Ingredients Records Soups

It's the winter and we all love soups for lunch this time of year. Admittedly, it's not that cold at the moment but still, who needs an excuse to eat a home made soup! I think the best thing about them is that they are cheap & relatively easy to make. The important thing when it comes to cooking at home is having the tools. For soups, you simply need a nice sized saucepan (£30), some plastic tubs for portions and a food blitzer (the hand held ones are fine). Once you've invested in these you will be able to cook soups for years and make a huge saving, not forgetting the pleasure of tasting your own fresh cooking.

Most soups are vegetable based, so my tip is to dice or slice the vegetable of choice, and sweat them in the saucepan for as long as possible, til pretty much cooked. This will bring out the flavour of the vegetable and also make the soup have the colour it should, too.

Don't always assume soups start with Onion! So many people do and ultimately it takes over the soup's flavour, so steer clear unless of course it requires one (Tomato and French Onion spring to mind).
So now i've got you in the Soup world i may as well give you some recipes of soups i like to make for my working week, and like many, where you were spending around £40 per month you should now be spending around £20 for the same volume of Soup.

Chicken Stock:
Sundays usually mean roast dinners, so if you have roast chicken keep the carcass and boil for an hour in a pan with 2 pints of water, a white onion, bay leaf, pepper corns and a leek if you have it.
Drain into a bowl void of all the bits and leave to cool. Skim off the fat.

Leek & Potato Soup with Lemon & Tarragon.

6 x Leeks chopped and sweated in the saucepan with some butter until soft.
1 x Large potato peeled and sliced added to the leeks
1/2 pt Cream
1 Pint of Chicken Stock
Boil this slowly for an hour.
Blitz in the saucepan adding 3 stems of Tarragon leaves, season as you go with Salt & Pepper
Finish with a good squeeze of half a lemon, stir and serve.

Broccoli & Blue Cheese Soup

I x Head of Brocolli
1 x Large potato
1 x Clove of Garlic
1 x Pint of Vegetable stock ( a cube is fine)
1/2 pint of Milk.

Cut off the Brocolli stem and chuck away. Roughly cut the Brocolli head and sweat in the saucepan with some butter, keep stirring it as it tends to not like being cooked in this manner!
Add some of the stock, the peeled & sliced potato and let it simmer in that for 10 mins, before adding the rest of the stock, the garlic and the milk.

After 40 minutes, making sure the potato is cooked (it will be) begin blitzing adding some cubes of blue cheese. I'd say the equivalent of half the size of a standard wedge of Blue cheese is ample.
Careful when seasoning it, you may not need to because the cheese is salty. How easy was that!

Chicken, Chorizo & Chilli soup

I sort of made this up one day and I'm almost addicted. Ok, it's unlike the Soups above, but you have to try these things out, you can't keep making two soups all your life.

1 x Chicken Breast
1 x Clove of Garlic
1 or 2 x Green Chilli (remove the seeds)
2 Tblsp Worcester Sauce.
Chop the Chicken into about 10 pieces, fry in a pan with a little oil, worcester sauce,
garlic & sliced chilli. Remove from the pan and set aside.

1 x Pint Chicken Stock
75ml of Double Cream
1 x Tin of Chopped Tomatoes
1 x Chorizo Sausage

Chop the sausage into nice edible sized chunks & fry in the saucepan, once browned add the chicken stock. Add the the tomatoes and stir in the cream. Leave to simmer for 20 minutes and then add in the Chicken & let it cook together for another 20 minutes. Season with salt & pepper. Try this out a few times until you got it how you like it.

Carrot, Apple, Ginger & Chilli

6 x Carrots, peeled, chopped
3 x Celery stems
1 x Red Chilli (de-seeded)
4 x Apples Peeled and chopped (any tbh)
2 x Thumb sized pieces of Ginger, peeled and chopped
2 pints of vegetable stock

A simple, healthy soup. Sweat the Carrots in some butter (or olive oil) with the celery
Once cooked, add the apples, ginger and chilli & add some of the stock & let simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the rest of the stock & blitz. Season with salt & pepper to taste.


Pea & Ham Soup  (A very simple Pea & Ham soup)

Pea & Ham has to be one of the best soups ever! Here's a simple version:

1 x 1 Kg Bag of frozen Peas
1 x Large white potato (Peeled & diced)
1 x small white onion (sliced)
1 x Fresh mint
2 x Garlic cloves (chopped)
2 pints of Chicken or Vegetable stock
1/2 pint of milk or cream
1 x packet of smoked ham (much cheaper)

In a big saucepan start cooking the white onion, add the peas & the diced potato.
Add the garlic and stir through for 5 minutes. Now start adding the stock and leave to
cook for 30 mins. Add a good bunch of mint leaves and the Milk / Cream.
Begin blitzing until nice and smooth. Chop the Ham into pieces and add to the already blitzed soup.
Leave it to fuse for an hour is my advice.

Ingredients: Hungover Cooking Like a Baddun

You had turkey for Christmas (and boxing day, and the day after, and the day after) so on New Year's you'll probably want something different. Now, we're not sure about you, but New Years Day roast dinners are usually standard procedure up in our houses, and due to an over-indulgence in poultry, it's nearly always lamb. It's become a sort-of tradition. However the official Hangover Bank Holiday is probably not the best day for getting out the sharp knives and playing with hot roasting tins, but if you're entertaining notions of cooking for mates despite the state of your head 1) good on you, and 2) what about cooking something simple that looks a bit showy?


Enter Psylence's Lamb & Brie Burgers. A little bit special, but meaty enough to satisfy the weariest of post-party appetites, they'll also use up the remnants of that elaborate cheeseboard you've been working through since Christmas Eve (we know you opened it early. Naughty.)

6 Lamb Burgers with Brie and sweet pepper Relish

• 2lb lamb mince
• zest of 1 lime
• 2 egg
• fresh coriander
• 2 green chilli
• 1 1/2 tblsp cumin
• 4 tblsp olive oil
• salt & pepper

1. Finely chop the chilli, coriander and grate the zest of the lime.
2. Add to the minced lamb, adding all the ingredients.
3. To taste a bit simply pan fry a small piece so you know they are seasoned well.
4. Mould into 6 nice sized burgers, and I'd say the best way to cook them would be to pan fry in very shallow oil & seal each side for 2 mins.
5. Once you've sealed them all, place in a tray with baking paper and cook them through on 190.
6. Before serving, add a nice slive of Brie on top and warm through so it's melting slowly. 
7. Slice some ciabatta bread, toast it lightly and brush with some olive oil.

Nice with some sweet pepper relish.

A Very Ingredients Christmas: Part Two

Christmas is a time for giving. It’s also a time for stuffing your face with all of the chocolate, so this next recipe is a combination of these two important aspects of the festive period – namely lots and lots of chocolate, and giving you a couple of extra pounds to work off in the new year. We’re nice like that.

Chocolate Tart with Mascarpone

Pastry:

• 185g Flour
• 1 tblsp caster sugar
• pinch of salt
• 185g unsalted butter
• dash of cold water

Filling:

• 370g plain chocolate
• 185g unsalted butter
• 60g caster sugar
• 8 egg yolks

Nice bit of extra stuff:

• 1 Tub mascarpone.

1. To make the pastry, mix the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Rub the butter into the flour mix mixture  with your fingers until it forms crumbs and will hold together. Gradually add the water to the flour mix just until the pastry is formed and will hold together when you press it, wrap in cling film and allow it to rest for 30 mins. Then, roll it out and line in a tart case, set it in the freezer for 20 mins.
2. Then you want to get a load of lentils or similar, in some tin foil, and place onto the pastry so you can 'blind bake' it, which means you're pre-baking the pastry. Bake for 20 mins, remove the lentils in foil and allow the pastry to cool.
3. To make the filling, place the chocolate and the butter in a metal bowl over some simmering water on the stove. Once melted, remove from the heat, and meanwhile beat the egg yolks with the caster sugar until the mixture forms ribbons when dropped from the beater. Fold into the Chocolate & butter until completely blended, pour into the pastry shell, and cook in the pre-heated oven until set and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
4. Allow it to set over night in the fridge, and slice a portion with an ice-cream scoop of Mascarpone.

A Very Ingredients Christmas: Part One

We thought we'd be cool and give you some Christmas recipes & tips for the festive period. After all, turkey gets a lot of hype, but when it comes to a third day of leftovers it’s probably time to say ‘enough’. Christmas (and that week that doesn’t really exist between Christmas and New Year) should be a time of chocolate oranges, cheese, and bucks fizz for breakfast. It definitely shouldn’t be about eating boring old dry poultry. Since he’s so good to you, DJ Psylence got thinking about some almost-festive recipes to give you a bit of a break from your sixty-seventh turkey and camembert sarnie (it’s a great combo, try it!)

I looked at what would be relevant rather than trying to be all "Heston" and get you creating
a laboratory of scientific experiments.

• Tip: I was thinking of Turkey dishes for Boxing day onwards, but look, it's simple to avoid eating the big bird for days on end, just buy a smaller one than usual.
• Tip: Don't worry about piling on the pounds eating too much chocolate, just buy fun-size everything.
• Tip: Avoid having to wash-up after the big meal, just fall asleep on the sofa, it's acceptable at Christmas.

Caesar Salad with Chicken for 2

1 x Cos lettuce
6 anchovies
8 slices of bread
Parmesan cheese (fresh)
Mayonnaise
2 x breasts of chicken
Garlic
Olive oil
Salt & cracked black pepper

1. Season the chicken breasts with salt and black pepper. Oven bake them until cooked.
2. Dice the slices of bread and put in a bowl, with some olive oil, fresh garlic and salt.
3. Mix through so they are wet and oven bake to make croutons. 
4. Put the mayo in a bowl, add 2 chopped anchovies, a little garlic, french mustard and a good dash of cold water.
5. Mix it through, it should be a little runny. 
6. In a bowl, add some chopped cos lettuce, add some mayo and mix it through, then the croutons.
7. Transfer to the serving bowls. Slice up the chicken breast into 4 and lay on top, slice some parmesan
8. cheese with a veg peeler, and lay 2 anchovies on top.