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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robin Ellis's Mediterrean Vegetatarian Cooking

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I have long been a fan of British actor Robin Ellis, best known for portraying Winston Graham’s hero, Captain Ross Poldark in the seventies BBC adaptation of the saga (which eventually ran to 13 books!) In the recent version on Masterpiece, Robin returned—40 years after the original version-- to play Rev Dr Halse in all five series, and he was fabulous in that, too.



But these days Robin's primary passion is not acting, but cooking, and I am as big a fan of his cookbooks as I am of his performances. I have the first two, which I use all the time, and the new one is ordered!

He lives in the a village in the south of France with his American wife, and has written four cookbooks based on low-carb Mediterranean cuisine.There is a history of diabetes in his family (his mother died from it) and he himself was diagnosed with Type 2 in his fifties—so all his cookbooks feature simple, fresh recipes that are suitable for anyone wishing to eat healthily but also well. 

His latest book, Robin Ellis’s Mediterranean Vegetarian Cooking is due to be published June 25 in the UK and Aug 18 in north America.

Here's Robin as the dashing Ross Poldark:

Here's Robin as the Reverend Dr. Halse, with Aidan Turner as Ross Poldark, in the remake of the series.

And here's Robin to share a recipe with us today!

ROBIN ELLIS: Sunday evening at home in North London (leafy Hampstead Garden Suburb) in the late forties, early fifties, was my mother’s night off. The rest of the week she would cook dinner for Dad and me and we would eat it together sitting at the kitchen table—an old pine number with a scrubbed top.

But Sundays in winter we were in the sitting room in front of the coal fire (no central heating, no TV) with a tray table between us, on which would be a simple supper--macaroni cheese, toast with homemade marmalade and I guess, tea. Comfort food before the week started over on Monday morning.

Robin with his parents and younger brothers

We’d sit there listening to Mary Martin "washing that man right outta her hair" from South Pacific (thereby hangs another tale) on Dad’s state of the art gramophone (78rpms with a wooden needle.) Some Sundays she’d encourage me do my special--buttered toast with grilled cheddar cheese and slices of tomato, finished off under the grill. Never occurred to me until writing this; that must be where my penchant for slices of ripe tomatoes on pretty much anything originates!

In the difficult make do and mend years (rationing lasted until 1954) after the war, Ma made do and cooked too. There was always something going on in the tiny kitchen just off the parlour and always a bowl to lick out.

Ma was a cake maker—fruit cakes, chocolate cakes, sponges, and a cake for CHRISTMAS started, with the Christmas pudding, in September. A spoonful of brandy trickled over each week.

That marmalade too, in February, home-made with bitter oranges from Seville. The kitchen was an everyday part of my life. A place where things-that-tasted-good came from--and within feet of the cooker, in the adjacent parlour, was the pine table where the family sat together and ate those good tasting things.

Thus Ma established in me a love of simple food eaten together round a table—tray or sturdy pine. As a bachelor in my tiny mews flat in Kensington, London, I’d cook myself breakfast —eggs, bacon and of course, fried slices of tomato, before going off to rehearsals. In the evenings after work I’d spend an hour cooking a curry and 10 minutes stuffing it in my mouth, while trying to stuff the lines in my head—sitting at my own sturdy pine table.

Molly Ellis’ love of food and dedication to serving it to her hungry family not only gave me a taste for good food but also taught me, by osmosis, that food did not arrive on the table magicked out of thin air; it came via a kitchen and there was work involved. A valuable lesson as things turned out.

This classic soup first appeared in my second cookbook, Healthy Eating for Life. It is a regular at lunches in the garden in August. Delicious and simple to make, it requires no cooking at all. 

I include it again in memory of my mother, whose cooking inspired me to get in the kitchen. It’s a fair bet my mother first tasted this traditional summer soup from Andalusia in 1953, when my parents took my brother and me to the Costa Brava for a fortnight’s holiday. (Dad worked for British Railways and got a certain amount of concessionary travel in Europe.)  There were five hotels in Lloret de Mar. Now there are over five hundred. It was there that I first tasted an egg fried in olive oil—a memory that never left me.

Ma’s Gazpacho

Robin's gazpacho with his mother's recipe

SERVES 8

1kg/2lb 4oz ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped, juice reserved

1⁄2 large cucumber, peeled and roughly diced

1⁄2 large red pepper, deseeded and roughly diced

2 spring onions, chopped

3 garlic cloves, pulped in a mortar with 1 tsp salt

3 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to serve

a few drops of Tabasco (optional)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

a few parsley or basil leaves (optional), chopped, to serve

8 ice cubes (optional), to serve

1. Put the tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, spring onions and garlic in a food processor. Pulse to combine until you have a not-too-smooth. Tip the purée mixture into a large bowl and season with salt and pepper.

2. Stir in the red wine vinegar and olive oil and add a few drops of Tabasco if you wish – it’s a matter of taste. Chill for a couple of hours or overnight.

3. When you’re ready to serve, pour a ladleful of the gazpacho into each bowl, add a whirl of olive oil and a pinch of chopped parsley or basil, if you wish. On a hot day, I sometimes add an ice cube to each bowl, too. 

DEBS:  Robin is also featured in the Merchant Ivory adaptation of the Henry James novel, The Europeans (recently re-released). And one of best performances—though little known—was in a superb Granada adaptation of Ford Maddox Ford’s seminal novel, The Good Soldier (well worth seeking out.) 

Robin will be stopping in to chat with us today from the south of France, where his village is home to the annual Pink Garlic Festival! He blogs about cooking, food, and life in rural France here.

His American wife is the photographer for his two most recent cookbooks. 

 
To get his latest cookbook before the north American release, try The Book Depository (free delivery worldwide):

POLDARK COOKS

DEBORAH CROMBIE: As we often talk about food here on Jungle Red on Sunday, AND as it's traditionally Masterpiece Theater day for all of us long-time public television addicts, I wanted to share a recent discovery.

Last month when my novel No Mark Upon Her was released, I was (of course) scanning the reviews on a regular basis. I was reading a nice piece in Examiner.com when a name in the right sidebar caught my eye--Robin Ellis.

(Here's the Examiner.com interview.)

Robin Ellis played Ross Poldark, the dashing 18th century British army officer who returns to his native Cornwall after fighting in the American Revolution, in the television adaptation of Winston Graham's novels. The classic mini-series debuted in May, 1977, and is considered one of the ten most popular shows in the history of Masterpiece Theater. Acorn Media has now re-released the entire series in a boxed set, which Ellis is promoting.

But that's not all Robin Ellis is up to these days. He lives in the South of France with his lovely American wife, and he cooks.

Diagnosed a few years ago as Type-2 diabetic, Ellis, who had always enjoyed cooking, applied himself to controlling his disease with diet and exercise.

Ellis experimented with recipes he'd been compiling for years, adapting the traditional cooking of the south of France. The result is Delicious Dishes for Diabetics: Eating well with Type-2 Diabetes.

These recipes are not just for diabetics, but for anyone who loves good, fresh food. Robin also posts regularly on his blog, and the first entry I read sold me on the book. I love Mediterranean style food, and I loved Robin's easy, chatty, and interesting recipes, essays, and photos. It was like cooking with a friend, and a friend who lives in the south of France, no less!

I ordered the book as a little book-pub treat to myself, and I LOVE it! Not only are the recipes delicious, but the book is graced with charming watercolor illustrations by an artist friend of Robin and his wife, Meredith.

Best of all, there are recipes that my husband, an oh-so-picky and unadventurous eater, actually likes! So far the Salmon Fishcakes have been the biggest hit. Pretty amazing response from a guy who doesn't like fish, particularly salmon, to have told me more than once how much he liked the dinner.

So cheers to Robin, and I'm looking forward to many more recipes--and to a spot of indulgence with the Poldark DVDs...

PS: Robin and Meredith are on a month-long tour of the US, promoting the cookbook. Unfortunately, they aren't coming to Texas, but they may be in a city near you! Here's the schedule.

If you get to meet them, I'll be jealous!