Cold Cucumber, Herb & Yoghurt Soup with Verjuice Granita

I hope you'll enjoy this cold yoghurty cucumber soup, topped with feathery flakes of frozen Verjuice. With its lovely contrast of herbal creaminess and sweet, crunchy acidity, this is a splendid starter for a blazing day. There are deep, clean, singing flavours here that make you want to drink it in buckets, as if it is exactly what your body craves.  This low-carb recipe is suitable for diabetics.

Cold Cucumber, Herb & Yoghurt Soup with Verjuice Granita 

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Wine recommendation by Michael Olivier.  He says: "Klein Constantia Metis Sauvignon Blanc 2014." 

 It looks like: Packed in the bottle embossed with the Constantia logo, the fusion of philosophies is reflected in the flower on the label that is a hybrid of the South African Protea and French Iris. In the glass a pale gold with green amber flashes. 

 It smells like: Pure classical good Sauvignon aromas. White fleshed peaches and nectarines. Grapefruit oil. 

 It taste like: Rich, vibrant palate. Generous fruit, blackcurrant leaves, almost savoury. Minerals present in the exciting lime squirt in the long aftertaste. This is a laster if well stored could go up to 8 years after vintage.

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I've had fun this month developing a series of new recipes using Verjuice, and this is the first of nine. Are you familiar with Verjuice?  It's a delicate, slightly tart, somewhat sweet, unfermented juice made from unripe grapes, popular as an acidulating agent in Roman times and the Middle Ages.

In recent times, this ingredient's been revived by Maggie Beer, one of Australia's best-loved cooks, food writers and restaurateurs. My aunt, the brilliant Gilly Walters of Wedgewood Nougat fame, introduced me to this ingredient some years ago, and I always have a bottle of it in my kitchen. What I love about Verjuice is that it doesn't have any of the throat-raspiness of vinegar - it's a gentle ingredient that sings sweetly in the background.

Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing some of my new Verjuice recipes with you, and I hope they encourage you to experiment with this intriguing ingredient over the festive season (you'll find it at Woolies).

When I first wrote this recipe down, I recommended serving it immediately, but I found that its flavour developed and mellowed over the next day, so feel free to make it up to 24 hours in advance (but keep it in the fridge, tightly covered, in a non-metallic bowl).

Make sure the serving bowls are very well chilled, or make pretty ice bowls in which to serve this beautiful starter.

Cold Cucumber, Herb & Yoghurt Soup with Verjuice Granita 

For the granita:

½ cup (125 ml) Verjuice

For the soup:

2 chilled English cucumbers (about 700 g)
2 Tbsp (30 ml) Verjuice
1 cup (250 ml) Greek yoghurt
1 small clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1/3 cup (80 ml) chopped curly parsley
1/3 cup (80 ml) chopped chives
3 Tbsp (45 ml) chopped dill
1 tsp (5 ml) Tabasco sauce
3 Tbsp (45 ml) cream
salt & milled black pepper

First make the granita.  Pour the Verjuice into a small metal pan and freeze for 45-90 minutes, or until just frozen - the time it takes will depend on how efficient your freezer is.  Use a fork to scratch and scrape at the surface to create light, feathery crystals. Return the dish to the freezer.

Lightly peel the cucumbers, leaving a little green skin here and there. Roughly chop and place in a food processor with all the remaining ingredients, except the cream and seasoning.  Whizz until very smooth. Now stir in the cream and season to taste with salt and plenty of black pepper.

Serve immediately in chilled bowls, topping each serving with a heaped spoonful of Verjuice granita, plus a scattering of chives or dill fronds.

Serves 4.  

(Note/Disclaimer:  I was paid a professional fee to develop these recipes and supply photographs, but this fee did not include featuring them on my blog and elsewhere. This I do because I'm pleased with these dishes and want to share them with you.)

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Low-Carb Tomato & Onion Beef Curry with Herby Cauliflower 'Couscous'

An aromatic slow-cooked curry in a tomato and onion gravy, served with low-carb cauliflower & turmeric 'couscous' and a refreshing cucumber, mint and coriander raita.  This curry takes some time to put together, but once you've assembled it, you can boot it into the oven and leave it to burble for several hours, during which time you can drift into the kitchen to make the raita and cauliflower couscous.

Low-Carb Tomato & Onion Beef Curry with a fresh yoghurt/cucumber raita.

This is a delicately spiced curry, just the way I like them.  Although I'm smitten by the warming spices of Indian cuisine, I don't like aggressive curries with bitter or overly pungent spices. Last year, watching one of the interminable series of MasterChef Australia, I wanted to tweak the nose of one of the judges, who added fistfuls of every spice known to mankind to his curry. No need for that, boet!

Some spices are so powerfully perfumed that they can easily ruin the taste of a curry - cumin, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves are good examples.  I like a curry with many subtle layers of flavour, with no one spice stomping bossily over all the others. A subtle hand with spicing is the secret to creating complex and intriguing curries.

Having said that, I think you might quail when you read the long list of ingredients in my recipe, and I don't blame you. Because of my love of curry, I have tightly sealed jars of all these whole spices in my cupboard, and I restock them by visiting my favourite specialist spice shops every three months. I also buy packets of spanking-fresh pre-ground spices such as cumin and coriander every fortnight or so. (By the way, it's not true that you'll get better flavour from your spices by roasting and grinding them yourself. This is a foodie affectation, in my view. Roasting and blending spices should be left to the professionals; buy fresh powdered spices from a reputable merchant and you cannot go wrong.)

If you don't have a similar array of spices in your cupboard, you can make this curry using whatever you have available or - at a push - a few tablespoons of a good fresh generic curry powder, such as Rajah Medium Strength.

What sort of beef to use in this recipe?  I always use shin in stews because in my opinion it's the best cut for this purpose - not too fatty, and soft, flavoursome and fork-tender after a few hours of cooking. Be sure to cut away the membrane that encircles the slices of shin and, if you'd like your curry to have wonderful depth of flavour, toss in the bones so their marrow melts into the stew. You can also make this with bog-standard 'goulash' cubes, or topside, but the meat will be somewhat dry.

This recipe contains a large quantity of fresh ripe tomatoes, which I always add to stews because they have a delectable umami-ness that somehow is lacking in tinned tomatoes. I throw in a tin of chopped Italian tomatoes and a few tablespoons of tomato paste anyhow, to help create deep colour.  It's time-consuming to peel fresh tomatoes - and I have no objections to tomato peel - so now I chuck them whole into my blender to create a thin tomato purée that cooks down over 15-20 minutes to a beautiful thick brick-red.

The 'couscous' that accompanies this curry is made from the new darling of low-carb and diabetic cooking: cauliflower.  I've become a big fan of cauliflower since I switched to a very low-carb regime, and this is one of my favourite ways to eat it.  Most people steam or boil cauliflower 'couscous' and what's known as 'cauli-rice', but I've found that the best way to cook it is to zap it quickly in the microwave, which retains its flavour and gentle bite.

The low-carb 'couscous' in this picture is made of blitzed cauliflower yellowed
with healthy turmeric and flavoured with butter, toasted almonds and fresh herbs.

There is no need to brown the beef cubes before you add them to the tomato base, but be sure to take time over cooking the onions to a rich golden tangle.

Low-Carb Tomato & Onion Beef Curry with Turmeric & Almond Cauliflower 'Couscous'

For the curry: 
2.3 kg stewing beef, such as boneless shin
4 Tbsp (60 ml) sunflower oil, or a similar vegetable oil
1 stick cinnamon, or a thumb-sized piece of cassia bark
1 whole star anise
16 dried curry leaves
1 Tbsp (15 ml) black mustard seeds
2 fresh bay leaves, or 3 dried ones
4 whole cloves
4 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
5 medium onions, peeled and finely sliced
900 g very ripe fresh tomatoes
1 x 410 g tin low-fat coconut milk
6 cloves garlic, peeled and finely grated
1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, grated
3 Tbsp (45 ml) tomato paste
1 x 410 g tin chopped Italian tomatoes
1 tsp (5 ml) chilli powder (or more, to taste)
1 tsp (5 ml) coriander powder
2 tsp (5 ml) tumeric
2½ tsp (7.5 ml) cumin
salt and milled black pepper
a squeeze of lemon juice
fresh chopped coriander, to serve

For the cucumber raita: 
1 large English cucumber
1 tsp (5 ml) salt
1 cup (250 ml) thick Greek yoghurt
the juice of a small lemon
4 Tbsp (60 ml) finely chopped fresh coriander [dhania; cilantro]
2 Tbsp (30 ml) finely chopped fresh mint
milled black pepper

For the cauliflower 'couscous'
2 heads of fresh crisp cauliflower
2 Tbsp (30 ml) warm water
1 tsp (5 ml) turmeric
3 Tbsp (45 ml) butter, or olive oil if you like
½ cup (125 ml) toasted whole almonds or almond flakes
½ cup (125 ml) finely chopped fresh parsley, mint or coriander - or all three
salt and milled black pepper

Heat the oven to 160 ºC. Trim any fat or sinew off the beef, cut it into large cubes and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large ovenproof pot, wait until it is very hot (but not yet shimmering or smoking) and add the cinnamon stick, star anise, curry leaves, mustard seeds, bay leaves, cloves and cardamom pods. Fry the whole spices for a minute or so, or until the mustard seeds begin to crackle and pop.

Tip in all the sliced onions and fry them over a medium heat, stirring frequently, for 10 to 15 minutes, or until they have reduced by about half and are golden. Don't let them to catch or burn!

In the meantime, prepare the fresh tomatoes. Roughly chop them and put them in the goblet of a liquidizer or a food processor, along with a third of the contents of the tin of coconut milk.  Whizz them to a fairly fine, pale-pink purée and set aside. If you don't have a liquidizer, you will need to grate the tomatoes, or chop them very finely.

When the onions are ready, stir in the garlic, ginger and tomato paste and fry gently for a further minute. Don't allow the garlic to brown, or it will add a bitter taste to the curry

Tip in the puréed tomatoes, the remaining coconut milk, and the tin of chopped tomatoes.  Now stir in the chilli powder, coriander, turmeric and cumin.  Season the mixture with salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste.

Let the sauce bubble briskly for 10-15 minutes, lid off, or until it has thickened and reduced by about one third.  Stir now and then, and skim off any foam that rises to the top.

Now add all the beef cubes and stir well. Bring back up to the boil, and then put the pot into the oven, with its lid on.  Cook your stew at 160 ºC for two to two-and-a-half hours, or until the meat is fork-tender and falling apart. If the sauce seems a little thin, place the pot back on your hob and simmer it briskly so the sauce can reduce.

In the meantime, make the cauliflower 'couscous'. Break off the florets and discard the stalks.  Place the florets - several batches at a time -  in a food processor fitted with a metal blade, or in the jug attachment of a stick blender. Whizz to fine crumbs. Place 2 tablespoons of warm water in the bottom of a microwave-safe bowl and stir in the turmeric.  Now add the cauliflower crumbs, stirring well to distribute the colour.  Cover with clingfilm and microwave on high for 6-8 minutes, or until the crumbs are just tender, but retain a slight bite.  Drain well in a sieve, tip back into the bowl, and stir in the butter. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then mix in the toasted almonds and chopped herbs.

Add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to the curry and serve it with the turmeric couscous, a dollop of raita and a shower of fresh coriander.

Serves 8. 



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How to Make Thick & Creamy Greek-Style Yoghurt

Take a litre of milk, plus half a cup each of cream and milk powder, and in six hours you can create this gorgeously thick snowy-white yoghurt, which has a voluptuous texture and a creamy, tangy taste. I haven't bought a single tub of supermarket yoghurt since I nailed this method five months ago, and my family devours it in such great quantities that I make a batch almost every day. This is astonishingly easy to make, and foolproof if you follow my instructions to the letter.

My home-made Greek-style yoghurt with Turkish apricots,
raw almonds and honey.

As I've mentioned on this blog before, I'm smitten by Greek yoghurt because it's such a versatile and interesting ingredient. It's a good substitute for cream, a brilliant tenderising agent, and packed with protein, calcium and gut-friendly probiotics. I use this yoghurt in marinades, dips, salad dressings, sauces, stews, soups and ice creams.

If you're following a low-carb or diabetic regime, you can use this ingredient with confidence in your kitchen.

This recipe makes three to four jars of thick natural yoghurt.

You can make this with ordinary homogenised supermarket milk alone, but you will end up with a rather thin and meek yoghurt. Please trust me when I recommend that you add instant milk powder to thicken and enrich the yoghurt, plus a modest half-cup of cream for taste and a silky texture.

In the recipe below, I've given instructions for heating the milk in a microwave oven. I do this to save on washing up, because this method uses just one big plastic or glass bowl.  If you don't fancy microwaving, you can heat the milk in a pan and then transfer it to a bowl.

I've tested this recipe umpteen times using a variety of starter cultures. Any natural Greek-style yoghurt from your supermarket will do for your first batch; I suggest you experiment with different cultures (mixing and matching them if necessary) until you are satisfied with the taste and texture. I have had the best results from Woolies Double Cream Greek Yoghurt and Buffalo Ridge's yoghurt, and I have mixed them up over the months to create my own culture.

I make this in my amazing Wonderbag, but I've also thoroughly tested the recipe using a dense woollen blanket, and detected no difference in the final product.

This recipe is quite forgiving as regards its temperature when you add the culture. I've added the culture when the milk is just above blood temperature, and I've added it when it's still quite hot, and there has been no discernible change in the outcome.

Although this is an easy recipe, I've written detailed instructions below so your yoghurt turns out perfectly every time.

Thick & Creamy Greek-Style Yoghurt 

1 litre full-cream milk
½ cup (125 ml) dried instant skim-milk powder
½ cup (125 ml) cream
5 Tbsp (75 ml) Greek-style yoghurt (this is the starter culture)

Place the milk, milk powder and cream in a microwave-safe plastic or glass bowl, whisk lightly to combine and microwave on high for about 8-10 minutes, or until the milk is just below scalding point. (Alternatively, gently heat the mixture in a pan: when it's seething and just below the boil, remove it from the heat. Now pour the milk into a plastic or glass bowl. )

Set the mixture aside to cool for about 25 minutes. To help prevent a skin forming, cover it tightly with clingfilm, or press a sheet of clingfilm to its surface.

When the mixture has cooled to the right temperature, it's time to add the culture. Here's my method of judging when the temperature is right: stick your index finger into the milk. Count slowly up to six: if you can bearably hold your finger in the milk to that count, without it burning, it's ready. Scoop out about half a cup of hot milk, place it in a little bowl and whisk in the Greek yoghurt starter culture. Gently trickle this mixture back into the bowl and give it one more very gentle stir.

Replace the clingfilm and wrap the bowl in a thick woolly blanket that you've folded in half or into quarters.

Set aside for six hours -  or overnight if you like - without unwrapping, shaking or disturbing the yoghurt. When you open and remove the blanket, the yoghurt will have set to a beautiful wobbliness. Give it a light stir with a balloon whisk, replace the clingfilm and leave the bowl on your kitchen counter to cool to room temperature. Decant the yoghurt into glass jars - or lidded plastic containers - and refrigerate.

Keeps for up to ten days in the fridge.

Makes 4 x 250 ml jars. 

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Drained Maas Cheese Roll with Lemon, Pepper & Smoked Paprika

I've had a lovely response to my recipe for drained maas [amasi] cheese - thank you for the emails and messages!  I'm so excited by this method for making gorgeous soft white cheese at home that I've made three more batches this week, experimenting with a variety of flavours. Here is my current favourite: a 'salami' of cheese with lemon zest and white pepper, rolled in cracked black pepper & smoked paprika.

Drained Maas Cheese flavoured with lemon and pepper.
 Plate by Master Potter of Franschhoek David Walters.

This cheese is so inexpensive to make at home - the two-litre bottle of full-cream maas it takes to make two of these will set you back around R20. A huge saving, considering that a single, smaller (100g) 'salami' of this sort costs between R19 and R23 at upmarket stores.

I am smitten by white pepper, so tend to use it with abandon, but as it has a strong, rather 'dusty' flavour, I suggest you add it to the cheese in pinches, tasting as you go.

This home-made cheese is also good with sweet chilli jam (see Cook's Notes).

Another wonderful flavouring for this cheese is horseradish (see my Cook's Notes at the end of this blog post).

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Drained Maas Cheese Roll with Lemon, Pepper & Smoked Paprika

a drained maas cheese, made from 1 litre of full-cream maas
the finely grated zest of half a lemon
½ tsp (2.5 ml) white pepper
salt, to taste
freshly milled black pepper
1 tsp (5 ml) good smoked paprika

To serve: 
fresh radishes, or crunchy accompaniments of your choice
Salticrax or similar salted crackers, to serve

Tip the cheese into a bowl. Add the lemon zest, pepper and salt, to taste, and knead well with your fingertips. It's quite a sticky cheese, so you might want to use a sturdy spoon instead.

Roll the cheese into a tight salami shape.

Form the cheese into a ball and then roll it into a neat salami shape between the palms of your hands. Place a piece of clingfilm or baking paper on the counter and grind over it plenty of black pepper. Gently roll the cheese back and forth so it is coated all over. Now dip the two ends in the pepper. Repeat the process using the smoked paprika.

Place the cheese on one end of a new length of clingfilm and roll it up, as if you are making a Christmas cracker.  Grasp the two ends of the 'cracker' and continue roll the cheese away from you to form a neat, tight cylinder. Twist the two ends together (see picture above), and refrigerate for 4-5 hours, or until firm.

Unroll the cheese, slice it into discs (see Cook's Notes) and serve with crackers and radishes.

Makes one cheese; serves 4 as a snack, with accompaniments.  

Cook's Notes

• The best way to slice this cheese is with a length of unscented dental floss or similar thin, strong thread.   
• If you're not in South Africa, you can make this with yoghurt, using this recipe.
• This is also good with sweet chilli sauce, tomato jam, wine jelly, quince jelly, and so on.
• Try using the maas cheese in my recipe for Smoked Venison with Horseradish & White Pepper. You can serve this pressed into a mould, or formed into dear little 'lollipops' (see below, right.)

Smoked Venison with Horseradish & White-Pepper Cream Cheese, served two ways

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Curried Lamb Ribbetjies with Mint Yoghurt

Slow cooking, and dishes that take a few days to prepare, don’t ever feature on MasterChef because of the obvious time limitations of reality TV. I think this is a pity, because time and patience are often the most delicious aspects of a dish, and this is especially true of meat that is cooked over an open flame.

Curried Lamb Ribs with Mint Yoghurt 

Long marinating and/or many hours of slow cooking can work absolute wonders, especially with tougher cuts of meat. Think, for example, of a whole lamb or pig that is spit-roasted for hours, rotating gently in front of a wood fire until its skin is burnished mahogany and its meat falling from the bone in tender flakes.

A braai is quintessentially South African, so for this week’s Woolies The Pantry recipe I’ve chosen lamb ribbetjies [riblets] because I love them (and their name!), and a Cape-Malay-style marinade based on a traditional curried lamb-sosatie soaking sauce. Drenched in a turmeric-yellow, sharp-sweet marinade, Malay sosaties of this sort have a long and noteworthy history as one of the classics of Cape Malay cooking. The basic recipe has remained largely unchanged over at least two centuries; its pedigree is doubtless older than that, because the dish was bought to the Cape from the East during the earliest days of the slave trade. In my version of the marinade, I’ve used yoghurt in addition to a variety of wonderful spices, because this helps to tenderise the lamb ribbetjies so they are beautifully succulent when they come off the braai.

Click here for my recipe for snack-sized Cape Malay Lamb Sosaties.

My other recipes for Woolworths The Pantry: 
Champ with Chives and Garlic
Gin-Cured Gravadlax with Crisped Capers

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Curried Lamb Ribbetjies with Mint Yoghurt

1.2 kg lamb ribbetjies [riblets]
salt
lemon wedges, to serve

For the marinade:
4 T (60 ml) sunflower oil
2 onions, peeled and very finely chopped
4 cardamom pods
1 quill of cinnamon
1 red chilli, finely chopped
2 T (30 ml) grated fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1½ t (7.5 ml) ground cumin
1 t (5 ml) ground coriander
1 t (5 ml) red chilli powder
2 t (10 ml) medium-strength curry powder
1½ t (7.5 ml) turmeric
3 T (45 ml) white wine vinegar
80 ml thick fruity chutney
1 T (15 ml) sugar
3/4 cup (180 ml) water
milled black pepper
80 ml lemon juice (about 3 small lemons)
2 cups (500 ml) natural white yoghurt

For the dip:
1 cup (250 ml) thick white Greek yoghurt
80 ml finely chopped fresh mint
80 ml finely chopped fresh coriander
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
the juice of half a lemon
salt and milled black pepper

Heat the oil in a pan and add the onions, cardamom pods and cinnamon stick. Fry over a medium-high flame for 5 minutes, or until the onions are golden. Add the chilli, ginger and garlic and cook for another minute, without allowing the garlic to burn. Stir in the cumin, coriander, chilli powder, curry powder, turmeric, vinegar and chutney, turn down the heat and cook, stirring, for two minutes. Add the sugar and water, season with pepper and simmer briskly for 8 minutes. Remove from the heat, allow to cool, then stir in the lemon juice and yoghurt.  Tip the marinade into a lidded plastic or ceramic bowl, add the ribbetjies, mix well and refrigerate for 48 hours, stirring once or twice.

To make the dip, combine the yoghurt, mint, coriander, garlic and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate.

Season the ribbetjies with salt and braai over medium-hot coals for about 8 minutes on all four sides (half an hour in total), basting frequently with the leftover marinade.  The coals should not be too hot, or the ribs will scorch: by the end of the cooking time, they should be a rich yellow gold, flecked here and there with sticky black bits. Serve hot with the yoghurt dip and lemon wedges.

Serves 4. 

• For best results, marinate the ribbetjies for two to three days; 24 hours is the absolute minimum.    
• If you’d like a hotter marinade, add more chilli powder or chopped fresh red chillies to the marinade.
• Don’t rush the cooking time: lamb ribbetjies can be quite fatty, and long cooking over medium coals will help render the fat.
• These can be successfully cooked in an oven under a very hot grill, but make sure the ribbetjies are at least 20 cm below the grill, and turn them frequently.

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Salad of Warm Baby Leeks with Blue Cheese and Chilli Croutons

The French refer to leeks as l'asperges du pauvre, or 'the asparagus of the poor', and it's not difficult to see why. Young leeks braised to a melting softness in olive oil and water are delicious, and every bit as tasty, in my book, as asparagus.

Salad of Warm Baby Leeks with Blue Cheese and Chilli Croutons. If you're on a
low-carb regime, leave out the croutons or use my halloumi croutons instead.

For this salad, baby leeks are simmered whole in water, with a little olive oil and some herbs and garlic. By the time the water has evaporated, the leeks are as tender as a mother's love. They are then left to colour and caramelise slightly in the remaining oil, and served warm with crumbled blue cheese and croutons. If you're on a low-carb regime, leave out the croutons!

I came up with this salad last week when I pounced on a big punnet of very beautiful baby leeks. Some I used to add a bit of pep to this dish of smoked tuna, and the rest went into this salad. These are best warm, but you can serve them piping hot (in which case add a little butter to the pan just as you finish frying them).

You can omit the chilli powder, if you like, but it does add colour and a little kick to the crunchy topping. The croutons should be crumbled over the salad at the very last minute to prevent them from losing their bite. A frying pan is essential, as the large surface area helps the water to evaporate quickly.

I've recently adapted many of my recipes to suit my low-carb, diabetic diet, and if you're following a similar regime, I suggest you either leave out the croutons, or replace them with gorgeous halloumi-cheese 'popcorn'.

Finally, use a mild, creamy blue cheese, not a sharp one that will overwhelm the delicate taste of the leeks. I used Fairview's Blue Tower, a rich Gorgonzola-style cheese with a good crumbly texture. (Disclosure: this cheese was part of a consolaton prize I received after this recipe was a finalist in Fairview's Food Bloggers' Competition.)

Salad of Warm Baby Leeks with Blue Cheese and Chilli Croutons

30 baby leeks, topped and tailed
4 tsp (20 ml) olive oil
1 clove of garlic, peeled
a large sprig of fresh thyme
4 Tbsp (60 ml) white wine
salt and milled black pepper
water or vegetable stock, to cover
3 Tbps (45 ml) lemon juice
1 x 100 g wedge creamy blue cheese
a little extra olive oil, for drizzling

For the croutons:
4 slices white bread, crusts removed
4 Tbsp (60 ml) vegetable oil
a pinch of chilli powder (or more, to taste)

Put the leeks, olive oil, whole clove of garlic, thyme and wine into a large frying pan and season with salt and pepper. Add enough water to just cover the leeks, and bring to the boil. Now turn down the heat and cook, uncovered, at a fairly brisk bubble for 20-30 minutes, or until all the water has evaporated. Allow the leeks to colour slightly in the oil remaining in the pan (but don't allow to burn).

While the leeks are braising, make the croutons. Heat the vegetable oil in a small pan. Tear the bread into little tatters and fry in the hot oil, tossing once or twice, until they are a rich golden brown. Drain on a piece of kitchen paper and sprinkle with chilli powder and a little salt.

Arrange the leeks on a platter and pour over the lemon juice. Top with crumbled blue cheese, and drizzle with a little more olive oil. Taste, and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Using your fingers, roughly crush the croutons and scatter them over the salad.  Serve immediately.

Serves 4 as a starter or side dish.

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Low-Carb Roasted Ratatouille Soup with Basil Mayonnaise

I'm excited to share my new recipe with you: I think you're going to love it.  It tastes glorious and sunny, like summer in a bowl, and is easy to make (although like all good food it does take time to make). The only part of this recipe that's remotely tricky is the home-made basil mayonnaise, but you can omit this topping if you don't feel confident about making mayo, and the soup will still taste very good without it. Do give the mayonnaise a try, though: it's not anywhere as difficult to make as TV chefs will have you believe.

Low-Carb Roast Ratatouille Soup with Basil Mayonnaise

I'm a devoted fan of ratatouille. Not the watery, chuck-everything-in-a-saucepan-and-stew-to-a-mush variety, but a beautiful meeting of ripe tomatoes, shiny eggplants, snappy courgettes, onions and red peppers, slowly roasted with olive oil and garlic to a silken, jewel-bright deliciousness (try my oven-roasted ratatouille recipe).

As always, the quality of the raw ingredients determines how good the soup will taste. Ripe, plump, vividly coloured vegetables will produce a soup of unrivalled quality, and it is always better the next day, once the flavours have had a chance to mingle and mature.

This recipe serves 6, but is easily doubled. It's low in carbs, excellent if you're on a #LCHF regime, and very suitable for diabetics.





Roasted Ratatouille Soup with Basil Mayonnaise

5 large, ripe tomatoes
2 plump brinjals [aubergines/eggplants], or four smaller ones
2 large, deep-red peppers [capsicums]
8 courgettes [zucchini]
2 large white onions, peeled
½ cup (125 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
flaky sea salt
freshly milled black pepper
6 fat cloves garlic, unpeeled
5 cups (1.25 l) water, plus more for thinning

For the basil mayonnaise:

2 large free-range egg yolks, at room temperature
salt
200 ml vegetable oil (such as sunflower or canola oil)
100 ml extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup (250 ml, loosely packed) fresh basil leaves
1 tsp (5 ml) flaky sea salt
the juice of a large lemon
freshly milled black pepper

Heat the oven to 210 ºC.  Using a sharp knife, top and tail the tomatoes, eggplants, red peppers, courgettes and onions, and cut them into small chunks. Pile all the vegetables into a large roasting pan. Drizzle the olive oil over the vegetables, season generously with salt and pepper and, using your hands, toss well to coat.  Tuck the six unpeeled garlic cloves deep into the vegetable bed (but remember where you've hidden them).

Place the  pan, uncovered, in an oven heated to 210 ºC, and roast for 25-35 minutes, or until the vegetables are beginning to turn golden brown in patches.

Now cover the pan with foil, turn the heat down to 180 ºC, and bake for a further 20-30 minutes, or until the veggies are soft.  Remove the roasting tray from the oven. Fish the whole garlic cloves out of the pan, and set aside.

Pour the water (1.5 l) into the pan, replace the foil, and bake at the same temperature for another 15 minutes.  Remove the pan from the oven and set aside for 15 minutes to cool.

A very thick, pale-yellow mayo

While the vegetables are cooling, make the basil mayonnaise. Put the two egg yolks into a small bowl and add the salt.

Mix the vegetable oil and olive oil in a small jug. Place a damp cloth underneath the bowl so that it doesn't skid around while you're making the mayo.

Using a rotary beater or whisk, beat the egg yolks and salt for a minute. If you don't have such a gadget, use an ordinary wire whisk, and plenty of elbow power. Now, as you whisk the egg yolks with one hand, pick up the jug of oil with the other, and dribble a little splash of oil onto the yolks.  Keep whisking and dribbling, a little splash at a time, with great energy, and within a few minutes you will see the egg mixture begin to thicken rather dramatically.

Keep adding the oil, a dribble at a time, until you have a thick yellow ointment. You may not need to add all the oil: stop adding oil once the mayonnaise has thickened to your liking. (If your mayonnaise doesn't thicken, or it curdles, click here.)  Set the mayonnaise aside.

Roughly chop the basil leaves, and place in a mortar along with the salt. Pound to a rough paste.  (If you don't have a mortar, put the leaves and salt onto a wooden chopping board, and smash them with a rolling pin). Scrape the pounded basil into a little bowl.  Take three of the roast garlic cloves you have set aside and squeeze the soft, baked pulp into the basil mixture. Add the fresh lemon juice and stir well.  Now stir this mixture into the mayonnaise, season to taste with salt and pepper, tip into a clean bowl, and refrigerate.

Tip the contents of the roasting pan into a big bowl, and blitz with a stick blender, or use a food processor or liquidiser to process to a slightly coarse purée.  If the soup mixture seems too thick, or the blades refuse to turn, thin it down with a little boiling water.  Squeeze the pulp of the remaining three cloves of baked garlic into the mixture, season with salt and pepper to taste, and blitz for another minute.

Return the soup to the stove-top and reheat.  Serve your soup piping hot, topped with a dollop of cold basil mayonnaise.

Serves 6. 


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