Having cooked quite a few complex and challenging dishes over the last few weeks, I thought i'd take stock of the fridge and make something out of what we had in. A noble idea, but I still had to pop out to get a couple of bits.
Butternut Squash Soup
Determined to make a soup from scratch without cheating, I made a vegetable stock by boiling celery, onions, carrots, a tiny bit of garlic, parsely, a bay leaf in water for about an hour. I also added the centre pulp from the butternut squash, and seasoning.
I strained the stock through a fine seive, leaving a tasty, clear broth.
While the stock was boiling away, I roasted a whole butternut squash in olive oil and rock salt in a hot oven for 45 minutes. I was aiming to get some colour on the squash, but got impatient and took them out when they were just very soft. (In hindsight this worked much better, as if they were caremelised there would be black bits in the soup).
I simply blended the lovely, soft roasted butternut squash with the vegetable stock until it had a autumnal-soup consistency.
Does this count as a 2-ingredient soup if you don't count the stock? If so, it was a marvel, served with a drizzle of double cream and truffle oil.
Caesar salad
One of my favourite salads, I thought i'd attempt this from scratch... dressing and all.
For the dressing, I put into my trusty mini-blender:
- 3 egg yolks
- Olive oil
- Pinch of paprika
- Pinch of mustard powder
- Pinch of salt
- 4 anchovy fillets (from a jar in oil)
- A handful of grated parmesan
I then blended the shit out of it until it essentially turned it mayonnaise, and predictably seasoned to taste.
I just dressed some romaine lettuce leaves, and added some chopped anchovy fillets and crispy pancetta bits.
It was authentic, and quick - and i've also got at least 20 portions of caeser dressing left in the fridge, result!
Simple Macaroni Cheese
I'd forgotten how much I love macaroni cheese.
All there was to this was a roux with milk, and a bucketload of English mature cheddar.
So, I've cleared our fridge a bit and still managed to serve up some tasty food.
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