Carrot & Leek Soup

  • This recipe makes two different types of soup – two ways –  chunky and creamed.
  • A light vegetable stock is the basis of this soup.

Ingredients

  • 4 large carrots
  • 2-3 leeks
  • 2 medium potatoes
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons of butter
  • 1½ litres of vegetable stock
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • *
  • Several tablespoonfuls of soured cream for the creamed soup

Method

  • Chop the leeks into small slices.
  • Fry them lightly in the butter.
  • Peel and chop the carrots.
  • Peel and chop the potatoes into small chunks.
  • Add then all to the stock.
  • Bring to the boil.
  • Simmer till the vegetable are soft.
  • *
  • Check the seasoning and serve.

Creamy version

  • Purée the vegetables – a stick blender is good for this.
  • Add the soured cream and serve.
  • Served in:
  • Royal Stafford – Blossom Time
  • Midwinter – Spanish Garden

Celeriac & Carrot Soup

A variation on a simple celeriac soup with two options on how to serve.

Ingredients

  • 1 Celeriac
  • 3 Large carrots
  • 1 Onion – chopped
  • 1.5 litres of chicken stock (can be from cube or concentrate)
  • 2-3 Allspice grains
  • Butter to fry the onion
  • 5 tablespoons of tomato ketchup
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • *
  • To serve
  • *
  • Soured cream or
  • *
  • Fried potatoes & charred onions

Method

  • Peel the celeriac and chop into large chunks.
  • Peel the carrots and cut into large chunks
  • Lightly fry the onion in butter till golden.
  • Put the celeriac, carrots, fried onion and allspice into a pan of chicken stock.
  • Bring to the boil and then simmer with a lid on the pan until the celeriac and carrots are soft.
  • Leave to cool slightly.
  • Purée the soup – a stick blender is good for this.
  • Add the tomato ketchup.
  • Season to taste.
  • Bring the soup back to the boil for a couple of minutes.

To serve – 1

  • Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of soured cream and stir.

To serve – 2

  • Serve with fried potatoes and charred onions.

Served in Royal Doulton – Tapestry – 1966 – 1998

 

More Celeriac Salads

My Polish friend who lives in Leeds, just came back from a visit to Poland and mentioned a celeriac salad with carrots and apples that she had enjoyed.

This started me thinking and I made this one and then I tried out a couple of other ones as well.

Ingredients -1

Half a celeriac – peeled

2 -3 carrots

3 apples

Lemon juice

2- 3 tablespoons of soured cream

salt & pepper

Optional

A little bit of sugar

Method – 1

Coarse grate the celeriac.

Peel and then coarse grate the carrots.

Coarse grate 2 of the apples.

Leave the skin on the other apples, remove the core  and chop it into small pieces.

In a bowl mix the celeriac, carrots and apple together.

Add the juice of a lemon and the soured cream and mix well.

Add salt, pepper and sugar to taste.

 

 

Note

I think this tastes best when made a few hours before serving.

Ingredients -2

Half a celeriac – peeled

2-3 hard pears (Conference are good)

3-4 tomatoes

1-2  tablespoons of olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt & pepper

A little bit of sugar

Method – 2

Coarse grate the celeriac.

Peel the pears and remove the core and chop them into small chunks.

Chop the tomatoes into small chunks.

Add the olive oil and lemon juice and mix.

Add salt, pepper and sugar to taste.

 

 

 

Ingredients -3

Half a celeriac – peeled

2-3 apples (Braeburn) are good

2-3  red peppers

1-2  tablespoons of olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt & pepper

A little bit of sugar

Method – 3

Coarse grate the celeriac.

Chop the red peppers into small squares.

Blanch them with boiling water and leave to cool.

Strain and the dry the peppers – with a clean tea towel or kitchen paper.

Leave the skin on the apples, remove the core and chop them into small pieces.

Add the olive oil and lemon juice and mix.

Add salt, pepper and sugar to taste.

 

Three Celeriac Salads

 

20180913_161228

 

 

 

 

 

 

Served in Carnation by Royal Doulton dishes from 1982 – 1998.

 

Courgette Cake

I have just returned from a trip to The Netherlands where I stay with my  Dutch friend who I have known for nearly all my life!  We were both born in the same year  – lived just a few doors apart in Lancashire and  went to the same school together. Now we live in differerent countries but we visit each other often.

I am always on the look out for recipes as well as old glass & china. We went to a second-hand street market in Roermond and there was a book sale in one of the churches and strangely enough the books were sold by weight!  I  bought a nearly new copy of a cookery book by Yvette van Boven (I now know she appears on television).

This cake is  based on one of her recipes and reminds me of the light fruit cakes called keks in Polish – though the use of the courgette is novel  –  you would never guess it is in the cake!

Ingredients – Cake

  • 150g self-raising flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar
  • 150g of light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • 150g of raisins
  • 150g of currants
  • 100g of roasted and roughly chopped hazelnuts
  • 1 medium size courgette coarse grated
  • 2 eggs
  • 125ml of sunflower oil

Ingredients – Lemon Icing

  • Fine grated rind of 1 lemon
  • 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
  • 150g of icing sugar

Method – Cake

  • Pre-heat the oven to GM4 180°C
  • I used a continental style long loaf tin, greased it  and used a single sheet of grease proof paper  to line the long sides and the base.

  • Mix together the flour, salt, sugars and cinnamon, making sure that any lumps in the brown sugar are all pressed out.
  • Mix together the raisin, currants, nuts and the courgette.
  • Lightly whisk the eggs and oil together.
  • Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix thoroughly together with a wooden spoon.
  • Add the courgette mixture and mix well in.
  • Place the cake mixture into the tin and smooth the top.
  • Bake for 50 – 55 minutes – check after 40 minutes and cover the top with greaseproof or foil if browning too much before it is baked through.
  • Leave to cool before icing.

Method – Icing

  • Place the icing sugar in a bowl and add the grated lemon zest.
  • Mix in the lemon juice until you have a thick icing.
  • You might have to adjust the thickness with  more lemon juice (or water) or with icing sugar.
  • Put the icing on the top of the cake and let it drip down the sides.

Served on Woodside by Royal Grafton from 1940 to 1959.

Carrot Variation

  • I  thought that this might be good using grated carrot instead of courgette – I used a medium sized carrot.
  • I used chopped walnuts, which I had, as when I had gone to get the hazelnuts, I got the last packet from my local shop and did not have time to go to anywhere else!

Nuts for sale in the Food Market in Rotterdam

Served on Stardust by Colclough from the 1960s.

Both versions were delicious and enjoyed by many!