Butternut and Pasta Soup

A truly delicious soup. The quantities below make enough for 2 apparently, but it was so good that Tara and I both wanted more - this recipe deserves upping the quantities.

- Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a big pan, and add 1/2 finely chopped onion.

- Cook for 10 mins or until soft, then add 205g butternut squash, cut into 1 cm cubes.

- Turn for 2 mins, then add 60ml white wine or vermouth, let it bubble, and then add 600ml stock and a bay leaf.

- Simmer for 10 mins, then take a ladleful, puree it and add back.

- Add small soup pasta, and cook for another 10 mins.

- Once thick and stew like, serve with grated parmesan.

The butternut squash pieces are just firm enough to give texture but soft enough to be sweet and chewy. Make it - you won't be disappointed.

Loin of Pork with bay leaves

I know it doesn't look hugely appetising, but i had to rush the photo as i was getting hungry from the continual demands of a wife and 2 week old baby! This is another pork marinade, not as tasty as the char sui one, but one which also forms the basis for a great gravy after cooking. The one problem is that nigella suggests using dried bay leaves, crumbled up. These add good flavour to the marinade but are still there in the gravy and are then like eating bits of dried paper-not a nice texture. I would recommend not crumbling the leaves, but use whole leaves which are easy to remove, or use ground bay leaves. I also added mushrooms to the roasting tin with 20 mind to go which gave the gravy even more flavour.

Mix 6 tablespoons of olive oil, 4 cloves crushed garlic, 6 crushed peppercorns, 6 bay leaves (crumbled or not,as you wish) and a teaspoon of salt.
Add to (up to 2 kg of loin) pork and leave up to 24 hours to marinade. Finely slice a medium onion, add to a roasting tin and place the pork on top with it's marinade.
Cook for 30-90 mind depending on size of loin.
Remove pork and add 150 ml of both White wine and boiling water.
Deglaze and simmer until reduced by about a third.
Add to the pork.

Re-reading nigella more closely, she actually suggests straining the gravy, which would solve my bay leaf problem, but I would also have lost my mushrooms and onions, which were delicious. The flavour of the bay was a bit over-powering and using whole leaves would have made the effect a bit more subtle.

Fancy Cake

Another birthday cake for Marni - 2 weeks old today! Slightly disappointing recipe, in that it's not very fancy - in fact it's rather plain. Nigella does suggest using a brioche tin, and all i had was a bread tin. It is however, very simple to make. The whole thing would be raised by the addition of a topping, but nigella doesn't suggest any. I reckon a reduction of lemon juice and sugar poured over would work wonders.

- Whisk 6 egg yolks and 200g castor sugar into a creamy mass.
- Fold in 200g ground almonds and the zest of a lemon.
- Whisk 6 egg whites until stiff and gently fold into the batter.
- Pour into a buttered brioche tin and bake for 1 hour at 160C.
- The cake will probably rise, then sink as you take it out, but this is meant to happen apparently!

Marni, however, being 2 weeks old, seemed to enjoy it being made for her, although she's not the most discerning of people yet!

PS Yet again, my mistake - on the next page, nigella does in fact suggest an orange syrup, which turns it into a cake she had similar at Moro's.

- Combine the juice of 10 oranges, 200g sugar and a cinnamon stick.

- Boil for 10 mins until syrupy, then let cool.

- Add the juice of 1-2 lemons

Pork Char Sui

This is basically a marinade for chinese style pork, and boy, does it work.

- 2 tablespoons soy sauce

- 2 tablespoons tomato ketchup

- 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce

- 2 tablespoons ginger wine or sweet sherry

- 2 tablespoons honey

- 2 tablespoons of muscovado sugar

- Mix these together and add to a pork chop or tenderloin.

- Marinade for up to 24 hours

- Cook for 15 mins at 220c then 20 mins at 160c, basting regularly.

It gives a very authentic chinese tasting pork with a lovely sticky, chewy texture.

Lemon Curd

After a disappointing vegetable curry, Nigella quickly made up for it, with a terrific recipe for lemon curd.

- Remove the zest from 4 unwaxed lemons, then squeeze the juice from them.

- Beat together 4 eggs, 4 egg yolks, and 300g castor sugar until the sugar dissolves.

- Add the lemon juice, zest and 200g unsalted butter.

- Stir on a low heat (use a heat diffuser if you have one) until the mixture thickens and looks like lemon curd.

- If it starts to curdle, immediately put in a bowl of cold water to reduce the temperature and get whisking.

The result is a lemon curd that is zingy and not too sweet. Something i will definitely make again. Watch this space for Pavlova for those eponymous left over egg whites.

Vegetarian Curry

A disappointing recipe given the relatively complex method of making it. It tasted good as a kind of stew, but wasn't really much like a curry. I tried adding additional cumin, cayenne pepper and some garam masala to make it taste more authentic, which worked to an extent. If i'm being fair, i didn't have the exact vegetable ingredients, but should this really make such a difference to a curry?

- Put 2 large chopped onions, 2 cloves of crushed garlic, 1 tablespoon each of cumin, coriander and paprika, 1/2 teaspoon each of ground allspice, cardamom, and ground ginger, into a pot.

- Boil for 5-7 mins in 300ml of stock.

- Add 350g halved button mushrooms, 3 large chopped carrots, 3 chopped peppers and cook or "fry" them in the juice until tender.

- Puree half the mixture in a blender and add back.

- Add 2 turnips, 1 cauliflower, 1 parsnip, 1 fennel bulb, and 3 celery stalks, all cut into 1 cm cubes.

- Cover with stock (probably 300ml), season and simmer for 15 mins.

- Add 3 chopped courgettes, 225g runner beans, and the juice of 1/2 lemon.

- Simmer for another 10 mins or until tender.

As you can see, quite a lot of work for a curry that isn't really a curry, although it is very low in fat and still tasty.

Macaroons

Yes, you guessed it, you need egg whites to make macaroons apparently. This shouldn't really count as a recipe, as there no separate recipe list, but I've made it, so i'm going to count it.

- Mix 150g of ground almonds, with 200g castor sugar and stir in 2 egg whites.

- Add 1 tablespoon of flour and 1 teaspoon of almond extract.

- Pipe into 5cm rounds onto baking parchment, adding an almond in the middle.

- Cook for 20 mins at 160c.

I cooked them in 3 batches, cooking each for slightly less time. The ones brown all over, were all crunchy after they'd cooled, whereas the ones slightly browned on the outside, were still chewy in the middle and just about perfect. I'm definitely going to be making more of these - easy, delicious and look impressive!