Stonking!

I've had an ace weekend so far -- previous to now I've been doing a half-arsed attempt at this project, falling behind and not focusing. I wanted to catch up a bit and found yesterday to be a blinding success! In fact I've been talking a load of codswallop about my inabilities to do well with this project - truth is I've been just too lazy. So instead of being a nark about it, I thought I'd do something about it...

Blimey, that was hard!

68. Spring Bean Soup - the Peckham Way - *Soup*
69. Spring Bean Soup - the Peckway Way (Leaves Variation) - *Soup*
70. Bruschetta - *Toast*
71. DIY: Cooking with Dried Pulses - *Soup*

So I wonder if people in Peckham talk the way I just wrote... highly doubt it!

I'll start off with showing all you lovely folks the impromptu lovely brekkie I had yesterday. It is a variation of Nigella's Raspberry and Oatmeal Swirls. For the 'oatmeal' I crushed a few oatmeal cookies I baked a few days ago, and I used lingonberry jam instead of a raspberry pureé. The combo was magnifico!

Alright, the soup(s) were very easy to make - what else to expect from our man Tom. I paired it with bruschetta; and I made the dried pulses for a reintroduction of the Lentil and Vinaigrette Salad to my parents' meal.

For the Dried Pulses, I put about 200g of lentils in a pot full of water and let it boil for about 35 minutes until just tender -- and that's all there is to the DIY.

For the soup, I chopped up some potatoes, carrots, onions and garlic. (Check out my fabarooni Typhoon Diner Blue cookbook stand from TJ Suxx-no-More! Fabulous!)


I let all those vegetables sweat in some olive oil and salt for a few minutes, and again, these were the beginnings of the 'stock' Tom so enthusiastically includes in his Soup chapter recipes. Once the veggies were soft, I added frozen lima beans (the original recipe is for broad beans/fava beans)....

And then I added some peeled tomatoes I had crushed in a colander to a rough pulp.

Some water was added, and the soup was allowed to simmer for about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, I drained the cooked pulses...

And then dressed them for the salad I was to take to my parents' evening meal.

I also made the bruschetta to go with the soup. This was very easy and fast. I grilled some stale ciabatta bread on my Le Creuset ridged grill pan. Then I rubbed a bruised garlic clove on each slice, and drizzled quite liberally with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled on some sea salt. Beautiful!

The final preparation for the soup was just to season it and serve it up. The 'variation' consists of wilting either basil or baby spinach (or arugula) leaves into the cooked soup. Rafa had the variation while I had the original version.

The soup was perfect, and it's true that everything is made great with some bread, so the bruschetta was highly appreciated as well. Rafa commented on how lovely the bread was and said it reminded him of something he used to eat as a kid with his grandad. Aww, very sweet! Anyway Tom has a ton of fantastic soup recipes in CL; no wonder that this one is just as great! Or should I say STONKING!

Hours later, at my mom's place, she served up THE most delicious cheesecake! I have boasted about my cheesecake talents before - no more, I have been dethroned! It is made with Israeli white cheese - not exactly cream cheese but must investigate that. My mom knows only things in % fat when it comes to Israeli products for some reason. Here is the cake; you'd be raving bonkers to pass this up!

As much as I loved the CL recipes I tried yesterday and was proud of myself, this cheesecake really takes the biscuit!

Cheers!