Almond and Roquefort Soup with Cheese Profiteroles

Today's recipe was from one of those generic all purpose cookbooks every house collects. I glanced at it and thought, oh yeah. That'll be a good lunch time dish. Looks kind of quick and easy.

LESSON ONE: Read the recipe properly!!

It was full of secret hurdles. Such as "Immeadiately and without hesitation stir in the cheese you obviously already grated due to being a mindreader! Follow it with rapidity and speed (yes! Both!) with the sesame seeds you already toasted for the same reason!!!" Um. I didn't read the recipe in advance. Bad Jax. Therefore there was significant swearing and cursing and rushing around in the kitchen to do these preparatory things which I should have done already.

LESSON TWO: Learn the non metric system. (Or only buy books that use metric in future.)

"Three ounces of cheese? AAAAALEC... How much is three ounces? Crap. Oh well, I'll just chuck it all in."

Ahem. I think maybe I put too much Roquefort in. Also, it wasn't actually Roquefort, it was some sort of New Zealand blue vein cheese, cos we couldn't find Roquefort in our little supermarket. It didn't end up being that strong though, so I guess it was alright.

LESSON THREE: There is no such thing as too much cayenne pepper, cheese or garlic.

No, really. I promise. I meant the profiteroles to have that chilli kick. Ahem.

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This recipe is not for the faint of heart. Nor is it for dieters, people with dairy issues, or probably anyone else who values health over taste. It's mostly cheese and milk. With some flour. And some spices. Pretty much all fat.

But, dude. DUDE. When that profiterole is melting and gooey in your mouth surrounded by the creamy wonder that is the almond and blue cheese soup, it is HEAVEN.

Heaven. In my mouth. For realz.

NOM.

Thumbs up all round. (By which I mean me and the husband. No one else tried it)

Next up: I believe it is a tofu and ginger noodle soup. Hm. I have never been a fan of tofu, so we'll see how that goes.

Pea soup and Mercian Salad

*dusts off blog*

So, I finally got our cookbooks on a shelf in the kitchen where they belong. I also seem to have found my round tuits, with the help of a little Android App called Astrid which is the electronic to do list I have been searching for for years. /plug.

So, I am going to try and finally do this little cooking project I have been planning on for ages. What it entails is working my way through the books, and cooking everything in them. Starting with the first recipe in the first book, then the first recipe in the second book, and so on, till I get to the end of the shelf and cycle back around.

Yes, I realise this will take me a LONG time. We're aiming for one a week, but some weeks (like this one!) we might just achieve more than that.

The first book on the shelf is a "Best of Floyd", so you can imagine my surprise and disappointment when it didn't have even a smidge of alcohol in it! (I really hope you all know about Floyd, or that will make no sense.)

It's a mint and pea soup. Pretty basic, cream, stock, mint and peas. Some butter, some seasoning. I even made proper real stock from a chicken carcass from the night before, cos I was feeling all culinary. Very easy, very basic recipe.

I'm not sure I've ever actually had pea soup before. I was less than impressed at first. It wasn't as minty as I expected it to be (even though I used FRESH MINT! From the GARDEN! As instructed.), but it grew on me. Kind of delicate. I love peas, so that helps.

We ate the leftovers the following day and it had thickened up a bit and was much nicer. The recipe certainly didn't say "Let it rest for a day", but it seemed to have improved it.

Ratings:
Me: Tentative thumbs up
Husband who loves food: Thumbs up
Incredibly fussy teen: Meh
Occasional hungry student: Thumbs up

The Mercian Salad comes out of a Spanish cookbook, and was actually made by the husband and said occasional student, who was here for dinner. I was otherwise occupied with the baby.

It's basically a salad made of roasted veggies - eggplant, onion, red pepper, garlic. There is about a ton of olive oil involved and some lemon juice, I think.

It was very similar to a Catalan dish that the boys make when we barbeque, except instead of cooking the veg over a fire, they're roasted in the oven. So it wasn't as exotic to us as it might have been. Nevertheless, it is one of my favourite things. Roast veggie salad, eaten cold. NOMNOMNOM. Also, you know, Mediterranean food for the win.

Me: Thumbs up
Husband who loves food: Thumbs up
Incredible fussy teen: Thumbs down
Occasional hungry student: Thumbs up


Next up: Almond and Roquefort Soup with Cheese Profiteroles. Mmmmm.