Sunday 31 December 2017

Tom Kerridge's warming winter soups

Butternut squash soup with blue cheese and toasted pumpkin seeds



SERVES

4-6

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 75g butter
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp dried mushrooms
  • 1 large butternut squash (you will need about 500g squash flesh), peeled, deseeded and cut into 3cm dice
  • 1 litre chicken stock
  • 100ml double cream
  • 6 tbsp pumpkin seeds
  • 150g Stilton or other good quality blue cheese
  • 4 tsp pumpkin oil

METHOD

  1. Heat a little of the oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan and melt 25g of the butter. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and sweat until soft. Then add the dried mushrooms and cook for a further five minutes until the mushrooms have softened and have released some flavour.
  2. Add the squash and pour on the chicken stock. Bring to the boil then turn the heat down to a gentle simmer and cook until the squash is soft. This will take about 40 minutes.
  3. Pour in the double cream and bring to the boil. Remove the pan from the heat and place the solids in a blender. Blitz until smooth, adding as much of the stock mixture as you need to reach the right consistency.
  4. When blended, pass the soup through a fine sieve, season and keep until needed.
  5. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.
  6. Scatter the pumpkin seeds on a baking sheet and toast for five to eight minutes until they are a little tinged. Season with salt.
  7. Ladle the soup into bowls and crumble over the blue cheese. Sprinkle with the toasted pumpkin seeds and drizzle on the pumpkin oil. Serve with crusty bread.

Aromatic beetroot soup with green chilli and caper dressing

Serves 8 - 10

INGREDIENTS

  • 2kg beetroot, washed
  • 1 stick cinnamon
  • 4 star anise
  • 4 cloves
  • Rapeseed oil, for cooking
  • 1 bunch of thyme
  • 1kg onions, sliced
  • 2 tbsp mustard seeds
  • 300ml red wine vinegar
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
  • 150ml double cream
  • ½ green chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
  • 10 mint leaves, chopped, plus some whole to serve
  • 1½ tbsp capers, rinsed and drained
  • 4 tbsp crème fraîche
  • 1 lemon

METHOD

  1. Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas 5.
  2. Lay out a large sheet of tin foil on a large baking tray. Place the beetroot on the foil. Tie the cinnamon, star anise and cloves in a J-cloth or piece of muslin so that nothing can escape. Set the bag among the beetroot. Drizzle them with a good glug of rapeseed oil and scatter with the thyme sprigs. Place another piece of tin foil over the top and seal the edges by crimping them together to make a bag. Place the baking tray in the oven and cook for 1½ hours until the beetroot is tender. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
  3. Heat a little rapeseed oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan and cook the onion until soft. Add the mustard seeds, red wine vinegar and caster sugar and bring up to the boil. Cook over a high heat to reduce the mixture until the liquid has evaporated – careful not to burn it. Set aside.
  4. Open the foil bag and remove the skin from the beetroot – if cooked properly, these should just rub off. Chop the beetroot into even-sized chunks. Add to the onion pan and cover with the stock.
  5. Add the spice bag to the pan and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 25 minutes until the stock has reduced by a quarter. Add the double cream and bring back to the boil. Remove from the heat.
  6. Stir the chilli, chopped mint and capers into the crème fraîche. Zest the lemon and stir this in.
  7. Juice the lemon and add it to the beetroot then blend the soup until smooth. Pass through a fine sieve and season.
  8. Reheat the strained soup and serve with a dollop of the crème fraîche mixture and a few sprigs of mint.

Turnip and horseradish soup with chilli crispy lamb

SERVES 

4-6

INGREDIENTS

  • Vegetable oil for cooking
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 700g peeled and diced turnips
  • 800ml chicken stock
  • 200ml double cream
  • 3 tbsp fresh horseradish, grated
  • 75ml white wine vinegar
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 250g lamb breast
  • 70g cornflour
  • 2 green chillies, deseeded and finely sliced
  • Cayenne pepper, to season

METHOD

  1. Heat a little oil in a large pan and cook the onion until soft. Add the turnips and cover with the chicken stock.
  2. Bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer, and cook until the turnips are soft, about 10 to 15 minutes.
  3. Add the double cream and bring back to the boil then take off the heat and stir in the freshly grated horseradish.
  4. Transfer to a blender (holding back some of the liquid) and blitz until smooth. Add the liquid as needed – you might not need all of it.
  5. Place the vinegar and sugar in a pan and bring up to the boil, heating until the sugar has dissolved, then remove from the heat. Stir this gradually into the blended soup, tasting as you go, to give it a sweet acidity – you may not need it all. Season.
  6. Finely slice the lamb breast into little strips and toss them in cornflour for a light dusting. Heat enough vegetable oil to shallow fry the strips, cooking them until very crispy. Drain on kitchen paper.
  7. Scatter the chilli over the lamb and season with salt and cayenne pepper.
  8. Pour the soup into bowls and serve sprinkled with the crispy lamb and chilli mix.

7 Quotes to Get you Through your F*ck Ups. Via Sara McKee on Dec 30, 2017

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 The first time I really f*cked up, I slept in the Bangkok airport alone.

Trying to keep it together, I curled up onto a few airport seats with my backpack tucked under my legs and almost cried.
How did I end up here alone? Would I be safe in this place alone? Would I make it through the rest of the trip considering my current state of stupidity? The loop of negative thoughts lulled me into a restless sleep.
At 8 p.m., I woke up to adjust my backpack “pillow,” and noticed a woman curled up into a few airport seats across from me. We smiled at each other sheepishly, and I watched her take a similar position to mine. 
At 12 a.m., I woke up to three other women of different nationalities, who were all sleeping next to us, curled up in the same way.
As I popped my head up, stretched my aching legs, and looked around, I realized we had created a makeshift women’s hostel. It was a beautiful moment: women banding together to form a safety net for each other.
With this new appreciation of my current situation, I thought back to earlier in the day when three amazing women helped me get my passport from the Vietnamese embassy, even though it was closed when I got there. I thought about the taxi driver who drove above the speed limit to get me to the airport, and the manager at the airport who helped me find a new flight for the following morning after I missed my first one.
We are never as alone as we think we are in our struggles, and it is when we are at our most vulnerable that we can learn the greatest lessons.
As I popped my head up, stretched my aching legs, and looked around, I realized we had created a makeshift women’s hostel. It was a beautiful moment: women banding together to form a safety net for each other.
With this new appreciation of my current situation, I thought back to earlier in the day when three amazing women helped me get my passport from the Vietnamese embassy, even though it was closed when I got there. I thought about the taxi driver who drove above the speed limit to get me to the airport, and the manager at the airport who helped me find a new flight for the following morning after I missed my first one.
We are never as alone as we think we are in our struggles, and it is when we are at our most vulnerable that we can learn the greatest lessons.
As I popped my head up, stretched my aching legs, and looked around, I realized we had created a makeshift women’s hostel. It was a beautiful moment: women banding together to form a safety net for each other.
With this new appreciation of my current situation, I thought back to earlier in the day when three amazing women helped me get my passport from the Vietnamese embassy, even though it was closed when I got there. I thought about the taxi driver who drove above the speed limit to get me to the airport, and the manager at the airport who helped me find a new flight for the following morning after I missed my first one.
We are never as alone as we think we are in our struggles, and it is when we are at our most vulnerable that we can learn the greatest lessons.
Here are seven quotes to take to heart when you f*ck up :
>> “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” ~ Albert Einstein
>> “When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way.” ~ Paulo Coelho
>> “We learn from failure, not from success!” ~ Bram Stoker, Dracula
>> “I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.” ~ Neil Gaiman
>> “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” ~ Oscar Wilde
>> ”You will fail at some point in your life. Accept it. You will lose. You will embarrass yourself. You will suck at something. There is no doubt about it. Never be discouraged. Never hold back. Give everything you’ve got. And when you fall throughout life, and maybe even tonight after a few too many glasses of champagne, all forward.” ~ Denzel Washington
>> ”Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
We’re often faced with the consequences of our own blunders and absent-mindedness. We get so wrapped up in the moment that we forget to see the good things—however small they may be. 
We then beat ourselves up about it and forget that we are human, and humans make mistakes. We give into the struggle and let it keep us from moving forward. We forget that the struggle is what unites us.
We all f*ck up now and then, but it’s how we come back from it that makes the journey an adventure.
~
Author: Sara McKee

Friday 29 December 2017

Fairy Tale

Now this is the story of Olaf
Who ages and ages ago
Lived right on the top of a mountain,
A mountain all covered with snow.
And he was quite pretty and tiny
With beautiful curling fair hair
And small hands like delicate flowers--
Cheeks kissed by the cold mountain air.
He lived in a hut made of pinewood
Just one little room and a door
A table, a chair, and a bedstead
And animal skins on the floor.
Now Olaf was partly fairy
And so never wanted to eat;
He thought dewdrops and raindrops were plenty
And snowflakes and all perfumes sweet.
In the daytime when sweeping and dusting
And cleaning were quite at an end,
He would sit very still on the doorstep
And dream--O, that he had a friend!
Somebody to come when he called them,
Somebody to catch by the hand,
Somebody to sleep with at night time,
Somebody who'd quite understand.
One night in the middle of Winter
He lay wide awake on his bed,
Outside there was fury of tempest
And calling of wolves to be fed--
Thin wolves, grey and silent as shadows;
And Olaf was frightened to death.
He had peeped through a crack in the doorpost,
He had seen the white smoke of their breath.
But suddenly over the storm wind
He heard a small voice pleadingly
Cry, "I am a snow fairy, Olaf,
Unfasten the window for me."
So he did, and there flew through the opening
The daintiest, prettiest sprite
Her face and her dress and her stockings,
Her hands and her curls were all white.
And she said, "O you poor little stranger
Before I am melted, you know,
I have brought you a valuable present,
A little brown fiddle and bow.
So now you can never be lonely,
With a fiddle, you see, for a friend,
But all through the Summer and Winter
Play beautiful songs without end."
And then,--O she melted like water,
But Olaf was happy at last;
The fiddle he tucked in his shoulder,
He held his small bow very fast.
So perhaps on the quietest of evenings
If you listen, you may hear him soon,
The child who is playing the fiddle
Away up in the cold, lonely moon.
Katherine Mansfield
Art Kjell Midthun,


What 2017 Was Like for the World’s Oldest Trees

General Sherman is not only very old but also very large.
General Sherman is not only very old but also very large. MIKE BAIRD/CC BY 2.0
FOR MANY HUMAN BEINGS, 2017 might have seemed like a very long year. On a human timescale, this year was crammed with events—rising tensions in international relations, record-breaking natural and manmade disasters, deaths of iconic figures.
But think in tree time, and this past year doesn’t seem particularly remarkable. Certainly the changing climate might be adding stress to the lives of trees, but most of those that have survived for thousands of years are well-equipped to survive this one, the one after, the one after that, and so on for hundreds, even thousands more years. From a tree’s perspective, 2017 was not much better or worse than 1517, 1017, 17, or even 2017 B.C.
Here’s how some of the world’s oldest trees might have summed up this past year.
A bristlecone pine nearby.
A bristlecone pine nearby. CHAO YEN/CC BY-ND 2.0

Methuselah and Old Hara

5,000-year-old bristlecone pines in California

The sun shone. Rain fell, no more than three inches each month. Fire blazed nearbybut did not touch the grove. Small limber pines grew further upslope than ever in human memory, creeping into bristlecone territory.
Pando, the Trembling Giant
Pando, the Trembling Giant J ZAPELL/PUBLIC DOMAIN

Pando

50,000-year-old clonal aspen stand in Utah

Pando struggled. Its root system, 80,000 years old, supports more than 47,000 trees, most of which are nearing the end of an aspen stem’s lifespan of 110 to 130 years. In June, the new shoots—the young trees that could replace the senescent—sprouted. Outside the fencing that the park rangers have erected, deer feasted on the shoots; inside, fewer were eaten. It will be another decade before the community’s survival is assured.
A yew for you.
A yew for you. JEFF BUCK/CC BY-SA 2.0

Llangernyw Yew

4,000-year-old yew in Wales

Most months, it rained more than a foot. The days were never too warm; the nights never dropped below freezing. As an evergreen, the yew only shed its older leaves.
The only tree in its neighborhood.
The only tree in its neighborhood. TRUTHBEETHOVEN/CC BY-SA 3.0

Sarv-e Abarkuh

4,000-year-old cypress in Iran

The grass and the hedge that circle the tree posed no competition, but still the water was shorter than in other years.
A very old olive tree.
A very old olive tree. JOHAN WIELAND/CC BY-ND 2.0

Olive Tree of Vouves

2,000-year-old olive in Crete

The sun shone. The summer was dry, as it always is. The olives grew and matured.
It takes hours to reach this tree and yet people keep visiting.
It takes hours to reach this tree and yet people keep visiting. Σ64/CC BY 3.0

Jōmon Sugi

2,100-year-old cedar in Japan

In the warm and humid forest, the tree continued to grow, separated now from the clamor of increasing numbers of human visitors, who must view it from a platform 15 feet away.
Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi
Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi CHAMAL N/CC BY-SA 3.0

Jaya Shri Maha Bodhi

2,300-year-old fig tree in Sri Lanka

It was warm this year, as it always is. The tree’s roots breathed easier now that humans are kept farther from its base.
An ancient tree in Alerce.
An ancient tree in Alerce. CRISTIAN BARAHONA MIRANDA/CC BY-SA 3.0

Gran Abuelo

3,600-year-old patagonian cypress in Chile

UNESCO declared the national park where the tree lives a world heritage site; the tree, unmoved, continued to grow in the mountains, not so far from the ocean, where it was neither too cold nor too warm.
A specimen of Huon pine from a botanical garden.
A specimen of Huon pine from a botanical garden. S. RAE/CC BY 2.0

Old Huon Pine

10,000-year-old stand of Lagarostrobos in Tasmania

The trees here, some as old as 3,000 years, are clones of each other, joined by the same root system. They don’t care that humans call them pines when they’re not technically pines; they stand through snow and rain. Each tree may have grown as much as 2 millimeters this year.
The trunk is hundreds of years old; its roots have been living for almost 10,000 years.
The trunk is hundreds of years old; its roots have been living for almost 10,000 years. KARL BRODOWSKY/CC BY-SA 3.0

Old Tjikko

9,550-year-old spruce in Sweden

Above ground, the spruce survived another year, of hundreds; when it dies back, the roots below will grow another one.

Thursday 28 December 2017

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies



INGREDIENTS

  • 1 c. butter (2 sticks), softened
  • 1 c. granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp. peppermint extract
  • 2 c. all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
  • 5 to 6 drops green food coloring
  • 1 c. chopped Andes

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350° and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. In a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Add egg and peppermint and mix until fully combined.
  2. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and green food coloring and mix until just combined and the dough is green to your liking. Fold in chopped Andes.
  3. Using a small cooking scoop, from small balls and place on baking sheets about 2" apart. Sprinkle with sugar.
  4. Bake until the cookies are puffed and set, 10 to 12 minutes.
  5. Let cool for 10 minutes on baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.



Wednesday 27 December 2017

Twas the day after Christmas

Twas the day after Christmas,
And all ‘cross the land
All the people were saying,
“Wasn’t Christmas just grand?”
The children were joyful,
The parents were tired,
And grandfolks, aunts and uncles
Had been really inspired.
The stockings still hung by the chimneys with care
But the toes were now empty; there was nothing left there.
All the presents were opened
The carols all had been sung
We’d enjoyed our big gathering
Where we’d seen everyone.
But beneath all the clutter, the leftovers and toys
Was the meaning eternal, and the source of our joys.
For we’d focused our time not on gifts, not on food
But on the true source of our holiday mood.
We read verses, we sang songs, we remembered and smiled
For the cause of it all was the holy Christ Child.
So may we proclaim ‘ere the year starts again:
Let’s promote peace on earth, and good will to men.
Author unknown
Art Donna Race