For Melbourne Cup this year, I had a big weekend all planned. Weeks in advance, I organised to have the Monday off so I'd have a 4-day weekend, booked a nice restaurant for one of the nights, and thought of a zillion fun things to do. But by the time Melbourne Cup rolled around, it happened that we were both sick with the flu and spent all 4 days coughing our lungs up on the couch. D'oh!
The upside is that I really managed to actually relax at home! I don't know why it is, but sometimes I get so excited by the mere prospect of a weekend that I feel compelled to fill it with hours of activities and socialising, and end up exhausted rather than rejuvenated. On this weekend, however, all I did was watch season 3 of Mad Men, and cook a lot!
The first thing I made was Nigella's praised chicken (previously made here), because as we all know, chicken soup cures everything. And it was with that chicken broth that I made one of the more interestingly titled recipes from Kitchen, 'soup made with garlic and love'. The inspiration for the soup is literary, and the recipe is from the final chapter in Kitchen, The Cook's Cure for Sunday-Night-Itis. This chapter is full of comforting, homely food for quiet nights in. Mmm... perfect Sarah food!
But back to the soup in question. It is just chicken broth, with a healthy amount of garlic, thyme, a leek and a couple of potatoes added.
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| Leeks, garlic and herbs cooking |
Nigella suggests serving the garlicky soup with pumpkin scones, which is exactly what I did! Her recipe uses tinned pumpkin, which in Australia is both difficult to find and expensive. I steamed my own pumpkin for this one! It was actually quite easy, so perhaps I'll try making pumpkin pie soon! (You'll also note that since the Germ Knödel, I have purchased a proper Chinese steamer.)
 |
| Steaming pumpkin |
The mashed pumpkin provides most of the moisture for the scones, and there's no butter in the recipe, just 2 teaspoons of chilli oil. So I daresay they're a bit healthy. Or at least not un-healthy. You could always replace the plain flour with wholemeal as well, I suppose.
I only mixed the dough lightly, as I'm always paranoid about overworking the dough and making tough scones. In this case it meant there were also nice chunky bits of pumpkin dotted through... yum!
I left half the dough plain, and decided to add feta and chives to the other half, as I thought it would be a nice combination.
Y'all know I have issues with my scones not rising properly,so I was incredibly happy when I opened the oven and saw these beauties. Yay!
I loved the soup! With all those herbs and garlic, Sandra found it a bit rich and strong, but that's exactly what I liked about it! And I'm sure garlic is good for colds as well - the clear, light soup was just what I needed. The scones were light and fluffy, with a pleasant crust and sweet pumpkin taste. And the feta/chive scones tasted just like those expensive savoury muffins you find at cafes or that we sometimes get catered for training. Heh. We had a couple that day, and I froze the rest and ate them slowly over the next few weeks for breakfasts. They defrost quickly and a short zap in the microwave brings them back to life.
For Melbourne Cup this year, I had a big weekend all planned. Weeks in advance, I organised to have the Monday off so I'd have a 4-day weekend, booked a nice restaurant for one of the nights, and thought of a zillion fun things to do. But by the time Melbourne Cup rolled around, it happened that we were both sick with the flu and spent all 4 days coughing our lungs up on the couch. D'oh!
The upside is that I really managed to actually relax at home! I don't know why it is, but sometimes I get so excited by the mere prospect of a weekend that I feel compelled to fill it with hours of activities and socialising, and end up exhausted rather than rejuvenated. On this weekend, however, all I did was watch season 3 of Mad Men, and cook a lot!
The first thing I made was Nigella's praised chicken (previously made here), because as we all know, chicken soup cures everything. And it was with that chicken broth that I made one of the more interestingly titled recipes from Kitchen, 'soup made with garlic and love'. The inspiration for the soup is literary, and the recipe is from the final chapter in Kitchen, The Cook's Cure for Sunday-Night-Itis. This chapter is full of comforting, homely food for quiet nights in. Mmm... perfect Sarah food!
But back to the soup in question. It is just chicken broth, with a healthy amount of garlic, thyme, a leek and a couple of potatoes added.
|
| Leeks, garlic and herbs cooking |
Nigella suggests serving the garlicky soup with pumpkin scones, which is exactly what I did! Her recipe uses tinned pumpkin, which in Australia is both difficult to find and expensive. I steamed my own pumpkin for this one! It was actually quite easy, so perhaps I'll try making pumpkin pie soon! (You'll also note that since the Germ Knödel, I have purchased a proper Chinese steamer.)
|
| Steaming pumpkin |
The mashed pumpkin provides most of the moisture for the scones, and there's no butter in the recipe, just 2 teaspoons of chilli oil. So I daresay they're a bit healthy. Or at least not un-healthy. You could always replace the plain flour with wholemeal as well, I suppose.
I only mixed the dough lightly, as I'm always paranoid about overworking the dough and making tough scones. In this case it meant there were also nice chunky bits of pumpkin dotted through... yum!
I left half the dough plain, and decided to add feta and chives to the other half, as I thought it would be a nice combination.
Y'all know I have issues with my scones not rising properly,so I was incredibly happy when I opened the oven and saw these beauties. Yay!
I loved the soup! With all those herbs and garlic, Sandra found it a bit rich and strong, but that's exactly what I liked about it! And I'm sure garlic is good for colds as well - the clear, light soup was just what I needed. The scones were light and fluffy, with a pleasant crust and sweet pumpkin taste. And the feta/chive scones tasted just like those expensive savoury muffins you find at cafes or that we sometimes get catered for training. Heh. We had a couple that day, and I froze the rest and ate them slowly over the next few weeks for breakfasts. They defrost quickly and a short zap in the microwave brings them back to life.
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