Chilled Spiced Satsuma & Cranberry Soup for the New Covent Garden Soup Company

 

Last week, I had an email inviting me to devise a soup for the New Covent Garden Soup Company's "Soup of the Month" competition, for Christmas.

Now I know that it's currently June and you really don't want to be hearing about Christmas and I sympathise, I really do.  You should know, however, that it takes New Covent Garden a fair old while to get the processing sorted out for a new soup, so they needed to start early!

Immediately upon hearing that it was to be a Christmas soup, I started to think about what flavours and smells say "Christmas" to you - even in the middle of June.  I asked on Twitter and I asked the family, but in the end, I went with my own definition of what smells and tastes like Christmas to me.

First on the list was Satsumas.  No matter when I break into a Satsuma or a Clementine, be it summer or winter, it immediately says "Christmas".  I've even been know to go into the living room where son & heir has been munching on a Satsuma and say "smells like Christmas in here!".

Second on the list was Cloves.  Now for all that I hate the little misbegotten spawn of the devil - sorry, was that a bit strong? *chuckle* - their aroma is just redolent of shiny baubles, robins wearing santa hats and tinsel.  Every year, we make two or three satsumas studded with cloves and tied with a ribbon, to go on the Christmas tree - so I guess it isn't hard to see where the connection is!

Thirdly, is Cinnamon.  Not necessarily the ground cinnamon, but cinnamon sticks.  They have an earthier aroma than the ground version, I think.  Again, we tie a few of those onto the Christmas tree each year.

Thinking on, I suppose I could have come over all Great British Menu and gone into the garden for some Douglas Fir needles - but (probably thankfully), I didn't think of that at the time.  I was aiming for a light dessert soup that would be suitable for those who just don't fancy a big dessert after their Christmas dinner - or any big dinner, come to that!

Beautiful little cranberry jewels!

I tossed around various combinations to go with the citrus - things like chestnut, figs, dates, chocolate, rum, brandy - but nothing really "clicked", until I hit upon the cranberries.  I remembered how the cranberries kind of dissolved when I cooked Red Cabbage and Cranberries and that made sense as far as the texture of the soup was concerned.  I needed something to give the soup body and flavour - and they seemed perfect.

After that, it was just a matter of deciding upon the spicing.  Cloves and cinnamon were a shoe-in, but after that we went through the entire gamut of spices that we had in the cupboard and rejected the like of star anise, nutmeg and mixed spice, in favour of green cardamom.  The selection process was fairly scientific - we had the plain soup in front of us and could have a wee taste or a big sniff, then sniff the spice in its jar - and from that, it would tell you whether it would go or not.  The cardamom, with its citrussy notes, was just perfect.

Yesterday morning, hubby and I set to in our test kitchen.  Okay, it's the ordinary kitchen - but for the purpose, it became a test kitchen, alright?  It felt important, that way.

Without cream - so that you can see the segment pieces

We halved and squashed an inordinate amount of citrus fruit, cooked cranberries, dibbled in jars of sweet stuff, sieved, stirred, tasted, cooled, heated, stirred a bit more, zested, grated, tasted again, counted whole spices, stirred some more, heated a bit again, did lots more tasting (we went through an awful lot of teaspoons) - and left it to infuse.

Two hours later, we had the most fabulous, refreshing yet rich, zestily citrus, fruitily cranberry, beautifully spiced soup.  I spent a frustrating few minutes unzipping some more citrus segments from their pith - and the soup went into the fridge to chill.

I was a bit concerned that the chilling might kill off some of the spicing, but no - when it came out and was dressed with its celebratory swirl of whipped cream and the shreds of zest, it both looked beautiful and tasted amazing.

Everyone loved the soup.  When I asked son & heir what he thought, completely unbidden, he said "tastes like Christmas".  Ha!  Mission accomplished, I thought! I'm not sure what degree of Vitamin C remains after the cooking process is done, but between the citrus fruit and the cranberries, surely there has to be a fair amount.

Mixed 50:50 with Shiraz and warmed - gorgeous!

Then, however, we got to thinking (as we often do) about what else we could use the soup for.  Hubby immediately came up with the idea of mixing it 50:50 with a red wine and heating it through to create a mulled wine.  We tried it out - and boy, was it good!  We used a Shiraz and they combined beautifully.  I could just imagine going out Christmas carol singing and coming back to a steaming glass of "warms the cockles of your heart" and could feel a rousing chorus of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" all ready to burst into life.

Next up was my idea of using it as the base for a jelly.  Heat it through, add some gelatine, pour into a jelly mould, chill and eat for dessert, or at a summer High Tea!  So it's not just a Christmas soup!

In fact, with my next suggestion, it very definitely found its place as an "anytime" soup, as it occurred to me that if you reduced it down by half in a saucepan, it would make a fabulous jus to pair up with poached pears.

The possibilities are endless!

Now - I've a favour to ask of you.  If you can bear it, could you go along to the New Covent Garden Soup Company's website and register, then vote for my soup?  ~looks appealing, with puppy dog eyes and everything~  I'll be your best pal, honest!

SPICED SATSUMA AND CRANBERRY SOUP  (serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

1.5kg satsumas

1 orange

75g cranberries, to make 1.5 dessertspoons of cranberry puree

2 tsp syrup from stem ginger jar

2 tsp runny honey

2 green cardamom, unbroken

3 cloves

a thumb-sized piece of Cinnamon bark 

Method :

1.  Place the cranberries into a small saucepan with a touch of water & cook on a medium heat to soften, until easily squashed with the back of a spoon.  Set aside and allow to cool slightly.

2.  Separate out 3 satsumas and reserve.  Juice the remainder through a sieve, into a bowl (to make a minimum of 400ml).

3.  Take the orange and with a zester, cut sufficient long strips of zest for decoration and reserve.  Using a microplane grater, grate the remainder of the zest finely and reserve.  Juice the orange through a sieve into the satsuma juice in the bowl.

4.  Press the cranberries through a sieve into another bowl, to remove large pips and most of the skin.  You’ll need to scrape the puree from the underside of the sieve.

5.  Add cranberry puree to the satsuma juice by degrees, tasting as you go, to ensure the cranberries don’t overpower the citrus.  Once you are happy with the balance, transfer to the small saucepan and begin to warm through on a low heat.

6.  Add the ginger syrup, honey, spices and 1.5 teaspoons of the fine grated orange zest and stir to combine.  Allow the liquid to warm through until steaming, but do not simmer or boil.  Once steaming, cover with a lid and remove from the heat.

7. Allow the spices to infuse for 2 hours, then pick them out and discard.

8.  Taking the reserved satsumas, peel and segment them.  Then remove the pith from around each segment and, breaking each segment into pieces, add the flesh to the cooled liquid.

9.  Place into the fridge to chill and serve in glass bowls with a swirl of whipped cream and the shreds of zest to decorate.

Printable version
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Red Cabbage with Cranberries

I'd had it in the back of my mind that it would be interesting to work with cranberries a little, over this Christmas period.  I had never tussled with the little lovelies before, yet I know for sure that Cranberry Juice is one of the family favourites (as and when we can find some that's affordable or not sweetened with Aspartame), so there was no reason to believe we wouldn't like them.


Hence, when I spotted the recipe for "Red cabbage with balsamic vinegar & cranberries" (ridiculously long name!) in the Christmas edition of Good Food Magazine, it was a definite "cut out and keep" moment.

I'm not sure which thought came first, the "I should make Corned Beef Pie" or the "I should make the Red Cabbage & Cranberries - Corned Beef Pie will go well with it" thought.  I suspect that they happened around the same time, as I seem to have been pairing them up in my mind since that moment.

As red cabbage and cranberries are both good from an anti-inflammatory point of view, I was even keener to make this dish.

It really is simplicity personified to make.  It's a one-pot, on the hob, no fuss series of ingredients being included and stirred.  I will admit to tinkering about with it slightly, in that I completely abhor the flavour of cloves for some reason, so I included caraway seeds instead.  Caraway is a perfectly compatible flavour, but if you prefer cloves, then by all means swap it back!

I loved the end result.  It did indeed go extremely well with the Corned Beef Pie, in that the sweetness from the fruit and balsamic was a perfect foil for the chilli heat involved with the pie.  I've got to say that, even when I ate the remainder for lunch the following day - cold, with the remains of the Corned Beef Pie - it was just as lovely.  I'm thinking that, cold, it would make a gorgeous barbecue side dish for those balmy evenings we're supposed to get, come summer!

RED CABBAGE WITH CRANBERRIES  (serves 4)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 tsp caraway seeds (or ground cloves, if you prefer)
Half a red cabbage, quartered cored and thinly sliced
100ml vegetable stock
1½ tbsp balsamic vinegar
50g brown sugar
100g fresh cranberries.

Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a large pan.  Add the onions and fry on a low to medium heat, stirring every now and then for around 10 minutes or until they start to caramelise.

2.  Stir in the caraway seeds (or cloves) then add the cabbage and continue cooking, stirring more frequently to distribute the cabbage evenly across the pan and prevent burning, until the cabbage has started to soften.

3.  Pour in the stock, add the vinegar and sugar, then cover and cook for 10 minutes.  You may need to give it all a stir or two around the end of the cooking time, just to check how the liquid levels are doing.

4.  Stir in the cranberries and cook for another 10 minutes.  You may need to add a little more water, if the pan appears to be going dry.

5.  Once the cranberries are softened and beginning to burst, remove from the heat and season to taste.

6.  Serve.

Cinnamon Plums with Cranberries - light and delicious!

You might recall that I'd been pondering what to do with the punnet and a half of large purple plums that were roosting malevolently in the fridge.

I'd originally bought these plums for Son & heir to take to school for a break time snack (one at a time - not all at once!), however he'd neatly circumvented this well-intentioned idea by taking a chocolate biscuit instead.  By the time we'd worked out that this was going on, we had a surfeit of plums that were past their best and had to devise a new home for the chocolate biscuits.

As for what to use the plums for, well, that was easy.  There were obvious choices such as plum crumble, or plum pie, or even a plum cobbler.  All very delicious - right up until you remember that I'm supposed to be off carbs as much as is humanly possible.  Now I do try to not be selfish, but I'll be blowed if I'm going to spend my time cooking a lovely dessert and not be able to eat any of it!

Now my Mum had prepared a lovely light dessert for when we visited last weekend.  She'd baked halved nectarines with honey and bay leaves, together with raspberries and blueberries - which was completely gorgeous and perfect for anyone conscious of what they're eating.  It was even suitable for diabetics, so long as the honeyed juices were left in the serving dish.

So that got me to pondering on my plums.  I'd bought a punnet of cranberries to use in Red Cabbage with Cranberries (due for dinner tomorrow, with the Corned Beef Pie) but it was obvious that I had way too many cranberries for just that recipe, so I could afford to use a few with the plums.

Bearing in mind the time of year - just coming up to Christmas, when I considered what flavourings to put with the plums, cinnamon sprang immediately to mind quickly followed by a pinch of mace for that sharper note.  I pondered for a moment or two on using a little spiced rum as well, but in the end, opted for taking a little zest from an orange and using the juice as the moisture base.  I thought that the citrus would match up well with the mace - and indeed I was right.  However, if you don't have any mace but do have some spiced rum - go ahead and use it, because I'm sure it would be fab.

The next problem was what to sweeten the whole with.  Bearing in mind the diabetes, I was loath to use plain old granulated sugar.  Remembering my Mum's recipe, I opted for honey.  Yes, it's all sugar - but honey is (apparently) better for diabetics and considering hubby is only just diabetic, as I say, so long as he keeps the sugary juices in the serving dish, he'd be fine.

Well, what a triumph this was.  Incredibly simple to prepare, lavish to look at and gorgeous on the palate - especially with a spoonful of creme fraiche.  I'll very definitely be making this - and ones like it with different fruit - again.  Better than a pot of (albeit very nice) yoghurt for dessert!

CINNAMON PLUMS WITH CRANBERRIES  (feeds 3-4)

Ingredients :

6 big fat purple plums
a handful of cranberries
half a tsp of ground cinnamon
a pinch of mace
zest & juice of one orange
3-4 tsp runny honey.

Method :


1.  Pre-heat your oven to 180deg C/350deg F/Gas 4.


2.  Slice and remove the stone from the plums.  Place the slices, cut side up, into a baking dish.  Add the cranberries randomly around the dish.


3.  Sprinkle the fruit with the cinnamon & mace, then grate the orange zest over.


4.  Juice the orange into the dish - it doesn't matter if it washes some of the spices off - it will all add to the flavours.


5.  Drizzle the lot with the honey, then place into the oven for 30-40 minutes.


6.  When the time is up, check that the plums are soft but whole.  Remove and allow to cool slightly, then serve with a spoonful of creme fraiche.


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