Carrots - Two Ways

Mrs Isabella Beeton is probably the best selling cookery writer of the Victorian era despite her short life, 1836 - 1865 and with only a few years of practical experience. Sounds a bit like "Master Chef" today contestants today.

'Mrs Beetons Book of Household Management' is still an outstanding book and worth a read. Imagine, it was first published in 1861 and initially sold 60,000 copies.  

The standards of food in the 1850s were so scandalously low. Mrs Beeton instructs her reader to cut off 'tainted' bits of meat, throw away 'worm-eaten' beans and pick the 'dirt' off currants. Milk was adulterated with water as a matter of course, flour was bulked out by alum, coffee came with acorns, and, most alarming of all, sweets were laced with arsenic. Do I hear you say that  we haven't come a long way with our food processing?

One particular vegetable, the humble carrot has definitely come a long way since Mrs Beeton suggested boiling a pot of carrots for 1 to 1.5 hours, mashing them and adding cayenne pepper. Sounds interesting but I can't think that there would be much left to mash after that long.

Such versatile vegetables; carrots can be used for sweet and savoury dishes, roasted, boiled, steamed, grated, julienned and raw: carrots are a great source of vitamin A, and C. high in fibre, low in calories and very low in cost. And how surprised Mrs Beeton would be to see the range of carrot colours we get at the market. Amazingly, they are available all year around and add a fabulously rich golden colour to any dish.

With winter fast approaching, it's time to get soups sorted. Here are a couple of my favourites carrot soups, which are deliciously filling and very cost effective for the whole family. 

Make sure you scroll to the end to get both recipes! Enjoy@!

Carrot and Pumpkin Soup with Ginger and Chilli

Ingredients

2 tbls fresh ginger grated
1/2 tsp chilli powder
2 cloves garlic minced
1 small brown onion chopped
225 g pumpkin sliced
250 g carrots scrubbed and sliced
2 cups stock or water
2 tbls olive oil
1 tbls butter
salt and pepper 
small fresh red chilli
Plain Greek yoghurt

Pre heat oven to 18ºc fan forced. Line a baking tray with baking paper and lay the pumpkin on it. Either spray with olive oil or sprinkle with olive oil and a good serving of salt and pepper and bake in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes until soft.

Once the pumpkin has cooled, take off the outer peel and cut into chunks. 

In a large pot heat butter and olive oil. Add onion, garlic and ginger and cook for 5 minutes until onion is soft. Add carrots and chilli powder and cook for 3 minutes. Add stock or water, salt and pepper to taste and simmer covered until the carrots are cooked through. Take them off the heat and allow the carrots to cool slightly before blending.

Using whichever kitchen appliance you prefer, blend the carrots and pumpkin together, until you reach the desired consistency.

Check seasoning and chilli and add more to suit. Serve with a dollop of yoghurt, a few slices of fresh chilli and parsley if you have any readily available.

Carrot and Cashew Nut Soup

Ingredients

1 small brown onion chopped
250 g carrots scrubbed and sliced
100 g raw cashew nuts
1 large potato, peeled and chopped
2 cups stock or water
2 tbls olive oil
1 tbls butter
salt and pepper 
chopped chives
grated fresh nutmeg

In a large pan add the oil, butter and onion and cook until soft. Add the carrots and potato, salt and pepper and 2 cups of stock. Bring back to the boil, then simmer until the vegetables are nearly cooked, around 20 minutes. Add the cashew nuts and continue to cook until the nuts and carrots are nice and soft. 

Take off the heat and allow to cool a little before blitzing with a hand blender until you reach the desired consistency.

I usually serve this with some chopped chives and a grating of fresh nutmeg.

Mushroom Pies

Looking into the fridge the other day, contemplating what to cook for dinner. Mushrooms! I had 4 large brown, gorgeous looking mushrooms which caught my eye.  One of my all time favourite summer mushroom recipes is a sort of mushroom Streudel made with phyllo pastry, but because it involves sour cream I don't cook it too often. I am still wanting to throw off a few kilos, so I am trying to be a bit careful.
I did a search in the fridge to see what else was lurking there that needed to be used immediately and what I came up with lead me to this -  Mushroom Pies. Mushrooms are great for vegetarians because they contain essential vitamins and minerals and are a good source of protein; And are low calorie,

I use mushrooms almost every week. If they are not being chopped into a salad, then I am adding them to eggs for omelette, into casseroles, blended to make dips and on their own, lightly cooked with lots of black pepper.

Incidentally over the past week I have been reading about raw foods. I was interested in seeing how a mix of water and cashew nuts blended together would make a creamy sauce; one that could be added to any casserole or stew to give it a nice creamy consistency. Time to add this to my mushrooms to make a pie filling. I also had a little bought puff pastry that I was desperate to use up and this helped enormously as I was in a screaming hurry to get some food on the table.

I used a combination of the beautiful large brown mushrooms, and a mixture of things I had in the fridge; you can use whatever you have but this combination worked really well. You could add cooked broccoli, frozen or fresh peas, finely chopped carrot etc etc.

This is what I made and it was pretty delicious. I made enough for 4 servings, but it would be easy to add extra ingredients or less, depending on how many people you want to serve. My little pie tins took 1 whole sheet of puff pastry each. Depending on the size of yours, you will have to calculate how many you need.

Little Mushroom Pies (with whatever)

Ingredients

5 large brown mushrooms chopped
1 brown onion finely chopped
1 stick of celery finely chopped
1/2 a leek finely slice
2 cloves garlic minced
1 cup raw cashew nuts
1/2 cup water
1 tbls olive oil
salt and pepper
fresh thyme and parsley chopped finely
4 sheets of ready made puff pastry (I used Pampas)
a little butter for greasing the pie dishes
a little water for the pastry edges

• Take pastry out of the freezer and defrost ready for making pies.
• Place the cashew nuts and water into a blender or if you are using a hand held stick, into a bowl and blitz until smooth and creamy. Set aside.
• Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a frying pan and cook onions until soft, add garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.
• Add leek, celery, salt and pepper and cook for a further 3 minutes. Turn the heat up a little and add chopped mushrooms and cook for 6 minutes.
• Cut out your pastry for a top and a bottom to suit your pie tins. Grease pie dishes while you are waiting.
• Add the creamed cashew and water mixture and stir until all is coated. Adjust seasoning and add chopped parsley and thyme and stir in well. Turn off the heat and allow the mixture to cool.
• Heat oven to 200ºc Fan forced.
• Line pie tins with pastry, add filling. Using a pastry brush, brush the edges of the pastry with water and add the pastry tops, pressing down along the edge to seal or pinch them to make a scalloped pattern. When all pies are completed, take a sharp knife and add a small v shape in the middle of the pastry to allow steam to escape.
• Place in the oven and cook for 20 -25 minutes, until pastry is nicely brown and has risen well.

Serving 4 people: estimated cost $8, that is $2 per head, add more if you serve with extra vegetables or salad.