Boursin

Creamy mushroom and pepper soup #NoCroutonsRequired

September 24, 2013

It’s definitely that time of year again, after a summer of salads, soup is firmly back on the menu. My six year old even asked for some for his supper.

Normally I consider soup a weekend lunch type of thing, I quite often make soups on Saturdays.

We are coming to the end of the Boursin mountain. Having seen how well this stuff melts into a sauce I figured it would behave itself in a soup.

My father frequently fed me soup for lunch on Saturdays so it must be ingrained in me. (He used to have me make said soup from powdered sachets though. Bleugh. Forgive me – this was before I’d had any cookery lessons at school or discovered what a blender was).

As an aside, I will let you know that my stick blender vanished in early July. I have hunted high and low throughout house and cellar and the stick blender is nowhere to be seen.

So it was jolly convenient when Buy It Direct got in touch and offered for me to road test a gadget from their site. This smurf coloured Morphy Accents hand blender, as you can see in the picture above has both a whisk attachment and mini chopper chamber in addition to the standard blending attachment.

I like that the blender is metal, the touch button is very sensitive (my previous Braun required strength to keep the button pressed). The handle is much weightier than my old model and I’m still getting used to it.

The Morphy Accents hand blender did a great job of blending my mushroom soup but I will have to report back separately how it’s done whisking eggs or chopping anything as I’m yet to use it for these features.

Ted was completing a food diary for homework when I served this. He wrote simply “soup and bread”. I tried to get him to expand this to “home made creamy mushroom soup and black olive ciabatta” but he wasn’t having any of it!

Creamy Mushroom and Pepper Soup
Serves 3-4 (assuming bread alongside)

Ingredients:

200g mushrooms, sliced (chestnut ones feel especially autumnal!)
1 tbsp butter
284ml tub of cream (I used reduced fat double by Elmlea but single or low fat single would be fine too)
1 vegetable stock cube or stock pot paste
700ml boiling water
3 mini packs of black pepper Boursin (around 2 tbsp)
seasoning to taste
You could use an alternative soft white cheese and add pepper separately. Also, if you prefer a lower fat soup feel free to decrease the ratio of cream to water.

Directions:

1. Fry the mushroom in the butter until soft.
2. Dissolve the vegetable stock cube or pot in 700ml boiling water in a jug. Pour over the mushrooms together with the cream and Boursin/soft white cheese and stir.
3. Once combined, take off the heat and blend until smooth. Serve immediately.

With thanks to Boursin for sample cream cheese. Say hi to them on Twitter @boursincheese
With thanks also to Buy It Direct for the Morphy Accents blender. Say hi to them on Twitter @buyitdirect

This soup is being sent to this month’s mushroom themed No Croutons Required jointly organised by Tinned Tomatoes (and this month hosted by) Lisa’s Kitchen.

Pasta bake saved my life last Thursday

September 19, 2013

It’s been a while since I bought jars of sauce.

I used to use them quite a bit when I worked full time but since becoming a more confident cook I’ve been less reliant on them.

Possibly no longer having the incentive to save glass jars stopped me buying them. The cellar shelves were rammed with eight jars each of a myriad of styles and sizes. I used to select bottled sauces on the desirability of the shape/size versus familiarity with how easily the labels washed away and how reliably the safety buttons would suck back down sealing the new contents. With the cellar shelf complete, little jam or chutney making in process and a desire to reduce the inconvenience of recycling glass, fewer jars were bought in our household.

My most frequently bought sauces in jars used to be Sainsbury’s stir in sauces of mushroom and pesto (short squat jars with vertical ridges), Buitoni (because it was the closest shape to some Italian ones given to me when my Italian housemate returned to her homeland) and Bisto cook in sauce (tall jars with straight sides that had lids with excellent safety buttons).

I would generally have bought Ragu for its lasagne sauces; tomato and bechamel. Oddly one thing I’d not done with stuff in jars was pasta bake since I’d previously been under the illusion it was necessary to pre-cook the pasta and bunging sauce on boiled pasta was quicker.

So when Ragu asked me to road test their new range of pasta bake sauces, I knew they’d be a big hit for dinner with Ted and said yes.

They’re a one dish dish if you get what I mean. No saucepan and no boiling.

Last Thursday I was feeling decidedly under the weather and was looking for a low effort supper and the Ragu pasta bake came to the rescue.

Even in my fragile state I managed to weigh 200g of pasta, tip over the sauce and some water and bung in the oven.

After about half an hour you give it a stir and add some cheese. Since I’d not been up to grocery shopping our cupboards were somewhat depleted and I had to forage for what as left to use instead of normal ordinary grated cheese.

I added some chunks of tomato and chive Boursin and a little grated parmesan. And I chucked in some leftover peas and beans from the fridge.

I was able to pop it back in the oven and go back to moping on the sofa.

This pasta bake was tomato & herb however other flavours in the range include tomato & bacon, tuna, cheese & bacon. For vegetarians there is also tomato, garlic and chilli.

At £1.99 I find them a tad expensive however if I saw them on BOGOF I might stock up on them.

I was attracted to being able to make a pasta dish that didn’t require babysitting a saucepan which might boil over. If you were serving this dish to four people you’d need something else along side as this was only enough for 2 adults and 1 child by itself. I’d normally cook 50g pasta per person if there was an accompaniment or plenty of ingredients padding it out.

With thanks to Ragu for samples of pasta bake sauce which no doubt will reappear here in the next couple of weeks. Say hi to them on Twitter @raguUK.

With thanks also to Boursin for the now diminishing soft cheese mountain. Say hi to them on Twitter @boursincheese.

Back to school garlic mashed potatoes

September 10, 2013

“We’ve got the dark nights again” as my Grandma used to say.

Despite 30c temperatures late last week probably most of us have had a taste of autumn over the weekend; coats are being donned for school once more.

A nip in the air is as good as excuse as any for some rib sticking comfort food. Armed with fluffy spuds and garlicky Boursin I whipped up the first mashed potatoes I could remember having in ages.

It’s hard to recall now but for a good six weeks this summer I couldn’t bear to light the gas hob never mind the oven.

So mashed potatoes were definitely off the menu and although I’m not glad to see the warm weather go, I do rather like the return of comfort food.

Easy peasy garlic mashed potatoes: mash potatoes with half a pack of Boursin garlic and herbs cheese and a glug of smooth olive oil. My variety today was an extra virgin variety from Crete. A sneaky pinch of salt flakes and a grinding of pepper and you’re good to go.

Are you ready to serve comfort food again?

With thanks to Sainsbury’s for samples of Taste the Difference mashing potatoes. I found they mashed incredibly easily. If a recipe calls for a “floury texture” potato then this is your spud. I warn you though, they soak up lots of butter and some of them were so tiny they were fiddly to peel. The ones in my bag were grown in the UK. Say hi to Sainsbury’s on Twitter @sainsburys

With thanks also to Candiasoil for samples of “Oi1 Peza” Cretian olive oil sold in these attractive tins which also protect the oil’s flavour being damaged by sunlight. Crete lays claim to having cultivated the first olives as far back as 3500BC. Oi1 Peza and Oi1 Viannos Cretian olive oils are due to be sold in Tesco this autumn, priced £6.35 for 500ml. Also ongoing thanks to Boursin for cream cheese.

Boursin beef baguette

September 5, 2013

Bashing the hell out of a lump of meat is always a fun task. Ted came running downstairs to see what all the noise was about.

You can make a couple of flash fry steaks go a long way if you cut them into strips for sandwiches. I stretched two of these steaks into lunch for 3 adults and 1 Ted with two steaks left over for a future supper. That’s the child size portion above if you think I’ve short changed anyone – the grown ups ate twice this amount.

Simply spread chunks of fresh baguette with butter and cream cheese – today I’ve used Boursin with Black Pepper which goes beautifully with beef and fresh rocket.

This is one of my favourite post-supermarket Saturday lunches because it only takes about 10 minutes to prepare but feels special enough to celebrate the weekend!

Do you have a special favourite lunch after buying the groceries?

With thanks to Boursin for samples of cream cheese. Say hi to them on Twitter @boursincheese.

Speedy supper: tenderest chicken in pesto and Boursin

September 3, 2013

Dead easy, tenderest juiciest way to cook chicken in under 30 minutes.

Did you ever bake a chicken breast in nothing more than curry paste and yogurt?

The results out of the casserole dish aren’t visually pleasing but I promise you tender tender chicken guaranteed with very little effort indeed.

So I wondered how it would go with a 50/50 mush mush of pesto and cream cheese. I am gradually working my way through various flavours of Sacla sauces and Boursin cream cheese and recently most evening meals seem to have featured either one or the other….