Farmersgirl Kitchen

Monday, 19 November 2012

Sweetcorn Chowder for No Croutons required

It's Lisa's turn to host 'No Croutons Required' this month: "As the winter holidays are soon upon us, this month I want you to come up with a vegetarian soup or salad that you would serve as part of a special holiday meal. It can be simple or elaborate - the choice is up to you."

We had a family party yesterday, it's usually a pre-Christmas party, but the weather has prevented us from holding it a couple of times, so we decided to bring it forward. The soup I made for this celebratory meal was a Sweetcorn Chowder, it was easy to make and lovely and creamy, the herby cheese really adds to the flavour and I had lots of positive comments from my guests.

Sweetcorn Chowder (serves 8)

4 shallots, finely chopped
2tbsp olive oil
400g (14oz) potatoes, peeled
50g (2oz) flour
350g frozen sweetcorn
900ml (1 1/2pt) vegetable stock
2 bay leaf
400ml (7fl oz) milk
50g Boursin (herb) cheese
bunch flat leaf parsley

1. Sauté the shallots in the olive oil gently for 4 minutes, making sure they don't colour. Cut the potatoes into small cubes. Add to the shallots and cook for a further 2 minutes.
2. Remove from the heat and add the flour, mixing well.
3. Add the frozen sweetcorn to the pan along with the stock and bay leaves. Mix well, bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
4. Add a little of the milk to the Boursin cheese to slacken it, mix into the rest of the milk then add to the soup and bring to the boil again and serve topped with finely chopped parsley.

Labels: Boursin, chowder, No Croutons Required, parsley, potato, Soup, sweetcorn, Sweetcorn Chowder

Sunday, 11 March 2012

Tapas for Sweet Heat Challenge

Tapas is the collective name for small, delicious mouthfuls of something savoury, served with a chilled white wine, beer or sherry. It comes from tapa, the Spanish word for lid - specifically, the lid created by th slice of bread that an innkeeper would place on top of a customer's wine glass to keep out the flies and dust between sips. Then the Andalucians decided to blanace a morsel fo something tasty on top of the bread to nibble on.

I'm hosting this month's Sweet Heat Challenge for Lyndsay at Vanilla Clouds and Lemon Drops and I have chosen Tapas as the theme. That means that the Tapas for the challenge has to include chilli in some form or other.

I decided to make my tapas into a meal, I added the sweetcorn after realising how meat based I had made my choice of dishes!

So, working from the front left in a clockwise direction: Chickpeas with Chorizo, Sweetcorn Bites roasted in butter, meatballs in Pepper and Tomato Salsa, Lamb Skewers with lemon and chilli.

My entry for Sweet Heat is Pepper and Tomato Salsa which was totally delicious and really lifted the basic ready made meatballs that I bought in the supermarket.

Pepper and Tomato Salsa

2 tbsp oilive oil

4 large cloves of garlic

2 large red peppers, deseeded and chopped

2 tins chopped tomatoes

2 strips of organge rind

pinch of chilli pepper flakes

salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil in a flameproof casserole dish. Add the garlic and peppers and cook for 10 minutes over a medium heat, stirring occasionally until the peppers are just soft. Add the tomatoes, orange rind and chilli pepper flakes, season to taste.

Simmer the sauce for about 45 minutes until the sauce thickens. Use a stick blender or liquidiser to puree the sauce.

I used ready made meatballs, I put them in an oven proof dish and cooked them in a hot oven (200C) for about 30 minutes until they were browned. Add to the sauce after it has been pureed, leave to absorb some of the flavour for an hour of so and reheat gently.

Serve the Meatballs warm, not hot. Would be good with couscous, rice, mash or chunks of crusty bread.

I'll post the recipes for the lamb and the chickpeas with chorizo another day.

I'd love you to take part in the Sweet Heat Challenge this month, the full details are available HERE

Labels: challenge, chickpeas, chilli, chorizo, lamb, meatballs, red pepper, Sweet Heat, sweetcorn, tomato

Monday, 21 November 2011

Quick Fish Parcels

I know that it appears that I am always either cooking or baking, but sometimes I really can't be bothered to spend hours in the kitchen preparing dinner. Saturday night was one of those nights, my husband was out at a concert so I pulled together this little fishy parcel from the freezer.

So what is in there? a frozen fish fillet, a few frozen prawns, a handful of rice, a sprinkling of sweetcorn with a knob of butter on top and some salt and pepper, then you make up the parcel, leaving one end open. Into that opening you pour half a glass of white wine, then seal it up. Cook from frozen, you can even stick it all back in the freezer until you are ready to cook it. Heat the oven to 200C and bake for 30 minutes.

The rice absorbs the wine and fishy, buttery juices and as you just tip the whole lot onto your plate, the washing up is minimal!

Labels: fish, prawns, rice, sweetcorn

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Farmersgirl Kitchen

Monday, 19 November 2012

Sweetcorn Chowder for No Croutons required

Sweetcorn Chowder (serves 8)

Sunday, 11 March 2012

Tapas for Sweet Heat Challenge

Monday, 21 November 2011

Quick Fish Parcels

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