Something Old, Something New

We decided to make a favorite, Roast Chicken and Bread Salad with Sour Cherries and Roasted Red Onions from the cookbook: A Year In My Kitchen by Skye Gyngell, chef at Petersham Nurseries Cafe in London.

This recipe is a variation on the Chicken with Bread Salad recipe from Zuni Café in San Francisco. We have many variations of that recipe, but all require you to roast the chicken outdoors on a grill. This recipe is an indoor recipe making it perfect for wintery days. The sour cherries give the recipe a real twist. We really like it!

The recipe can be found in our blog of: June 21, 2011. Click the date to get the recipe.

We started with a very good soup recipe: Jerusalem Artichoke and Rocket Soup from Ottolenghi The Cookbook. This is an unusual soup for two reasons: We don’t usually cook with Jerusalem Artichokes which are the same as Sun Chokes, the soup has yoghurt added to it, giving it a slightly sour after taste. We really like it. We have cooked many recipes from this cookbook and highly recommend it.

Jerusalem artichoke and rocket soup

Ottolenghi The Cookbook

serves 4

400g Jerusalem artichokes

45g rocket, roughly chopped, plus extra to garnish

1 litre chicken or vegetable stock 10 garlic cloves, crushed 6 spring onions

1 free-range egg

350g Greek yoghurt

salt and pepper

The yoghurt gives this soup a light freshness. Adding it to the cooked soup requires tempering (which sounds much more complicated than it actually is) to prevent it splitting. Make sure that once the yoghurt is added, you don’t bring the soup to a rapid boil.

1.    Peel the artichokes with a potato peeler, wash them thoroughly and cut into 1cm dice, not too perfect. Put them in a large saucepan            4 with the rocket, stock, garlic and a couple of pinches of salt. Bring to the boil and then simmer lightly for 25 minutes, until the artichokes are tender; insert a small knife in one to make sure they are totally soft.

2.    While the soup is cooking, cut the spring onions in half lengthways and then cut across these lengths into small dice. Set aside. Break the egg into a large mixing bowl and whisk well with the yoghurt.

3.    When you are ready to serve the soup, reheat it to boiling point. Take a ladleful of hot soup and whisk it into the yoghurt mix, stirring constantly. Repeat a few times, using about half the soup. You need to bring up the temperature of the yoghurt. Now pour the warm yoghurt into the soup pan, whisking constantly, Bring back to a very(!) gentle boil and leave there for a minute or two.

4.    Taste the soup and season with plenty of salt and pepper. Stir in the spring onions and serve garnished with rocket.