Cold cucumber and strawberry soup

A refreshing soup in the strawberry season

I had an eye-opening moment this May when I realised that the lunch take-away places had stopped serving soup. I checked out all my regular soup places and sighed my way out shoulders sinking lower at each door. It seemed like all of them had agreed to stop serving soup as of first of May. It slowly sank in it that this must be the normal practice. Soup is served in winter and replaced by green and mixed salads in summer. OK, makes sense.

The thing that didn´t quite make sense was the fact that this year the whole May was an extension of winter. The maximum day temperatures swinging between 8-13 degrees Celsius. Far from the weather that calls for a cooling salad. Moreover, the prepared towers of salad boxes did not seem to be selling as fast as oven warm bread at all. But rules are rules or traditions are traditions. No soup after 1st May regardless of the outside temperatures.

The other thing that didn´t quite make sense for me, an eager soup fan, was a selfish question of what if I wish to eat soup all year round. The answer to that would be to make your own soup or go to a sit-down restaurant as they still serve soups all year round.

I can hear the nutritionists in the West, East and ayurvedic rush to explain that the hot weather requires cold or moderate temperature foods. Fair enough. In summer, there is a place for cold soups.

Gazpacho in Spain, šaltibarščiai Lithuania, cold beetroot and buttermilk soup in Estonia, a chilled cucumber soup or a highlight last summer a cold lemon confit soup at Le Pré Verre in Paris,  all a blessing in the heat. These are just a few that immediately flash through my mind when I think of cold soups.

Ingredients for the cucumber-strawberry soup

Cold cucumber and strawberry soup
Strawberries go well with black pepper and peppermint and let combine in a savoury dish equally gracefully.

Ingredients for 2 portions or 6 small appetisers
half a long salad cucumber, peeled and cut into small pieces
250g fresh strawberries, green tops removed, cut into small pieces
1-2dl tomato passata or any tomato sauce a nature
1 small clove of fresh garlic, chrushed
a small bunch of fresh thyme, finely chopped
a small bunch of fresh Moroccan peppermint leaves, finely chopped
juice of half a lemon
salt
black pepper
1 tsp sugar
extra virgin olive oil


Mix the cucumbers and strawberries with herbs and seasonings

Mix the cucumber and strawberry pieces with the tomato sauce, garlic, thyme, peppermint,  salt, black pepper, sugar and leave to marinate for 30 minutes.

Purée in a blender or with a hand mixer until smooth.
Taste for salt, sweetness and spice and ajust if necessary.
Keep refrigerated until serving. Serve with some extra virgin olive oil sprinkled on top.

The soup has low calories, however does fill the stomach quite well.



Cold soup of cucumber and strawberry served as a small appetizer

Experiencing Cooking Class and Discovering Tagine

I discovered that one of my work associates in the UK is a passionate cook and visited a cookery class during one of his holidays. I was very curious, since I have been playing with the idea of doing it myself. I thought his week in the class passed with lots of laughter and lots of great cooking and was surprised to hear that the action in the kitchen was done in a very pleasant atmosphere and since people took the cooking very seriously it was almost reverential. Wow!
Read David's story...

Experiencing Cooking Class and Discovering Tagine
by David Skinner

Based on my attendance at two cookery schools* in England – one in the south and one in the north – I would really recommend the experience. 

Whether you want to learn new kitchen skills, try out new recipe ideas – or even just take a mental break from work the format of the one day courses offered seemed very well designed.  I was really surprised by how much the Chef instructors can teach you in a day – but it is quite tiring and I noticed that some people who were on a week’s course started to want a break by the time Thursday evening came.

Although it might seem obvious to more experienced cooks, in terms of general technique the big aha for me was the need to protect flavour – even when cooking dinner party style menus.  Some of the key practical insights about this were:

-        use of very good quality sea salts added to the main ingredient of a dish right at the start

-       an ‘only chop once’ approach to preparing soft green herbs which are then added to the dish just at the last minute before serving

-       blanching of vegetables in boiling water for one minute only before cooling them in ice water and then re-heating them in a few drops of water with added rapeseed oil just before serving

-       using rapeseed oil rather than olive oil whenever a recipe calls for heating the oil (olive oil takes on a less pleasant taste when heated over 70C) 

With regard to recipes the biggest discovery for me was the delight of tagines and in fact many of the flavours and textures of Moroccan cuisine in general.

The conical shape of the tagine lid is designed to act as a condenser for the steam generated by the cooking.  This means you can slowly casserole meat, poultry or fish with vegetables, spices and sumptuous fruits like figs, dates, lemons and apricots using very little added water.  The result is a flavoursome and spicy - but not too ‘chilli hot’ - fruity dish with a pleasantly dry texture.

I tried out a chicken tagine based menu that I learned on a group of friends and they reacted really positively (they took second helpings  which is always good feedback I think!)

A very important Moroccan flavour component is the Chermoula paste used as a marinade before cooking the chicken in the tagine.

Chermoula paste is made from the following ingredients using an electric blender:

2          Spanish onions

5          (yes, five!) cloves of garlic

1          lemon, juiced

1          bunch of flat-leaved parsley

1          bunch fresh coriander

Sea-salt to season

Cumin powder, coriander powder, chilli powder and turmeric powder – all added to taste

Half a cup of rapeseed oil

Chicken pieces should be marinaded in this paste for at least one hour (in the fridge)

When ready, sauté the chicken pieces to colour in a large frying pan, allowing space between piece so each has chance to brown rather than steam.

Place the chicken pieces in a tagine and then add the following ingredients:

A dash of rapeseed oil

Another Spanish onion roughly chopped in six pieces

2          carrots, roughly chopped

1          small sweet potato, roughly chopped

1          tablespoon honey

handful of (pitted) black olives

half lemon, finely chopped

handful of dates, stones removed

Add a little chicken stock, but not enough to bubble over during the cooking.  Remember that the tagine is designed to condense the steam from the cooking liquid and so it should not boil dry.  Keep a watch on it just in case though, especially if you leave it cooking for a long time. 

Cooking time is a minimum of one hour, but the tagine could be left on a low heat after that so there is no rush if you are serving it at a dinner party.

The menu I learned recommended serving well-flavoured cous cous with the tagine – and there are many recipes available for this to suit a wide variety of tastes.

The internet has many tagine recipes and indeed Moroccan starters and accompanying dishes.  They all seem quite straightforward, but, it takes a little experimentation with the many spices involved to get the flavour you want - so the key seems to be to add a little of each at a time.

Overall, I feel that my first experiences at cookery school were very pleasant as a holiday which I would thoroughly recommend to anyone interested in cookery – and – I have learned a lot that I can continue to use in cooking for family and friends.

*The two schools were:  Ashburton in the Dartmoor National Park in the south of England and LucyCooks in Staveley which is in the English Lake District.  Both schools are in beautiful parts of England and so would form a convenient part of a touring holiday.

The tagine recipe described above was from LucyCooks.