English Cheddar Cheese Soup with Brown Mustard and Ale

From Red Hot and Green, Janet Hazen, Chronicle Books, 1996.

This book concentrates on hot foods. It is divided into five sections according to the heating element: ginger, mustard, peppercorns, horseradish and chillies. It was time to have a go at a mustard-based recipe.

In a saucepan I melted two tablespoons of butter and then added an equal amount of flour. This was stirred until it was combined and then cooking continued to make sure the flour was cooked and a light brown colour. A half tablespoon of brown mustard seeds were added together with a teaspoon of caraway seeds and about three tablespoons of German mustard, which has a sweetness to it.

After a couple of minutes one cup of dark ale was stirred in, then three cups of water and a stock cube. A cup of milk was added to this and it was all brought to the boil and simmered for about half an hour.

The last stage was to add about 250 g of grated tasty cheddar cheese. This was stirred until it had all dissolved into the liquid. Now with a little seasoning it was ready to eat.

The soup was quite a tasty one and one that you did not need large portions to feel satisfied. I did not find it had a hotness to it, just a strong flavour, with the pleasing tang of the ale, that was enjoyable.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Gingered Beet and Fennel Salad

From Red Hot and Green, Janet Hazen, Chronicle Books, 1996.

It is some time since I have tried a recipe from this cookbook. I have found that sometimes they work and sometimes they just miss out a little from what they should be. However, the contents of the book are different from those you find in many books so it is worth going back to it every now and again to see what I might have missed. The recipes all centre around different heating elements: ginger, mustard, peppercorns, horseradish and chillies.

This salad sounded as though it might appeal; it contained beetroot and fennel, both of which I am fond of. The heating element was ginger.

The beetroot was cooked by boiling it until it was tender. It was then left to cool and peeled and cut into thin wedges.

The dressing, prepared next, was based on fresh orange juice, always a good companion for beetroot. This was mixed with a little vinegar, oil, some ground coriander, and fresh ginger cut into thin slivers.

Watercress was placed on a plate. The beetroot wedges were arranged on top. Over this went the fennel, cut into thin slices. The dressing was drizzled over the salad and some toasted, chopped almonds scattered over the top.

This was a successful recipe. The salad looked great and tasted pretty good too. The fennel gave a goodly crunch that went well with the tender, juicy beetroot. I felt there was a little bit more pepper from the watercress than the ginger which seemed to be lost in the salad, perhaps because I had cut back a little on the quantity suggested in the recipe.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

As some of these books may be out of print if anyone would like a particular recipe, email me (alfcooksvege@ozemail.com.au) and I’ll send an abbreviated version. Of course, the whole book would be better; it’s loaded with other goodies.

Roasted Chilli Pepper Nuts

Roasted Chilli Pepper Nuts

from Red Hot and Green, Janet Hazen, Chronicle Books, 1996.

I read the name of this dish and wanted it straightaway. The book it comes from has lots of interesting items in it all nicely hot to taste. I previously had made peppery cheddar cheese crisps from it and they were delicious. So I looked forward to tasting these chillied nuts.

A look at the ingredient list gave me pause. There were five different chillies in it: ancho, chiltepe, cascabel, guajillo and chipotle. These dried chillies are not readily available here, but I did manage to get hold of the last two. I added dried chillies to these and decided that would have to be it.

After that it was a matter of grinding up all the dried ingredients to make a powder, mixing this with the nuts and adding olive oil and melted butter. Then it went in the oven.

It all turned out to be very tasty, however, if I made it again I would possibly change the way I cooked it. I think the macadamia nuts needed less roasting time that the other nuts so would cook them separately and then mix them in with the others later. They came out a little overcooked. Or I could choose a different nut to add to the mix.

Oddly, with all the chillies in the recipe it was not overly hot, just chilli tasty. And as you picked up the nuts your fingers were coated with the same mixture as the nuts, so obviously you had to lick your fingers.

As some of these books may be out of print if anyone would like a particular recipe, email me (alfcooksvege@ozemail.com.au) and I’ll send an abbreviated version. Of course, the whole book would be better; it’s loaded with other goodies.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Peppery Cheese Crisps

Peppery Cheddar Cheese Crisps

from Red Hot and Green, Janet Hazen, Chronicle Books, 1996.

If you like hot, peppery biscuits with a cheese flavour these will go down well. They are strong on the pepper, crisp and cheesy. Each batch that I made was eaten in one session.

At first I thought that the amount of pepper in the recipe seemed excessive but I followed all the instructions carefully and am glad I did. To make the biscuits all that was needed was to mix the ingredients together and mould them into a dough. They were then turned into four rolls of mixture and wrapped in gladwrap to be refrigerated for a few hours. They were then cut into thin slices and baked. They turned out wonderful crisp biscuits with a peppery bite.

With four rolls of mixture it was easy to cook a batch on subsequent days. While the instructions say that it can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 days, I had the last two rolls of mine a little longer and they still turned out okay.

The cookbook has the subtitle ’50 Spicy Vegetarian Recipes’ and is divided into five sections: chillies, peppercorns, mustards, horseradish and ginger. If you like your meals spiced up then this is a find. You need to do some fudging with the ingredients and the measurements as it is very American and with some odd measurements such as one and a quarter sticks of butter (whatever that is). But you can guess at some or the measurements or, when the ingredients are unknown to you, use the internet to work out what they are. Sometimes, as in the case of one recipe I was looking at which has five different varieties of dried chilli, you could have real problems and would either have to forego the particular item or make some clever substitutions.

As some of these books may be out of print if anyone would like a particular recipe, email me (alfcooksvege@ozemail.com.au) and I’ll send an abbreviated version. Of course, the whole book would be better; it’s loaded with other goodies.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔