A few days ago I acquired a copy of Mary McCartney's Food, and a combination of the cold weather we've been having and the fact that butternut squash was on offer in my local supermarket made me decide to make her roasted butternut squash and rosemary soup. I knew I didn't have rosemary at home, but I thought what the heck, I'll try it anyway. Only when I got back armed with the butternut squash, I also discovered I didn't have three other key ingredients - celery, carrots and creme fraiche/sour cream. Still, I decided to plow on, and my adaptation turned out to be pretty flipping delicious. Here's my recipe, with notes about McCartney's below.
1. Cut the butternut squash in half, take out the seeds, drizzle with olive oil and put in an oven at 170 degrees C for around 45 minutes. Once done, leave to cool slightly, then scoop out the insides.
2. Finely dice two medium onions and crush a clove of garlic and saute for about five minutes in olive oil. Add the butternut squash you've scooped out, half a tsp of chilli flakes and 800ml of vegetable stock. Simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Add salt and black pepper to taste and take off the heat. Leave to cool, then add two tbsps of Greek yoghurt and blend the mixture until smooth. Reheat to piping and serve.
McCartney's recipe involved laying rosemary sprigs in the hollow part of each squash before roasting, which could be discarded after. She also advised on peeling the skin off the squash and cutting it into pieces after taking it out of the oven, but I found this too fiddly so just went with the scooping method. Her recipe called for sauteing a carrot and two sticks of celery with the onion, and she didn't use garlic. And McCartney's recipe uses two tablespoons of creme fraiche or soured cream where I used Greek yoghurt.
I've never made a prawn curry before, and my first attempt turned out pretty well, thanks to the great recipe I used by Meena Pathak - who with her husband set up the Patak's brand of curry sauces. I used a recipe from Pathak's book Flavours of India, which was published in 2002, but it's got some great recipes in it so well worth buying even though it's more than a decade old. I made a few tiny changes to the recipe, outlined below, but have given Pathak's instructions as well, so you can choose what you want to do.
1. Heat three tbsp of oil in a wok, and add a tsp of cumin seeds. When they start crackling add 200g of chopped onions (roughly three small onions). Cook for 10 minutes, lid off, stirring occasionally.
2. Add a tsp each of fresh crushed garlic and fresh crushed ginger (Pathak recommends using pastes), and fry for a minute.
3. Add 250g of fresh, chopped tomatoes (roughly four good sized tomatoes), and half a tsp each of red chilli powder and turmeric. Cook for 10 minutes, lid on, stirring occasionally.
4. When the oil starts separating from the sauce add 250g of king prawns (Pathak's recipe uses 400g of large prawns, which will make the recipe a little less spicy), and a little salt to taste. I used frozen prawns. Pathak also uses a pinch of sugar, but I don't like using sugar in savoury recipes. Cook for 10 minutes, lid off, stirring occasionally, until the prawns turn pink.
5. Add half a tsp each of crushed red chillis, crushed black peppercorns, crushed fennel seeds and crushed coriander seeds. Pathak uses fennel powder, but I only had seeds handy, so just crushed everything bar the chillis together in a pestle and mortar myself.
6. Cook for about two minutes, and it's ready. If you have it handy, Pathak recommends stirring in some fresh coriander just before taking it off the heat, and sprinkling some on top as well. I served the dish with chapattis and Greek yoghurt.
Enjoy!
These wraps make a great light lunch, particularly served with a mixed salad. I took inspiration from a Jamie Oliver recipe I found online, but replaced or added a lot of my own ingredients and made a lot of stuff up. It worked pretty well though!
1. Slice one onion and fry in olive oil until soft and starting to turn brown. Add a crushed clove of garlic, around a level tsp of chilli powder (depending on how spicy you want it), and some cumin. Mix.
2. Add in a tin of baked beans and around 150g of tinned tomatoes. Top up with some fresh tomatoes. Cook for around 10 minutes (lid off the pan) until the mixture begins to thicken.
3. Take a third of the mix and blend in a food processor until smooth to make a paste.
4. In a frying pan, cook some sliced red peppers in a little oil. I also added some vegetarian mince and cooked that as well. Once this is ready (should only take a few minutes) add to the rest of the bean mix that you haven't blended.
5. Take a tortilla wrap, spread some of the paste across all of one side. Spread some of the bean/pepper/mince mixture on one half. Grate some cheese on top, then roll and place in a baking dish. Do the same until you've run out of paste and mixture (should make four wraps).
6. Grate a little more cheese over the top, then stick in the oven for around 20 minutes, until the wraps start to crisp slightly at the edges.
7. Serve, eat and enjoy.
This soup is really easy to make and is great as a light lunch, starter or even a main meal if served with bread and salad. It's got a kick to it, so make sure to have a glass of milk nearby if you're not so good with hot dishes. This recipe makes enough for four people and should only take around 35 minutes.
1. Heat 2tbsp of olive oil in a large saucepan, then add one finely chopped red onion.
2. When the onion is starting to go soft, add 1-2 finely chopped fresh green chillies (deseeded), two finely chopped garlic cloves, half a tsp of dried oregano, 1tsp of ground cumin and a pinch of cayenne pepper or red chilli powder. If you don't want it too hot, stick with one fresh green chilli, and don't use the cayenne/red chilli powder.
3. Stir in a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes and 650ml of hot vegetable stock. Bring gently to the boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer gently for 15 minutes.
4. Add in a 400g tin of black eyed beans (drained and rinsed) and 5tbsp of tinned or frozen sweetcorn. Simmer for five minutes.
5. Add in a splash of lemon or lime juice, and some coriander. Season with salt, black pepper and a pinch of sugar to taste.
6. Serve with a dollop of Greek yoghurt or soured cream on top, with toasted pitta bread or any other bread of your choice.
