RIBOLLITA THE GARDEN SOUP

Autumnal hearty dish, this is a real celebration of the autumn harvest with all the vegetable from the garden makes this a satisfying pleasure to harvest, cook and eat..

Prep time 10 minutes / Cooking time 1 hr 10 minutes

Ingredients 

(serves 4)

1 large glug olive oil

1 tbsp butter

2 sprigs thyme

1 sprig rosemary

1 white onion finely diced

2 cloves garlic finely chopped

1 leek finely chopped

1 rib of celery finely chopped

2 carrots peeled finely chopped

1 kg fresh borlotti beans

OR

2 tins of cannellini or borlotti beans

OR

1 kg dried beans soaked overnight 

6 tomatoes, skinned, deseeded and chopped

1 - 1.5 litres veg stock

(recipe below)

400g mix of nero kale and Savoy cabbage shredded

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

If your using dried borlotti bens that have been soaked overnight, rinse and cover with water, pop in a bay leaf, few peppercorns, one sprig rosemary, one crushed garlic clove and a onion quartered, simmer until the beans are tender, 1-1.5 hours.  Drain.

In a large pan heat the olive oil and butter, soften the onions keeping them translucent for 10 minutes, add the garlic and soften for a further 5 minutess, add the carrots, leek and celery sauté for a further 5 minutes, add the beans and tomatoes, rosemary, thyme, simmer gently for 1 hour, remove the rosemary and thyme sprigs.

Stir in the shredded kale and cabbage mix and cook for a further 10 minutes, season with salt and pepper and serve with garlic rubbed olive oil drizzled sour dough bread.

Vegetable Stock

1 glug olive oil

1 onion diced

6 parsley steams

3 carrots diced

2 cloves garlic diced

1 leek chopped

2 ribs celery diced

6 whole black peppercorns 

1 sprig fresh thyme

Himalayan sea salt 

To make the awesome vegetable stock place all the diced vegetables and peppercorns in the olive oil and gently soften for ten minutes, add the thyme, parsley and approx 1 litre of water, bring to a gentle simmer for 30 minutes, take off the heat and leave to rest for 30 minutes.  Strain and season to taste with salt and pepper as needed, for a thicker more robust stock add back some of the vegetables and blitz.

CREAMY RICH CHEESY HADDOCK MORNAY

Creamy rich and spoon eating sumptuous.

A decedent breakfast for that special weekend morning, Sunday’s are always something special in our home, a go slow day, time spent with the family cooking a sumptuous breakfast brunch then to hunker down for a lazy day with more good go slow let the oven do all the work cooking.

Cooking and prep time 30 minutes

Ingredients 

(serves 4)

6 new potatoes 

3 tbsp butter

1 glug olive oil

400g natural smoked haddock

200ml double cream

50ml milk 

200g spinach

1 clove garlic finely chopped 

100g + cheddar grated

25g emmental grated

25g gyuere grated

25g parmesan grated

1 glug white wine vinegar

4 eggs cracked into individual ramekins 
Himalayan sea salt 

Fresh ground black pepper 

Pre heat your oven 200 C / 410 F.  Boil the new potatoes for around 15 minutes until tender, drain and slice chunky, toss in olive oil and roast the potatoes in the oven for 20 minutes until crispy 

Meanwhile warm the cream and milk to a almost simmer, add the smoked haddock and poach for 5 minutes until the fish is just holding together and ready to flake in big chunks.  Remove the haddock from the poaching liquid and reserve to one side.

Add all the cheese to the warm poaching liquid (mornay sauce) and stir on a low heat until combined, taste and season with pepper and salt if needed.

Bring a saucepan of water to a gently just simmer, no bubbles, add the white wine vinegar, stir the water so it has a gently swirl and gently slip in the eggs from their ramekins, leave to poach for around 3 minutes, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel.

In a saucepan heat another tablespoon of butter add the garlic and the spinach and wilt for 30 seconds then take off the heat.

Now assemble the dish, first rub the remaining butter in your large ramekins and season with salt and pepper, share the garlic spinach equally between each ramekin, next divide and layer the potato between the ramekins, top with a couple of spoonfuls of the mornay sauce, next layer the fish equally over the potato and again add a couple of spoonfuls of sauce.  Place under the grill/broiler for 3-5 minutes until gently bubbling and lightly browning, remove, top with your poached egg and enjoy immediately.

The Perfect Poached Egg

The Secret is in the Method

I have tried so many times to make the prefect poached egg, I whisked the vinegar water, cracked in the egg and more than often ended up with an egg white octopus and sometimes separate yolk all swirling around the pan!  After watching a cooking program I saw that I was not using a bowl to slip the egg in the simmering water, I was cracking the egg in directly, it also turns out that a the secret is not to create a vortex this is what causes the octopus strands, by gently slipping the egg in to the only just simmering water from a bowl your guaranteed a successful beautiful presentable encased poached egg...so simple when you know how.  

Now I do know a commercial trick for producing perfect poached eggs by the hundreds during service and that is to crack the eggs into oiled cling film, place the cling film in a small glass lining the inside of the glass, this creates a holding vessel for the egg, bring the sides of the clingfilm together and twist to seal the egg in, then poach in the cling film, guaranteed success every time.

Prep Time 5 minutes / Cooking Time 3-5 minutes

Ingredients

(one egg)

1 fresh egg cracked into a small bowl

1 deep pan of just simmering water

50 ml white wine vinegar

Bring the pan of water to a gentle simmer, add the vinegar and gently whisk to create a vortex in the centre and then pour in the egg from the bowl, the egg will swirl around gently with the vortex allowing the egg white to swirl around the yolk to create a perfect poached egg.  Cook gently for around 3-5 minutes depending on how runny you like your yolk,  

You can check the egg by removing with a slotted spoon and gently prodding to see how wobbly the egg is, the firmer the bounce back the more cooked the egg is.  Remember the poached egg will continue to cook for a minute once it is taken from the water and served.  

Get Ahead Eggs

You can poach your eggs ahead of time, once cooked, plunge the poached eggs in to a bowl of iced water to stop the cooking process, when your ready to serve gently place the eggs back into a pan of just simmering water for one minute to warm back through.

That's it Perfect...