The Greasy Spoon

Clear Gazpacho

Clear Gazpacho is one of my favourite summer recipes. It's very easy to make, though slightly time consuming- but could be made in advance, and then assembled at the last minute.

It uses similar ingredients to a traditional gazpacho soup, but, instead, has as a base a mouth watering, flavour infused, clear, tomato "consomme".

Take a largish quantity of ripe red tomatoes, and blitz them in your mixer with some sea salt. The riper the better, as the salt helps to draw out the juices. Next, line a sieve with muslin or coffee filter paper, and fill it up with the tomato pulp, placing a large bowl underneath. Stick it in the 'fridge, and let the "tomato water" drip slowly into the bowl. When I'm in the mood, I sometimes add some crushed mint leaves to the pulp as well.

The next morning you'll have a bowl full of an amazingly clear, rose-coloured, light but flavour-rich, tomato stock. The first time I made it, I was amazed. Add a bit more salt to it, if it needs it.

Pour the cold tomato water into bowls. Garnish with thinly sliced radishes, cubed avocado, sliced baby tomatoes, apple cut into tiny batons, red chili cut into wafer thin julienne, red, yellow, and green peppers, courgettes, and chopped basil.

The secret is to try and cut the ingredients into the smallest shapes you possibly can: these can include batons, diamonds, cubes, and thin strips, as the mood takes you. If they're small enough, they should float on top of the soup with ease. Serve it chilled.

That's it.

Mushroom Soup

London, at this time of year, gets pretty cold and wet, with a general dampness that chills you to the bone. To counter this, I've come up with a recipe for a thick mushroom soup laced with garlic and parsley. One of the things that I like about this version is that the soup is thickened with bread- and the result is spectacular.

Melt some unsalted butter in a pan, and add some chopped up mushrooms. I like to use brown field mushrooms, which I've chopped up roughly, stalks and all. Stew them gently for about five minutes. Next, add some chopped garlic. Cook it for a bit. Get hold of some bread, which you've previously soaked in milk. Squeeze out the surplus milk, and add the bread, in small pieces, to the mushrooms and the garlic.

Now you can add some chicken stock, and a pinch of nutmeg. Bring to the boil, and then simmer for about fifteen minutes. When it has cooked through, put the soup into a Magimix or blender, and give it a whizz.

Put the soup back into the pan, add some double cream, and masses of chopped parsley. All you have to do now, is heat it up again and eat it.

Black Bean Soup

I've had fun researching suitable food for Hallowe'en. Along the way, I discovered Colcannon, a traditional kale and potato dish which is eaten in Ireland, and Gingerbread Husbands, which were eaten by young village girls to make sure they found a husband. And then I hit upon the brilliant idea of Black Bean Soup. It's spicy, warming, velvety, er- black, and with Mexican hints suitable for the Day of the Dead festival on November 2nd, too. Here's my version.

You can either use tinned black beans (which are hard to find in the UK), or dried beans which you need to soak overnight in cold water. In a pan, cook some chopped smoked bacon in butter for a few minutes. Next, stir in a chopped onion, chopped carrot, and two crushed cloves of garlic. It might also be a good plan to throw in a finely chopped green chili. One of those fiendishly hot small ones. I'll leave that up to you.

Next, you need to add cumin. If you've got time, you can dry-roast some cumin seeds in a hot frying pan, and then when they're popping, take them out and crush them in a pestle and morter. Otherwise you could use powdered cumin. Add the cumin to the pan, and stir in. Cook for a few moments. Tip in the black beans, some chicken stock, and a liberal dash of my favourite Tabasco Sauce.

Simmer on a very low heat with the lid on for about an hour and a half. You want the soup to be thick and velvety. The black beans should thicken everything up. Serve with sour cream, and chopped chives. A spicy Mexican Salsa would be good too.

Luckily, I'm not going to be at home tonight. In recent years, the mean streets of Battersea have become full of roaming gangs of ghouls, witches, Frankensteins and mad axe murderers on Hallowe'en Night. Yup, Tick or Treating has suddenly become big over here. It was quite amusing at first, but last year I found myself under siege, and had to retreat to the back of the house, while the street urchins shouted through my letter box: " 'ere Mishter...we know you're in there", or words to that effect. Well, tonight kiddos, you ain't getting anything from me. That nice Mr Scrooge in Number 43...

Chicken Stock

A good home-made stock is one of the most useful ingredients in the kitchen. Okay, there are endless types of processed stock cubes out there, but for the most part, I find them far too salty. So, unless you want to go for the Pot Noodle effect, avoid them. However, when you're in a hurry (and most people are these days), Reduced Salt Marigold Bouillon Powder (from Switzerland of all places) is a worthy substitute. But how to make the real thing?

Chop up a chicken carcass and put into a large stock pot or saucepan. Ideally, this will be a mixture of bones, scraps and meat. A fresh chicken would give you a superb stock; otherwise chicken left-overs will do the trick. Next, pour in some cold water, so that your bones are covered. Place the pan over a moderate heat. It's very important that you don't boil the stock. What you want is a gentle simmering process, so that scum, fats and other stuff start floating gently to the surface. Remove the scum floating on the surface with a spoon. Keep on skimming away. Don't stop.

Next add a peeled onion, a few peeled carrots, a bayleaf, a clove or two, and a celery stalk. Keep the stock at a bare simmer, with the lid half-on. You want to see a few bubbles rising up- but no more. Keep this up for about three to four hours, topping up with water if the levels start getting too low. Skim now and again.

When the stock is ready, strain it into a bowl and let it settle. When it's cold, you will see that a layer of fat forms at the top of the stock. You can now remove this. If you've been skimming properly, you should be left with a clear broth. But remember, if you boiled your stock by accident (very easily done, I have to admit), your stock will go cloudy.

A nifty idea is to freeze your stock in ice-cube trays- and then keep them in bags in the deep-freeze for future use. And, if you've followed my instructions, you will never, ever have to buy those scary processed stock cube things again, will you? I'll believe that when I see it...

Russian Lemon Soup

Jiminy Cricket, I love this soup! I've taken it from Dara Goldstein's A Taste of Russia, which is a must for your cookery library if you like hearty East European cuisine. It's extremely simple to make, cleansing, unusual, and most importantly delicious. Here's how you make it.

In your favourite pan cook a handful of rice (I use Uncle Ben's Long Grain American Rice) in unsalted butter until the rice absorbs the butter and becomes transluscent. This should only take a few seconds. Next add some good chicken stock (home-made si vous plait- I'll be coming to this in another post). Simmer for about 20 minutes. You will probably need to add more stock bit by bit- you want to get the balance right between the rice and the liquid. When the rice is cooked, stir in some double cream, and the finely grated rind and juice of a lemon. Keep on stirring to make sure the soup is well blended.

Finally, serve in bowls with a slice of lemon floating on the top and chopped parsley or dill. Make sure that each bowl has a spoonful of the rice on the bottom of each bowl.