Smoky Noodle Soup

In Edinburgh, the Spring/Summer weather has not really settled in yet. This soup was a perfect warmer quickly made on return from the library. At the last minute, the only fish we could buy was raw smoked salmon, which was less overpowering than I'd thought it would be, and worked well with fennel.

Recipe (serves 4)

4 Spring onions

1 or 2 leeks

2 Fennel bulbs

Vegetable stock

large handful of Spring greens

100g noodles (I used Clearspring's Ramen)

2 smoked salmon fillets, cut in half

1 lemon

Sautee the spring onions and leeks in oil until slightly softened, then add the fennel and cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes. Season to taste, and pour over enough stock to cover (depending on how much broth you'd like). Let this simmer for a while until the vegetables are soft and the broth is flavoursome. Throw in the spring greens. Cook the noodles in the soup until they are ready (normally about 10 minutes) and at the last minute rest the salmon fillets on the surface of the broth so they are lightly steamed. If your fish is fresh, let it cook just until it is warmed through and slightly flaking on the outside, so it is still soft and pink within.

Easter Egg Cookies

After hosting such an Easter Sunday lunch, we were left with too much chocolate to snack on without feeling sick most of the time. In order to diminish the huge pile, we broke it all up into pieces and put it into cookie dough. The result was a tin full of crispy biscuits not to be gorged on but dipped into mugs of tea gracefully.

Recipe:

110g softened unsalted butter

50g caster sugar

55 light muscovado sugar

1 egg

1/2 a pod's worth of vanilla seeds, or a dash of vanilla extract

110g plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

150-200g broken up Easter egg chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, and grease a few baking sheets. Mix butter and both sugars together until pale and fluffy, then beat in the egg. Add the vanilla before sifting the flour and bicarbonate of soda, and finally incorporate the chunks of chocolate. Spoon the dough out onto baking trays into dollops about 5cm apart, and bake for roughly 10 minutes. The cookies seem far too soft when straight out of the oven, but they will harden soon enough.