Foraging and using up leftovers

On October 4, 2013 by battenburgbelle

It was well worth dragging Missy B and her friend for a hearty walk on Sunday – three big jars of sloe gin are quietly doing their thing in the cupboard. 

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I got through an unfeasibly large amount of gin making these (it all went in the jars, I promise), so I used the rest of the sloes to make two cute little jars of sloe and bramley jelly. A lesson: don’t answer the phone when you are making jelly. Even if is is Grandma Battenburg needing technological help. The jelly will be a bit more solid than planned. Still tastes good though.

J was round the other night, as well as brother-in-law. It was meant to be an evening of light dining, so I did a bit of foraging in the fridge and turned to an old favourite. Ottolenghi’s savoy cabbage and parmesan skin soup. The first time I made this, I really only did it because I had most of a savoy cabbage left after a magnificent roast dinner. Didn’t actually like the sound of it all that much. So Mr Ottolenghi, I owe you an apology – it is so much more than just a way of using up some leftovers. J asked for the recipe: in summary, chop up an onion and sauté it in some olive oil, add a crushed clove of garlic and half a teaspoon of caraway seeds (them again…). Add most of your cabbage, shredded, and a medium potato, peeled and diced. Fry for a couple of minutes, then add enough vegetable stock to cover the vegetables (about a litre) and bring to the boil. Add 80g of parmesan skin and simmer for about 10 minutes. Season. Blitz the soup in a blender. It’s served with a topping made from a couple of cabbage leaves, shredded, and a thinly sliced chilli, fried in a little olive oil. The first time Missy “I don’t like soup” B tried it she thought it was leek and potato. I didn’t tell her the shocking truth that it involved cabbage until the end and now she is quite a fan.

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I served it with a fougasse I had made earlier. There is something very enjoyable about flinging your loaf into the oven on your very own bakers’ peel. 

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Now I have to turn my attention to the large Sunday lunch en famille. One brother is mostly vegetarian, the other is allergic to all things capsicum-related. Grandpa Battenburg doesn’t care for fish, eggs or garlic, to name but a few of the items regularly on the menu chez Battenburg. Oh, and another bag of apples turned up yesterday from a kind colleague of Mr B…

 

5 Responses to “Foraging and using up leftovers”

  • lesleyt

    Ah! Another fougassefriday. Glad to see you are keeping up your practice of the Bertinet techniques.I find myself looking forward to the weekend, thinking about what I’m going to bake. This weekend we’re away for Saturday night and I’m fretting about when I’m going to make bread!

  • Mary Martin

    should have said last night – really enjoyed this one.  We are proud to be featured!  I got v excited when I read “sloe and brandy jelly” when I looked at it again it had changed to “sloe and bramley” – I wonder how that happened.  I was probably, unknowingly, looking for some compensation for all that gin!!!

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  • Mmm – I can testify – this was scrumptious. Do you leave the parmesan peel in the soup and just blitz it up with the rest or do you take it out? I am going to be binging on Robert Mitchum’s Fettucine Alfredo so I got me a parmesan rind!

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