Tuna & Sweetcorn Soup (NB - Controversial)

When my friend Nikki had her bridal shower, (the first such ritual I'd attended...involved lots of 'ooohs', 'aaaahs', gossip and spectacular cakes) guests were invited to present the bride with a few trusted recipes.

What a lovely idea! A chance to share treasured recipes for dependable dishes that bring moments of delight and comfort to domestic life. This legacy of accumulated feminine knowledge (that's 'feminine' Claude not female - you can't call me on my use of gender here!) is offered days before the bride sets sail on her marital odyssey to aid her transition from mortal woman to Nigella goddess.

Excited by the challenge of picking legendary recipes I opted for My Brownies, Anne's Roast Chicken with Lemon and Garlic (plus instructions that there's no disaster whose impact can't be softened slightly by putting one of these babies on to roast) and Tuna and Sweetcorn Soup. Nikki didn't comment on the brownies or chicken, but she couldn't mask her disgust at the sound of T&S Soup. I was quite offended. It had never crossed my mind that the 'meal in a dish' soup could be considered anything but delicious. The Lapping girls were brought up on this Seventies (?) delicacy.

I think the addition of fresh chopped flat leaf parsley and turmeric may be recent innovations but I don't feel they interfere with the integrity of the original recipe. If anything I think they bring a nice, modern touch.

2 cans tuna in brine (use the liquid from the tins as well as the fish)
1/2 bag of frozen sweetcorn
2 tblspoons plain flower
2-3 oz butter (should be enough to combine with the flour to make a soft paste)
1 1/2 pints milk
2-3 tspoons medium curry powder
1 tsp turmeric (for nice colour)
Big handful flat leaf parsley

Melt butter, flour curry powder and turmeric in saucepan, stir until butter melts and mix to make a paste. Cook the paste on a low light for a few minutes. Remove pan from heat and then pour in a small amount of milk and stir until the liquid is combined smoothly with the roux. Continue to add the milk in small amounts and combining until there's no milk left.

Put pan back a low heat and stir every now and then. Pour in half a bag of frozen sweetcorn and add the mashed up tuna and its brine. Cook slowly until the soup starts to thicken up (5-10 mins depending on heat/saucepan sturdiness etc) and has a nice creamy texture. At this point I sometimes decide the soup isn't satisfactorily yellow and I add a sprinkle more turmeric. (I like a yolky yellow against the very green parsley.) Remove from heat and stir one chopped handful of parsley through the soup. Use the second handful of parsley to garnish each bowl.

Yum, I pity Nikki and any other T&S disbelievers.

Mantaray - Salmon salad

I ate a dish at my fave restaurant and have tried to replicate it. It seemed to work pretty well and tasted good though it wasn't quite the same without the beachfront setting and incredible margharitas at Mantaray.

Ingredients:
2 salmon fillets
2 handfuls of shelled whole hazelnuts
1 very large bunch of flat leaf parsley (the parsley is acting as lettuce rather than as a herb so should be loads of it)
1 lemon
Olive oil
Rock salt
Pepper

Poach the salmon fillets until they are cooked but still slightly pinky in the middle.
Toast hazelnuts in the oven until they are light brown then chop roughly - they should still be chunky.
Chop the parsley coarsley.
Flake the salmon into bite sized pieces and combine with the parsley and hazelnuts adding in enough olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to season. It should have quite a sharp lemony kick.

At Mantaray this is one dish amoung lots of mezze dishes you can pick from a selection of plates the waiter brings to your table. It's a really clever technique as it's pretty much impossible not to grab way more food than you can eat because it all looks so good. They serve the mezze with hot freshly baked focaccia with lots of rock salt and olive oil....mmmmmm