Mammoth dinner/picnic menu part 2

For the starter of the epic menu I did two dishes, a consomme and some cured salmon. This post is going to be about the consomme and the first bump in the road on the journey to picnic heaven. The dish is a tomato consomme and is basically a clear soup/drink that tastes of tomatoes and in this case a small amount of vodka (my parents like their drink and I wanted to play more on the idea of Bloody Marys.)

The recipe is again by Jamie Oliver (I find his recipes are very easy to follow and would recommend any of his books for beginner chefs) and involves blitzing all the ingredients and straining through some fine muslin or he also suggests a tea towel. So upon reading the recipe I decided to go for the cheaper option and used one my mum's nice clean tea towels to strain the soup. The recipe is very easy but has quite a lengthy process of letting the liquid drip through the bag for about 7 hours. If you squeeze it through then you don't end up with a nice clear soup so its best to let it drip for as long as possible. I was very organised and made the soup on the Tuesday and let it drip overnight, so it would be ready well ahead of Friday morning. So when it came to tasting the delicious tomato flavoured soup on Wednesday morning, imagine my disappointment when it had a rather strong hint of Lenor. What the lovely Jamie doesn't tell you is that if you use fabric softener on your tea towels then your soup will end up tasting of that.

Luckily I had enough time to remake but it definitely wasn't the cheaper option in the long run as I had to buy a load more tomatoes and a jam strainer with a special little stand. I'm really glad I did retry the recipe though because the results were wonderful. Its the perfect soup for a lovely hot summer evening and great to have with a meal or as a starter by itself because it's so light! If you can be bothered with the effort and have a love for tomatoes then give it a try.

I have photos of both attempts including the evil tea towel, my soup came out rather pink because of the beetroot so don't put too much in.

Tomato Consomme

1 Bunch of fresh basil, including stalks. Save the baby leaves for a garnish in a small bowl in the fridge

2 Kg Fresh tomatoes, make sure they are really ripe and tasty as they make the dish

1 x 5cm Piece of fresh horseradish or 3tsp of grated horseradish in a jar but not creamed!

1/2 Clove garlic (I added a little more as I love garlic)

1-2 tbsp Red wine vinegar

Measure of Vodka (again this is to taste)

1 small slice of beetroot for colour

Sea salt and black pepper

Start by taking all of the ingredients except for the seasoning and blitzing them up in a food processor until smooth. You may need to do this in batches as I did and empty it all in to one big bowl. Once blitzed give it a try and season to taste. You should be able to taste the horseradish quite strongly so don't be afraid to have quite a punchy taste to your mixture. Make sure the pepper is seasoned correctly because if you add after straining you will have little black bits in your lovely clear soup. Put your muslin over a bowl and ladle the mix in to it. Gather up the corners and tie in to a bag shape. Somehow hang your bag in the fridge over a bowl to collect your beautiful soup. I just used the jam strainer over a bowl and left it on the side in the kitchen as by this point I had run out of fridge space. Leave for as long as you can or until the bag stops dripping. You will be left with a dry tomato mush which you can throw away. Once fully strained, give it a taste and adjust any vinegar for tartness or vodka for alcoholics. Keep in the fridge so its nice and cold. When serving dot the pretty little basil leaves and a couple drops of oil on top.