Cauliflower, Bacon & Potato Soup

Cauliflower soup??? Sounds disgusting, but has been my best soup in the past few weeks.
You can tell it is now winter with all the pots of soup on the stove.

Ingredients
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large or 2 small onions, chopped
8 rindless streaky bacon rashers
2 potatoes, chopped (I used one large)
1 small cauliflower, cut in florets, leaves sliced (I thin I used just 1/2 a caulifower)
570ml/1 pint vegetable stock
290ml/½ pint milk

Method
1. Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion and fry for 5 minutes until softened. Chop bacon rashers, add to the pan and fry for a further 2 minutes.
2. Stir in the potatoes and cauliflower and mix well. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
3. Purée the soup in a blender or food processor, then return to the pan and stir in the milk. Reheat gently, taste and add salt and pepper.

I think this was from the good food magazine

Kaatjes Appel-Zuurkool ovenschotel (Original Dutch Apple - Sauerkraut oven dish – with a twist)

Ingredients: (Serves two hungry person as main dish – it’s always enough for us two)
Sauerkraut natural or in White wine (jar 680 gr, drained weight + 540gr)
4 – 5 reasonable sized potatoes (+ 900 gr)
1 jar of smooth applesauce (250 – 360 gr)
1 smoked (pork) sausages (230 gr – ready to eat variety,
like Unox rookworst

Empty sauerkraut jar into a large pan, add a tea-spoon water, place lid on pan and put pan on low fire on the gas. Stir regularly and add, only if really needed, more water to prevent the sauerkraut from cooking dry.

Peel potatoes and cut in small pieces. Boil in water with a sniff of salt added until done (kruimig).

Cut sausage, straight from the packaging, into small slices.
Pre-heat oven, gas mark 5
Wipe some olive oil into (glass) oven dish.

Just before potatoes are done, cover bottom of oven dish with the sauerkraut (don’t add left-over liquid in the pan with it) and cover sauerkraut with the sausage slices.

When the potatoes are really done, pour water from pan and put pan back on low fire to evaporate remaining moist until potatoes are crumbly (kruimig). Carful not to burn them!

Mash potatoes with the apple sauce (*) and spread over the sausage slice in the oven dish. (You can write a greeting or someone’s initials on the mash with a fork, surprise your guests!)
Place in gas oven for 20 – 25 minutes. Serve piping hot.
(Or place in gas oven for 10 minutes and switch to grill oven for 3 – 4 minutes to add ‘golden’ colour. Serve piping hot)

Eet smakelijk.

* = in the original recipe the potatoes are mashed with milk and the apple sauce is spread over the sauerkraut before the sausage slices are added. But since in our home we don’t drink milk, besides loads of coffee-milk, one day I forgot to buy milk for the mash. That’s why the applesauce now ends up in the mash, had to think of something!
To be honest, we both find my ‘twisted’ recipe better ;-)

Spinach, onion & Prosciutto Focaccia: Part 2

This was amazing, so I am definitely adding this to my cookbook.

I must warn you this is not a recipe from Ready Steady Cook, it's a bread to be made when you have a whole afternoon to potter around the house.

The next day remove the started bread from the fridge about 2 hours before you need to start.

Ingredients:
500g all purpose flour
360ml warm water
2tsp sea salt
75ml olive oil
200g baby spinach roughly chopped
100g spring onions roughly chopped
200g parma ham chopped
80g butter
1 sachet dried yeast (10g??)

Put flour in a bowl and add the water, yeast and the mix you left overnight. Then add salt and olive oil. In food processor mix for 1/2-1minute or until get a clear dough. (or work by hand).

Now add spinach, onions and parma ham. Mix into the dough and put in a lightly greased bowl, and cover with cling film (or put bowl in a plastic carrier bag). Wait until the dough has risen threefold.

Punch the dough back and give it another rise. (15mins??)

Sprinkle flour onto worktop and tip dough onto surface. Cut into 3 and and shape each into a ball. Place on a baking sheet and cover gently with cling film. When slightly puffed up (30 mins??), put balls back on to floured surface. Dip fingers repeatedly into melted butter and massage the butter into the ball. As you work the dough, flatten it out and dimple until it is flat 3/4inch disk with dimples.

Put back onto a greased baking tray. Let it recover and prove for 30 mins and put it into the oven at 200c and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

(once baked you can drizzle a bit more melted butter over the top).

These were great, we ate one with a salad and then took the remainder cold the next day for a picnic.

Focaccia with Spinach, Onion & Parma Ham (Part 1)

This is also a 2 part operation as with the Ciabatta (both found on the BBC website).

Tonight:

Mix 60g flour with 60ml of water (luke warm) and 15g of yeast.
Mix this all in so no lumps, then leave for a couple of hours then transfer to the fridge over night.

If there is no part 2 then everything went wrong.

Terry & Traer's Fried Oyster Lettuce

Ingredients

Chinese lettuce
Oyster Sauce
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

Cut and wash lettuce.

Dry off leaves.

In a bowl mix the leaves with a splash of olive oil and oyster sauce
(depending how strong you want the flavour to be).

Preheat some oil in a wok till hot.

Throw in lettuce leaves and shake them around for thirty seconds.

Remove leaves from wok and serve immediately

Mim's Broccoli Salad

Another Vegetable dish from Aunty Mim:

Break fresh uncooked broccoli into fairly small pieces.
ADD: 1 cup grated cheese
1 cup sunflower seeds (lightly roasted)
1 pkt. (250g) bacon (chopped and crisply fried)
a few spring onions (chopped small)

For dressing mix: 3 Tbls grape vinegar
1 cup mayonnaise
¼ cup sugar
Pour the dressing over the salad and chill.

Mim's Microwave Mustard Cauliflower

Sounds like a good recipe to disguise cauliflower:

1 medium head cauliflower
80ml water
120ml mayonnaise
1Tbls finely chopped onions
2 tsps mustard powder
5ml salt
175g grated cheddar cheese
Paprika

1) Place cauliflower in deep casserole dish, add water.
Cover and micro on high 10-15 mins until tender.
2) Combine all ingredients, except cheese and paprika.
Spoon mixture over cauliflower then sprinkle cheese
and paprika.
Micro uncovered – power Med-High for 1-3 mins.