Free Nigella Christmas: Food, Family, Friends, Festivities by Nigella Lawson Page A
Authors: Nigella Lawson
when I made the Butternut Orzotto) and when I’m thigh-deep in cooking season, this is a real boon. Plus, I love the slightly flecked look that the spice-sized specks of skin give the soup, as well as the hint of texture.
The robust sweetness of this soup is countered by the buttermilk and blue cheese drizzling-mix that I swirl over the soup as I serve it and, indeed, I think it’s the two together that really make it.
Serves 8–10 as a starter, 6 as a main course
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 butternut squash (unpeeled), halved, deseeded and sliced into 3cm × 2cm chunks
500g sweet potatoes (unpeeled), cut into 3cm rings
60ml olive oil
teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1.5 litres vegetable stock, such as Marigold
125ml marsala wine
salt and pepper
FOR SERVING:
125g crumbled blue cheese
250ml buttermilk (if you can’t find buttermilk, use a plain, runny – i.e. not set-yogurt, such as Activia)
• Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. Put the chopped onion, chopped butternut and sweet potato (again, don’t worry that neither of these last two are peeled) onto a baking sheet.
• Drizzle the oil over them and sprinkle with the cinnamon and nutmeg, then roast in the oven for about 1–1¼ hours, by which time all should be tender. Remove from the oven.
• While the vegetables are still warm or at room temperature, liquidize them in 2 batches, adding 500ml of vegetable stock to each batch.
• Pour the blended vegetables into a saucepan. Swill another 500ml of vegetable stock in the blender to get out all the remnants of the soup, and pour into the pan. You have now added 1.5 litres of liquid to the vegetables.
• On reheating to serve, add the marsala and taste for seasoning. You may need to add up to another 500ml of water if the soup’s too thick for your liking.
• As the soup warms up, liquidize the blue cheese and buttermilk in a clean blender and spoon into a jug or bowl.
• On serving, drizzle some of this mixture over each bowl. Leave the jug on the table for your guests to have more if they wish.
NOTE:
If you have any buttermilk-blue-cheese mixture left over, put it into a clean jam jar with a fierce squirt of lime juice, and seal. It will keep for a day in the fridge and serve as a good salad dressing with or without an avocado blended into it.
MAKE AHEAD TIP:
Make the soup and liquidize. Cool, cover and keep in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat with the marsala, adding more water if needed. Check the seasoning before serving.
FREEZE AHEAD TIP:
Make the soup as above and freeze in an airtight container for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat as above.
TORTILLA SOUP
When I went to Dallas, I became somewhat obsessed with ferreting out this Southwestern speciality and, although I was nominally there to work (under the auspices of Janet McLeod who had, fantastically, been Elvis’s publicist), my overwhelming concern was this soup. However, my version is not attempting to ape the various ones I tried on my travels; I don’t want to enter into the debate as to what is authentic or not. For one, I lack the credentials. I’m probably about as far from a southern belle as you could get, though I love the twang, adore the manners and could eat tortilla soup until the cows come home.
If you don’t know what this is, the name is probably misleading. The tortilla refers to the soft corn tortillas which are cut into shreds and fried to be tossed into a spiced chicken broth, along with some shredded cheese, diced avocado and chopped coriander. Naturally – and it has a particular bearing, given the season – this can be made with turkey in place of chicken.
The chicken stock plays such a part here, it’s worth making sure you use a good one. That doesn’t have to mean homemade, though it’s not difficult to make. Either follow the method (see here) or cover the fresh carcass and leavings from a roast chicken with about 4.5 litres of water
The robust sweetness of this soup is countered by the buttermilk and blue cheese drizzling-mix that I swirl over the soup as I serve it and, indeed, I think it’s the two together that really make it.
Serves 8–10 as a starter, 6 as a main course
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 butternut squash (unpeeled), halved, deseeded and sliced into 3cm × 2cm chunks
500g sweet potatoes (unpeeled), cut into 3cm rings
60ml olive oil
teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1.5 litres vegetable stock, such as Marigold
125ml marsala wine
salt and pepper
FOR SERVING:
125g crumbled blue cheese
250ml buttermilk (if you can’t find buttermilk, use a plain, runny – i.e. not set-yogurt, such as Activia)
• Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. Put the chopped onion, chopped butternut and sweet potato (again, don’t worry that neither of these last two are peeled) onto a baking sheet.
• Drizzle the oil over them and sprinkle with the cinnamon and nutmeg, then roast in the oven for about 1–1¼ hours, by which time all should be tender. Remove from the oven.
• While the vegetables are still warm or at room temperature, liquidize them in 2 batches, adding 500ml of vegetable stock to each batch.
• Pour the blended vegetables into a saucepan. Swill another 500ml of vegetable stock in the blender to get out all the remnants of the soup, and pour into the pan. You have now added 1.5 litres of liquid to the vegetables.
• On reheating to serve, add the marsala and taste for seasoning. You may need to add up to another 500ml of water if the soup’s too thick for your liking.
• As the soup warms up, liquidize the blue cheese and buttermilk in a clean blender and spoon into a jug or bowl.
• On serving, drizzle some of this mixture over each bowl. Leave the jug on the table for your guests to have more if they wish.
NOTE:
If you have any buttermilk-blue-cheese mixture left over, put it into a clean jam jar with a fierce squirt of lime juice, and seal. It will keep for a day in the fridge and serve as a good salad dressing with or without an avocado blended into it.
MAKE AHEAD TIP:
Make the soup and liquidize. Cool, cover and keep in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat with the marsala, adding more water if needed. Check the seasoning before serving.
FREEZE AHEAD TIP:
Make the soup as above and freeze in an airtight container for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat as above.
TORTILLA SOUP
When I went to Dallas, I became somewhat obsessed with ferreting out this Southwestern speciality and, although I was nominally there to work (under the auspices of Janet McLeod who had, fantastically, been Elvis’s publicist), my overwhelming concern was this soup. However, my version is not attempting to ape the various ones I tried on my travels; I don’t want to enter into the debate as to what is authentic or not. For one, I lack the credentials. I’m probably about as far from a southern belle as you could get, though I love the twang, adore the manners and could eat tortilla soup until the cows come home.
If you don’t know what this is, the name is probably misleading. The tortilla refers to the soft corn tortillas which are cut into shreds and fried to be tossed into a spiced chicken broth, along with some shredded cheese, diced avocado and chopped coriander. Naturally – and it has a particular bearing, given the season – this can be made with turkey in place of chicken.
The chicken stock plays such a part here, it’s worth making sure you use a good one. That doesn’t have to mean homemade, though it’s not difficult to make. Either follow the method (see here) or cover the fresh carcass and leavings from a roast chicken with about 4.5 litres of water
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