Blue Monday Antidote: Homemade Heinz Tomato Soup and Frommage Fort Cheese Toasts
A slightly grown up version of my favourite kids' dinner
I’M ANTI PROCESSED FOOD, BUT YOU GOTTA LET ME HAVE HEINZ TOMATO SOUP - IT WAS THE SCARLET HERO OF MY AFTER SCHOOL LUNCHES. And my mom probably still has cans of that vintage in her press. Why are mam’s like this?!? But I digress. On what is meant to be the most ‘blue’ or depressing day of the year, I want you to enjoy something warm and comforting. And if you need an extra hug, these French inspired cheese toasts will do the trick. And they are zero-waste so extra points for your sustainability resolutions.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m actually not a big fan of soup. Too many soups are used as a dumping ground for odds and ends and they neither taste good nor look good. Especially when they start separating and begin looking like dirty dish water with a film of grease of top. Yum.
Therefore any soup recipe I give you would have had my serious time and attention, as I have to really like it myself. And there is no option to drink it pretty. So this is a goodie. It is one of several tomato soup recipes that I make, but the idea is that it is as close as possible to Heinz. And if you haven’t had frommage fort before, you are in for a treat.
One of my ideal weekday lunches or light suppers is a mug or bowl of soup, half a sandwich and a helping of salad. Delicious, satisfying and a great balance for afternoon energy. But I also love to make a soup or a chopped salad for Sunday evenings. Then I freeze or keep the rest for the coming week. It is a lovely ritual to get into, easy to digest so that you sleep well and it is a wholesome start to a new week.
Today I did something different with the recipe format: I added a mise en place list and an equipment list. Not sure if this is wanted, needed or necessary so please vote below, I’d appreciate your input. And feel free to reply to this email with suggestions.
Homemade Heinz Tomato Soup
4 servings
Tomato soup is universally popular, and it is the only canned tomato soup that I buy. This soup recipe is the closest I can get to the Heinz experience with the least amount of time, faff or ingredients. The allspice is optional, but I find it brings the flavour closer to the canned favourite. It's worth making a big batch of this and freezing portions as it'll never go to waste. The stock seems like a lot, but most of it evaporates as the soup cooks. The milk softens the acidity of the tomatoes and makes the soup creamy, but not rich.
1.5 litres of tomato passata (flexible)
2 tbsp tomato paste
500ml stock (vegetable or chicken stock), cooled
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp of ground allspice
1 brown onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 bay leaf
125ml milk (dairy or non-dairy)
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper
Method:
Pour the tomato passata and tomato paste into a saucepan. Use the 500ml stock to rinse out the passata bottles. Use cooled or cold stock as boiling water might crack the bottles.
Stir in the sugar and ground allspice. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the onion, garlic cloves and bay leaf. Cover partially with a lid, bring to a boil then reduce to a low simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove the bay leaf. Pour in the milk, then blitz to a smooth consistency with an immersion blender. Taste and adjust the seasoning by adding more salt and pepper. I also like a squeeze of lemon.
Mise en Place:
Measure out 1.5 litres passata
Make up 500ml stock to rinse out passata bottles with, allow to cool
Measure out sugar
Measure out allspice
Dice the onion
Peel the garlic
Set out the bay leaf
Measure milk
Equipment:
Chopping board and cloth to go under chopping board
Knife
Compost bowl
1.5 litre jug for passata
250ml jug for water
2 small mise bowls for sugar and allspice
1 medium mise bowl for onion
250ml jug for milk
Salt and pepper mills
2 litre capacity saucepan
Wooden spoon for stirring
Spoon rest
Immersion blender or jug blender
Tidy Friday Fromage Fort Cheese Toasts
4 servings
Fromage fort is an old French recipe that uses up leftover bits of cheese - great for cleaning out the cheese drawer before you buy even more cheese if you are a cheese fiend like me. My recipe is a little different as I add a spoon of Dijon mustard, which I find helps bind the fats in the cheese. Try it with and without, to see if you like it. This tastes spectacular with leftover bubbly if you are feeling decadent. I also like mixing a bit chives or spring onion in or adding as a garnish. I prefer this on toasts popped under the grill and not as a dip, unless you heat it up.
200g cheese pieces (cheddar, gouda, brie, blue cheese, gruyère)
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 tsp Dijon mustard
60ml white wine
black pepper
Add ins:
fresh chives
chopped parsley
green chilli
spring onion
Method:
Blitz the cheese, garlic, Dijon mustard, white wine and black pepper in a food processor until smooth, but don't over process.
Store the fromage fort in a clean glass jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
To serve: Use as a dip for crudité, spread onto toast as is or pop under the grill to brown a bit.
Mise en Place:
Chop up the cheeses
Peel the garlic
Measure the mustard
Measure the white wine
Chop any add ins
Equipment:
Chopping board and cloth to go under chopping board
Knife
Compost bowl
Weighing scales
Pepper mill
Immersion blender or jug blender
Spatula
Pantry Pal: Passata
Passata uses a traditional Italian method to preserve ripe tomatoes in the Summer for the long Winter months ahead. Big batches of juicy ripe tomatoes are lightly cooked then passed through a food mill and puréed to a very smooth sauce. Good passata should have a very fresh taste and not be as intense or concentrated as canned tomato purée or chopped tomatoes. Sometimes fresh basil is added, but pure passata is more versatile. I love it for its very smooth consistency and bright, light flavour. You can always add tomato paste for more intensity of flavour. Great for soups and pasta sauces across any cuisine - not restricted to Italian cooking. For example, I use passata for my Mexican enchilada sauce. Mostly sold in attractive glass bottles that I always reuse, you can also get passata in 500ml Tetra packs, Tesco own brand has them as an example and they are very affordable.
Pantry Pal: Allspice
Allspice is a dark brown aromatic berry native to the West Indies. It gets its name from the fact that it tastes like an indefinable combination of cinnamon, nutmeg ginger and cloves. But it is not mixed spice, which is in fact a combination of these spices commonly used in baking and Christmas recipes. Allspice has a more savoury flavour and is a main component of the famous Jamaican jerk spice blend. I use it predominantly in lamb, tomato and condiment recipes. It just gives that 'something something' to dishes. You can buy the whole berries or already ground.
This is a simple and familiar start to the new year. We don’t need to throw the baby out with the bathwater, or change things radically all at once to make positive changes.
Happy Cooking!
xoxox
Rozanne