roast potato and parsnip soup with parsley oil and crispy bacon

More comfort food for a wintry day, made from what I had available in the fridge. This is a smooth yet hearty soup, and very easy to whip up. Worth taking the extra step of roasting the vegies, especially the garlic.

You will need:
4 small parsnips
4 medium potatoes
1 onion
1 bulb of garlic
1 litre vegetable stock
1 rasher of bacon per serve
a handful of flat leaf parsley
unsalted butter
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

bread and butter, to serve.

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 200'c. Dice the parsnip and potato, and slice the top off the garlic bulb. Spread evenly onto a baking tray and place into oven for approximately 20 minutes, then remove the garlic bulb and return the remaining vegetables to the oven for another 20 minutes.

Bring the stock to the boil. Dice the onion and then sautee in a large saucepan until just translucent. Add the roasted vegetables and vegetable stock and bring to a simmer. Transfer to a blender and blitz until smooth. Meanwhile, lay the bacon flat on a baking rack and cook in the 200'c oven for approximately 15 minutes, until just crisped.

Strain the soup back into the saucepan, removing any fibres or lumps. Leave over a very low heat to remain warm. Taste and adjust seasoning with freshly cracked salt and pepper.

Blend olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper until a coarse paste forms.

Portion the soup into individual bowls and serve, topped with a drizzle of the parsley oil and a rasher of crisped bacon (optional). Perfect with sourdough bread and butter. Enjoy!

sweet potato, parsley and walnut risotto

I promised I'd be back quickly! This is a bastardization of risotto, a version that will get a delicious meal on your table with a minimum of fuss and effort. The dish takes less than half an hour from beginning to end and is really delicious.

You will need:

A small sweet potato, peeled and cubed
One small onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
3 tablespoons olive oil plus extra to finish the dish
2 cups arborio rice
3/4 cup white wine or verjuice
1 litre vegetable stock.
Freshly milled parmesan cheese
1/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1/4 cup roughly chopped flat leaf parsley

What to do:

Place the vegetable stock in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then reduce to lowest temp and leave to simmer. Meanwhile, put olive oil in a frying pan and, over moderately high heat, fry the onion and garlic until they begin to gain translucency. Add the cubes of sweet potato and stir, then the rice. Leave to fry for a minute or two, then add the white wine. Stir until it has halved in volume. Reduce the heat to low/medium and add half of the stock. Stir. Leave the risotto to cook for 9 minutes, then add the remaining stock. Stir, then leave to cook for 12 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Use the back of a wooden spoon to press down on the sweet potato, mashing half of it through the risotto. This will give it a rich colour and deep flavour.

Add most of the milled parmesan cheese, reserving enough to top the serves, and stir, then remove from heat. Continue to stir until all the liquid is absorbed. At the last moment, add the parsley, then portion into serving bowls. Top with a flourish of olive oil and the walnuts, and a little extra cheese. Serve immediately.

I think I used to cook

I still love this blog. I still want to learn new recipes voraciously. I haven't forgotten, I promise. My bedside table is littered with cooking magazines, books and notepads filled with scrawled shopping lists and menu ideas. The other day, I got two new posts on different recipes I'd put up, and it gave me such pleasure to know that, though I've been remiss in my updates, what I've previously written is still being read. So I had to post again.

In the last year, I've moved countries, landed my dream job - working with a revered aussie cook who is so incredible it just blows my mind, got diabetes, got married, and now... got pregnant! Yes, lovely husband (aka my partner in culinary crime) and I have a little foodling munching its way into the world, due to make an appearance in October. How lucky are we?

Slightly less lucky is the constant morning sickness I've been plagued with, and the total food aversions. I'm only just managing to regain some semblance of a normal diet, though will admit with desperation that my post preg diet is foul when compared to the delicious and nutritious meals I previously devoured. For the first time since being a pimply teen, I find myself hankering for salt and vinegar crisps or choc coated liquorice, or worse, two minute noodles. gulp.

In three weeks time, I'm cutting my work back substantially, and hot on my agenda to fill the days is a resumption of cooking mayhem and marvelousness. I have a freezer to stock with ready to re-heat meals, after all... Any suggestions for challenges would be most welcome.
dd.x