Spicy tomato soup

So we've had spicy tomato sauce and now it's time for spicy tomato soup. Basically what that means is we're not keeping up with all our chillies and tomatoes. We haven't even had time to make our celebratory beetroot and chocolate cake yet because of all the tomatoes. We're not complaining though and enjoyed a very spicy soup in our very windy garden this afternoon.

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 spring onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red chilli, seeds removed and chopped* (add 2 small chillies if you're feeling brave)
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin powder
1 tbsp tomato paste
1,5 kg fresh tomatoes, blanched and chopped
200ml vegetable stock
Basil leaves, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the onion and stir until it becomes soft.
2. Add the garlic, chilli, coriander, cumin and tomato paste and stir for approximately a minute.
3. Add chopped tomatoes and bring to the boil.
4. Reduce heat to low, partially cover pot with lid and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occassionally
5. Puree the soup in a blender.
6. Return to the pot and add a little to all of the vegetable stock depending on how thick you want the soup to be. Our tomatoes had a lot of juice in them so I didn't add much of the stock.
7. Stir slowly until hot again and add salt and pepper to taste.
8. Serve into bowls and add basil leaves.
9. Bon appetit!


*Useful tip: Remember to wash hands well after chopping the chillies. You can also rub a bit of olive oil over your hands too as that will get rid of any remaning chilli on your fingers. Don't, like me, absent-mindedly touch your face after chopping the chillies. You'll be crying into your tomato soup!

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday Cowick Garden Cafe. One year old today! In celebration we'll be baking a chocolate and beetroot cake. Recipe coming soon!

Simply spicy pasta sauce

We've just come back from a few days in the very hot city of Rome (39 degrees C!) Inspired by the heat and all the delicious Italian food we ate, as well as an abundance of tomatoes in the greenhouse and some very red chillies on the kitchen window sill upon our return, we decided to put together a simple tomato pasta sauce. Our Italian friends in Rome gave us this very easy recipe and said that the essence of Italian food is simplicity. So here is our very simple spicy pasta sauce:

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 red chillies, finely choppped
6 large tomatoes, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper


Method

1. Pour the olive oil into a pan and add the crushed garlic.
2. Cook on a medium heat until the garlic turns golden and then add the chillies.
3. After a couple of minutes add the chopped tomatoes.
4. Bring to a simmer and then cook for approximately 45 minutes or until the sauce starts to thicken.
5.Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with your favourite pasta.
6. Bellissimo!

Creamy courgette and chilli pasta

This recipe was inspired by a good friend who said she adapted the mangetout tagliatelle stir-fry recipe by adding  some fennel (from Cowick Garden) and courgettes to it. I thought this was an excellent idea and so we tried our own version of it last night. It was delicious. We added our first red chilli from the garden too!

Ingredients 
2 medium courgettes, grated
150g peas
1 spring onion
2bsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red chilli, finely chopped
8 tbsp single cream
250g tagliatelle
Parmesan cheese, grated
Fennel leaves

Method
1. Cook the tagliatelle in a pot of boiling water and steam the peas.
2. While the pasta and peas are cooking, add the oil, garlic and chillies to the frying pan over a low to medium heat and stir together for a few minutes.
3. Add the grated courgettes to the chilli garlic and mix together well. After a few minutes add the cream and continue stirring.
4. When the courgettes have turned into a green creamy mixture and feel very soft, add the peas and then the pasta and toss well.
5. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and garnish with fennel leaves.
6. Enjoy with a glass of good French wine!

Sunny Garden Cafe

  

  

A day in the sun

Hot beetroot salad with goat's cheese

We harvested our first beetroots yesterday and they were so tasty. We pulled three out of the ground and turned them into a mouth-watering salad with honey, mustard and goat's cheese.  The recipe is below - it's an adaption of a hot beetroot salad we discovered on the BBC Good Food website.

Ingredients

3 raw beetroots
1 lemon
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp clear honey
1 tsp grainy mustard
Lots of goat's cheese!

Method

1. Boil the beetroot for about 20-30 minutes depending on the size. The larger the beetroot the longer the boiling time.
2. Test the beetroot is cooked by inserting a sharp knife into it, if the beetroot slides off easily then it is cooked.
3. Peel the beetroot and slice into thin circles.
4. Add a little oil into a frying pan and gently fry the beetroot for a couple of minutes.
5. Drizzle the juice of the lemon over the beetroot.
6. Add the honey and mustard and toss so all the slices are well coated.
7. Crumble a very generous helping of goat's cheese on top of the beetroot slices and serve.