An English Bread Soup

Bread Soup is a dish that consists of stale bread cooked in a broth, and there are many variations from many countries. I have had quite a few and love it, as the bread in the middle soaks down into almost a velvety texture of softness as it cooks and absorbs the soup base and the bread at the top soufflés right up with a crunchy cheese topping.

This dish is entirely made from leftovers. After having had tapas on Friday night, I had sliced too much baguette and it was in a bag with no where to go. I had a small amount of cabbage, 2 leftover frozen sausages (I defrosted them) and a piece of cheese. This surely would make a fantastic bread soup. And you know what? It did.

Ingredients:     (Serves2)

2 sausages
1/4 savoy cabbage, shredded
80-100g grated cheese
2 cloves garlic, 1 chopped, 1 left whole
1 small baguette, sliced into 1" rounds 

Method:

Set the oven to 180 C. Cook the cabbage in plenty of boiling water for about 8 minutes, or until cooked and then drain, reserving the cabbage water. Take the skin off the sausages and crumble the meat into a frying pan with the chopped garlic until browned. Set aside. Lightly toast the bread (not too brown) and rub the whole garlic clove over one side of all of the pieces of toasted bread.

To assemble: in an ovenproof saucepan layer the ingredients. First put in half of the sausage meat, half of the drained cabbage, then half of the bread pieces, topped with a handful of the grated cheese. Then repeat with a second layer, ending with the cheese. Pour the cabbage water over the top (just enough to cover the bread) and finally add a little more cheese over the top.

Put the pan into the oven for 30 minutes; the top will be souffled up and golden. Serve into two serving bowls and enjoy!

Simple leftover ingredients
 

Filling and delicious!

Chorizo in Garlic & Red Wine

Here is another easy Spanish tapas for you from Friday nights tapas feast. Chorizo in red wine is simple, but very moreish. I have been making this for many years and I refuse to do a table full of Spanish Tapas without them.

I am lucky enough to have a Spanish friend and neighbour who regularly goes over to Barcelona to see her family, who then brings me back some proper Spanish Chorizo. Its so good!

Ingredients:

200g chorizo, sliced thickly
1 shallot, chopped finely
1 tsp. olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 tsp smoked paprika
150ml red wine
fresh parsley, to serve

Method.

Heat the oil in a small pan and fry the shallot and garlic for 1 minute. Then add the chorizo. The chorizo will produce more oil so you shouldn't need much.

Cook on a high heat until brown and then add the smoked paprika and the red wine (be careful, it will splutter). Continue to cook until the wine has almost completely evaporated and the chorizo is dark in colour and has absorbed the flavours of the wine and garlic.

Tip into a dish and sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley and some cocktail sticks for your guests to help themselves. They will be glad to - its delicious! Happy cooking!

Tapas! Spanish Tortilla

Another one of the dishes from tapas night was a Spanish tortilla. It was actually only recently that I found out that the 'tortilla' is any omelette in Spain. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I always thought it was specifically the famous potato one! So in theory this is a 'potato tortilla' but I think we all know what I mean.

This is a great recipe for a dish that could be a served as a lovely lunch with salad, or as part of a tapas collection of food, or could be wrapped up and taken on a picnic (which we often do!). Simple, but delicious. Apologies to any Spaniards reading this who have their own recipe of maybe more eggs, or chopped potato etc. There are many ways to make this - but this is one that I do.

For this I use a small frying pan which is 19cm (7.5 inches). Of you only have a large pan I would double up on the ingredients, but if you can get a small pan it makes a perfect sized tortilla.

Ingredients:

4 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1/2 onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tbsp. oil
5 eggs
salt & pepper

Method:

Heat the oil in the pan and add the onion and potatoes. Cook on a low heat for about 20 minutes, moving them around the pan until the potatoes are soft but not brown. Try to keep the potato slices in one piece - some will break but try to keep to a minimum by being gentle.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and season with a little salt & pepper. Add the cooked potatoes and onions to the eggs and stir gently. Clean the pan and add another tbsp. oil in to heat. Put the egg and potato mix back into the pan. Cook for about 6-7 minutes until the bottom is set and browned. Then you put a plate over the top of the pan and invert, so that the tortilla is on the plate, browned side up. Slide the tortilla back into the pan to cook the other side, adding a little bit more oil if needed. Push the sides under neatly. Cook the other side for a further 6 minutes and put onto a board to cool. Serve warm or room temperature in thick wedges with salad on the side.