Minestrone Soup

I have recently made a lovely soup. Here is what is in the soup for 4 people (if its just for a starter, or 2 people for a full meal):

• 1 tbsp Olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped/crushed
• 75g rashers of streaky bacon, diced
• 2 celery sticks, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 Potatoes, diced
• 500ml stock (Just Bouillon vegtable stock seemed to work well)
• 1 bouquet garni
• 1 handful Parsley, chopped
• 75g canned beans (i used tinned cannellini beans)
• fresh ground black pepper
• 6 Tomatoes, chopped
• 50g spaghetti, broken

Its really simple, and takes about 1 hour to cook. So first prepare all the veg as above then:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and then add the onion, garlic, bacon, celery, and carrot and fry for two minutes, stirring often (so it doesn't stick like hell!)
2. Then add the potato and the stock and bring to the boil.
3. Now add the beans and bouquet garni. Then add some of the parsley and season with freshly ground pepper. (I try not to cook with salt, there is enough in the dammed stock cubes!)
4. Bring to the boil again, then simmer for 45 minutes.
5. About 10-15 mins before seriving add the tomatoes and spaghetti. Cook until the spaghetti is tender.
6. Serve the soup with a bit of parsly on top and a some nice bread, if you are feeling that way inclined.

Current Cooking

Reading this reminds me that it is time, now exams are over, to start doing more crazy cooking!

Some more fudge

I have just tried out a recipe from this website: http://www.uktvfood.co.uk/index.cfm?uktv=recipes.recipe&iID=513459

It produced a very tablet like fudge. It tasted good, and was made using very simple ingredients - quite impressed. Not sure I quite got all the measuring correct, it should have been smother fudge. This seems to make quite a big difference - like in baking! This did seem to burn quite easily on the bottom of the pan - prehaps easier when you are not using a little electric hob! Not sure what next week will hold, but I am enjoying experimenting with desert type things...

Fudge Production

I have now come up with a useful thing to do with this blog – publish and recommend some recipes! To start this off I will recommend a good Fudge Recipe I have found: http://www.vanilla-pods.co.uk/fudge.htm

It produced some lovely smooth fudge. I used cream instead of milk, and also checked that the temperature did not go beyond the softball stage during 30mins of heating. I also didn’t want the expense of vanilla pods, so just used vanilla extract.

A big challenge was heating the mixture slowly enough and with enough mixing that you do not get burnt bits in your fudge! (Moving the thermometer around the pan a bit more, so it doesn't all burn to the bottom of the pan underneath the thermometer, might be a good idea for next time!)

I do hope to soon try a slightly different recipe to make a more crystalline fudge, possibly making use of: http://www.uktvfood.co.uk/index.cfm?uktv=recipes.recipe&iID=513459

If ever anyone finds some corn (glucose) syrup then I could start trying more advanced recipes as explained in the web pages: http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/candy/recipe-fudge.html

Warning: the pan should be big, else its likely to boil over! Oh and that boiling sugar solution is damm hot!

End of Term

Well, its now the end of term, so lectures have finished, and its time to start my disertation and time to start revision. Fun! I have just spend a few days in Wales with the Cambridge University Brass Band, so that was a good change from doing CompSci, so I should now be ready to start working away for the little quizes next term! Hmm, should really think work out why I have this blog and what I am going to do with it. It is truely lame so far!

My First Post

Hello, I figured I would never wirte anything in a blog if I didn't actually have one. So I decided to fix that problem.