Bubble and Squeak Soup

Starting with the end of the week, on Friday we had bubble and squeak soup, the first recipe in a book we bought on the previous Sunday, when we went for a walk on Brean Down (more of that in a minute). The National Trust Compltete Country Book was reduced from £25 to £8, so couldn't resist snapping it up. On flicking through the first thing that strikes you is how brown all the recipes are, traditional British Food is brown, whereas Italian, which we have been eating mostly this last year, is bright yellows, greens, whites and reds, dazzling to the eye. But with autumn coming on, we are entering the brown time of year, and the need for warmth and hearty nourishment was quite strong. So, I made the first recipe on the book on friday, a nice country soup, utterly flavourless unless vast amounts of seasoning are added, without which it tastes just like what it is, water in which potatoes have been boiled. So this is what English food tastes like, I remembered. Actually, it turned out better than that, and was in fact quite delicious. Basically you fry some chopped bacon in butter, then remove it and fry an onion in the remaining fat, then add some chopped up potatoes and a litre of water (not stock, just water) let it simmer away until the potatoes are soft, when you mush them up and add some sliced cabbage, cook for another 7 mins, add soem cream,then serve, with the crispy bacon on top. Well, it's a bit like Saxe Coburg Soup (see earlier post) especially if you did as I did, and just throw the bacon into the soup at the end and stir it around. Also, we couldn't get a decent cabbage with lots of floppy green leaves, but just had a tight white ball of a cabbage, would have been a lot better with the green. Anyway I think it was our DISH OF THE WEEK.
                The rest of the weekdays were taken up with old favourites - sausage meatball papardelle using slightly unusual sausages (mozarella, tomato, basil and pork), spaghetti bolognese a la Gino but following him to the letter this time (though still not cooking it for three hours, just one hour, but we did use pasatta, which is better than tinned tomatoes - it's a great recipe), and chicken tagine, which I think the family might be getting a bit tired of now, so will give it a rest. On Sunday we had the most spectacular roast beef ever, following Jamie's recipe from Save, which we've done before, but this time with an enormous joint - I got a cheap Asda silverside joint and slow roasted it for over 5 hours, while we went for the walk at Brean. By the time we got back the joint was falling to pieces it was so tender, it was actually like an unravelled ball of string, the muscular tissue disintegrating into long strips of flesh. It had produced a superb gravy via the pot roasting method (it just appears from nowhere, mix it with jam (from same national trust shop we bought the book) and flour, it's brilliant with yorkshire puddings and roast pots. The follow up meal for monday was an excellent curry, beef rendang, using the left over beef (there was a lot left over) and a tin of coconut milk.
         
 Places I ate out this week - the cafe at Brean was overwhelmed with a pony club meeting and wasn't doing food apart from pasties and cakes. the pasties were the usual flaky pastry and meat mush things, but cake (Victoria Sponge) was excellent. The restaurant and attached shop are very unlike a National Trust Place, until you realise the quality of everything is good, you think at first it's a cheap tat place, it's like a working class version of an NT place.
           On Friday, Halloween, had dinner with friend at Eastern Eye in Bath, the ballroom style Indian restaurant we often go to. I always have the Biryani there, which is very good.