SOUP AND MORE SOUP

I cannot cook most things so, now retired, ?have a duty, though R is such a good cook and I have a penchant for experimentation - not following the recipe - which sometimes works and . . .

R has cooked some soda bread which is wonderful with butter. Here comes the waistline again.

Have just made watercress soup from the wild watercress growing in the stream in the garden. We have been warned not to eat it raw because of liver flukes - the stream comes out of the back field which has sheep and occasionally cattle in it.

However the RHS have said it is ok cooked so . . . out with the recipe book, bit of modification and I cooked some.

Having started I went and got some beetroot and made a jar of pickled beetroot and borscht - a Russian/Polish or something eastern european soup.

Most of the soup will go in the freezer for the winter.

Recipes - with a nod to the Cranks Recipe Book (do not know date of publication as the first page or two missing. It got soaked when we had a shower overflow in the rented house we were staying at whilst The Nook was being built).

Watercress -

Med Onion, small potato, 1 oz butter, bunch watercress (discard toughest stems), 1/2 pint milk, 1/2 pint veg. stock, salt and pepper, and, if you want a rich soup, 4 tablespoons of double cream stirred in just before serving.

Chop onion and potato, saute onion in butter, add potato, watercress, milk and stock, bring to boil, cover, bung in Aga simmering oven for an hour or two, cool, liquidize, season, freeze or add cream and eat. It is good cold.

If many stringy stem bits put through a colander. A sieve is too fine.

Borscht -

med onion, small potato, 1 lb raw beetroot, 1 oz butter, 1 1/2 pint veg stock (recipes say 2 pints but I think this makes the soup too watery), 3 tablespoons cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon Marmite, salt and pepper, ground nutmeg to taste (optional).

Chop veg - it easier to peel beetroot if boiled for a few minutes first and allowed to cool a bit (unless you have asbestos fingers), saute onion in butter, add potato, beetroot, stock and bring to boil then bung in the bottom Aga oven - takes a bit longer than watercress so a good 2 hours. Cool, liquidize, add s & p, cider vinegar, Marmite and, if you want, nutmeg, freeze or serve hot with dollop of creme fraiche and chopped parsley.

Now I will go and pick one or two courgettes for N. N has MS and is almost housebound. Her amazing husband looks after her and is a good friend. I know she loves sliced courgette fried with garlic and butter so will take some to him tomorrow.

I though that no one read this other than loyal family and friends but have had an offer of advertisements from America (declined) and from BBC Radio Cumbria to read some (minded to accept).