FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY DINNER

Yesterday was Bastille Day and we were invited to a revolutionary dinner to celebrate.

We dressed in style and had suitable revolutionary tales to tell.

The dinner itself was revolutionary.

It was a backward dinner.

First course - petit fours - Italian meringues, macaroons, ginger chocolates, Persian nougat

Second course - fresh fruits - strawberries, pineapple, grapes

Third course -  a cheese plate each with chevre, brie, gorganzola, quince jelly, bread

Fourth course - dessert, a delicious creme caramel

Fifth course -ballotine of chicken with asparagus and carrot

Sixth course - Alouettes sans tete - a meat skewer representing a body without a head

Seventh course - smoked salmon with salmon pate and endive and mustard and pumperknickel

Eighth course - chicken stock with a lovely meatball representing Marie Antoinette's head

and because it was someone's birthday we finished with cake and coffee.

Of course we had lots of champagne to drink

We started at 7pm and didn't finish eating until 2am in the morning

It truly was a modern day version of Babette's Feast.

Soups are great for winter and for healthy living.  I have a bowl of vegetable soup every evening during the week for my evening meal.  Today I started my year of healthy eating and exercise with the goal of losing around 20kg in one year in order to reach my ideal weight of 66.6kg

Week one         Sunday 15 July 2012          88.2kg

 

HOT  SOUPS

 Winter is the best time for soups.  When it’s dark and cold outside, soups are warming, comforting and nourishing.  Not only that, they are very easy to make, and you can make them out of ingredients you have handy in your fridge and pantry.  Soups are a great way to use leftovers or vegetables that need to be used quickly.  There are no rules in making soups but here are some suggestions.

 Purees – thick, smooth soups that are filling and easy to make
A puree soup takes about 10 to 15 minutes preparation and 20-30 minutes cooking time. You can use any vegetable you like but add potato or another starchy vegetable such as sweet potato, pumpkin or beans to give the soup lusciousness. 

1.      Simply sauté aromatics such as onion, leeks, garlic, celery, chilli, then add your choice of chopped vegetables and cover with stock.  (it is best to add tender leafy vegetables such as spinach when the other vegetables are almost cooked)

2.      Simmer until the vegetables are soft then add a little milk if you like (this helps cool the soup down and adds richness) and puree with a stick blender, food processor or liquidizer, depending on how smooth you would your soup to be.

3.      Season to taste and add some more milk or stock if the soup is too thick. 

4.      You can garnish the soup with all sorts of treats such as a dollop of cream or sour cream, grated parmesan cheese, knobs of blue cheese, sautéed scallops, prawns, crispy bacon bits, croutons, chopped herbs, even a dollop of tapenade or pesto.

Chunky soups – A meal in themselves

If you are going to use meat, choose cheap cuts which will become tender and moist with long slow cooking.  You can use meat on the bone such as lamb shanks, a smoked hock or whole chicken to make the stock if you like. 

1.      Simmer the meat covered with water to which you have added some onions, carrots, celery, peppercorns or whatever else you fancy to give flavour. 

2.      Cook until the meat is falling of the bone. 

3.      Strain the liquid and put it in your fridge overnight if you can so that you can skim the fat off the stock easily. 

4.      Meanwhile, when the meat is cool, shred the good bits to put back in the soup. 

Use your stock to make the soup

1.      Sauté some diced vegetables such as carrots, onions, leeks, garlic, chilli, celery and if you like some mushrooms, tomatoes, diced bacon or chorizo or spices to add flavour. 

2.      Add them to the heated stock along with other vegetables such as potatoes, swedes that need to simmer for a while and add hard herbs such as a bay leaf and sprig of thyme.

3.      When the vegetables are almost tender add any delicate leafy vegetables.

4.      Add any leftover cooked vegetables, cooked pasta and precooked meat at the last minute too so they heat through but don’t fall apart or become tough.

5.      Add chopped soft herbs such as parsley at the end.

You can add grains and pulses such as pearl barley, lentils, chick peas, beans and split peas as well as dumplings, pasta, noodles, rice and meatballs to make the soup more substantial. 

1.      An easy way to make meatballs is to buy some of your favourite flavoured organic sausages and squeeze meatball amounts out of them into the soup.

2.      Add canned beans and lentils and other cooked pulses and grains no more than half an hour before serving so they don’t turn to mush. 

3.      You can use dried pulses but they will need to be soaked overnight, drained, rinsed and added at the beginning of cooking. 

Asian soups – have a lovely fresh flavour and are very quick to cook

1.      Start off by heating up a good quality stock, or even a consommé.

2.      Add typical Asian flavours such some rice wine vinegar, some soy sauce, a little fish sauce, a dash of palm sugar or even sherry. 

3.      Add some garlic, ginger and chilli or lemon grass.

4.      Try to get a stock with a balance of salty, sweet, sour and savoury flavours and a dash of hot.

5.      While the soup is heating, pour some hot water over some Asian noodles.  Drain and add them to the soup along with some finely sliced vegetables such as carrot, mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, Chinese broccoli or bok choy. 

6.      Simmer these until they are almost tender then add some meat such as finely sliced fillet steak, green prawns, scallops, crab, shredded cooked chicken. 

7.      Garnish with some chopped coriander, a few leaves of Vietnamese mint, maybe a handful of bean sprouts and a squeeze of lime or serve lime quarters so diners can add their own to taste.

Consommé – great for starting a special dinner

A consommé is the easiest and most difficult soup to make. To start from scratch take one bullock, boil it, reduce it to a litre of stock over several days, strain it, then clarify it with eggshells to give a glistening jelly-like liquid with an intense flavour.  Yes, you can make your own consommé and it is a great way to use up the not-so-choice cuts of meat and the bones from an animal but if you are short on time this is one occasion when it is sensible to take the easy route and buy a carton or two of chicken or beef consommé from the supermarket (it is usually hidden in the soup section or sometimes in the stock section). 

1.      Gently warm up the consommé and have fun experimenting with additional flavours, for example:

·         ¼ cup sherry, some very finely diced button mushrooms and a pinch of dried tarragon

·         ¼ cup port, some sour cherries and some shredded duck. 

·         ½ red wine, sliced mushrooms and at the last moment some thinly sliced beef fillet. 

·         1 cup of shredded beetroot and a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar – instant borsch

2.      Simmer for 20 minutes and serve with cubes of bread fried in a good extra virgin olive oil