Sweet potato, red pepper and feta soup

I believe that feta makes it all better. The most virtuous of cheeses; even nutritionists struggle to slate it.

So if you imagine it’s a cold winter’s day (if you’re a UK reader, then it most likely is right now), and you want the nourishment of soup, with the moreish tang of of a crumbly cheese, then this is the recipe for you.

This meat-free soup is thick enough to hold its own as a main meal, or as a satisfying snack in a mug whilst catching up on a good omnibus (I mean, intellectual book).

To make a big pan, you’ll need:

3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into four lengths
Half a bulb of garlic, crushed or chopped
Half a packet of full-fat feta (low fat is less tasty – it’s a false friend)
Vegetable stock cube
1.5 litres of water
Tbsp olive oil

- Heat the oil and gently sauté the potatoes and garlic for a few minutes. Meanwhile, pop the peppers in the oven to roast on around gas mark 7 for 20 minutes. Add the stock to the potatoes, bring to the boil and then simmer for around 15 minutes. By this point the peppers should be slightly charred and the skins puckered. Carefully take them from the oven and put in the stock pan. Boil the combined mixture for 5 minutes. Crumble in the feta and then blend to a smooth consistency. Season as required.

Hearty (& cheap) Minestrone Soup

You have to take what you can from the miserable start to UK winter. For me, it’s the simple comfort of soup. It would just be silly to have most soups in summer or spring, so as the temperature drops, I drag out the heavy saucepan, turn on the radio and start souping!

Incidentally this week too, I’ve been reading with interest about #jackspetition. Jack Monroe is a mum and anti-poverty campaigner. At one point she found herself with just £10 a week to feed her 1-year old son and herself. Her local Surestart centre directed Jack to the local foodbank, when they realised her situation. Jack’s petition has made headline news this week and I look forward to the updates on Parliamentary discussions.

So as a nod to Jack and her hard work, I tinkered around making a minestrone soup that is healthy, filling and cheap. It’s meat-free and the pasta and potato turn this into a proper meal.

Makes a big pan to fill around 6 bowls:

400g can tomatoes (as cheap as you can get)
3 big handfuls of dry pasta or snapped spaghetti (same as above)
3 medium white potatoes, peeled
3 medium carrots, peeled
2 sticks celery, washed
2 veg stock cubes
2-3 pints of water (for desired consistency)
2 big handfuls of peas
2 cloves garlic (optional but nice), crushed
Dried oregano or mixed herbs (optional but nice)
Any other frozen veg you like – I used broad beans for added chunkiness
Tbsp oil

Chop the potatoes and carrots into small pieces (say 2cm chunks). Chop celery into 2cm thins. Heat oil in a heavy pan, add garlic and gently sauté veg for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes, herbs, water and pasta, bringing gently to the boil. Reduce heat and pop the stock cubes in. Leave to cook for 10 minutes then gently stir. Add the frozen peas and any other veg, then cook for a further 15 minutes until pasta and veg are cooked through.

Jack’s petition has to date collected over 75,000 signatures. Add yours here.

Experiment #1: Bare-faced weekend

People who know me will no that I’m no ‘make-up Mary’, but I do have a couple of cosmetics that I’d be fearful to live without:

Mascara for my tiny, virtually translucent eyelashes
Concealer for A LOT of toddler sleep deprivation
Blusher for my sallow, non-blushy skin tone

That’s all, really. But it’s like a religion to me. I decided to go completely bare faced for the weekend, to see if it made me feel less dependent on these three little things. I’m fascinated by dependency and addiction. Since I never followed the psychological side of my degree, I hereby call this my very first N&S mini experiment. An experiment needs a hypothesis, so here it is:

A complete lack of make up in the midst of a fairly busy weekend will have a mild to moderate impact on my confidence.

Here’s how it went down:

Saturday:

Country walk: Now I’d probably feel sillier going for a country walk in a full face of makeup. Chances are I do most walks without a scrap of make-up on (weird that I can’t confirm either way). There was something really quite nice though in knowing that there’s nothing between you and the cold wind. It felt clean. I noticed too that I had a cheery red cheeks after my 5-mile buggy push, plus a cheery red nose to match.

Supermarket: Again, I wouldn’t go to get groceries whilst purposefully caked in slap, but I did feel slightly vulnerable going to the supermarket, with my puffy eyes with dark circles to carry my shopping in. I thought to myself “at least Asher’s with me, so I have an excuse for looking this worn out”. Not good. Probably the low point of the exercise, but nobody seemed to give me the sympathy/disgust look I was dreading.

Sunday:

Friends: I only get to see my friends from ‘home’ once every few months, so I was apprehensive about greeting them with my weary visage. Luckily they are a lovely couple and not the type to say to me “hey, you look like death!”. Within a second of them arriving I was so busy chatting and making lunch, it didn’t enter my head once how I looked. I think that’s the sign of a good friendship too .

Concert: A rare Sunday night trip to Leeds to watch Andrea Bocelli belt it out. You can imagine it was no student gig; there was a tonne of perfume, elegant dresses and of course, many beautifully done-up faces. I popped a nice frock on but stuck to my no-make mantra. Admittedly it felt weird queuing, but when i was sat down and we were lunged into pre-concert darkness, it did occur to me that those ladies now looked no different now to anybody else.

It was a mixture of relief and regret to go back to my 5-minute ritual on Monday morning. Working in a client facing job, I feel it’s my duty not to scare people with my ‘toddler-chic’, but I did also learn this weekend that life goes on irrespective of how I look. Lack of make-up did not have an impact on my weekend, infact it was quite nice!

Hypothesis refuted!

Express Lunch Menu at PizzaExpress

Going to a restaurant in your lunch hour can be tricky business for a few reasons:

- Getting there takes up precious minutes of your hour
- It’s busy in there and the food takes too long
- It can be expensive and you wonder if you should have just grabbed that quick sandwich

PizzaExpress has launched a lunchtime menu across the Leeds area that overcomes all these problems. Dishes on the menu start from just £3.45, and there are all the old favourites on there, such as dough balls, pizzas and pastas.

The Panino, polenta sticks, the Padana, dough balls

The Italian Meat Panino, polenta sticks, the Padana pizza, dough balls

What I like the most about this new menu is the introduction of The Panino (£4.95) – a signature PizzaExpress dough pocket filled with a choice meats, cheeses and leafy goodness. It has all the taste and more of a pizza, yet much more virtuous, with its crunchy side salad.

I shared The Italian Meat Panino with a colleague, alongside our mutual PizzaExpress ‘must-have’ – the Padana pizza. This pizza features goat’s cheese, caramelised onions and garlic oil; neither of us could ever grow tired of it. Naturally we had to order dough balls (just to add some extra lunch time garlic), and some polenta chips.

The PizzaExpress Express Lunch menu is great for a tasty lunch in a hurry. There’s the option to takeaway too. It’s available at restaurants in Harrogate, Castleford and Leeds.

www.pizzaexpress.com

Duck a l’orange

Duck: a purplish brown meat of exoticism and mystery, which didn’t land on my plate much as a kid. Roll on twenty years or so and it’s quite a different story, with farm-reared duck legs on our supermarket shelves for less than the price of cheap chicken cuts.

So why are duck legs feared when they are now so widely available? Well, they are swathed in thick, fatty skin, they are tough as boots unless cooked correctly. There’s not much hype either about duck legs being ‘easy to cook’.

duck a l’orange

I now have a formidable French arm to my family, in the form of my husband’s aunt and uncle (see this post for more on this subject). I’m always too scared to cook for them, but since they are massive fans of French cuisine and the reassuring expense of Marks and Spencers, a few times we’ve bought pre-cooked

duck a l’orange from the food hall. I decided to research and compile my own recipe that would be cheap and easy to make, yet hopefully please a Parisian palate.

To serve 4, you’ll need:

4 duck legs
1 large orange
1 cup of Orange juice
0.5 tsp cinnamon powder
A couple of shots of Cointreau (for the sauce, not the chef!)
0.5 cup red wine (optional)
Tbsp plain flour

Preheat oven to gas mark 4/150c. Gently pan fry the duck in a little oil, skin-side down until brown. Meanwhile slice the orange into rounds and line the bottom of a casserole dish. Place the duck on top. Mix liquids and pour over the duck. Cover and cook for 2.5 hours, basting occasionally. Once the duck is falling off the bone, pour the juice into a saucepan and sieve in the flour. Whisk gently on a low heat to thicken. Return it to the pot for a rustic effect, or serve on the side.

Serve the duck with green beans and potato. You could go one step further and serve with a dish of warmed plain crisps. Apparently this is a very French thing to do, and it really does work well in giving a bit of crunch to the dish.

Dreaming of Italy (& an easy pasta sauce)

Nothing cures the holiday blues like researching your next adventure. I’m lucky to have mainland Europe on my doorstep. The concentration of countries and cultures literally blows my mind, and and as consequence, my efforts to go long-haul are often thwarted by the lure of short flight times and the guarantee of feeling deliciously far away from home.

We’re going back to Italy next year. It must be the most breathtakingly romantic, artistic and calorific place that I have ever visited. From slickness of Milan, to the wonderful waterways of Venice, beautiful Verona and the dizzying vistas of Lake Garda; Italy has something for everyone.

Me and Juliette’s ‘lucky’ boobs, Katie and James’ get married, Verona’s love graffiti, Malcesine, pastaaaaa rigatoniiii.

Italian people are great to watch, too. Grab an Aperol spritz, and take in the sophisticated suits who walk alongside weatherworn elders. I haven’t known a culture to wave their hands around more than me whilst talking, until I set foot in this incredible land.

I decided to cheer up a dreary Autumn weekend, by making an Italian-inspired sauce to tide us over a couple of mid-week dinners. I have used my own home-dried oregano, simply because I like growing herbs, but a shop-bought jar is just as good. You could swap the bacon for smoked paprika for a vegetarian variation.

To make a pan full, you’ll need:

A tin of tomatoes
4 garlic cloves crushed or finely chopped
Tsp dried oregano
1 medium onion, finely chopped
Half a red pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced
1 thick rasher of smoked bacon (it must be smoked)
Chilli flakes (optional)
Olive oil

Heat the olive oil and gently (don’t burn) the garlic for 1 minute. Add bacon and keep on a low-ish heat until bacon browns and releases fat, but doesn’t burn the garlic. Add onions, peppers and chilli flakes if using them. Gently cook for 5 minutes. Add tinned tomatoes and fill the can half with water, then throw that in too. Turn up the heat to boiling, then cover and simmer for 30 minutes (around 15 minutes in, give the sauce a good squidge with the back of the spoon, just to get the bacon and veg working together).

A final word on pasta. Don’t kill this sauce with SmartPrice 50p pasta, ok? I’m not saying break the bank, but better quality pasta not only tastes better, it is is also likely to be lower in starch (so easier on the old muffin top – seconds all round!).

Cachoa, Lagos, Portugal

It goes without saying really that when our newly-wed brother and sister in-law offered a night of babysitting on our family holiday (actually it was their honeymoon… not as weird as it sounds though), we practically snapped their arm off; for child-free evenings are a rarity for Andrew and I, especially balmy Portuguese ones.

Lazing by our pool, I browsed the iPad for restaurant options. My experiences of dining in Portugal have been either terrific or trashy, and so I turned to Trip Advisor for their number one choice. Cachoa sounded ideal, so I fumbled my way through a phone reservation.

This is not an easy place to find. Perched atop a cliff with a single uplighter on its sign, Cachoa happens to be off an unfinished roundabout, serviced by little more than a dirt track. It’s only €10 ish in a taxi from Lagos, but the feeling of wilderness drops upon you like a heavy cape once the road winds up the hill. It’s a relief as the fairy-lit path and pretty little terrace pops into view.

Cachoa is a traditional wooden building; home to chillout music, with waiting staff in long bistro aprons and laid-back smiles. We chose to sit outside, and enjoyed the fact that it was October, and well… we could choose to sit outside and not freeze to death.

Beef, lamb and a cheeky Caipirinha

The international menu was full of fun flairs that we enjoyed, such as prawns with pineapple curry sauce, plus a starter of orange and saffron humous. We also treated ourselves to a bread basket with assorted pickles and dips. Olive and anchovy paste on pumpernickle rye, is an explosive whack across the face, but one that you’ll gingerly wish to try again. Before you know it, you are a salted fish paste dominatrix and you’re dying to ask for more bread, but somehow you stop yourself. I digress…

I ordered rack of lamb, which turned out to be two racks of lamb and a massive slab of gratin. I instantly regretted my bread binge. Andrew ordered filet beef that was more like the size of a family Christmas pudding. We washed it down with a delicious Portuguese red and a super-strong coffee. Service was friendly yet fast-paced, and whilst it wasn’t as dreamy and exotic as I’d have originally thought, the fun menu twists kept us amused.

We then jumped in a taxi and headed into Lagos to try and relive or pre-parenting holiday tradition of a Caipirinha or three. We then realised that we were actually parents no longer designed for drinking such insanity, and promptly went home to watch the end of Jonathan Ross.

The Fauconberg Arms, Coxwold

What better way to soften the blow of a birthday, than to consume an excellent burger?

Mr Bruce fell upon The Fauconberg Arms in the assumedly sleepy village of Coxwold, when a storm put a road diversion in place and he drove past it. He visited their website when he finally made it home, learning that this cute little pub was also home to live theatre and music. A drive out towards Helmsley is always lovely and Coxwold itself is postcard perfect, so we thought we’d give it a go.

So anyway, onto burgers. It wasn’t my intention to be so tame on my birthday, but since the dining room was closed for a theatre production later that evening, we were restricted to a simple bar menu. There were some awesome sounding pies (root veg, traditional steak and kidney and a salmon and pink peppercorn), but I just simply had to have a burger – as did my Bruce counterpart.

Spot the little pickles. This is not our car or guitar, though we did totally own this burger.

A burger made with such care and thoughtfulness made this a very pleasant experience all round. it was clearly home made, and the chunky chips had that comforting texture to them within which you know they have been peeled, chopped and dunked in hot oil on-site and to order. The salad (I cannot believe I am raving about a garnish here), but, the salad. A wonderful dressing and fun miniature pickles that just complimented the smokiness of the quality bacon, the tasty cheddar and super-strong red onion. The whole plate was explosive and satisfying; we absolutely adored it.

With it being my birthday and all that, it would have just been too rude to decline pudding. We shared a warm chocolate fudge cake, which was laced with a mild aniseed of sorts. This worked better than is sounds. It was served with a handsome chunk of good old vanilla ice cream.

So if you ever find yourself diverted in the North York Moors, or even if you just want to drive through the countryside and stop for a nibble somewhere, do try this fun little place – and please, please do order a burger.

The Fauconberg Arms, Coxwold, North Yorkshire, YO61 4AD. Tel 01347 868214

Hurrah for Evernote

I have had many a casual flings with productivity apps. They usually last no more than 72 hours, before I have picked out their flaws and kicked them to the Trash Can. My job is complicated, reactive and involves remembering all the things. I find that many apps and tools just end up confusing things even more.

Evernote has been like that mate at uni, who arrives in your room and just ends up hanging around for a whole year. It’s really grown on me due to its flexibility and willingness to develop and change. I can make it work to suit my needs, including:

- You can make a checklist and just pin it to the top of your notes. A good old checklist that you can add to and just tick off as you go. Perfect when you have a stack of client and team “can you do this?” requests, and they don’t have a proper home yet outside of your brain. I’ve found that most to-do lists overcomplicate this need to just see your brain, in a list, with nice little boxes next to it.

- Like above, Evernote allows you to easily add flavour and depth to each to-do task. This is great for me, as my day tends to have little side-reaching arms. I a lot of work on behalf of a team of 4, and they may send me multiple requests regarding one client per day. As the requests come in, I can just edit my growing list, and then send a daily requests compendium in most cases to my client.

- The Clipper app is nice for grabbing text-only and making notes for later reading. If you have the Premium version, your notes are also available offline – so this is great for reading without using data, and also for eliminating heavy/unresponsive web pages.

- The Reminder function can pop a note up for you at any given time. Perfect for a quick-read of client notes before a meeting.

£35 a year is the cheapest Premium option and my usage only scratches the surface in terms of capacity (up to 1GB upload per month). Well worth it in my humble opinion.

Konak Meze, Harrogate

I’ve experienced two sides to Turkey, both of which I’ve really enjoyed. Ölüdeniz is a backpacker’s paradise, with chilled-out lagoons, scuba and tandem paragliding. It’s a far cry from the meat markets of Marmaris and Bodrum, and many restaurants are surprisingly good at delivering Turkish dishes and tourist-pleasing fayre.

Up north in Istanbul, things are cool in different ways. It’s a fascinating place that has loads to offer a visitor for a few days, and everything about it smells amazing, from the shisha cafes full of traditional food, to the lemony wafts of haman. Even the busy Bosphorous and its kerb-side grills of mackarel and kebob just resonates with deliciousness.

The Konak Meze shyly arrived on the fringe of Harrogate town centre a few months back. They did a meal deal on local radio station Stray FM which caught my attention, as well as the enthusiastic reviews from the station DJs who had been to try it out. We bought a voucher as a mid-week treat, not quite knowing what to expect from this curious new addition to town.

The restaurant is a converted house, and so it feels quirkily awkward upon entry. The staff were very pleasant and served us a bottle of Languedoc-Roussillon white* at their tiny bar, whilst our table was prepared. We sat in a bay window that was draped in awesome Ottoman-style curtains, on beautiful leather and brass-studded chairs. It was a simple elegance that oozed character.

We ordered the hot sharing meze to start. It was enormous, easily sufficient for three or even four diners to share as a lighter appetiser. Luckily Mr Bruce and I have the appetite of a rugby team, and we devoured the halloumi, falafel, meatballs, squid, feta parcels and deliciously unmistakeable turkish beef sausage (sucuk).

As if we weren’t actually worryingly stuffed by this point, we tackled our mains of a traditional baked meatball casserole, and a ‘Konak Grill’ with gusto. My casserole was deceptively dainty in appearance, rich in flavour and well cooked. Mr Bruce looked happy with his plate of assorted grilled meats, flanked with a lovely sultana rice that was soft and well-suited to the smokiness of the meat.

I was sorry to have to turn down a dessert menu, offering traditional treats such as baklava and baked rice pudding – but I will be back to try this out! A relaxed place to try out Turkish food without the hint of a sleazy holiday waiter. Hats off to Fettah and his team for providing great food and polite service.

Ps – a testament to our absolute stuffedness is the fact that we went to The Old Bell Tavern for a pint afterwards, and couldn’t actually drink it. Can you imagine?

*This is actually the ‘house white’, and we couldn’t believe how good it was. We only picked it because we stayed in the Languedoc-Roussillon on honeymoon, and the wine was terrific there .

Konak Meze, 11-13 Mount Parade, Harrogate, North Yorkshire. HG1 1BX. Tel: 01423 500330

North & Soul

Dotting teas. Crossing eyes