Vegetable Summer Soup

Every now and then, although summer is generally hot, a cooler day will blow in. Unlike the stinkers, it's not a day for salads and light snacks - but it's not a night for heavy carbs either.

Tonight was such a night. Temperatures dropped from the mid to high 30s over the weekend (that's mid 80s to mid 90s for you Imperial folk) down to 20 today (high 60s), and it felt cold. I don't like being cold.

I had a couple of leeks wasting away in the fridge, so soup seemed the perfect thing for tonight. I wanted to create something that was light and summery still, even though it was a soup - nothing too thick or heavy like you'd want for winter.



The Recipe

3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 med onion, chopped
2 leeks, sliced
olive oil for frying
1t lemongrass/lime spice mix
2T plain flour
5c vegetable stock
1T lemon juice
1t lime juice
2 med potatoes, in small cubes
2 large carrots, grated
1 quantity* majoram
1 quantity parsley
2 quantities thyme
2t sweet chilli sauce
salt, to taste

Saute the garlic, onion and leek in the oil. Season with the lemongrass/lime spice mix. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 mins. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Add lemon and lime juices, then the potatoes; simmer for 10 mins. Add carrot and herbs; simmer for 10 mins. Stir through sweet chilli. Season to taste. Serve hot with toast :o)

* I'm pretty hopeless at actually measuring how much seasoning I use. All I can say is I used two sprigs each of fresh parsley and marjoram, and about seven 10cm/4inch stalks of thyme.



The Results

Oh yeah. This is a summer soup. The lemon gives it the perfect zesty kick, and really emphasises the leek and onion flavours. That said, it's a nice mild flavour that isn't going to burn your socks off. It has a nice depth of flavour, and it really does taste like summer in a vegetable soup!

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

I first made these cupcakes for a baby shower in early March. They were gorgeous at the time, so when my Nana said her favourite dessert was lemon meringue pie and I was assigned the task of baking her birthday cake, I knew I had to make these beauties again. The pics are from the first time around - the second time the cakes came out much neater and prettier, but I didn't bother with the silver cachous or flowers, so they didn't look quite so fancy.

The recipe is mostly taken from the Australian Women's Weekly Cupcake cookbook.



The Recipe

Cake
about 4 Nice biscuits (not sure what the American equiv would be)
125g butter
2t finely grated lemon rind
2/3c caster sugar
2 eggs
1/3c milk
3/4c desiccated coconut
1 1/4c self raising flour

Curd
4 egg yolks
1/3c caster sugar
2t finely grated lemon rind
1/4c lemon juice
40g butter

Meringue
4 egg whites
1c caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180C and thoroughly grease a 12-hole muffin tin. Crush the Nice biscuits (in a processor is quickest and easiest) and place a few teaspoons in each muffin hole. Shake the pan around until the base and most of the sides are coated in crumbs.

Combine all ingredients for the curd in a small saucepan. Stir constantly until mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a metal spoon. Remove from heat, cover, and refrigerate until cold (ha, I didn't do this either time and it worked just fine).

For the cake, beat butter*, rind, sugar and eggs with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in milk and coconut, then sifted flour. Spoon into pan and smooth surfaces. Bake for about 25mins, then turn the cakes out on a rack to cool, and turn the oven up to 220C.

*The second time I made these I was softening the butter in the microwave and accidentally melted it completely. HOWEVER, the texture of these cakes was AMAZING - and the only thing I did different to the first time was the melted butter. So I recommend melting the butter ;) Just make sure it's cool before you combine it with the egg - you don't want to curdle the eggs!!

Cut a 2cm (2/3inch) hole in the centre of each cake and fill with curd. "Discard" the cake tops - which obviously means eat them. Make meringue (beat egg whites with electric mixer until soft peaks form; gradually at sugar and beat until thick and glossy) and spoon it into a piping bag. Pipe the meringue onto each cake. Place cakes on a hot tray and bake for about 5 mins, until meringue is lightly browned.

Devour!! :D