Creamy roast tomato soup

I have been having a soup frenzy since being back in the UK, it's something about the delicious crisp weather we've been having that makes me want to curl up on the sofa with something hot, hearty and comforting. This recipe is inspired by an Ainsley Harriott number, with extra chillies for a bit of a kick.

Ingredients

8 vine ripened tomatoes, cut into halves
1 red onion, cut into quarters
1 head of garlic, cut in half across the middle (it's important to cut across the cloves to make them easy to squeeze out of their skins later on)
A few sprigs of thyme
A pinch of dried chilli flakes
Olive oil for drizzling
Maldon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 litre vegetable stock
1 tin of tomatoes
150ml creme fraiche

Preheat the oven to 200C/ Gas Mark 6

Fill an oven-proof saucepan with the tomatoes, onion, garlic and thyme all covered with a generous drizzle of olive oil and a good pinch of sea salt, chilli flakes and pepper. I find this easier than a roasting tin when it comes to whiz the tomatoes with the blender later. Roast the tomato mix for half an hour or so until the tomatoes are nice and soft. Don't worry if they blacken slightly.

Fish out the onions and garlic into a bowl. Pour the stock over the tomatoes and put them back into the oven for ten more minutes.

Whilst the tomatoes are continuing to cook, pop the now gorgeously sweet and golden garlic cloves and onion quarters out of their skins into the bowl of a food processor and whiz to a sticky paste (I used the slicer attachment to my Panasonic stick blender - a bargain at 20 quid from Tesco!).

Once the tomatoes are done, take them out of the oven. Fish out the thyme and throw it away. Add the onion/garlic mix and the tinned tomatoes to the roasted tomatoes/stock mix and whiz with a stick blender to a smooth soup. Reheat on the stove until piping hot.

Finally, stir in the creme fraiche and enjoy!

Martha's Tom Yam Koong

I promised you a recipe, so here it is! At Martha's cooking school last weekend I learnt a delicious Tom Yam Koong recipe which I'd like to share with you. This is the traditional recipe with no cheeky short cuts. Did you know that the reason the restaurant version is often milky rather than clear is because they add milk to disguise the bitter taste from the herbs where the soup has been made too long in advance? No such shenanigans at Martha's class - her recipe is the real deal.

This makes enough for 2 large bowls.

2.5 cups water
150g fresh button mushrooms (or straw mushrooms if you can get them), halved
3 tblspoons fish sauce
2.5 tblspoons lime juice
2 large stalks of lemongrass
2 large coriander roots
5 individual kaffir lime leaves
20g galengal (similar to ginger but a more subtle flavour)
10 whole fresh birds eye chillies
225g shrimps with shells
Coriander leaves to garnish

Start by crushing and roughly chopping the lemongrass, crushing the coriander root, tearing the lime leaves into a few pieces, crushing and slicing the galengal and bruising the chillies. Martha used a meat tenderising hammer to do this - it looked very satisfying indeed! Take that! And that! You should start smelling some delicious aromas.

Next, the shrimps. Martha recommended buying these live, then putting them in the freezer to die. Once they've snuffed it, twist off their heads! Yes, this is a violent recipe, perfect if you've had a tough day at the office. Leave the tails on as they help the shrimps to stay together whilst cooking. Don't forget to devein - we don't want all that nasty stuff in our soup. That's all our ingredients prepared.

In a saucepan, bring the water to the boil. Once boiling, add the lemon grass, galengal, coriander root and lime leaves then let it boil for one minute.

Add the shrimps and the mushrooms and submerge in the soup - don't stir. You should see the
shrimps turning nice and pink. Once the soup has come to the boil again add the fish sauce and chillies. Remove from the heat straight away and add the lime juice.

Now we're ready to eat. Just in case (like me) you don't realise, you only actually eat the prawns, mushrooms and the broth itself - all the herbs are just for flavour! Delicously hot yet fresh and healthy tasting.