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Hard Boiled Honey Sweets, AKA Honey Balls – Outlander #BookFood

honey balls

There’s a passage in Dragonfly in Amber that always catches my attention when I read it:

“We stayed locked together, not speaking, until my eye suddenly fell on the other small, yellowish lumps that Jamie had removed from his sporran.

‘What on earth are those things, Jamie?’ I asked, letting go of him long enough to point. 
‘Och, those? They’re honey balls, Sassenach.’ He picked up one of the objects dusting at it with his fingers. ‘Mrs.Gibson in the village gave them to me. Verra good, though they got a bit dusty in my sporran, I’m afraid.’ He held out his open hand to me, smiling. ‘Want one?'”

honey balls

I love the sound of these ‘honey balls’, and remember making a hard boiled sweet using sugar, butter and syrup as a child. I wondered whether I would be able to do the same, but using honey, so gave it a shot and what came out were gorgeous sweet, hard, honey balls. They are so tasty and very sweet! honey balls

Once poured out you need to give these a few minutes to cool so that you don’t scald the flesh right off your bones, but not so long that they harden – you need to be able to quickly roll them into balls before they do.

I wait till the mixture stops bubbling on the stove, then pour it into a tray or dish. Leave it to cool enough to touch – use a melon baller or apple corer, or just a teaspoon and start on the sides as that’s where it will cool first. Gather from the outsides and work your way inwards, making balls as you go along.

Initially these will be soft, but they will harden. Either way, don’t chew! You’ll lose fillings or teeth if you do!

And while we’re talking about honey… I’m pretty sure Winnie the Pooh would quite like these too!

There’s another way to make these, which is a lot faster: rather than rolling the balls individually, you can wait for sugar mix to stop bubbling (about 20 seconds) and then pour the hot mixture into a silicone mould. If you use essential oils*, you can also add a few drops of Young Living Lemon oil to the mix.  I use this emoticon tray as the sweets are a good size for individual lozenges. Honey Lozenges

Honey Balls
Recipe Type: Stove Top
Cuisine: Outlander, BookFood, Historical Food
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 50
Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
Instructions
  1. Pour cold water into a glass. Set next to the oven.
  2. Prepare a dish for the sugar honey mixture
  3. Add all the ingredients to a saucepan and turn the heat up
  4. Bring to the boil and keep stirring. It will bubble and froth. Keep it doing so for about 2 – 3 minutes.
  5. KEEP STIRRING it will burn really easily. After 2 minutes dip a spoon in and drip a drop of the mixture into the glass. This is how you test for a soft ball or hard ball stage. If it dissolves, it is too soft. If it forms a soft ball that’s easily squashed, it’s called soft ball stage. If it forms a hard ball, it’s called <g class=”gr_ gr_59 gr-alert gr_spell gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del” id=”59″ data-gr-id=”59″>hard ball</g> stage.
  6. For this particular recipe, you want to catch it between the hard and soft ball stages, turn the heat off, and pour into a prepared pan or dish. IT WILL BE HOT NOW
  7. As it begins to cool, use a teaspoon to scoop out the mixture and shape into balls in the palm of your hand.
  8. Put on a plate and repeat.

 

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Cheesy Straws

Cheesy Straws

These cheesy straws are a lovely snack for lunch boxes and last minute visitors. They can be prepared whenever you have time, and the pastry frozen – then just pop out a handful and bake when you need them.  I was setting an Autumn scene for some photos I had to do, so we broke up the straws to make a ‘woodpile’. I was glad when the kids walked in and said ‘Oh, look at the brooms!’  Always useful when people can tell what you’re going for!
Cheesy Straws

These cheesy straws can be made as straws, though simply baking them in rounds is okay too – I tend to freeze them as round biscuits, making them easier to use with dips. If you’re going to make brooms, I recommend that you use the stringy type of kids cheese, rather than regular blocks of cheese which crack rather than pull apart. And have more chives than you think you need as they break really easily too. Cheesy Straws

I also like to add paprika or rosemary to cheese strings – it just depends on what flavour you like, or whether you like something different from time to time! Also, you don’t have to add parmesan, it just heightens the cheese flavour. If you decide not to, just make another 50g cheddar cheese.

Cheesy Straws Recipe:

Cheesy Straws
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 60 sticks
Ingredients
  • 375g plain flour
  • 225g butter
  • 150g cheddar cheese
  • 50g parmesan cheese
  • 1 tsp mustard (I use a grainy mustard, but powder will work too)
  • 2 egg yolks
  • pinch of salt
  • pepper to taste
Instructions
Thermomix Instructions
  1. Add all the ingredients to the Thermomix bowl
  2. Mix speed 5/30 seconds
  3. Remove and shape into a log. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes
  4. Heat the oven to 180C
  5. Break off pieces and roll into sticks using your hands
  6. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool before moving but be gentle as they are fragile
Regularly Instructions
  1. Add all the ingredients to a food processor
  2. Mix until everything is combined and the dough forms a ball
  3. Remove and shape into a log. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes
  4. Heat the oven to 180C
  5. Break off pieces and roll into sticks using your hands
  6. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool before moving but be gentle as they are fragile

 

 

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Portuguese Rolls Recipe

If you want to truly torture a South African expat* ask them about Prego Rolls.

For a moment you’ll see a memory pass across their eyes. And if you were so inclined you could measure their spit production, because for most of us, there’ll be an immediate saliva release – drooling – in anticipation of something good. It’s practically Pavlovian .

The memory will most likely include Saturday mornings heading down to Pick n Pay to buy groceries, and stopping outside to pick up a Prego Roll from someone making them (and possibly pancakes) for a school, church or youth group fund raiser. Or just a family side business. Or if you weren’t a Saturday shopper, you’d find someone at the local fete selling them. Even our local Tuis Neiwerheid (popular home industries shops) used to  specially make them on a Saturday.

Portuguese Rolls

I’ve tried to make my own Prego Rolls over the many, many years I’ve been in the UK, but it’s never quite the same. I think you need that dry sand smell, baking sun on your back and maybe a Savannah to wash it all down with to completely complete the experience. Well. You do the best you can with what you have.

A lot of people don’t know this, but South Africa has quite a strong Portuguese influence. In school we were taught that Jan van Riebeeck ‘founded’ South Africa in 1652 – which I always took to mean he discovered it. It was only later that I realised that actually the first ‘discoverer’ of South Africa was Bartolomeu Dias – a Portuguese explorer, all the way back in 1488.

Remember this: “In 1652, het die wind gewaai, toe kom ek met my skippie in by Tafelbaai. Die wind het so gewaai, ons was almal op ‘n klomp. En so kry hy die naam die Kaap van Storms.”

So why the history lesson? Well, most people have eaten or at least seen a Nando’s restaurant at some point. Did you know that it was a chain started in South Africa? By a Portuguese South African. It is to South African food what curry is to British food! People should know this! **

Prego Rolls are Portuguese Rolls – Carcaças Rápidas – dusted in flour, filled with red wine and garlic marinated flash fried steaks, topped with piri piri sauce – or not, and aragula (rocket) – or not. It all depends on who is making and who is eating.  Hmmm.. drooling, yep, drooling here.

A few years ago I was living temporarily in Australia, and trying to convince a friend that she needed a Thermomix. Her husband, Jimmy, was very against it, and highly disbelieving when I told him he could even make Portuguese Rolls in it. (Jimmy is from Mozambique. His mother lives with them, and speaks only Portuguese). Jimmy didn’t believe I could make the rolls in the Thermomix, so when we had a New Year’s picnic a few weeks later, I took along a basket of fresh Portuguese Rolls (those in the picture). Jimmy couldn’t believe I’d made them in the Thermomix. I did see him have two! (Jenny and Jimmy now own a Thermomix!) JimmySo, how do you make these delicious, soft, crusty, light and fluffy Portuguese Rolls?

Here’s the recipe I use!

Portuguese Rolls
Recipe Type: European, Portuguese, Bread
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 200g warm water
  • 120g milk
  • 20g butter (or vegetable oil)
  • 2 (5ml) teaspoons dried yeast
  • 5g sugar
  • 500g baker’s flour (strong white bread flour)
  • 1.5 tsp salt (5ml teaspoon)
Instructions
  1. Add the water, milk, butter (or oil), yeast and sugar to the Thermomix bowl
  2. Bloom for 2 mins/37C/Speed 2. (NO MC)
  3. Add the flour and the salt.
  4. Mix for 3 mins on the dough setting.
  5. In the meantime prepare a glass bowl or Thermoserver by sprinkling flour into it and swirling it around. Add the kneaded dough and set aside until it doubles in size – around 30 – 40 mins.
  6. Divide the dough into 12 parts and form a ball from each. Place on a flour dusted oven tray and flour each breadroll too.
  7. Cut a slash into each breadroll from one side to the other, and leave it for another 30 minutes or until it’s looking nice and puffy again. Heat the oven to 180C
  8. Bake for 10 mins until it looks lightly browned, and allow to cool slightly.
  9. Save for later, or eat straight away with melted butter.
Regular Instructions
  1. Add the water, milk, butter (or oil) and yeast and sugar to a bowl and set aside for up to 10 mins.
  2. Add the flour and salt and mix to combine.
  3. Knead on a floured surface for 10 minutes, until the dough is no longer sticky and pliable.
  4. Set aside for 30 minutes till doubled in size.
  5. Split the dough into 12, form balls and slice slashes into each ball. Place on a floured surface and sprinkle flour on top.
  6. Set aside for another 30 minutes.
  7. Pre-heat the oven to 180C and bake for 10 minutes
  8. Leave to cool slightly before serving

 

*most of us. obviously we’re not all exactly the same.

** I’m really touch on this point. I have no idea why.

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Root Vegetable Mash

Root Veg Mash

If you’re looking for a low effort and incredibly delicious hearty food this time of year, mash is always a winner. It goes so well with so many different meats and is versatile as it’s own dish, or as a topping – such as shepherds pie or fisherman’s pie. This Root Vegetable Mash, however, is a delicious alternative to stodgy potatoes.  It’s also a really useful one to have in your repertoire if you regularly do roasts as I always find I have a carrot here and a parsnip there that didn’t make it into the meal.Root Veg Mash

The bonus of a root veg mash that doesn’t include potatoes is that it doesn’t run the risk of being gloopy.

This recipe is good with any variety of root vegetable, really, and I find so long as it totals up to about 550g it’s hard to go wrong.  Some people require exact amounts, so this is the most recent version of the root vegetable mash that I’ve made.  I had a large rutabaga (swede) and a few left over carrots so decided to turn them into a quick mash for a light, but filling dinner.

You can make this completely fat free – which in this case also makes it dairy free – but I really like the bit of butter in this. I find it makes it rich enough that I’m not craving chocolate pudding at the end.

Swede And Carrot Mash
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: serves 2
Ingredients
  • 400g Swede chopped into 3 – 4 cm chunks
  • 150g Carrot chopped into 3 – 4 cm chunks
  • Pinch of Nutmeg
  • 40g Salted Butter (optional)
  • Salt & Pepper to Taste
Instructions
Regular Instructions
  1. Boil or steam vegetables as you normally would – about 30 mins till they are soft
  2. Drain and in a bowl, add butter, vanilla and seasoning.
  3. Use a masher or food processor to mash everything together until the vegetables reach a lumpy or smooth texture, as you prefer.
Thermomix Instructions
  1. Fill the Thermomix to half way through the internal steamer basket and fill with root vegetables.
  2. Put the lid in place and boil for 20 – 25 minutes/ Varoma / Speed 3
  3. Stick a knife into one of the larger pieces of vegetable to check that it’s fairly soft
  4. Pour out the water, but don’t drain too thoroughly – a tablespoon or two of reserved water is helpful
  5. Tip the vegetables into the Thermomix bowl and chop for 45 Seconds/Speed 5
  6. Add nutmeg, butter and seasoning and mix another 15 Seconds/Speed 5

 

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Jellybean Fudge

Jellybean Fudge

Sometimes a reader will get in touch with a question about a recipe that didn’t work for them, and it always makes me really nervous, so much so that I have to make the recipe as soon as I can to just check it again, to make sure I didn’t leave anything out. Jellybean Fudge

That happened this week, making the White Chocolate and Glace Cherry Fudge, so it was the perfect excuse for me, having not made it since Christmas. I didn’t have any glacé cherries, however, so I grabbed what seemed like a suitable replacement: jellybeans. I was so pleased with how it worked out, I couldn’t help but share it.

Jellybean FudgeThis is a soft and delicious fudge, and the addition of the flavoured jellybeans makes for chewy flavour bursts. And it’s really pretty! I think this is a great Easter fudge, or if you stick to reds and pinks you could do it for Valentines day too.

Jellybean Fudge
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 50 pieces
Ingredients
  • 1 can condensed milk
  • 250g white sugar
  • 25g golden syrup
  • 125g butter
  • 200g white chocolate
  • 100g jelly beans
Instructions
  1. Add condensed milk, sugar, syrup and butter to the Thermomix bowl.
  2. Cook without MC at 100C speed 3 for 8 mins.
  3. Scrape down sides if needed, then cook Veroma, 20 mins speed 3 still without MC. While it’s boiling, prepare the pan, break the chocolate into pieces and get the jellybeans ready.
  4. Add chocolate and mix on speed 4, reverse blades for 20 seconds, then quickly add the jelly beans and mix reverse blades 10 seconds speed 3.
  5. Working quickly, pour the mixture into a brownie tray
  6. Refrigerate for 3 -4 hours, cut and store in airtight container.

 

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Honey Cookies

Honey Cookies

It’s national Winnie The Pooh day on Monday the 18th of January and we love Winnie the Pooh in this house. We’ve visited the real 100 Acre Woods and we’ve had a Winnie The Pooh birthday party and my kids have been playing Pooh Sticks since they could stand up straight, so really it’s only obvious that we’d have to do something to celebrate Winnie the Pooh’s special day!Honey Cookies

I’ve made this recipe a few times, because they’re honey cookies, and bears love honey! And so do my children. They are really tasty on their own, but my little ones love them with chocolate chips on top and my personal favourite is with glacé cherries on top. It’s just deliciousness all round.Honey Cookies

The original recipe from the 1979 The Pooh Cook Book You suggests you can top it with almond slivers. I’ve reduced the sugar too, with no ill effect, though that’s probably because we eat them before they can go stale, which is what the sugar helps slow down.

Honey Cookies
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 40 cookies
Ingredients
  • 230g self raising flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 115g salted butter
  • 80g brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 45g honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • almonds (optional)
  • choc chips (optional)
  • glacé cherries (optional)
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F
  2. Add flour, salt, butter, sugar, egg, honey and vanilla essence to the food processor and mix till it’s all well combined (Thermomix: speed 5/30 seconds)
  3. On a well floured surface, and with well floured hands, shape balls the size of large marbles and space them out evenly on a tray. They will expand in the oven.
  4. With your finger make a dent in each ball and fill it with the optional extras or leave it as is
  5. Place in the oven and bake for 13 – 15 minutes depending on your oven
  6. They will still be really soft when they come out the oven, so leave them to cool entirely before transferring to a biscuit tin

Isn’t it funny

How a bear likes honey

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

I wonder why he does

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Six Minute Chocolate Puddings

Six Minute Chocolate Pudding

In a life before my children, I used to host regular dinner parties, and Six Minute Chocolate Puddings were a go-to standard pudding for a number of reasons. First, it’s so easy to make. You mix all the ingredients together and set it aside, popping it in the oven for 6 minutes when you’re ready for your warm and yummy dessert. Secondly, these chocolate puddings a small portion, but it’s so rich you really only need a small portion per person. Thirdly, it’s really good, hot or cold, with cream or ice cream. Six Minute Chocolate Puddings

The key to these chocolate puddings is to have the oven hot and to keep an eye on the puddings. In a normal small round ramekin, they should only need 6 minutes in the oven. If your ramekins or bowls are bigger, they may need a little longer, but sit and watch it, if need be, so you can see when it forms a skin on top that looks like cake. Like this:Six Minute Chocolate Puddings

Pull it out of the oven immediately, and serve. If you leave it in too long it’ll sort of ‘set’ and not be runny any more, but it will still be delicious.

Six Minute Chocolate Puddings
Recipe Type: Dessert
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 60g Sugar
  • 3 Eggs
  • 3 Egg Yolks
  • 185g Dark Chocolate
  • 185g Butter
  • 15g Plain Flour
  • Cocoa Powder, for dusting
  • cream or ice cream for serving
Instructions
  1. If you’re serving immediately, turn the oven up to 230C/450F
  2. Add the sugar to the Thermomix and whiz on speed 10 for 3 seconds
  3. Add the eggs and the extra egg yolks and whisk the eggs for 30 seconds, speed 5
  4. Set aside
  5. In a clean bowl add the chocolate and whiz on speed 10 for 3 seconds again to get the chocolate to melt faster. Scrape down the sides if you need to then melt the chocolate for 2 minutes/speed 2/ 50C
  6. Once it’s melted add the butter and melt 1 minute/speed 2/ 50C
  7. Finally add the sugar and egg – pour it in in a steady stream – and then the flour
  8. (If you’re organised, you can just set the chocolate on to melt for 4 minutes, and add the butter after two minutes, and the egg and sugar mix and the flour after another minute so you don’t keep having to reset the timer)
  9. Pour into ramekins. This mix will rise slightly, so don’t fill all the way to the top.
Serving straight away
  1. Place into a hot oven and bake for 6 minutes (vary according to the size of the ramekins)
  2. Serve as is for the molten inside to be a surprise or turn upside down to have it running and oozing pleasantly over the plate
Serving later
  1. Once everything is mixed, pop the chocolate mix into the fridge. When your guests arrive, remove it so that it returns to room temperature, when you’re having your mains, turn on the oven and after dinner put the ramekins in the oven for six minutes.
  2. Serve with cream, ice cream or on it’s own

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Almond Biscuits With Fondant Icing

Cookies, or biscuits, if you will, are so synonymous with Christmas to me. My mom used to do a huge bake i the beginning of December somewhere, and I remember a lot of cookies through the month, always stored in old fashioned cake tins. That was always fun.

I love this recipe because it’s a little different to the ‘usual’ butter biscuits, with the addition of almond extract. You can try it with rum extract too.

Star shaped biscuits

The white fondant may need rolling out on a clean surface with a sprinkling of icing sugar, and left to set it’ll provide a lovely soft, pillowy counter point to the crunchy biscuits. I love these! My kids like decorating them with silver balls pressed into the surface, but I just think of broken teeth!

stars

Even though you use the same shapes for cutting out the fondant in the baking and moving of the biscuits they may change shape a little, so use your fingers to ‘smooth out’ the edges of the fondant to fit perfectly over the biscuits.

Almond Biscuits With Fondant Icing
Recipe Type: Biscuits
Cuisine: Bakery
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Ingredients
  • 230g Butter
  • 340g Sugar
  • 6 cups Plain Flour (780g)
  • 6 Eggs
  • 1 tablespoon Baking Powder
  • 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
  • 1 tablespoon Almond Extract
  • For the Icing Sugar
  • 140g butter
  • 280g icing sugar
  • 1-2 tbsp milk
Instructions
  1. Add the butter and sugar to a food processor and mix till it is light and fluffy
  2. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir till combined and a soft dough forms
  3. Place in the fridge for 1 hour, heat the oven to 180C, then roll out on a well floured surface
  4. Cut out shapes and move to an oven tray then back for 10 – 12 minutes until they are golden brown
  5. Meanwhile, role out some fondant and use the same cutters to cut matching shapes from the fondant. Set aside.
  6. Once the biscuits have cooled, mix the butter, icing sugar and milk together, and spread generously over the biscuits
  7. Top with the fondant shapes shaping them to fit on the biscuits
  8. Place gently in an airtight container and allow to set
  9. They should keep well for 1 – 2 weeks
Thermomix Instructions
  1. Place the butterfly whisk into the Thermomix bowl and add the butter and sugar 3 minutes/speed 4. The butter should be light in colour and fluffy
  2. Remove the butterfly and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix together 30 seconds/speed 5
  3. Empty out onto cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour to make the dough easier to work with
  4. Remove from fridge, roll out the dough to about half an inch thick and cut into shapes
  5. Transfer onto a baking tray and continue until all the dough is used up
  6. Bake for 10—12 minutes at 180C till golden brown
  7. Store in an airtight container

A Very Thermie ChristmasA Very Thermie Christmas has this and 50 other recipes for all your Thermomix Christmas needs. With everything from snacks to meals, finger foods to festive drinks and DIY gifts A Very Thermie Christmas has your Christmas covered.  Just £8.99 (excl VAT in EU) this printable PDF can be yours in minutes.

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Deconstructed Butternut Squash Soup

Deconstructed Butternut Squash Soup

This soup came about because I really don’t like a chunky soup. Contrary to popular belief this isn’t because of the texture, but rather is because I get bored half way through a bowl of same tasting bite after bite. And by the time you’ve boiled your vegetables long enough to extract the flavour into the broth, every bite tastes the same.

I prefer a deconstructed soup. It’s still hearty, filling, healthy, but it looks much prettier since everything retains it’s colour and shape, and every bite is a mini-adventure.
 Deconstructed Butternut Squash Soup

Take this soup for example. Butternut soup with lardons, sage and Grana Padano cheese.

The first bite has a little bit of lardon and a small sliver of sage. It’s tasty. The next bite,  has a hint of garlic, and a bit of onion along with the butternut, and tastes homey. The following spoon picks up a large piece of melted cheese, and the rich full flavour of Grana Padano accompanies the butternut down my throat. The next spoon hits a pocket of sage butter, and provides a whole other taste to any of the previous bites – and next it’s just a plain spoon of butternut, that almost cleanses your palet. And so it goes, on and on.

Grana Padano Butternut Squash Soup

Well, it works for me, and I hope you like it too!

For this soup I like to roast the butternut squash. While you can just go ahead and make it from an uncooked butternut squash, which gives it a fresh flavour, I find a roasted butternut squash has so much more depth to it. It’s definitely worth the extra 40 or so minutes.

Deconstructed Butternut Squash Soup
Recipe Type: Soup
Cuisine: Italian
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 3 -4
It may seem a little fiddly, but for this soup you need to roast the butternut squash. Once it’s cooked, boil the soup for 15 minutes, while at the same time cooking the lardons and sage leaves for 10 minutes each. Slice up the cheese and everything should be ready at the same time.
Ingredients
  • 1 Butternut Squash
  • 4 Garlic cloves
  • 1 Onion
  • 250ml chicken stock
  • 30g butter
  • 10 sage leaves
  • 75g pasta
  • 140g bacon lardons
  • 50g Grana Padano shards
  • pepper to taste
  • olive oil to drizzle
Instructions
  1. Cut the butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds.
  2. Peel four garlic cloves and put them inside the hollowed out butternut squash.
  3. Drizzle a good quality olive oil over the butternut squash, place on an oven tray and bake at 200C for about 40 mins till it’s soft all the way through. Set aside to cool slighly, then chop into rough chunks. If it’s a young butternut squash you can keep the skin, but if it’s older, discard.
In the Thermomix
  1. Add the onion and baked garlic cloves to the Thermomix and chop 3 seconds/speed 4.
  2. Cook for 3 minutes/100C/Speed 1
  3. Add the chicken stock and butternut squash, and cook 15 mins/speed 4
  4. Meanwhile in a pan, fry the bacon lardons until they are crispy, about 10 minutes.
  5. In another, smaller pan, melt 30g butter, and add the sage leaves. Gently fry for about 10 minutes on low heat until the butter is browned and the leaves are crispy.
  6. Thinly slice ‘shards’ of the Grana Padano cheese.
  7. To serve, dish up the soup, making sure to get some pasta in each bowl and sprinkle cheese over. On the side, serve lardons, additional cheese chards and the sage leaves.
  8. Drizzle the sage butter over the butternut squash soup, and serve.
Regular Instructions
  1. Chop and slice the onions and garlic, and saute for about 10 mins in suitable suit pot, till translucent.
  2. Add the chicken stock and butternut squash, and cook for about 15 minutes on medium heat.
  3. Meanwhile in a pan, fry the bacon lardons until they are crispy, about 10 minutes.
  4. In another, smaller pan, melt 30g butter, and add the sage leaves. Gently fry for about 10 minutes on low heat until the butter is browned and the leaves are crispy.
  5. Thinly slice ‘shards’ of the Grana Padano cheese.
  6. To serve, dish up the soup, making sure to get some pasta in each bowl and sprinkle cheese over. On the side, serve lardons, additional cheese chards and the sage leaves.
  7. Drizzle the sage butter over the butternut squash soup, and serve.