BUTTERNUT SOUP, PEACHES IN VANILLA SYRUP

Last week Wednesday was again family dinner evening - the first family dinner again at our home after my knee operation. 

I made a butternut soup and decided to share it with you as this is in my meaning the best butternut soup that I have tasted.  I found the recipe recently in a magazine - it is the recipe of a chef, Quinton Van Rensburg,  who is the resident chef at Samara Karoo Lodge in the Cape Province in South Africa. I made an adjustment by adding cream and then he serves it with a spinach salad on the soup which I have not yet tried.

Butternut soup 

25 g unsalted butter

1 onion - finely chopped

10 ml coriander - roasted and finely minced

700 g butternut - cut in small cubes

1,5 litre chicken stock (I used vegetable stock)

salt to taste

freshly grinded black pepper to taste

125 ml fresh cream

Melt butter in a large pot.

Add onions and fry for 5 minutes until soft 

Add coriander and butternut and fry for 2 minutes

Add chicken stock, salt and pepper to taste.

Bring to boiling point and cook for 15 minutes until soft 

Blend soup in a blender until smooth.  

Put into pot again and heat again.  Take off stove and add cream and stir through.

Serve with a swirl of cream.

Delicious hot or cold.

Enjoy!!

We all love lasagne and I have my own lasagne recipe that I have always used,  but after tasting Jamie Oliver's lasagne at his Italian Restaurant I decided to try his baked lasagne recipe ............ what a difference.  Defnitely worth trying as the taste is out of this world!  Recipe can be found on his website : http://www.jamieoliver.com

Please just don't make the same mistake I made - by the time I put the lasagne together in the dish, I was so exhausted and with so much pain in my knee that I clean forgot about the most important part namely the lasagne sheets.  But .......... even without the sheets it was very tasty. The small leftover was served on toast the following day and was very good.  I will defnitely use the meatportion of the recipe when making savoury mince in future.

The lasagne was served with a green salad, gemsquash and cooked corn (the corn is specifically for the grand children who loves corn).

For dessert I made fresh peaches cooked in a vanilla syrup and served with ice cream.  

PEACHES IN A VANILLA SYRUP

8 fresh peaches - halved and peeled

750 ml water

75 ml honey

45ml sugar

1 vanilla pod

50g pistacio nuts - chopped

Bring to boil the water, honey, sugar and vanilla pod.

Simmer for 5 minutes covered with a lid.

Add the peaches and simmer until soft - about 10-15 minutes.

Put peaches in a glass dish.

Boil syrup until thick and half the volume.

Cool down.  Can be left in fridge overnight as it tastes even better after a day.

Serve with ice cream and chopped nuts.

Thanks for stoping by on my blog.  Until next time - hope you have a blessed week.