Who can say if I've been changed for the better? Lifechanging soup. Changed up

I have oft waxed lyrical of the power of Skye Gyngell's Lifechanging soup - also known by the author herself as Sweet potato and ginger soup. From my much loved (read sticky) copy of her book A year in my kitchen it was the first recipe of hers I tried and it was a resounding success.

Of late, I'm not sure if it is to do with the migraine medication or *gasp* my tastebuds finally maturing, but I don't crave sweetness anymore. Saturday was the first chocolate I have eaten in ages and that was Green and Blacks 70%. For some reason that sugary hit is no longer what I fancy (food that crunches however? Bring. It. On.) As such, looking at Lifechanging soup this morning didn't really ring my bells. So I changed it up. A bit. And here it is.

Lifechanging soup. Changed.

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
2 red onions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 red chilli or, 1 tsp lazy red chilli
1.5 tablespoons of fresh root ginger grated
1.5 litres of chicken/ veg stock
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon tamarind paste
1 tablespoon palm sugar
1 lime, juiced

Melt the butter in a large pan and sweat the onions off until they're starting to soften.
Add the ginger, tamarind and chilli and cook off until you can smell the aromatics
Add the potato and stir until slightly shiny from the butter and spices
Add the stock (I used chicken as that's what I had in the freezer)
Cook for half an hour or until you can smush the potatoes easily against the side of the pan
Blitz in the pan using a hand held blender, until you get a nice smooth consistency
Taste, and add seasoning to taste
Bring back to the boil and serve with sourdough bread and butter

I'm having this for lunch at the moment, on these chilly, sunny spring days it's lightness of flavour yet oomph from the spicing is just what's needed to power me through the afternoon. Yum.

The original recipe calls for maple syrup and cream instead of the palm sugar, and doesn't use chilli but I like the fresher, zingier flavour at this time of year. The original has it's place and is equally as life changing.

Meal Planning Monday: another freezer based week

Will it surprise you, dear reader, if I tell you that last week didn't clear down the freezer? I didn't think so. So, another week of clearing down the freezers. Not thrilling I'm afraid.

But there is good news. I am without plastercast. After five months of incapacitation, my wrist is healed. Sadly I have the early stages of a pressure sore which was what alerted me to the need for the cast to come off last week. An acute sense of burning in a place about the size of a 50 pence peice. Alarming, but I have to say Barnet really did step up. Although they frustrate me at times, they did step up. Physio starts in a fortnight or so, and in the meantime in case I started to miss them I have another set of nerve blocker injections in the back of my head on Monday. Hurrah!

Initially I thought this weekend would involve much rolling out, kneading, and general kitchen activities that involve an unplastered wrist. And then it struck me just how much pain an unplastered, newly healed wrist can cause. So, in place of that I sat. Watched trashy telly. Slept. Generally broke the mould and gave my mind and body some extra time and space in which to heal. Which meant that this morning I practically bounced from my bed, wished M a good morning and promptly started work. At half past 7. I know.

The blue skies (albeit freezing outside) are trying to convince me that a run is imminent, and depending on how my nerve blockers go, I may try one later. At present I'm sorting out Diplomas and drinking coffee.

So, this week - M's mum (she of the WI and marmalade & jam coaching) has sent us back half a sultana and cherry cake which is my favourite, and some welshcakes. Which is a bonus as it relieves me of baking duties for the time being. That said, following the purchase and demolition of an epic sourdough from Barnet farmers market I think I'm going to kick start myself a sourdough starter this week.

Breakfast wise, I thought I'd try the Sainsbury's frozen fruit bags, they're 3 for £5 and I got peaches, blueberries and mixed summer fruits. I'm a big fan of a lot of Sainsburys basics range and although a bit more pricey than I would have liked I thought I'd try making these into smoothies with my 0% fat greek yoghurt. I've got some sachets of ground linseed etc that I think would make good additions as well. Any suggestions for other things to add to a breakfast smoothie?

Lunches: well the early morning has given me a kick in the right direction and I've got a pan of Lifechanging soup (TM), that is to say Skye Gyngell's Sweet Potato and ginger which I haven't made for far too long. I've got a little sourdough left to have with, and may make up some soda bread in rolls for the rest of the week.

Dinner: Largely freezer roulette again...

Monday: Bolognaise sauce, with grated cheese and pasta for Mark, just with steamed veggies for me.

Tuesday: Minced beef hash, with a poached egg on top

Wednesday: I'm out Leith's cookery school for the evening, so will be leaving M lentil ragu with chorizo I thing

Thursday: M is at Welsh, so probably his leftover lentil ragu for me

Friday: As yet I'm undecided, we're both in and the freezer will be mainly empty by then.... I've got some chicken and leeks in the freezer so I might make up some more of the butternut squash, chicken and leek casserole I've made previously. It's a simple really warming dish and the addition of barley makes it stretch further quite cheaply.

I do have some unearmarked courgettes in the fridge from last week's veg box, and I'm torn between courgetti spaghetti, and doing something different with them... Any suggestions?

Do be sure to pop over and see what everyone else is up to At home with Mrs M

(It's the) Hard Knock Life

Well it is if you’re my laptop. The hard drive had died. Again. And on the new one. To say I am annoyed is possibly the understatement of the century. I’ve lost a ridiculous amount of work, photos and a whole year’s Guide accounts. Much swearing has been heard around the house this week, along with the occasional tearful exclamation about unbacked up work.

Anyway, so this post is not only brought to you courtesy of Annie and the orphans but also a spare laptop from work. Apologies for the lack of pictures, but up and downloading are barred – with any luck this post will be amended next week sometime. Moving on swiftly before I start explaining about the time I was in Annie – of which, thankfully no photographic evidence remains.

Truly, it has been a bit of a hard knock life of late. Computer woes aside, I’ve been exceptionally busy with work and Guiding, and have taken to skipping meals and eating Prêt a manger sarnies for lunch as they seem to see me through. Actually, as someone who doesn’t really ‘do’ bought sandwiches unless I can see them made in front of me, Prêt is the exception to my rule, their ethos is to limit the number of ingredients in their products, have no additives or preservatives and they are freshly made daily (with any leftovers being given to charity). However, calorie content is immense, and whilst not someone who worries about that kind of thing unduly, I do notice that if I eat one for lunch, I can easily not be hungry of an evening. Anyway, before I realise that this post should have been at the very least sponsored by Prêt, I shall move on to...

Life Changing soup™ (link to recipe) As I am sure many of you will recall, this Skye Gyngell recipe has kept me full and happy for nearly a couple of years now. This is the first batch of the autumn, and whilst I was hoping to be able to pair it with some home made bread, I can say with every faith that it was gorgeous. The lengthy ingredient lists have put me off experimenting much further with Ms Gyngell’s recipes but this weekend the call of Batch cooking has been heard and so I will be trying a couple of others of hers.

I would also like to introduce you to Mabel. Mabel is my sourdough starter, a gift from my friend Lucy’s husband Matt. And a daughter/ granddaughter/ second cousin twice removed (you’ll have to decide, genealogy defeats me) of http://doughblogs.com/. Happily residing in my fridge, Mabel is awaiting her first outing this weekend, in the form of a basic sourdough loaf.

I blame the change in seasons, it’s made me want to be all homely, in a kind of ‘wear a pinny and clasp a steaming mug of tea about my person’ way. So hopefully this weekend’s batch cooking will involve: Lentil Ragu from Dinner Diary, Jamie O’s Chilli con carne, a Victoria Sandwich (with Kavey’s Nectarine and Amaretto jam inside) the Sourdough loaf and something that requires roast potatoes – which are my current craving. I will take photos of that lovely lot, but sadly they won’t be seen until Dell manages to collect my laptop (which was supposed to happen yesterday. Grrr. Argh.)

A veritable dearth of posts

Confession time: I am a shamefully bad blogger, barely able to raise myself from my shame to type these words. In the last three weeks I have *deep breath* barely cooked... I have lived on the contents of my freezer (mainly home-made soup, but still) and the occaisional bowl of fridge bottom pasta sauce. With pasta. Obviously.

To be fair to myself, I'm on a bit of an economy drive at the moment and so have been actively trying to use up what I already have as opposed to needlessly purchasing new ingredients because I fancy cooking something. Although to be entirely honest with you, I haven't actually felt like cooking much at all. I blame the weather, the dark mornings, working long hours and just generally feeling a bit *meh* (it's a medical term. Honest.) However, as always this turns into one of those viscous cycle things whereby I feel drained and lifeless because I'm not eating properly, so I start mainlining chocolate and diet coke. Yes, you read that correctly (I did warn you about the shame, but let's face it I've not sunk to tinned meat so there is hope for my redemption). The mainlining of the diet coke and chocolate means I have highs and lows all over the place and feel worse... and so it goes on.

Ladies and gentlemen. This stops. Now. No really it does. As of tomorrow I am back on my healthy eating and living bandwagon. As always the ladies at handbag have given me a kick in the right direction, and so when I'm back from work I shall be making a chicken hotpot as part of our recipe challenge. Warming winter food, ready in about an hour, that will be served with some purple sprouting broccoli. Yum.

So that should see me through to the end of the week, alongside some life-changing soup I have in the freezer. Oooh I had better make up some more bread tomorrow as well. And for the first time in about a month I have a weekend free. So I was thinking of a cooking marathon...

• Carrot and celeriac soup (seriously I have about my own bodyweight in carrots in the fridge)
• More life-changing soup
• Bread rolls
• This granola recipe from A wee bit of cooking which is a new blog that I've found and am loving a lot
• And a curry recipe from my A year in my kitchen book. Newsflash (and brace yourselves) it has aubergine in it. Yes, I'm trying it again

Looking at all of that I may need to buy some more tupperware. But I know that once accomplished I will feel worthy of my DG hat again, and mores the point I will have healthy, decent food in to eat. I'll try to ensure that I do a mammoth post to update you all on how it goes, but if you want me this weekend I will be found in my kitchen in my platypus pinny happily pottering.

A year in my kitchen

OK, so hands up if it was your birthday on Friday?

Keep those hands up if your sister bought you Sky Gyngell's A year in my kitchen?

So that's just me then. Well, you all know my opinion of her life-chaging soup. Now, I have a whole book full wondrous recipes, which shall, in turn, I'm convinced receive the accolade 'Life changing...'

And the food photography is stunning... watch this space for more recipes from the book, and random gushing about the general wondrousness. Oh yes, lots of random gushing to come...

Life changing soup

And I'm not even stretching the truth! At all... I discovered this soup recipe thanks to one of the wonderful women over at Handbag.com on the f&d forum, and I adore it.

Soup is pretty much a food group all by itself as far as I'm concerned, it's an amazing way to increase my vegetable intake (and use up my vegetables), and it hits the key targets for a busy working woman (that's me in case you were confused) of being quick, easy and healthy. At this time of year, it really is a key staple in my diet. However, my stock recipe is what I call 'Saturday soup' (TM) where I use up all the leftover veggies from the last weeks veg box, boil them in stock until soft and blend until smooth. That's it. Hardly Masterchef material. As you will know I also extended my repertoire early on in my blogging days to include Celeriac and carrot which is yummy, and a 'proper' recipe.

That pales into insignificance when up against 'Life changing soup' aka Sweet potato and ginger. It's a recipe from the Skye Gyngell book "A year in my kitchen " and really showcases her understanding of balancing sweet, sour, salty and hot flavours. The basis for the soup is sweet potatoes, red onion and ginger, cooked in vegetable stock. This in itself is amazing... and then you add some (seemingly odd) extras: cream, maple syrup, lime juice and tamari paste (or soy sauce). I have to confess I don't understand how these change the flavour of what is a tasty, but fairly standard soup, into the realms of life changing. But oh dear Lord, they do. They so do. Buy the book, try the recipe and see for yourself... life changing soup...