Summer soup and satisfying bread

Summer holidays for us teachers are supposed to be for relaxing and switching off but these holidays have been manic! So after my visits to the impressive Olympic Park in Stratford, East London I'm hoping to get back on track with my cooking now.

Thinking along seasonal lines I thought what could I make use of in the garden? Well every time I've been in the garden this summer I've inspected my herbs and thought I need to use them more often in my cooking. So whilst deciding what to cook next, low and behold I stumbled upon this appealing recipe in Galton Blackiston's A Return to Real Cooking, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Return-Real-Cooking-Galton-Blackiston/dp/1903872197/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344460222&sr=8-1Parsley and Bacon Soup page 56, it's particularly suitable if you do have an abundance of the herb. The book itself has an array of tempting dishes and for the first time since I've started this mission, it's one I have never cooked from before! Recipes that have caught my eye and ones I will seriously try are: Tomato and Roquefort bread, Smoked Salmon Mousse, Buttered Samphire, Financiers with Chocolate Orange Centres, Garden Mint Ice Cream..... too many gorgeous recipes to list! And reading through them, the instructions appear straightforward and all are accompanied with beautiful photography.

Those of you that are familiar with Norfolk will know that Galton Blackiston is the owner of the delightful Morston Hall in north Norfolk, a Michelin-starred establishment that will wow you with innovative and seasonal dishes, I should know, as my husband treated me to a weekend stay a few years ago.I can say I was not disappointed! Soups at Morsten are more often served as an appetiser as part of their tasting menu so as not to spoil your appetite. Indeed his book has a chapter on soups and sauces, as Blackiston adds

"Soup is something that registers strongly in the British psyche -years ago, large houses with big kitchens would always have a stock or soup pot on the go" (p.47)

To me, serving soup without bread is unthinkable, so it was only logical that I should also take this opportunity to bake a new bread recipe. I thought I'd partner the soup with some garlic-type bread with a vague notion that maybe the parsley soup would counter the garlic (a bit tenuous, I know!).After having a look through my bread cookbooks I chose the Potato bread with Roasted Garlic from The Complete Bread Machine Book by Marjie Lambert.http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Complete-Bread-Machine-Book/dp/1840923822/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344459942&sr=8-1 This book is full of unusual and varied recipes for bread, about 200 in total; whether it's basic breads, fruit breads, sourdough breads or rye breads. It's a book I haven't had long so have only tried a couple of recipes but was very pleased with the results: Hamburger buns and Hot Dog rolls (P.127) - very soft and pleasingly squidgy and the Portuguese Sweet Bread (P.198) - a light textured sweet bread, a real treat at breakfast.

Down to business with the recipes. Luckily on Sunday I had cooked a roast chicken, so quickly made up some fresh chicken stock using the carcass. I literally plonk the carcass in a large saucepan with enough water to cover along with an onion, black peppercorns, salt, carrot, fresh parsley and thyme (or whatever else you've got in the fridge/cupboard) See photo below! Let it all simmer for a couple of hours and then strain and hey presto you've got some lovely chicken stock! Obviously if you're short of time a few stock cubes will do but I think you don't benefit from that richness and depth of flavour you get from fresh chicken stock.

Cooking up a simple but fresh stock

Parsley and Bacon Soup (copyright  Galton and Tracy Blackiston)

55ml olive oil
3 onions finely sliced
110g parsley stalks and leaves separated
850ml chicken stock
1 medium potato sliced
12 thin rashers of smoked streaky bacon
50g spinach
75ml double cream
25g butter
salt and pepper
parsley and crispy bacon to serve

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and add the onions and parsley stalks so they can sweat.
2. When onions softened and translucent, add stock, potato and bacon and simmer until potato cooked.
3. Add the parsley leaves, spinach and cream, cooking for around three minutes.
4. Remove from heat, liquidise and pass through a sieve.
5. When serving, reheat soup, adding butter in small knobs and stirring. Check seasoning and serve with parsley and a strip of crispy bacon.

Separating stalks and leaves

Chopped onion, a red onion has sneaked in there!

Chopped bacon

Cooking parsley stalks, bacon and potato

Adding cream and parsley leaves

Serve with a slice of crispy bacon and chopped fresh parsley

Potato Bread with Roasted Garlic (copyright 2000 Quintet publishing Limited)

To make a 450g/1lb loaf

8-10 garlic cloves

Roasted garlic

1 tsp olive oil

2 tbsp milk

60 ml water

115g mashed potatoes (nothing added)

2 tbsp butter

1tbsp sugar

25g grated Parmesan

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp salt

270g bread flour

2 tsp yeast

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Place garlic cloves into a small square of foil, brush with olive oil and wrap up and bake for 30 minutes.
2. Cool, then squeeze out the garlic from the cloves.
3. Put the garlic and all the other ingredients in bread tin according to your bread machine manual. Set for white bread, normal crust and press start!

Ingredients added to the bread tin

The finished loaf

Both recipes were relatively simple and yet delivered satisfying flavours. The bacon and parsley complemented each other very well and the bread was a welcome addition to a meal that filled us all up! If anything, next time I might add more garlic to the bread recipe as this was rather subtle; the Parmesan was just right and the mashed potato added to the depths of flavour. I would particularly recommend serving this bread straight from the tin, nice and warm.

I'm hoping to get another recipe tried and tested in the next few days. I bought a couple of duck legs so am scouring the books for something different to my normal confit of duck leg recipe I like to cook.