Soup! And Currant Buns, Too

Oh, stop it right there — no, no, no, and don’t be ridiculous. It’s just a cake that was in the window at the lovely HR Bradfords (they write it without the apostrophe, which appears wrong to me, but it’s on the sign that way, and so… ::shrugs::) bakery and teashop on Sauchiehall Lane.

Gorgeous, isn’t it? These people work really well with fondant.

We finally got around to taking tea at the tea shop upstairs of HR Bradfords, and we’re a bit chagrined to admit that we didn’t take too many pictures. For one thing, this is a nice shop, and we didn’t want to stand out too much as “the tourist yobs over there with the camera.” For another thing, we were sort of wrapped up in the food. Scones and jam, luscious teas and cakes, sugared berries and little squares of carmelly toffe-esque cakes. There were also muffins and buns studded with pieces of sweet fruit.

It was like an Enid Blyton novel moment — “lashings” of tea, and currant buns, too. Yum.

When the classic stack of tea goodies came to our table, a woman next to us looked over and sighed from the ruins of her own meal. “Oh, I knew I should have gotten that one.” Her husband went very red as I overheard them, but we all laughed and laughed, because earlier I’d been looking at her tray! It was hard to choose — very hard to choose from the variety of iced buns and such, but it was fun to settle in and pretend we were in the era of some long ago gentility and look down on the street as we sipped from our pretty little cups.

HR Bradfords gathers crowds of weekend shoppers; we weren’t the only ones dragging shopping bags, nor were we the only non-Scots around. The ladies at the next table over were from Sweden, and happy to be in Glasgow, experiencing the breezy autumn weather. Next time we plan to pop into the less fancy tea shop across the street; Vanilla Black does tea for two and though it probably lacks the tartan wool carpeting, I expect we’ll be able to find a few lighter options, but not the all-day Scottish breakfasts HR Bradfords offers. Decisions, decisions.

We’ve been your veritable worker bees since school really got going — early to bed and early to rise and all. Because we’re still without heat, the oven is on frequently, much to the singular joy of D’s department. We’re cranking out breads — okay, well, tea cakes every week, and we apologize for not having them around long enough to photograph them! Ever since last year when Pille baked that chocolate cake with beets, I’ve been eager to try it again. My first time turned out heavy and gooey — nothing to do with Pille’s outstanding recipe; I was experimenting. Holler successfully reminded me to try the recipe again — this time with a better balance of wet and dry ingredients, and using gloves to peel the roasted beets before I grated them. Good idea, that.

The most fun about that cake is the number of people who’ve never heard of eating beets as part of dessert. I look forward to creating this one for my little sister when we go home; she really wants to like what I like, but the expression of pure doubt on her face when I paired her favorite word “chocolate” with one of her least favorite “beets” — was deeply amusing. Even more fun was one of the professors in D’s department running out from her office to watch the secretary eat a slice — everyone buzzed around like kids watching another kid eat a worm on a dare. In the end, the cake was parceled out carefully on tiny plates, with no student or staff member getting more than their allotted one piece, and the whole thing was polished off before class was finished. Yum. Think we can pull that one out again, and maybe add a bit of chocolate covered crystallized ginger… (There’s always room for another experiment somewhere…)

But though we are baking, the food that most often is cooked and consumed around these parts is soup. Though the Scottish deluge hasn’t quite started to rip full force yet, we’ve had clear, cold days and nights for weeks now, and sporadic episodes of rain — and hail — already.

Many nutritionists believe that food which is physically heavy and highly seasoned can create feelings of being full more quickly than other foods. This soup is a light meal, but gives the stomach a nice full heavy feeling, and is nicely seasoned as well. It smells really good. The soups pictured are cauliflower soup swirled with curried squash, but adding carrots and ginger instead of acorn squash and curry also make a great meal.

Carrot-Ginger Soup

• 2 tablespoons oil (many cooks use peanut for flavor, olive oil is fine)
• 2 cups coarsely chopped onion
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 2 large garlic cloves, smashed flat and minced
• 8 cups vegetable stock
• 3 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced into 1-inch rounds
• 2 cups milk (if using soy-milk, add it all in one go, as it doesn’t like to be heated)
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• Optional: 1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped

1. Heat the oil in a medium stock pot. Add the onion and sauté over medium heat for 3 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and cook about 2 minutes, until the garlic is lightly browned.
2. Add the stock and carrots to the sauté and simmer over medium heat for about 45 minutes, until the carrots are very tender.
3. If you have no stick blender, transfer the carrots and stock in batches to a food processor and purée with milk. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Garnish each bowl of soup with chopped peanuts. Serve immediately.

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