Comfort Food

Hey up ducks, well I know I've been a tad negligent in posting, but I've also been a tad negligent in baking, so i do have my reasons. Today was definitely a day for comfort food, so here's soup and mum's classic biscuits.


First things first, soup. Soup, comfort food staple, it's gotta be rich and creamy and most importantly tasty. As a general rule I make soup out of anything that comes to hand (well obviously not really, shoes and petrol wouldn't make the cut for instance) but very occasionally a bit of thought does go into it. Today was one of those times.

Ingredients
Couple large potatoes
Couple small onions
2/3 carrots
2 parsnips
butter
water

Soup:

• Peel and chop all vegetables.
• Fry the onions with a large knob of butter in a stock pot/ large saucepan until a bit soft but not brown.
• Put the kettle on. Fry the potato with the onions while it boils.
• Add the carrots and parsnips to the potatoes + onions, then pour on enough hot water to cover the vegetables.
• Stir in some chicken stock (vegetable stock will do if your against animals being eaten and that kind of thing, but chicken is tastier).
• Simmer until the veg is soft then liquidise. This soup is majorly thick so it will need diluting (milk is best as it makes it creamy). If you're gonna freeze it do it undiluted so it doesn't take up as much room.

This goes really well with wholemeal bread. And you MUST add salt and pepper before serving or its just not worth bothering.

Second things second, gorgeous choc and cherry cookies make the perfect afters for this soup so here's a recipe for them as well:

Ingredients

250g softened unsalted butter (doesn't really matter if it's unsalted)

50g caster sugar

115g muscavado sugar

200g self-raising flour

175g porridge oats

100g mixed chocolate chunks

100g glace cherries

(sorry for the lack of imperial measurements)

Choc and Cherry Cookies:

• Cream together the butter and two sugars with an electric whisk until light and fluffy.
• Stir in the oats and flour with a spoon.
• Then stir in the chocolate and cherries.
• Shape into balls and place on a greased/noon-stick baking tray and flatten slightly. Finally bake for 15-20 minuets at 180oc/ gas mark 4.

Best served with a cup of tea. These recipes are great for rainy day treats, quite fortunate considering I live in Britain. They're both quite easy to do as well, which is always nice. Finally these are dedicated to anyone who feels they need a bit of comfort.