The April List and an Autumn soup

Hello! Here we are on the cusp of F.O.O.D Week, with endless jobs to do, and here I am faffing about on the computer. But as mentioned previously this week, an April List of cooking and reading is well overdue so here goes.

• Recipe Rifle is a new discovery and it’s hysterical. I love this blog and its author
• Celebrate hazlenut season with these cakes from Good Things Grow
• Cinnamon rolls from Look I Made That
• Our Wee Farm offers up a slice of idylic country life, and some gorgeous recipes from New Zealand’s Northland region
• New blog She Sows Seeds comes from South Australia’s Limestone Coast and looks gorgeous. I can’t wait to read more
• Lots of good reading and cooking over here at Liz and Jewels
• Salted spicy double chocolate chilli cookies. Wowsers, these look amazing
• Style inspiration from the inspiring Alice Waters
• I’m a little bit in love with The Cook’s Atelier. What a dream it would be to travel to France for one of their courses! For now, their beautiful blog will do. For more of rural France, please take a moment to watch the brief, beautiful film embedded below
• Flourless chocolate cake by Kara Rosenlund’s always beautiful blog
• Fox’s Lane does Jerusalem, and the food looks amazing!
• Gorgeous photos and words as usual from Whole Larder Love. And more goodness from Rohan Andersen in the clip below
• Kinfolk’s baking workshops go global and look awesome. Please come to Orange!

Pear, pumpkin and sage soup

This one is Autumn in a bowl and heavily influenced by a recipe given on page 92 of my new favourite book Hugh’s Three Good Things on a Plate, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  In between putting this little post together, I’ve been making vast quantities of it to serve as a starter at our Farm Kitchen events tomorrow and the kitchen is smelling amazing!

1kg butternut or jap pumpkin
5 cloves garlic (bashed but unpeeled)
1/2 cup sage leaves
Olive oil, sea salt and pepper
500g Red Anjou or other pears (ours came from Nashdale Fruit Company)
700ml chicken stock
100g butter

Preheat oven to 180C. Peel the pumpkin and chop roughly. Place in deep roasting tin with the garlic, sage and a good few glugs of olive oil. Season well and place in the oven for 45 minutes (tossing about half way through). Near the end of the cooking time, peel, core and quarter the pears and add them to the pan. Toss everything about again and cook for a further 25 minutes or until the pears are soft. Blend in batches with the stock and butter until smooth. Serve in deep, warm bowls with warm buttered rolls.

Serve with a drizzle of chilli oil and a few toasted pumpkin seeds.  Serves 4-6.

And here to finish today’s post, two beautiful little films about two different but inspiring producers. The first comes from Tiger in a Jar and the second via Whole Larder Love and Smith Journal.