Cooking England County by County: Cheshire: Cheshire Cheese Soup

 Cheshire is in the north-west of England,very close to my neck of the woods and is known for its cheese, which is a crumbly, mild cheese,similar to mild Cheddar or Lancashire cheese. It also features in many regional recipes,including this one for Cheshire Cheese Soup. If you are unable to buy Cheshire Cheese you could substitute it for a mild Cheddar.

I´m not really that keen on soup but I enjoyed this soup and it is lovely to mop up with a fresh, crispy French baguette...even if it doesn´t look so appetizing in the photo. Perfect for cold, autumn and winter days! I used the following recipe. Enjoy!

Cook & Learn about the World: Algeria: Spicy Chickpea Soup (Hu mmus b´il Kammun

Gradually starting to ease back into blogging and have brought back Cook and Learn about the World, which was inspired by the blog Global Table Adventure and to try to get my fussy eaters to try new things and also learn a little about the different countries.

So, I have arrived at Algeria and thought I´d kick off with this soup as I thought it might be something that my OH and children would possibly enjoy as we´ve never eaten Algerian food before. I´m not a big fan of pulses and we hardly ever eat them so it sounded like a good way to get some pulses down us too. This soup is simple to make and is perfect for a cold winter´s day or night and it has a lovely blend of spices that whisk you off to another country.Plus the majority of the ingredients are easy to find in your local supermarket...the only thing I found a little difficult to encounter was harissa.I actually got mine from an English supermarket but if you don´t come across it, you could make your own using Global Table´s recipe for harissa. Again if you can´t find the specific chilli peppers, you could just use what you can find. The smell while it´s cooking is tantalizing and it´s ideal for mopping up with some crusty bread.

I pretty much followed Global Table Adventure´s recipe although I think I used slightly less chickpeas, which were already cooked and as I didn´t cook the chickpeas instead of cooking water I just used tap water. As I´d never tried harissa before I only used a teaspoon of it as the recipe states but next time I might add a little more. Also, as the chickpeas are already cooked, I didn´t cook it as long as the recipe says so instead of simmering for an hour, I probably only simmered it for a further 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I couldn´t persuade either of my children to try it which is a pity as I think they would´ve enjoyed it as it is quite similar to some Spanish food.

In order to learn a little about Algeria, which I have to admit I don´t know much about myself, we looked at my daughter´s The Usbourne Children´s Picture Atlas and found Algeria and saw that the capital is Algiers and that the Sahara dessert and Atlas mountains can be found in Algeria and that the people of Algeria use camels.We will hopefully learn a lot more about Algeria as we cook a couple more dishes from this country.

Mad Hatter´s Teashop & Patisserie

Another of the foodie places on my bucket list of places to visit while on my recent trip to the UK was Mad Hatter´s Teashop & Patisserie, a lovely café & teashop which I discovered on Facebook.
I booked a table ahead to avoid disappointment,which was lucky as it is a fairly small café and is pretty popular.

Mad Hatter´s is known for it´s afternoon teas and cakes but they also do hot lunches...I think hotpot was on the menu when we went! They also specialise in baby showers and are even expanding and taking over the shop next door in order to be able to cater better for special events, such as baby showers. The cafe is tastefully decorated in soft,pink pastel shades with their yummy cakes displayed on the counters, which you can´t help but drool over!!

 We ordered a savoury and a sweet afternoon tea and there was also the choice of a Christmas afternoon tea. The savoury  afternoon tea consisted of sandwiches with various fillings, soup of the day...which that day was leek & potato, pork pie and quiche and a giant scone with fresh cream & jam. The sweet afternoon tea came with sandwiches with a variety of fillings...cheese & Branston pickle, ham & piccalilli, tuna mayonnaise & Coronation chicken. As I am a bit fussy and don´t like tuna, they didn´t have any problems with changing the tuna mayo sandwiches for extra coronation chicken ones. We also got a vanilla slice,a coffee renoir...I changed my coffee renoir for carrot cake,brownies and  giant scone. The afternoon teas are for a minimum of two people but I think there is enough for 4 people...we couldn´t manage all of it as we were too full so they packed what we couldn´t eat into boxes for us to take with us. Although a little on the expensive side, it was well worth it as everything was delicious and you get your money´s worth...as I said we couldn´t eat it all!! The service was also good and they were very friendly. It definitely didn´t disappoint and I totally reccommend it as a special treat. I´d love to go back again sometime.

Cooking England County By County: Berkshire: Brown Windsor Soup

I had to put this off for awhile over the hot summer months as I really didn´t fancy making hot soup,let alone eating it but as it´s beginning to get colder, I thought it was about time and got all prepared with all the ingredients...only for it to warm up again!

Finding cream sherry seemed to be quite a task...I looked in at least four supermarkets and were asking all my friends where I could buy crema de jerez(I didn´t know what the Spanish translation for cream sherry was, so translated it literally!) They hadn´t heard of it before. Eventually I came across it in LeClerc amongst the sherries and it actually had Cream printed on the label(see right hand corner so you know what you´re looking for if ever you need cream sherry in a recipe when you´re in Spain!)

The origins of Brown Windsor soup is unclear but I had never heard of it or tried it before looking into British regional recipes.
I´m not really much of a soup person but I quite liked this soup although it wasn´t much of a hit with the rest of the family. However, it is tasty with a bit of bread to soak it up and great for warming you up on a cold winter´s day. I used the following recipe,taken from The Independent and didn´t make any changes, just cut down slightly on the amount of beef stock used but hopefully you are starting to discover that British food is much more varied and tastier than it first appears!

Carrot & Coriander Soup (Nov 20th)

I had some coriander left over from a curry and as I've always wanted to make carrot and coriander soup (and TRY it!) that's what I did! So, here's my first recipe...it's based on one of the recipes on the BBC Food website but adapted for 2 people and I added my own little twist...... mainly as I also wanted to use up the half of lime. Unfortunately, my boyfriend didn't enjoy it as said he doesn't like the taste of coriander but I thought it was pretty damn tasty even if I do say so myself, so don't let that put you off!

Carrot & Coriander Soup (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp olive oil

5 big carrots, peeled and sliced (sorry I don't know the exact weight...am really missing my scales!)

2/3 oz (55g) fresh coriander, chopped

1/2 lime, juice only

400ml (14 oz) hot chicken stock (vegetarians can use vegetable stock)

100ml (3 0z) cream

salt and black pepper

Method:

Fry the onions and garlic in the olive oil when oil is hot, until onions and garlic are softened(2-3mins).

Add the carrots and coriander and lime juice and cook for five minutes.

Add the stock and simmer for five minutes.

Add salt and pepper to season, then blend in a blender or with a hand blender till smooth.

Add the cream and reheat but do not boil.

Easy peasy! Serve with slice of crusty bread and enjoy a perfect winter meal, great for warming you up on those cold nights!