welcome to yumblog.co.uk

Two days after the end of our holiday, British Airways very generously and efficiently returned our luggage. We celebrated with a bowl of Yotam Ottolenghi garlic soup. Britain’s favourite soup.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20-30 minutes
Skill level: Easy
Serves: 4
Recipe source: Yotam Ottolenghi

Ingredients

• 25 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• butter - 40g
• olive oil - 2 tbsp
• 1 medium onion - finely chopped
• 3 celery sticks - finely diced
• fresh ginger - chopped - 2 tsp
• fresh thyme - finely chopped - 1 tsp
• sea salt - ½ tsp
• white wine - 200ml
• saffron - generous pinch
• 4 bay leaves
• vegetable stock - 1 l
• parsley - roughly chopped - 4 tbsp
• harissa - as much as you fancy/can handle

Gently fry the onion and celery until soft and translucent (about 10 minutes). Add the garlic and cook for a further five minutes.

Add the ginger, thyme and wine and leave to bubble for a few minutes.

Add the saffron, bay leaves and stock, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove the bay leaves, add the parsley and blitz with a hand-held liquidiser. Do not over-process - keep some texture.

Season if necessary.

Serve with a small squirt of harissa.

Verdict: A delicious, rich soup which, not surprisingly, has more than a hint of garlic. Ginger and harissa give it an exotic spiciness.

Drink: Cold beer retrieved from our late-arriving suitcases.

Entertainment: The Tomorrow People - Slaves of Jedikiah, Series 1, Episode 1 on DVD. Distantly remembered and haunting title sequence and theme tune. Despite the ‘Childrens Film Foundation’ acting, occasional unintentional slap-stick, sticky-backed plastic psychedelic sets and special effects which would make even Roj Blake laugh, this was a pretty sophisticated series. Much better than ‘Rent-a-Ghost’.