Silky Onion Soup with Crispy Croutons

I'm definitely on the "Take Five Ingredients" mood these days. Cooking with a small baby is possible, of course, but I haven't got the time or energy to think up elaborate menus and spend hours in front of the hob these days. Nor do I want it, to be honest. Simple, comforting, delicious dishes are much more attractive - and feasible - at the moment.

Here's a very simple and delicious and comforting soup recipe for these cold wintry nights. (Yes, there's still snow out here, even if the days have got a lot longer and there's definitely spring in the air during the daytime).

Silky Onion Soup
(Sametine sibulasupp)
Serves 4

50 g butter
500 g onions
2 tsp sugar
1 l / 4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
200 ml (just under a cup) whipping cream
1 to 2 Tbsp plain/all-purpose flour
salt and white pepper, to taste

For garnish:
crispy croutons
grated hard cheese
fresh chives, chopped

Peel the onions, halve and cut into slices.
Heat a heavy saucepan and melt the butter in the pan. Add onion slices and sauté on a low heat for 10-15 minutes, until the onions and softened and slightly caramelised. Do not burn them! Add sugar after about 7 minutes, stir.
When onions are softened, then pureé them with an immersion/stick/hand-held blender until smooth. (For an especially smooth result, press the onion pureé through a sieve).
Return the onion pureé into the saucepan, add the stock and bring into a boil.
Mix the flour with the cream and stir into the soup base. Simmer gently until the soup has thickened slightly (the flour does it).
Taste for seasoning, add salt and white pepper, if necessary.
To serve, ladle the soup into warm bowls, scatter over croutons and chopped chives and grate some cheese on top.

Pineapple Cake with Cocoa Frosting

Fancy a lactose-free and fat-free cake that's a little bit more interesting than the simple eggs-sugar-flour sponge cake? Well, this might be the answer. There's a large tin of canned pineapple in the cake, which makes it more moist and rich, so it feels like it's made with at least some butter. I must admit I couldn't taste the pineapple in the cake, not even a little, but I still liked the cake. It's covered with a simple cocoa powder glaze, but you could use some of the pineapple syrup from the can to make a white glaze instead..

Pineapple Cake with Cocoa Glaze
(Ananassikook kakaoglasuuriga)
Cuts into 12 slices

3 large eggs
200 g caster sugar
225 g plain/all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
350 g canned crushed pineapple (drained weight, that's one large 580 g can)

Glaze:
150 ml icing sugar
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
2-3 Tbsp water

Drain the canned pineapple, blend the pulp into until smooth.
Whisk the eggs and sugar until thick, pale and foamy. Gently fold in the flour, baking powder and pineapple.
Pour into a buttered or lined 22 cm cake tin.
Bake in the middle of a pre-heated 200 C oven for about 45 minutes, until the cake is risen and light golden (test for doneness with a wooden toothpick).
Take out of the oven and leave to cool in the cake tin for 10 minutes; then trasnfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the glaze, mix all ingredients and smear over the cooled cake.

Broad bean paté

Here's a broad bean paté I made today. K's mum and auntie came for a short visit to check out the baby girl, and I wanted something savoury to nibble (there was a cake as well, of course). I had boiled 500 grams of broad beans yesterday in order to make Egyptian falafels following a recipe by Claudia Roden, but I decided to 'steal' some of the beans and try out a broad bean paté instead. The result was really lovely. Both K's mum and auntie guessed it was made with chicken livers instead - before wolfing down another thin crisp bread spread with this lovely paté.

PS I used unpeeled dried broad beans and didn't peel them after soaking or boiling either.

Broad Bean Paté
( Põldoapasteet )Makes about a cup

a cup of boiled broad beans, drained thoroughly*
2 Tbsp concentrated tomati paste/tomato purée
2 to 3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp dried basil
a squeeze of lemon juice
salt and freshly ground black pepper

For garnish:
fresh basil

Blend the first five ingredients in a bowl with a hand-held blender into a smooth paste. Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Garnish with a fresh basil leave and serve.

* To boil dried broad beans/fava beans: soak them in cold water for 12-24 hours, then rinse and drain. Place in a saucepan with fresh cold water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat, then simmer on a low heat until soft, but not mushy (about 40 minutes or longer, depending on the age of the beans etc). Do not add salt until the end, as this may extend the cooking period. 

You need about 1/2 cup of dried beans for this amount of broad bean paté.