Pumpkin soup with fish stock

Yes you heard me. That's right. In fact it wasn't even fish stock but prawn stock, from the shells of some very large shrimp we had in a curry. Which was bizarrely made with butter... weird combo, but it seemed to work. So, fry your onions and soften your pumpkin, whizz it with the stock and season up. Served here with dark rye sourdough and it was delicious. For a highly comforting, if proteinless, meal, it was great. 

Fish and Watercress Hotpot

• 8 dried shiitake mushrooms
• Some peeled daikon (recipe says ‘1 small daikon’ but I’ve never seen such a thing)
• 1 small carrot, peeled
• 3cm ginger, thinly sliced
• 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
• 80ml soy sauce
• 1 tbps sugar
• 300g firm tofu, cubed
• 1 red pepper, thick strips
• 500g white fish, cut into bite-sized chunks
• 100g watercress sprigs

(rice to serve)

  

Soak mushrooms, drain and slice, discarding stem. Cut daikon and carrot in half lengthways, and thinly slice.

  

Combine ginger, garlic, soy sauce and sugar in a large saucepan with 1.25l water. Add mushroom, daikon and carrot and bring to boil. Reduce heat, simmer for 10 minutes. Add tofu, pepper, and fish and simmer for another 10 minutes. Allow to sit for 10 minutes.

  

Spoon into four warm bowls and add the watercress. Serve at once with steamed rice.

Red Lentil Soup

Simply boil a cupful of red lentils with some cumin and salt until they nearly fall apart.

This is great on its own but you can garnish it with some caramelised onion slices with grated ginger, crushed garlic and coriander (ground) and some fresh coriander leaves at the end, if you want to e shmancy. Wonderful soup starter or a great lunch.