forests were not decimated to make way for cultivated land, as they have been in Britain. In all Asian and mainland European countries, wild and cultivated mushrooms are revered for their medicinal qualities. On a visit to a mushroom farm in Hampshire, I was told by farmer Jane Dick that, even with woodland covering only 4 per cent of the UK, we still need to eat fungi and learn to cultivate a wider variety. She grows and sources an interesting and wide range of delicious mushrooms, species both from Asia and Europe. Together we looked at some scientific studies into the health benefits of fungi. It is well documented, for example, that the protein-bound polysaccharides in shiitake mushrooms protect the immune system from a number of diseases, even cancer. ‘Don’t forget antibiotics are derived from fungi,’ Jane reminded me, motherly in her campaign for a more nutritious diet.
Mushroom broth with sausage, oats and parsley
This soup, dedicated to the revival of mushroom eating, needs lean sausages like Cumberland – very bready, smooth-textured bangers will turn to mush. If you live near an Italian deli, their meaty sausages are ideal. Otherwise a few chunks of a smoked German-style sausage would be good.
SERVES 4
4 tablespoons olive oil or 2 walnut-sized lumps of butter
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 tablespoons whole oat groats or pearled grain (barley, spelt, durum wheat, etc, from wholefood shops)
4 lean sausages or smoked sausages, cut into bite-size pieces
450g/1lb shiitake mushrooms, chopped (or another type of cultivated mushroom, if you like)
1 litre/1¾ pints fresh stock
salt and black pepper
chopped flat-leaf parsley, to serve
Heat the oil or butter in a large pan and add the onion and garlic. Cook over a medium heat until soft but not coloured, then add the grains and sausage. Fry for 1 minute longer, stirring, then add the mushrooms. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring, then add the stock. Cook for 20 minutes, until the grains are just tender. Taste and add salt if necessary, then add pepper. Serve with chopped parsley.
Leek and potato soup with cream
The difference between a good and a bad soup can be all about texture. Smooth soups are what they are but when making a ‘stew-soup’ it matters that the vegetables are cut in a way that makes them nicer to eat. I love the grassy allium flavour of leeks, but have a hatred of leeks cut into rings or, worse, left whole to become limp, soaked and slimy once cooked. Cut into small squares, however, their layered flesh sits neatly in a broth with squares of potato, further transformed by a swirl of rich tarragon-scented cream.
SERVES 4
4 walnut-sized lumps of butter
4 medium leeks, quartered lengthways, then sliced to make small pieces – and washed
approximately 20 new potatoes, washed and cut into small dice
1 litre/1¾ pints fresh stock
salt and white pepper
FOR THE CREAM:
150ml/¼ pint whipping cream
2 egg yolks
leaves from 3 sprigs tarragon, chopped
Melt the butter and add the leeks. Cook over a medium heat for 1–2 minutes, then add the potatoes. Cook, stirring occasionally, for another 2 minutes, then add the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes until the potato is tender. Taste and add salt if necessary, then add pepper. Meanwhile, combine the ‘cream’ ingredients thoroughly in a separate bowl. Serve the soup hot, stirring in some of the cream mixture at the last minute.
Those dying leaves
In the bottom drawer of the fridge lies many a dirty secret. I have a habit of buying too many vegetables and not using them. They hide there, in their bags or loose, composting shamefully away. This infuriates my husband, so I have to throw out their rotting corpses when he is not looking. For this reason I find vegetable box schemes hard to sign up to, no matter how much I admire them. I suffer from a condition I call aspirational greed. I buy things not because we need them but because I think we as a family should be eating them. There are vegetables I find incredibly beautiful on the shelf – big bluey-green cabbages, for example. But two weeks later they are still unused and, worse, losing their initial goodness. The children are lukewarm about boiled cabbage, even beside a roast. Then I discover cabbage soup. In a soup, everything everyone loathes about cabbage disappears. It becomes tender and yielding; it benefits from the amalgamated flavours of the other ingredients and, amazingly, it looks pretty – especially the dark-coloured varieties.
Green cabbage and pickled duck garbure
You must look overseas for interesting cabbage soup. Nigel Slater loves the purity of the Portuguese caldo verde, a humble, rough-textured pot of potato and cabbage, seasoned with garlic and chorizo sausage. Thanks to cookery writer Jane Grigson, I have discovered the earthy peasant soups of the Auvergne, and another particularly delicious one, the ‘garbure’ from Gascony, a nearly perfect stew-soup made with confit (preserved) duck legs. You can buy confit duck legs in tins, or make them (see page 417). Duck legs are an economical ingredient; the costly part of a duck is the breast meat. If you cannot get confit duck, you can use salt pork, ham or garlic (Toulouse) sausage in this recipe. Ultimately, what really makes it taste so nice is the duck fat.
SERVES 4
3 tablespoons duck fat
4 rashers unsmoked ‘green’ streaky bacon, cut into small dice
2 onions, finely chopped
4 potatoes, cut into small dice
half a green cabbage, thinly shredded
4 confit duck legs, any extra fat and skin removed (see page 417)
1.4 litres/2½ pints fresh stock
To serve: 4 thin slices toasted rye or sourdough bread, 4 tablespoons grated Gruyère cheese
Melt the duck fat in a large pan, then fry the bacon until it begins to crisp. Add the onions and cook until they begin to turn pale gold; put in the potatoes, stir-fry for 1 minute over a medium heat, then add the cabbage. Cook for another 2 minutes, put in the confit duck legs and pour in the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve the soup hot, with the toasted bread on top and cheese scattered over.
Chickpea and tomato ten-minute soup
see PLATE 3
Lunch is at home for me because that is my workplace. It is a much-anticipated break in the middle of a long day’s work and I find it matters enormously that I have something good made from good ingredients, which suits my mood and is also nutritionally balanced. I rarely eat sandwiches, though the occasional egg and cress roll is irresistible, because they make me sleepy. So if we have had something with pulses or rice the night before, I warm it, cheer it up with some fresh vegetables and may eat it with some yoghurt sauce or herbs.
I like to make fresh soups at lunchtime, taking no more than about 15 minutes. But it is time I enjoy. It can be meditative and, being my own boss, I am always looking for something to do that is not work. Alan Bennett admits to cleaning shoes and cleaning out the dust filter in the tumble-drier when he is meant to be writing scripts. Cookery writers make soup, and particularly this one, which seems to hit all the right places as a middle-of-the-day meal. The secret is in adding the sugar, so you do not have to wait so long for the tomatoes to sweeten.
SERVES