find out about the gin, but soon we were onto vodka (Sacred Vodka coming soon, he’s just perfecting the recipe, lucky me I got to do some tasting and even take a bottle of version 2 home!) and distilled wine, pear eau de vie, sloe and damson gin and discussing the possibilities of Christmas pudding vodka – and that’s not just Christmas pudding steeped in a bottle of vodka as most of us would make it, oh no, he would distil the very essence of Christmas pudding to blend with his vodka. Honestly the man is a distilling wizard, constantly experimenting and expanding his repertoire, all for the love of distilling. If you took teens into his kitchen I bet they’d be taking up their chemistry classes like a shot.

Of course you understand all of these glasses were only teeny, actually very lovely antique gin glasses, and sipped at delicately. Which is how come I am still able to type…

Oh, and all done in the name of research.

It’s a hard life sometimes spending my Saturday afternoon sitting with delightful people (his partner Hilary joined us), trying an array of marvellous spirits and chatting about tastes and flavours, but I’ve been out there battling on to bring you news of a wonderful local product, a genuine local producer and what I think is a perfect Christmas present for foodies and spirit lovers alike.

Right, that’s me off to mix what just might be the perfect martini…

Sacred Gin ~ £26 a bottle from Fortnums or online at www.sacredspiritscompany.com

I have also developed a soup addiction, since the massage. It’s just so easy, you make soup for lunch on the weekend, freeze 4 portions and that’s your lunch for the week. Simply reheat in the work microwave. I’ve been doing it for a few weeks now and have enough random batches to have a different soup every day!

Anyway whether you are cooking for the week or just fancy a home made, delicately spiced and sweetly flavoured lunch this is a great one, that I discovered on The Food Urchin’s excellent blog, from the delightful Moro Cookbook. It is so good that I think I’ll get off the laptop and make some more…

Ingredients

Serves 4

4 tbs olive oil
half a large onion, sliced
2 garlic gloves, thinly sliced
1 rounded tsp black cumin or normal cumin seeds
750g raw beetroot
1 large potato
1.25 ltrs of cold water
3 tbs of red wine vinegar
1 small bunch fresh parsley
100g Greek yoghurt, thinned with milk and seasoned with crushed garlic
sea salt and black pepper

1. Slice onion and heat oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat
2. Add the onion and a pinch of salt, cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion begins to colour
3. Meanwhile thinly slice garlic, peel and dice beetroot and potato
4. Add garlic and cumin to pan, cook for 2 more minutes to release their flavour, followed by the beetroot and potato
5. Pour in the water, bring to a gentle simmer and cook until soft, about 15 minutes
6. Roughly chop parsley, put the vegetables and cooking liquid in a blender or whizz with a blender stick until just smooth. If using blender you can just scoop out and blend the solids, returning to the pan once done
7. Add the vinegar, half the parsley and salt and pepper to taste. You may need more salt than you think to balance the acidity of the vinegar. Serve with a little yoghurt on top, the rest of the parsley and an extra drizzle of olive oil

And that is exactly what happened a couple of weeks ago when I partook in a charming internet experiment entitled ‘Where’s my Pork Chop?’.

WMPC, as it is affectionately known, is the brainchild of fellow blogger Dan, the FoodUrchin, where he gets other bloggers to make extra of their dinner to exchange with him for goodies from his allotment or suchlike. Wednesday was my turn, which is why I found myself up bright and early wandering around the South Bank with some speed but little direction.

We were looking for Canteen, a fairly new eatery on the South Bank that neither of us had tried before – I was to give Dan his dinner in exchange for my breakfast (apparently things had been a little slow on the allotment recently, ‘things’ were mentioned but ‘people’ may have been more precise…).

In the end we resorted to using the iPhone AND asking, but really it was just sheer perseverance that got us to our destination – ok, ok, I know it wasn’t quite like reaching the summit of Everest, but we still felt a little heart leap when we spotted the place.

Anyway, having now done our officially recognised amount of exercise for the day (there are a lot of steps on the South Bank), we felt we had worked up a well deserved appetite.

And so to breakfast.

It’s funny, I never used to be much of a morning person, and some might say still am not, but having breakfast with a virtual stranger was actually a lot of fun. It helped immensely that the company was charming and that we had just tons to chat about, food, food photography (thanks for the white balance tip Dan, it has made a real difference), food blogging – can you tell there is a common theme here…

The coffee at Canteen was good and strong too, which may have added a certain power to the talk. However, unfortunately for Dan, his bacon, eggs and hash browns weren’t quite as good as my eggs Florentine, which were pretty tremendous – perfectly cooked eggs on vibrant spinach smothered in a deliciously lemony hollandaise.

The place is arranged in cute old fashioned canteen booths each with their own little lamp, think 1960s Britain rather than 1950s America, but reworked in a very modern style, it certainly has a charm to it. The menu is very best of British, breakfast is a big feature, as are puddings and pies. Given its handy location (behind the Festival Hall, for any others who may be searching), excellent eggs and my penchant for booth dining I’ll certainly be going again.

After the breakfast we did ‘the exchange’ and I handed over a portion of that old favourite, sausage and butter bean casserole, with a little Hackney grown salad and French dressing on the side.

Regular readers will have noticed I have posted about this dish before, it’s a great one, using fennel seeds to create an unusual savoury flavour. It is the only time I really use these seeds, I should do it more, they really are tasty… Anyway, I digress, below is the recipe for this very simple but very tasty supper, make it yourself I guarantee it will be a firm family favourite in no time. The FoodUrchin certainly seemed to like it, high praise indeed!

PS If you’d like to get involved in WMPC drop Dan a line, he’d love to hear from you. Getting your dinner cooked for you by another food lover, what’s not to like!

Ingredients
(ever so slightly adapted) from Nigel Slater in the Observer
1 medium onion
2 large cloves garlic
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
2 bay leaves
5 sausages
500g passata
2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
2 tbsp olive oil
1 can butter beans (plus a half/small can if you can find it, no biggie if not)

Serves 2-3

1 Peel onion, cut in half, then into 6 or so thick segments
2 Warm a 10cm pool of olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan, add onions and cook for 3-4 minutes
3 Add fennel seeds, bay leaf and garlic (crush or chop) and sausages, brown lightly all over
4 Add passata and 1 tablespoon mustard, bring to boil and then put in drained and rinsed butter beans and S&P
5 Simmer for 20-25 minutes (I usually like to chop sausages up into 3 pieces after about 10 minutes - just to be sure they cook through)
6 Stir in last tablespoon of mustard and serve with a bit of green salad, a hunk of bread and a spicy wine.

I have also developed a soup addiction, since the massage. It’s just so easy, you make soup for lunch on the weekend, freeze 4 portions and that’s your lunch for the week. Simply reheat in the work microwave. I’ve been doing it for a few weeks now and have enough random batches to have a different soup every day!

Anyway whether you are cooking for the week or just fancy a home made, delicately spiced and sweetly flavoured lunch this is a great one, that I discovered on The Food Urchin’s excellent blog, from the delightful Moro Cookbook. It is so good that I think I’ll get off the laptop and make some more…

Ingredients

Serves 4

4 tbs olive oil
half a large onion, sliced
2 garlic gloves, thinly sliced
1 rounded tsp black cumin or normal cumin seeds
750g raw beetroot
1 large potato
1.25 ltrs of cold water
3 tbs of red wine vinegar
1 small bunch fresh parsley
100g Greek yoghurt, thinned with milk and seasoned with crushed garlic
sea salt and black pepper

1. Slice onion and heat oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat
2. Add the onion and a pinch of salt, cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion begins to colour
3. Meanwhile thinly slice garlic, peel and dice beetroot and potato
4. Add garlic and cumin to pan, cook for 2 more minutes to release their flavour, followed by the beetroot and potato
5. Pour in the water, bring to a gentle simmer and cook until soft, about 15 minutes
6. Roughly chop parsley, put the vegetables and cooking liquid in a blender or whizz with a blender stick until just smooth. If using blender you can just scoop out and blend the solids, returning to the pan once done
7. Add the vinegar, half the parsley and salt and pepper to taste. You may need more salt than you think to balance the acidity of the vinegar. Serve with a little yoghurt on top, the rest of the parsley and an extra drizzle of olive oil