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Entries Tagged as 'Starter'

Parmesan Custards with Anchovy Toasts

July 28th, 2008 · No Comments

Blogger-D was lucky enough to have a free work jolly to Le Café Anglais last Christmas and said the food was some of the best she’d ever tasted. Blogger-R unfortunately has yet to be offered such a generous perk and so has had to content himself with making this - Rowley Leigh’s ’signature’ dish of […]

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Tags: Eggs · cheese · Starter · Fish

Garlic Soup with Harissa

July 26th, 2008 · No Comments

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.

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Tags: Soup · Starter · Vegetarian

Almond & Grape Gazpacho

June 24th, 2008 · 1 Comment

We’ve gone cold soup crazy this month. This particular variety is based on the classic Ajo Blanco but with the cheeky addition of cucumber and watercress.

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Tags: unusual foods · Tapas · Soup · Main Course · Starter · Vegetarian

Avocado Gazpacho

June 12th, 2008 · No Comments

What could herald the arrival of summer more than a big bowl of cold soup. Wasps perhaps. Or possibly sharing the big bowl of cold soup with a wasp. A wasp in shorts. Anyway, if you’ve bothered to read the posts below, you’ll know I am intimately familiar with the red, tomato-based gazpacho, however, up […]

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Tags: Bread · Tapas · Soup · Main Course · Vegetarian · Starter · Outdoors

Radish & Apple Salad

June 9th, 2008 · No Comments

The yumblog balcony cottage garden celebrated its first harvest this week - a dozen juicy, crunchy, peppery radishes. There’s a little-known double-barrelled bloke called Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall who has a similar, albeit more modest operation to ours, so we thought we’d give him a little free publicity and try out one of his recipes.

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Tags: salad · Starter · Vegetarian

Gazpacho

June 9th, 2008 · No Comments

Summer reluctantly and briefly visited the UK this weekend, and so as a gesture of thanks to the mighty sun god Ra we held up this delicious offering - the first gazpacho of the cold soup season.

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Tags: Bread · Tapas · salad · Soup · Main Course · Vegetarian · Starter · Outdoors

Stinging Nettle Soup

May 27th, 2008 · No Comments

I’ve always liked the idea of free food, and cooking a meal with ingredients foraged from nature’s bountiful larder holds a romantic and atavistic appeal. Sadly Bethnal Green doesn’t offer many opportunities for living off the land. You’ll struggle to find a morel growing among the KFC cartons and general crap along the Mile End […]

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Tags: foraged · unusual foods · Soup · Starter · Vegetarian

Seared Squid with Roasted Pepper Sauce

May 17th, 2008 · 2 Comments

There were scenes of mild peril when I got my squid tubes home and discovered they were not, as I had assumed, empty, but in fact contained tentacles and all sorts of other body parts. Blogger-D had to step in and perform some deft and discrete fishmongery to remove the offending bits of cephalopod. Pathetic […]

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Tags: Main Course · Starter · Fish

Squash Soup with Emmental and Cannellini Beans

May 6th, 2008 · No Comments

What to do with a squash, that eternal question. Should I bake it, fry it, foam it, render it into a mere suggestion as accompaniment to something less orange, or should I take the soup route. Like the silk road but gloopier, the soup route will inevitably involve stock, garlic and onions, the very essence […]

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Tags: cheese · Soup · Main Course · Starter · Vegetarian

Chilli Prawns with Aioli

March 30th, 2008 · No Comments

The weekend started with a nostalgic ‘The Only Ones‘ gig at Koko, and ended with a boozy tapas extravaganza of which this was the main attraction. Between the two the sun shone on Bethnal Green, a traveler returned and Thunderbirds Were Go.

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Tags: Seafood · Tapas · Main Course · Starter

Twice-Baked Cheese Soufflés

March 30th, 2008 · No Comments

Working until 7 on a Friday is never what I would class as fun. And when there’s a gig to go to then even less so – a gig with a 10pm curfew too. So I got to the pub at 7.30, inhaled two pints of Pilsner Urquell and then to the gig. The Only […]

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Tags: cheese · Eggs · Baking · Main Course · Starter · Vegetarian

Asparagus Soup

March 23rd, 2008 · No Comments

The British asparagus season starts on 30th April and ends just eight short weeks later on 25th June, midnight - roughly. Fortunately it must be in season somewhere else in the world at the moment as the shops are awash with the stuff at £1.50 a bunch. Generally I prefer it as nature intended, au […]

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Tags: Asparagus · Soup · Starter · Vegetarian

Courgette & Feta Cakes with a Dill Yoghurt Sauce

March 16th, 2008 · No Comments

WARNING: In order to prepare this dish you’ll have to master the subtle art of crumbling feta cheese. But don’t worry, if you find this daunting and would like guidance, there is a website to help you. If you need help with grating the courgette or holding a spoon then I’m afraid you’re on your […]

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Tags: cheese · Main Course · Starter · Vegetarian

Cauliflower Soup with Red Pepper Ginger Sauce

March 13th, 2008 · No Comments

Cauliflowers are very much in at the moment. Plus, like snow flakes, crystals, mountain ranges, lightning, river networks, pulmonary vessels and broccoli, they are a fine example of fractal geometry in nature. So when you’re cooking this remember to keep in mind D = Log N(L) divided by the log of 1 over L. Enjoy.

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Tags: Soup · Main Course · Starter · Vegetarian

Parsley Soup

March 4th, 2008 · 3 Comments

My fellow blogger recently bought me ‘Roast Chicken and Other Stories’ by Simon Hopkinson. Voted the ‘most useful cookbook of all time’ by somebody or other, it’s a superb book which is not only packed with inspirational recipes, but also makes excellent bedtime reading. It doesn’t have any photographs (usually a prerequisite for any cookbook), […]

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Tags: Soup · Main Course · Starter · Vegetarian

Pimientos de Padron

February 28th, 2008 · 5 Comments

I love these little beasties. Fried and salted and accompanied by a cold tube of Cruzcampo. Tradition and statistics dictate that 29 out of 30 are mild and sweet with the remaining rogue being hot and fiery. I’ve never seen them sold in this country before but have recently discovered them tucked away on a […]

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Tags: Tapas · unusual foods · Starter · Vegetarian

Spicy Lentil & Coconut Soup

January 28th, 2008 · No Comments

A naked Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on the cover and a long and unnecessary interview with David ‘Call me Dave’ Cameron on the inside. This month’s Observer Food Monthly had one cock too many.

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Tags: Soup · Main Course · Starter · Vegetarian

Tuna & Tomato Empanadillas

January 27th, 2008 · 1 Comment

I had the yen to make some Cornish pasties, but not having all the necessary ingredients and not wanting to brave the ugly madness that is Bethnal Green on a Saturday afternoon to get them, I made these instead.

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Tags: Brunch · Baking · Starter · Fish

Sushi - Maki-Zushi

January 13th, 2008 · No Comments

Find a Yo! Sushi…walk through door…sit down…grab nearest thing on conveyor belt…shove in mouth - what could be quicker? Certainly not making your own. However…

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Tags: Japanese · Main Course · Starter

Minted Pea & Lettuce Soup

January 5th, 2008 · No Comments

Happy New Year. It’s 2008 and it looks like the year ahead is going to be shit.

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Tags: Soup · Starter · Vegetarian

Celeriac & Chestnut Soup

November 24th, 2007 · 2 Comments

This one goes out to VJ ‘Mr Prudence‘ - anarchist, transphormetic blogger, psychic geographer, algorithmic obsessive and occasional ActionScript guru. The other day he confessed he was in possession of a celeriac and asked what he could possibly do with it. I’m afraid my advice was a dismissive “either mash it or chuck it in […]

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Tags: unusual foods · Soup · Main Course · Starter · Vegetarian

Cabbage & Parmesan Soup

November 24th, 2007 · 2 Comments

And then there was this other time when we had a cabbage in the veg box. Observant readers might notice a pattern of veg box-related dinners, indeed dinners built round one vegetable have become a regular occurrence. Not a bad thing as it makes you seek out new ways with seemingly old/tired/well trod/uninspiring ingredients.

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Tags: cheese · Soup · Starter · Vegetarian

Spicy Lentil Soup

November 11th, 2007 · No Comments

Now there’s a thing. If you go to lentil.com you just get a crappy illustration of ‘Lenny the Lentil’ and an email link, lentil.co.uk doesn’t seem to have been registered, and lentil.org is the blog site of a senior network engineer called Robert Lister. I mention this only because I can’t think of an introduction […]

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Tags: Soup · Main Course · Starter · Vegetarian

Butternut Squash ravioli with Sage Butter

October 28th, 2007 · No Comments

The butternut squash is the king of all the squashes, and right now it is squash season. So if you are feeling adventurous, have an afternoon to spare, and want to try something tasty then give this recipe a go.

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Tags: Main Course · Starter · Vegetarian

Stilton and Cider Soup with Goat’s Cheese Toasts

October 28th, 2007 · No Comments

If your local shop permits I advise a decent cider for this recipe - so put that White Lightning back on the park bench and try something tasty like this Henney’s Frome Valley Dry Cider.

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Tags: cheese · Soup · Starter · Vegetarian

Garlic Soup

October 21st, 2007 · 2 Comments

Try to get hold of large, plump garlic for this recipe. I always buy mine from market stalls which tend to sell bags of six for a quid. These are far superior to the over-priced, dry, miserable, mean-spirited, walnut-sized, dull 25 watt bulbs they sell in supermarkets.

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Tags: Soup · Starter · Vegetarian

Carrot Soup with Ginger & Honey

October 10th, 2007 · 4 Comments

Being the middle-class ponces we are, it is only natural that we should take delivery of an Abel & Cole organic vegetable box once a week. Carrots have featured fairly heavily of late and as a result we have developed quite a backlog of the things.

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Tags: Soup · Main Course · Starter · Vegetarian