Recipe for Parsnip Soup

The parsnip is a very versatile vegetable. You can do a lot with parsnips. You can chop and steam them with carrots to make a really tasty veggie side dish. You can puree them with garlic butter. You can even make wine with them.

This week I chose to make parsnip soup. Since parsnips will grow just about anywhere and are not terribly hard to cultivate, the parsnip has been a prominent guest on British dinner tables for a long time.

I checked my old recipe books and then I checked with Jamie Oliver to see if things have changed over the years. Jamie's recipe is essentially the same as my grandmother's but I am sure his soup probably tastes a hundred times better than mine just because he is Jamie Oliver.

I actually modified the original recipe, took a couple of preparation hints from Mr Oliver and came up with a soup of which I am exceptionally proud. If you love parsnips too, give this one a try; it's not hard to make and your tastebuds will love you.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of white stock (I used pork stock, but chicken would do, maybe even fish but I don't recommend it)
• 3 cups milk
• 3 large parsnips
• 1 large onion
• Ginger, garlic, salt and pepper

Preparation

• Chop the onion and parsnips fairly coarsely and fry in a large pan, along with the seasonings, until they turn a light golden colour
• In a stock pot, mix the white stock and milk and bring to a gentle boil
• Add the lightly fried parsnips and onion to the stock pot and return to the boil
• Simmer for about 30 minutes until the parsnips are thoroughly tender
• Using a hand blender, puree any solid material in the stock pot and simmer for a few more minutes. Taste and add more seasoning if required.
  
• Serve in wide soup bowls and decorate with crushed almonds and chives or mint

John's Notes
I really enjoyed this soup; I mean really enjoyed it. My wife did too. Some day I would like to visit one of Jamie Oliver's restaurants and try his parsnip soup to see how mine measures up to the best.

By the way, here is a bonus side dish. Thinly slice another couple of parsnips and deep fry in some oil in a wok. Fried parsnip chips are a very tasty way to complement parsnip soup. Enjoy!

How to Make an English Trifle

How many different ways are there to make an English Trifle?

Probably about as many ways as there are people willing to give it a try.

The ingredients for a trifle can vary widely. Perhaps the only essential ingredients are sponge cake and fruit.

There is a classic dessert called the Sherry Trifle. Most English cooks make a trifle in this classic way. Here is how I make it:

Ingredients

• 1 pack Greens Plain Sponge Cake mix
• 1 pack Hartleys Strawberry Jelly
• 1 can Ambrosia Devon Custard
• Fresh strawberries, chopped
• Whipping Cream

Preparation

• Bake the sponge according to the instructions on the pack (alright, if you are short on time buy a pack of small sponge flan bases at a grocery store)
• Place a thick wedge of sponge cake at the bottom of a single serving glass dessert bowl
• Pour in one ounce of cream sherry and allow the sponge to soak it up
• Add chopped fresh strawberries
• Make up some Hartley's Strawberry Jelly according to the instructions on the pack and slowly pour over the sponge and fruit until the jelly just covers the sponge and fruit (optional, the jelly is not an essential component of the trifle)
• Cover with cling film and allow to set overnight in the refrigerator
• When the jelly has set add a layer of Ambrosia Devon Custard
• Top with a layer of whipped cream and decorate with sprinkles or crushed Cadbury Flake

John's Notes
I actually made three variations of trifle this week and I don't think I have even scratched the surface of all the possibilities. I described my basic sherry trifle above. I also made a second trifle with gelatine, light cream, fruit and sponge. It was quite different, but still quite delicious.

Gelatine (e.g. Hartley's Strawberry Jelly) is an optional ingredient in trifles so I missed it out in my third trifle variety. I simply mixed sponge cake, strawberries and Ambrosia Devon Custard to make a very tasty simple trifle much like the ones sold at my local supermarket.

I believe the essential design specification for an English Trifle is "layers" and lots of them. We'll come back to trifles again in the future after I have perfected the recipe for my own multi-layer rich and creamy trifle.

I hope you weren't planning to go on a diet.

Recipe: Banoffee Pie

hI wanted to call this dessert "Diabetic's Dream Pie". It contains so much carbohydrate that a big helping would be enough to put a diabetic into a coma. As a mild type II diabetic myself I made a huge sacrifice by trying this recipe out.

Banoffee Pie is a traditional English dessert and I want to thank Blighty's own Pat Pilcher for supplying the recipe that she makes for her own family.

Ingredients

• 1 can of condensed milk
• 2 bananas
• 1 pack McVities Hobnobs cookies
• 1 Cadbury Flake bar
• 250ml carton whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons melted margarine/butter

Preparation

• Bring a large pan of water to the boil on the stovetop
• Drop the unopened can of condensed milk into the water and boil for 2 hours
• Crush the whole pack of Hobnobs inside a freezer bag
• Empty the Hobnob crumbs into a mixing bowl and thoroughly mix with the melted margarine
• Line the bottom and sides of a cake tin with the Hobnob/margarine mix and press firmly with a spoon to make the pie shell
• After the condensed milk has finished boiling, cool the can thoroughly, then open it and spoon the contents into the pie shell. The condensed milk will be caramelized.
• Top with slices of banana, whipped cream and a crushed Cadbury Flake bar (as you can see I forgot the Flake and had to improvise)
  
• Refrigerate then serve in small portions (this is a very heavy dessert)

John's Notes
How could you do this to me Pat? I went completely off the diabetic diet wagon to try this! If Pat has any more recipes to offer, the principal ingredients had better be lettuce and fat-free yogourt!

But seriously folks, if you like very sweet, heavy desserts you are going to absolutely love this one. If, on the other hand, you don't like very sweet, heavy desserts - avoid this like the Black Death!!!

The McVities Hobnobs and Cadbury Flake are available at Blighty's Tuck Store. Buy lots, I have a hydro bill to pay! John.

How to Make a Melton Mowbray Style Pork Pie

Blighty's Tuck Store attracted a lot of attention recently when the Toronto Star newspaper published an article about Melton Mowbray pork pies and mentioned Blighty's as one of the Greater Toronto Area's vendors of such pies. In fact, we were top of the list. The pies in the store are made by a former Marks & Spencer owned company called Churchill Pies (how very British).

We have sold a huge quantity of Churchill brand Melton Mowbray style pork pies since the article in the Star was published. I eat them myself, but then I got to wondering just how difficult it would be to make my own. Actually, quite a bit of work is involved but I am quite proud of the result. Here is how to make your own pork pies:

Ingredients

• Raised crust pie shell (see previous post on this blog)
• 1/2 Kg pork, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon powdered sage
• Seasoning (salt, pepper, cayenne)
• Pork stock (I used a Knorr Ham Stock cube)
• 1 beaten egg
• Gelatin powder

Preparation

• Make sure the pork is very finely chopped or ground
• Mix with the sage, some salt and pepper and half a teaspoon of cayenne
• Pack the meat into the pie shell. Be careful, the raised crust pastry shell is fragile before it is baked
• Cover the pie with another piece of raised crust pastry and carefully seal all around the edges
• Make a hole about a centimeter across in the centre of the pie lid and pour in some of the pork stock
• Brush the pie crust with egg wash (beaten egg with a little water) and bake at 325F for 2 hours
• When done, pour a little more stock with a small amount of gelatin mixed into it through the hole in the top of the pie
• Cool overnight in the refrigerator

John's Notes
As you can see from the picture, I didn't pay too much attention to making the pie shell look elegant but the pastry really did turn out well. It tastes exactly like pork pie pastry should taste. I didn't chop my pork up finely enough so the texture of the pie filling is not as smooth as I expected. But the taste? Slightly different to commercial pork pies. I suspect my pie tastes a little different because I used very lean pork. Commercial pork pies tend to contain some fat.

Actually, I was surprised how lean the meat in Blighty's Churchill brand pork pies is. My memories of pork pies in the UK is that they were very fatty indeed. If you want to duplicate the taste of a real British pork pie try using a fattier cut of pork.

I also misread the recipe and added the gelatin before baking. Most of it bubbled out of the hole in the top of the pie while it was in the oven. By the time I realized my mistake I had already sliced the finished pie so it was too late.

One final note: Some customers have asked how to heat up pork pies. Aaaarrrgghh! Don't heat pork pies!!! Pork pies should be enjoyed cold with your choice of pickle.

How to Make Raised Crust Pastry

I used to think pastry was pastry. Well maybe, I thought, there are two kinds. You know, ordinary pastry and the flaky stuff you find in sausage rolls. My old grandmother's recipe book quickly taught me that was a silly idea.

In fact, there are a lot of different ways to make pastry. The method you choose depends on what the pastry is going to be used for. This week, Blighty's British Recipes newsletter subscribers are going to hear about my attempts to make a genuine, British-style pork pie. Pork pies require a special kind of pastry called "raised crust" pastry.

Many pies are shallow. The base of the pie is a "pastry shell" supported inside an aluminum tray or pie tin. Pork pies are deep and are usually made without any means of external support. The pastry has to be robust enough to hold together while it is filled with meat and baked. That is where raised crust pastry enters the stage. Here is how to make it:

Ingredients

• 1 cup of McDougall's Plain Flour
• 2 tablespoons Atora Light Vegetable Suet
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1/4 cup of milk
• Salt

Preparation

• Boil the liquids, add the Atora suet and salt and allow the fat to completely dissolve
• Put the flour into a mixing bowl and make a hollow in the centre
• Pour the liquid into the hollow and thoroughly mix to make a stiff dough
• Knead and roll the dough on a floured board
• Cut out two circular pieces of pastry, each large enough to generously cover the ends of a jam jar
• Mould the remainder of the dough into a cylindrical shape around the walls of the jar, then carefully slide the jar out
• Moisten one of the circular pieces of dough and attach it to the base, ensuring that you make a very good seal

You now have a raised crust pie shell ready for making a Blighty's British Recipes pork pie. We'll share with you how to do that in the next post on this blog.

The flour and Atora Light Vegetable Suet are available at Blighty's Tuck Store and by mail order if you don't happen to live near the store. If you would like to be notified when new recipes are published (usually about once per week) you can subscribe to Blighty's British Recipes newsletter by email.