A twist on classic french onion soup

Onions cheap and cheerful and make a delicious soup

I was in the mood for cooking something savoury. I find making stock and soups really therapeutic and relaxing however there wasn't much in my fridge. I have spent the last few days looking at a wilting aromatic celery that was left over form a "Life and Leisure" foodie shoot (yes a bit of name dropping here) and decided to make use of it. I looked around and the only other thing that would work was onions. Sprouting onions are better than no onions.

I love French onion soup, I love the sweetness, the cheesy croutons on the top and the sherry/Cognac/brandy kick. I though I would try a take on this classic dish and combine the onions with the celery and add a dash of milk/cream at the end to give it that creamy warmth. 

A satisfying and economical meal made from nothing! 

What you need
Oil or butter (I used both)
About 6 large onions
1/2 a celery
2 chicken stock cubes
About 1 - 2 litres of water
Salt/pepper
A handful of chopped Spinach
1/2 cup cream or milk
Parsley garnish

Healthy other than the cheesy toast! 

How to make 

Put the oil and butter in a pot 

Add the finely chopped onion and celery and saute until soft

Add the crumbled stock cubes and add water to double the volume in the pot (roughly) 

Salt and pepper to taste. 

Simmer for 30 mins or so until you have a nice flavour and the soup has thickened a wee bit. 

For the last 5 mins add the chopped spinach, this just need to wilt

Lastly add either cream or milk to give it that creaminess

Garnish with chopped parsley 

Serve with cheese and chutney on toast

Enjoy - its something made from practically nothing!
Vanessa 

What the hell are chokos?

Choko facts

is an edible plant that belongs to the gourd family Cucurbitaceae along with melons, cucumbers and squash.

In Australia, a persistent rumour has existed that McDonald's Apple Pies were made of chokos, not apples.

Ingrid's dish

My neighbour and friend Johanna who also happens to be another food blogger gave us our next challenge, by offloading what felt like a trailer load of chokos at my door. She was glad to get rid, and said as she ran off, Good Luck!

I left these so long, they started sprouting!

I have to admit, I had no idea what the hell they were, and they sat in the fruit bowl for about 3 weeks until Johanna asked me if I had turned them into anything exciting yet. I felt guilt, I hate wasting food, especially as it was a gift (kinda...) So I did a bit of research and worked out they were more a filler food, not very tasty or flavoursome on their own but make great pickles, relishes, can be added to bulk out a stew, or can be stuffed. I couldn't get my head around them being added to sweet stuff, so I didn't even go down that track.

I've started on a bit of a soup phase, so I decided stew/ soup , its all kind of the same, and went about peeling and cutting my chokos in prep for a Curried Bacon and Choko soup.

Now I have to admit, peeling the damn things drove me nuts, I ended up using a small sharp knife and peeled them under the cold tap as they are so slimy and tough, but Vanessa had already finished her relish and said it was worth it in the end, so I kept trucking on.

Curried bacon and choko soup

Makes large pot - enough for 6/8

What you need
2 onions

25g butter

6 rashers of bacon (chopped)

6 chokos - peeled/ remove hard core/ cubed

3 chicken stock cubes dissolved in 3 cups of boiled water (or 3 cups of home-made or store bought stock)

2 tsp curry powder

salt/ pepper to taste

How to make

In a large pot, melt butter and saute onions and bacon for 5 mins. Add chopped chokos, and saute for a further 5mins. Add stock and curry powder. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 mins. Mash roughly with a potato masher. Season with salt and pepper. Add chopped parsley. Serve with yoghurt (optional).

Vanessa's Dish

You would have thought being interested in food and living in New Zealand it would have been much sooner that the Opera sisters discovered chokos. Alas it was only through our blog and a mammoth seasonal photo shoot of fruit and vegetables that we really decided to conquer the choko. I am pretty adventurous when it comes to food, put it this way I will give everything ago once, but the choko has never inspired me. I didn't even know what it looked like on the inside or what you could actually do with them! 

I remembered seeing choko chutney at school fairs and charity shop stalls. Its usually handmade by experiences Nana's and sounded like a plan for the food fight. 

What a success, its more mellow than just straight tomatoes, cheaper especially if they have fallen off the neighbours tree and a great neutral base to add spice or heat. 

 two ugly sisters or cheeky chokos ?

What you need

2 chokos peeled and diced

1 apple peeled and diced

2 tomatoes diced

1 onion diced

1 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

1 1/4 ups of vinegar   

1 or 2 chopped chillies

How to make 
Mix all ingredients in a saucepan on low until the sugar has dissolved.
When the sugar has dissolved, bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer for about 11/2 - 2 hours until the mixture has reduced and thickened up.
Pour in to sterilized containers if preserving or a cute chutney jar with a lid if eating soon. 
When cool if eating soon, refrigerate or else store away for treats later. 
It is said that things like this get better with age, mine didn't last very long to find out! 

Choko chutney - amazing with a stinky blue

Vanessa X

    

Two ways with pumpkin with a hint of purple carrots!

Even though we are sisters, we have a very different approach to food and photography. Each fortnight we are going to choose the same ingredient or theme and post the result. These are results of our fifth food fight.

Pumpkin facts

• It's  a member of the Cucurbita family which includes squash and cucumbers.
• Antarctica is the only continent pumpkins won't grow in.
• Pumpkin flowers are edible.
• Pumpkins are 90 percent water.
• They were once recommended as a cure for freckles.
  

Sweet tasting buttercups

Ingrids dish: Roasted Buttercup on couscous with spiced yoghurt dressing

I love pumpkins, I love them cooked in everyway, and every other kiwi seems to agree with me. Every cafe and restaurant in Auckland seems to have pumpkin on their menu - pumpkin soup, cannelloni, rissoto . . .

I've been so into pumpkins in the past I actually managed to turn my wee man (Rhys 19 months) orange when he was 6 months old. I thought he just had 'olive skin' passed down from my Italian dad, but a visit to Plunket produced quite a different diagnosis - an overdose of carotene! 

This last week, its been feeling quite autumal, the heater is on low just to take the chill out of the air. Pumpkins, buttercups and butternuts are in season so should be on your shopping lists, eat in season, eat well and save money - Enjoy! 

Stack them up high on the plate and drizzle with creamy dressing

Roasted Buttercup on couscous with spiced yoghurt dressing

Serves 4

What you need

1 small buttercup (cut into thin slices with the skin on or off)

1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup (100g) couscous

1/2 cup boiling water
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Seasalt/ pepper to taste

4 wedges of feta (optional)

Coriander (chopped) 

Spiced yoghurt dressing

1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 cup greek style yoghurt
1 Tbsp water

1 Tbsp finely grated lemon rind

How to make

Set oven tempurature to 180C.  Lay slices of buttercup on a baking tray, and drizzle with oil. Bake in oven for 30 mins (turning buttercup slices mid way through) or until golden. Place couscous in a bowl, add boiling water and lemon juice, seasalt and pepper and cover and let stand for 5 mins.

Spiced yoghurt Dressing

Combine all ingredients in a bowl ready to drizzle.

Fluff up couscous and place on each plate. Stack roasted buttercup slices on top, add a wedge of feta. drizzle with cumin yoghurt dressing and add chopped coriander. Enjoy

Vanessa's dish  - Roasted pumpkin and purple carrot soup

Grey green and grey skinned pumpkins

 I love pumpkins too, roasted, in soup, in salads and in pasta like ravioli or gnocchi - they just have that wintry and comforting feel about them. Ingrid mentioned the Italian connection and our love of pumpkins definitely didn't come from our father - he believes things cooked with their skins on are for the pigs! Funny, this sounds like he may have grown up on a Tuscan farm feeding pigs but no, more like a city "Trieste" northern Italy, so I am not sure where the piggy analogy came from.

Pumpkins are cheap, economical and have a beautiful vibrant colour. I decided to do the quintessential winter soup but rather than just pumpkin I thought I would throw in a few other winter treats I discovered at my local "posh" supermarket. Introducing purple carrots...

The famous purple carrot - stains your hands and teeth and is a little bit bitter raw!



Roasted pumpkin and winter vegetable soup with purple carrots!

You will need
Any veges that work well roasted. I used pumpkin, kumara, carrots orange and purple, onion and garlic.
Vegetable or chicken Stock (I used stock cubes keeping with the economical nature of pumpkins) 
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Perhaps curry powder if you want a spiced pumpkin
Cream - if you want a richer and more decant soup 

How to make
Roast in a pan all the vegetables smothered with olive oil, salt and pepper. Keep the skin on the garlic as it roasts it beautifully.
In a pan heat up the stock (about 1-2 litres) and add your vegetables and curry powder. This is the stage you need to squeeze the garlic pulp out of the skins and into your soup. Pop a couple of cloves in your mouth - they taste delicious and they keep away colds and the flu! 
Simmer until the stock is reduces and the soup is looking thicker. (30 mins to one hour)
Blend in a blender of processor and if desired add cream and re heat.
Season to taste

WARNING - Purple carrots make your soup go a dark brown colour!!! Its not that I wouldn't recommend them, however it just doesn't have the same feel as "orange" pumpkin soup!    

Cleaning up - and there weren't even any guests!