Sunday, October 11, 2020

Robin Ellis's Carrot, Apple and Ginger Soup; a guest Sunday Dinner by Celia Wakefield

 
Good morning dear JR writers and readers. It’s Sunday, its Julia’s week on though she is busy being me in the past, organizing the disposal of her father’s house. Just a brief segue; wouldn’t our lives be so much easier if we chose to do a trial move into senior living when we get to the age of needing help, rather than having it forced upon us. I think this is a question that I need to sit with as leaving my lake would be so hard. 


However as I mentioned earlier, it’s Sunday, it’s Julia, and I am the cook today. We had agreed on a to die for chocolate dessert which is very simple but I have run out of time to work it up so it’s soup again, which with the promised temp dropping below freezing tonight is what we need.



Back in March Debs wrote about Robin Ellis who was touring in the USA at the time promoting his new cookbook, Mediterranean Vegetarian Cooking. Robin was the original Poldark on telly back in the day and I remember devouring the series. I even had the Poldark cook book. I was intrigued with Robin’s story of diabetes, so I ordered the book which duly arrived ahead of publication which was lovely.

It’s what I would call a visually stunning book on cookery. So many books in this genre have gorgeous photos of the food, usually enough to put off a home cook from trying out. But Mediterranean Cooking shows Robin’s enjoyment and Meredith’s *photographic skills in neighborly way. One can imagine being able to make food that looks like theirs. Now all this coupled with my results from my recent physical showing teetering on the edge of the diabetes pool, tells me that I need to a) get on my new little Cubii and cycle away and b) as my Doctor reminded me, “back off the empty carbs”. (I don’t think he meant vodka, did he?).

Many of you know that I come from England. I was born in London during WW2, and have lived in a variety of countries before washing up in Maine. However, my heart belongs in Cornwall as well as Maine. My parents chose Cornwall for their retirement. I remember a holiday in Cornwall in 1954. We stayed in a cottage on the edge of the harbor in Mousehole,

((/ˈmaʊzəl/; Cornish: Porthenys). (My first catch, probably pilchards. Left sister, Ros, bro, Andrew, my mum, me) My parents finally put down roots on Feock on the edge of the Carrick Roads close to Truro, so often seen in Poldark.

Checking my facts, it appears that Poldark was set by Winston Graham throughout Cornwall from Bodmin Moor (Jamaica Inn is still there) to the Lizard. Robin posted photos of the original Poldark cast of forty-five years on his blog this week. Which brings us to the recipe though it is rather a spider’s web of memory links by me that are hopefully, helped by a large warm helping of Robin’s carrot, apple and ginger soup

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Carrot, Apple and Ginger Soup from Mediterranean Vegetarian Cooking - Robin Ellis - 2020
 

(I did make some changes to the recipe which are mentioned below)

(Serves 4)

 
2 Tbsp. olive oil       

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 tsp. chopped ginger root, (I use 4 Trader Joe’s frozen ginger cubes)

1# carrots, peeled and chopped, ( I have organic carrots from my CSA so just scrape them)

  Plus 1 carrot peeled and halved

2 Fuji apples, or apples of choice, (I had local apples to use, they are smaller so used 4)

  Plus 1 apple finely diced

4 cups veggie stock (I used Dashi stock which is a Japanese stock derivative of seaweed, dried fish etc.)

1 tsp salt

A few dashes of Tabasco (optional)

A bunch of chives, or a little flat parsley, to serve



Heat the Olive oil in a casserole over medium heat. Add the chopped onions, garlic and ginger and cook 3 plus minutes. 

Stir in the carrots and apple setting the diced apple aside, then add the halved apple and Stock 

Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer partly covered for 30 minutes 

Remove the halved carrot with a slotted spoon, chop it into fine dice and reserve. 

Use an immersion blender to puree the mixture Reheat if necessary and add salt, pepper and other seasoning to taste 


Serve the soup, garnished with apple, carrot, and herbs.

BON APPETIT!

 

 

 

 

 

 

51 comments:

  1. I’ve never had carrot soup before, Celia, but this sounds delicious . . . and perfect for chilly fall days. Thanks for sharing the recipe with us

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  2. I confess that I like to stay with my chili and vegetable soup and beef stew I make, not venturing out to unknown soup recipes. However, this has ingredients that sound delicious together, and it’s not twenty different steps. Also, it looks beautiful. I will give this one a try this fall. Thanks, Celia. Oh, the videos wouldn’t come up on my phone, so I’ll try on my laptop after I get some sleep. I did enjoy the people and food pics.

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    1. Kathy, I am a great believer in the tried and true. But the pandemic has put me into new territories which is why Julia and I have been collaborating on the Sunday recipes. I wouldn't go to a 20 stepper unless it was special for some reason.
      Now as to the Videos, something went wrong and I need Julia to fix it for me but I think she may not have internet today. But I do apologize, I was learning how to post directly to JRW and a couple of steps on the videos must have been missed. We will get them fixed!

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    2. Celia, last spring and early summer, I went the direction of new territories in baking and made new-to-me cakes. I have experimented with some different casseroles and a new way to fix salmon patties (while delicious, the salmon patties recipe was a bit more complicated than may be worth it). I have never been a soup experimenter, but you have convinced me to broaden my horizons there.

      A funny, now not then, story about soup making was years ago when I made bean soup from scratch. I did it because my husband loves bean soup, and while I don't love bean soup, I wanted to do something nice for him. Well, I made the soup and served it that night, and I thought it looked quite tasty, for bean soup, and I didn't even mind eating it. After eating several bowls, my husband said to me, "That was good. Why don't you open another can of that tomorrow?" Needless to say, I haven't fixed bean soup from scratch since. I guess I could or should have been flattered that my bean soup was up to Campbell's standards, but I really thought he should have been able to tell the difference, the added touches and effort..

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  3. That sounds absolutely delicious, Celia. And I love your stories about Robin and your past with Cornwall. Goodness, you had long legs in that picture! I'm off on a week's writing retreat and not cooking except to warm up leftovers I brought with me, but I'm saving this recipe for after I get home.

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    1. Thanks so much Edith, well I still have the legs but Im afraid that the rest has blossomed! Enjoy your retreat and write. Can't wait to read it.

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    2. LOL, Celia. I never had long legs, and the rest of me has blossomed too. I'm very much enjoying my retreat, working on a great new project. I expect to finish the first draft before I go home on Thursday!

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  4. After a week of difficult connections to the blog, I can access easily as before this morning to this recipe of soup and I love all kinds of soups. As lunch on this cold day, it will be perfect. I already have all the ingredients.
    In the place of videos, it is written: video is unavailable. It may be related to the connecting problems of the week. Anyway, the recipe is simple enough to make but I usually like to see you perform Celia.
    Have a good Sunday everyone !

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    1. Danielle - I hear you. It's been an interesting week re internet. I think that Google may have been doing stuff because I received no JRW emails and in fact managed to mess up the site on Friday, but the JRW web Maven came to my rescue and I think the videos will be back up once Julia is back home.
      Thank you for writing such nice comments about the past videos. Yes this is a perfect soup where simplicity is concerned.

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    2. Danielle: Thank you for mentioning the difficulties you've had w/ the blog this week. I, too, had a hard time connecting, and I now see I wasn't alone. I'm glad to know that, and even more glad to see Lucy's comment below that the glitches have been fixed. Yay!

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    3. I didn't know that others had the same connecting problem.I'm glad that the problem didn't come from my old device.

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  5. Thank you for the delicious soup Celia! And for all of our red readers, we apologize for the difficult week on the blog. we had some technical glitches! But we are back and look forward to this weeks chat and visitors

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    1. Roberta, you're most welcome. Yes I apologize for my part on Friday. As I told Maddee I can find the bug in anything and exploit it without meaning to. Julia will fix the videos when she gets back.

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  6. Thanks Celia, Julia - this loos delicious. It reminds me of a "carrot pudding" my mother made... came out sort of like an airy carroty gingerbread. I'd love to find a recipe.

    Thanks EVERYONE for sticking with us. Last week on the blog was epic awful and it took our brilliant website designer Maddee (Xuni.com) to figure out why HTML code was piling up like gobs of hair clogging a drain.

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    1. Hallie, you are most welcome as I said above I really do apologize for my part in all this, but the bright side was that I met Maddee and we got it done. I'm thinking of your mom's pudding and wondering how to recreate it. Sounds a little like a carrot cake but lighter. I'm wondering how one could work out percentages of carrots and apples, spices which are easy, to flour and eggs and then whip the eggs to build in air and volume.

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    2. Hallie, your mom's carrot pudding may have been a "Tsimmes" which is still a pretty popular Jewish Eastern European dish that has thousands of recipes. I have my grandmother's meat tsimmes and vegetarian tsimmes recipes. Glad to share. Spices, of course can be changed in any recipe, my grandmother's were fairly bland by today's standards.

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    3. Definitely not tzimmes... it was the consistency of what the brits call ‘pudding” only light not dense - the carrot was completely blended into the batter... researching it now

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  7. Wow! What's not to love about this soup! I'll bet it tastes even better than it looks! Hope to try it soon. Thank you.

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    1. Oh, with my video errors and everything, that is so nice. Thank you Judi, Yes we liked it. I put some yogurt in my bowl but Victor ate his plain.

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  8. I thought the same thing, Edith: Celia, you were all legs then!

    Carrots, apples, ginger, and garlic. Yum, a winning combination. Thanks for the recipe.

    Dear Reds: not to fret. We love you, regardless. You are worth waiting for.

    Signed,
    A fan

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    1. Dear Karen, thank you so much for the compliment as well and the compliment. It is a good soup, a keeper I think.

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  9. Your soup recipe is wonderful! I'll give it a try. I'm yearning for chicken pot pie. Have you written about meat pies in the past?

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    1. Thank you so much Margaret, we enjoyed it and it is healthy without seeming so! I haven't written about meat pies here. But if everyone doesn't mind a longer from scratch, recipe, I'm game. I haven't made them so much recently either and English savory pie recipes are a little different than American. But you raise a good point and I talk to Julia.

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  10. This is one of my favorite soups for the holidays. I make extra for when we have guests, which won’t happen this year alas

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    1. This was a new one for me Rhys. However it would make a great starter for the holiday meal whether Thanksgiving or Christmas. Yes I ordered our turkey in good faith back at the beginning of June which is when our local farm takes orders. Not sure if the family can come up or not. They keep pretty strict quarantine too.

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  11. Looks wonderful! Unfortunately hubs is allergic to ginger. I can usually leave it out with little harm done, but I think it's essential to the flavor of this soup. I will eat it virtually. Great photos - now I want to go for a visit.

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    1. Thank you Kait, I do understand about food allergies, my poor daughter has celiac so my cooking changed markedly once she was diagnosed. I apologize, but I can't remember if it is your husband who can't eat onions etc. If I'm incorrect here, perhaps make it with additional onion or leek and add a little spice like cardamom which goes well with apple and is very popular in Scandinavian cooking. I love it as a spice.

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    2. Hubs is fine with onions and leeks. Thanks, Celia, I will try that and the cardamom as a substitution. Always looking for good soups this time of year.

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  12. A new soup recipe is always happy news, so thank you, Celia. Isn't it amazing how food is transformed through combinations and cooking -- the crunchy carrots and apples become smooth and drinkable. That's my deep thought for this Sunday morning. All the best to everyone...

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  13. Celia,
    Thank you for the recipe!
    That is one of my favorite soups and I Never like soup, lol.
    Happy Sunday,
    Diana

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    1. Happy Sunday back Diana, I hope the sun is shining on you as it is on us. I'm glad you like the recipe. Great for Fall.

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  14. You're most welcome Amanda, make it and enjoy. I am sure the videos will be up by the end of today or early tomorrow. Julia is traveling and I, apparently, don't have the right skill on uploading them! Yes this is really a transformation. I've added an apple to a carrot soup in the past but this was different.

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  15. Celia, I loved your stories about Robin and Cornwall. As you may remember, I was also a huge fan of the original series, and visited many of the settings. I also have the book but haven't tried this soup, so now I must. I'm glad that you bought Robin's book--I highly recommend the two previous ones. And Robin is certainly a testament to how well his diet keeps diabetes in check!

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    1. Thank you so much Debs, I know we would have lots to talk about if we ever get a chance. I do remember what you had written about Robin and I went back, reread it and the rest is todays blog. Actually I don't think my links are working either but am sure Julia can make it all good. Yes, I need to emulate Robin. I shall try to make at least one of his recipes each week. I love his blog too.

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  16. Celia, I love the photo of you from Cornwall and thank you for sharing that part of your life story with us.

    I have a very similar soup, Sweet Potato and Apple Soup which is really to die for. My recipe has extra spices and is totally vegetarian, no fish in the stock. It is delicious hot but believe it or not, it is spectacular served cold and I have done that many times in the summer. I am happy to share the recipe, but no videos. LOL

    Sweet Potato, Carrot, Apple, Red Lentil Soup

    ¼ cup butter or oil (olive oil is fine, but not necessary for flavor)
    1 large onion peeled and minced or chopped
    2 large sweet potatoes- peeled and coarsely chopped
    3 large carrots peeled and chopped (Save peelings and ends from carrots, onions other veggies for stock)
    1 apple peeled and chopped
    ½ cup of red lentils, rinsed
    1 teaspoon fresh minced ginger (or more to taste! I triple it)
    ½ tsp. black pepper
    ½ tsp. salt
    ½ tsp. cumin (I use more, triple)
    ½ tsp chili powder (I use more, double)
    ½ tsp paprika (I use more, double)
    4 cups of broth*
    Heat oil in deep pot and add onions to hot oil. Cook until translucent.
    Add other vegetables and apple to pot and stir. Cook on medium for about 10 - 20 minutes.
    Stir in lentils, ginger, salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, paprika and broth.
    Increase heat and bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer and cover pot. Cook for about 30 minutes.

    Puree soup with immersion blender. Serve hot or cold! You can serve it topped with yogurt or with sour cream if desired.
    *Make your own broth using the peelings from carrots, onion and other veggies you may have in your veggie drawer like washed celery. I cut off anything that’s spoiled but use stuff that is wrinkled and not fresh looking. That’s fine. Bring peelings etc. and 1-1/2 quarts water to a boil. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Use in soup. Yum. Much healthier than canned broth.

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    1. Judy, great idea to make your own stock--trying to be more mindful of such things as grocery shopping is no longer a casual event.

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    2. Wow Judy, thank you so much. I really enjoy sharing sparks from my past. I love your soup recipe and have copied it to my Recipes folder. I will try to make saving veggie scraps for stock my goal for this winter when I can't get to my compost bin.
      Rosamunde Pilcher told a tale in 'September', I think. It is of a English country house cook who kept a large pot of stock going on the Aga into which go all the bits, trimmings, leftovers etc. As the cook for a house with a lot of shooting parties in the season, she needed her stock to be strong! One rather wet Autumn the gentlemen would send their wet shooting clothes to be dried on the clothes rack in the kitchen above the Aga. This was in the time before dryers were available. Anyway our cook received lots of compliments and large tips each weekend. At the end of the season it was discovered that a large shooting sock had fallen off the rack and been immersed in the stock. Apparently adding to the je ne said quois flavor for that season.

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    3. Celia: that story about the sock in the stock is as horrifying as it is amusing!

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  17. This sounds great and more importantly, not complicated. I should be able to use a standard blender instead of an immersion, just do it in batches and able to freeze the leftovers since four cups of stock is a lot of soup for one.

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    1. Deana, Thank you so much. I think it would freeze well, though we finished the first batch fast. I estimate I had about eight finished cups of soup. It would be simple to halve the recipe You may certainly use a regular blender. My preference is an immersion blender as my very expensive blender leaks from the bottom which is most frustrating. I have changed the seal too. Immersion blenders aren't expensive and really save time and cleanup too.

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  18. Celia, I love the old Poldark! And I adore the picture of you with your pilchards in Cornwall. It's definitely on my list of places I want to roam. Thank you for the soup recipe. It sounds delightful. In AZ, we won't be at soup temperature for a few more months, so I'll save it for now.

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    1. Thanks Jenn, yes its not soup weather in your neck of the woods just yet. My outdoor temperature is reading about 55F. I hope your guys like it. Mine did.

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  19. Celia, thanks for the reminder about Robin Ellis's Mediterranean cookbook. The soup looks delicious--and I think we've got everything on hand!

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    1. You're most welcome Flora. I am glad that I bought the book. I am trying to cut down my cookbooks not increase them but this one is a keeper. Enjoy it, easy and quick to make.

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  20. It's true, jungle reds did seem completely sluggish during the week. But ultimately I had no trouble accessing it. I get withdrawal symptoms when a post is not up when I log in at 5:30 or so in the morning!

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    1. Edith, you ARE up with the lark! I think it's a Google problem, but seems to have been fixed. On the other hand
      the Videos above, I obviously missed a step and I need Julia to fix it for me but I think she may not have internet today. But I do apologize, I was learning how to post directly to JRW and a couple of steps on the videos must have been missed. We will get them fixed

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  21. I’m looking at the ingredients and trying to imagine what that tastes like. Sweet? Savory? Spicy? I’ve never had a carrot soup so I’m in the dark here!

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    1. Describing a taste is always interesting. Let me see what I can do. In my batch Victor said he couldn't taste the apple, but what I tasted with an apple/carrot vibe. So slightly sweet, and the spicy is up to you. The lovely thing about making soup is tasting at the end before serving; "a little more salt? a dash of hot sauce? One can change the final bowl to ones own liking I find. I usually go light on salt because so many are on less salt diets. My stock added something as well. Judy's veggie stock recipe is good to do but really a bought carton of stock or a stock cube can be fine too. Just watch the salt with bought products.

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  22. Sadly, I'm getting signs that the videos are not available.
    Sounds good, though.

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    1. I'm so sorry Libby, as to the Videos, something went wrong and I need Julia to fix it for me but I think she may not have internet today. But I do apologize, I was learning how to post directly to JRW and a couple of steps on the videos must have been missed. We will get them fixed. And I will ask whoever the next blogger is to add a link to todays page.

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