Roasted Pepper and Garlic Soup

It snowed!  It finally snowed!  It happens about once a year, usually in winter, though this is often dubbed "The Big Freeze" by the media.  People panic, lose the ability to drive or be able to leave the house because they are "snowed in" by two centimetres of the fluffy white stuff.  Working in an office a few years ago, I was the only one who made it to work in the morning and I had walked the 45 minutes to get there.  Leave it to the Northern Canadian to get to work in the snow.  It stems from my mother never allowing us to take a "snow day" - if the school was open, we were going and a few feet (yes feet!) of snow weren't going to stop us.  So you can imagine how confused I was to be alone in the office and find out the culprit was a few centimetres of snow.

 

We had to get out quick yesterday before it melted.  We drove up to the hills in hopes of some good shots but the fog had other plans. 

A little stick throwing and fetching...

And once back home, the husband and I had one of our psychic moments as he asked if I fancied soup and a grilled cheese for lunch while I was in the process of googling roasted red pepper soup recipes.  He was thinking more along the lines of open a tin of Heinz but I swore it wouldn't take me long and a half an hour later we had this:

When I get an idea for something I'd like to make, I begin by searching for recipes to see what ingredients are similar and where in the recipe has the chef put their own spin on it.  If an ingredient is present in most recipes I take that as a must and the others I feel I can play around with.  With this soup it was pretty much peppers across the board but every recipe differed on the rest of the ingredients.  So I decided on a tri-coloured pepper soup, with garlic and tomatoes - it's what I had in and I preferred to keep most of the red peppers I had on hand for stir-fries later in the week, like this one.

I also like to have a look at timings; how long should this roast for, how long should I cool this etc.  I thought 20 minutes for the peppers but searching for a few recipes had me doubting myself - one said 8-10 minutes, another said an hour??  I stuck with my 20 minutes at 200°C and did the peppers and garlic together and they turned out just perfect.  I drizzled a little olive oil and salt and pepper over both sides but roasted them skin side up.

If patience is something you possess, I'd suggest letting the peppers cool before peeling but since I feel no pain (and possess very little patience) I went straight in there - the little orange one refused to shed it's skin so I let it keep it, and my fingers couldn't really take the heat anymore.  The garlic popped right out of their little shells, they were so much more co-operative.

I then fried a little red onion in some oil, added the peppers, garlic, a little dried thyme, a tin of chopped tomatoes and some chicken stock to cover.

I let it simmer for about 10 minutes, let it splash up on the walls, whizzed it with a handheld blender and served it up alongside a grilled cheese.  It tasted so creamy and lovely, almost like I'd poured cream in it.  Though we both agreed a cheese sandwich was not its best compliment and that a crusty bread or crunchy plain salad would be much better.  The cheese just seemed to bring out the bitterness of the tomatoes.  Not sure if the parmesan cheese on top had anything to do with it either.

Now this is where you put your own spin on it - swap red onion for white, add some celery and carrots, stick to one pepper colour, choose different seasonings, maybe basil or oregano, add more peppers and omit the tomatoes.  There are so many options with soup, which is why I've chosen to share this one as this blog acts like my own recipe book.  I will definitely be making this soup again, just as it is!!

Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

I had big plans to make a traditional chicken noodle soup with carrots and celery and lovely egg noodles with my homemade stock but while scanning the reduced section of the grocery store I saw grated carrots, red cabbage, bean sprouts and vermicelli rice noodles all for a few pence each (items which are generally cheap anyway). I already had spinach leaves, garlic and a red chili at home so I grabbed the sale items, some ginger and a few large flat mushrooms and made my way back home to get everything in a pot and into my belly asap!

First, I put the stock on to boil:
Half litre of homemade chicken stock
1 cup of water
A splash of fish sauce
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1/4 cup of sweet chili sauce
About a tablespoon of freshly grated ginger

While the stock made it's way to a boil, I prepped the veg (which mostly involved taking a few handfuls out of plastic bags).

Once the stock was boiling, I turned off the heat, tossed in the veg, a handful each of shredded chicken and noodles and stuck the lid on until the veg wilted slightly (about 2-3 minutes). I gave everything a quick stir and dished out a great big portion into a bowl.  This made enough for two but what's usually enough for two is only enough pour moi - yes, I ate it all.  And it was just what the doctor ordered! I got my "5 a day" and then some! Starve a fever, feed a cold as the saying goes and I fed it - I fed that cold good!

This Will Cure What Ails Ya

I have a cough due to cold.  Really, how can one human produce so much snot?  Maybe snot is something I shouldn't mention on a food blog?  Hmm possibly.  Moving along...

Nothing is more comforting to me when sick than a nice hot bowl of Lipton chicken noodle soup.  I had about 3 packets last week and my stash was beginning to dwindle.  While out getting more supplies for the puppies (they didn't care that I was sick) I was able to get my cheapy little fingers on a ready-roasted chicken for a whopping 99 pence!   I have never come across such huge reductions when grocery shopping in any other country and I think Morrison's has the best.  It's always hit and miss but your best shot at a great discount is between 7pm and 8pm.  I look for things I can freeze :)

Now normally, if we weren't going to eat the chicken that night or the next, it would be stripped of the meat, bones thrown and meat frozen.  I have always thought homemade chicken stock to be more trouble than it was worth.  Boy was I wrong.  I popped all of the bones and skin into a large stock pot, tossed in a couple of peeled and roughly cut carrots, two chopped celery stock, two peeled and quartered onions, 8-10 pepper corns, and a couple of sachets of dried bouquet garni.  Yes, fresh is best but a) the store didn't have what I needed and 2) the cost of fresh versus dried and how much would have eventually been thrown out would have been a waste.

I filled the pot with enough cold water to cover the chicken and brought this to a boil.  I then reduced it to a simmer and let that go for a few hours.  If a foam builds, scoop this off the top but my stock didn't produce any foam (something I did? Or didn't do?)  Once the stock had simmered for about 3 hours, I drained it through a sieve.  Do this over a container and NOT the sink like I nearly did!  I let the stock cool and then scraped some of the fat from the top and stuck it in the fridge (should keep in there for a few days).  The stock can be frozen in large plastic containers or in an ice cube tray if you tend to use smaller quantities for up to three months or so.  With this stock, I made a delicious chicken noodle soup which I will share with you tomorrow.

The best thing about making food from scratch is that you are aware of every single ingredient that goes into it.  And it doesn't need to be complicated or time consuming.  Heck, toss the ingredients for this stock in the crock pot and forget about it for a few hours (keep an eye on it if it's on the stove please!) 

PS.  We did have fish, chips and mushy peas on Friday and it was delicious (as always).  Nothing beats the chippy on a Friday.  What was your favourite meal of the weekend?