potato, coriander & chilli soup

Well, the summer is finally starting to leave us here in Ireland (most of us question if we even had one this year!), and so it's time to bring out the comfort food. Last night was decidedly nippy, so I made this lovely belly-warming soup, plonked myself firmly on the sofa and focussed on warming my cockles.

This is a great soup for vegetarians too, and the vegans amongst you can simply replace the milk and crème fraîche with soy milk and soy sour cream respectively. The total cooking time, including chopping is around half an hour. Simple eh?! Oh and last (but not least), make sure you have a few chunks of crusty bread for dipping and mopping purposes...

lamb's kidneys with mushrooms on toast

This is my take on one of my favourite Spanish dishes 'Riñones al Jerez', or kidneys with sherry. Whilst I was living in Spain this turned out to be really versatile, in that it makes a great tapa, a substantial starter or a lovely comfort food supper.

Ensure you get nice fresh kidneys, with all of the fat trimmed off (your butcher will do this for you). Kidneys are a really tasty piece of offal, and are cheap too - usually only around 60c each!

Ingredients

• 6 lambs kidneys
• Handful of smoked bacon lardons
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 100g closed cut mushrooms, thickly sliced
• 2 tbs sherry vinegar
• 2 tbs olive oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
• 2 tbs crème fraîche
• Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method

1. To prepare the kidneys, first make sure you take off the thin membrane that covers them - you'll know if this is still on as the kidneys will look greyish in appearance - once removed you'll see them in all their lovely plummy shininess! After that, cut the kidneys lengthways, snip out the white cores with scissors (these can be quite tough to eat), and cut the kidneys in half again, giving you quarters. Place these on a plate and cover in the lemon juice to marinate a little.
2. In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil over a medium high heat and add the bacon. After a couple of minutes add the garlic & fry for a further minute.
3. Add the mushrooms and cook for 3-4 minutes, until they soften.
4. Pour in the kidneys, including the lemon juice and cook for 5 minutes, stirring gently (don't kill the kidneys!).
5. When the kidneys have started to lose their pinkness, add the sherry vinegar and again stir to combine all those lovely flavours.
6. Throw in the parsley and and salt & black pepper to taste.
7. After a minute or so, take off the heat a add a good dollop of crème fraîche. Stir this in to give a nice rich sauce.
8. Serve with lovely thick slices of toasted ciabatta.

This dish tastes lovely with a nice glass of Rioja - my favourites with kidneys are Campo Viejo or Marqués de Cáceres Reserva. Enjoy!