SPICED PARSNIP AND APPLE SOUP (soup maker recipe)

I spotted a recipe for something similar to this in a magazine recently.  The recipe included, like so many often do, chilli.  Chilli no longer agrees with me so I have to avoid it, which is a real shame because I do enjoy a nice curry - or at least I used to.

There seems to be chilli in everything these days and it turns up unexpectedly all over the place.  Goodness only knows why it ends up in some foods, such as the cauliflower cheese served in a local pub.  Cauliflower cheese is one of those foods that is perfect just as it is and definitely does not need any chilli.  The UK food scene seems to have gone chilli mad!

To make my version of the soup I used Sainsbury's garam masala because it contains lots of the spices I like but there is no chilli listed in the ingredients.  I also added a touch of fenugreek just for the sake of it.

It was very tasty.

Ingredients 

2 fat parsnips

2 dessert apples

1 onion

1 medium potato 

a chunk of celeriac

2 tsp garam masala

half a tsp ground fenugreek

2 tsp Marigold veg stock powder (or use a stock pot or home made stock)

Prepare enough veg to fill the machine to the lower line.  Add enough water (or stock) to fill to the top line and cook on the smooth setting.

Makes 4 generous portions.

THE CHILLI NIGHTMARE CONTINUES

 

Since the beginning of lockdown we have been having apéros with friends at 6pm on a Saturday evening via Messenger.  It works really well.  Not anywhere near as well as sitting in the village square, watching passers by as they call at the butcher, boulangerie and maison de la presse for their shopping on their way home, stopping maybe at one of the bars for a quick pression or glass of rosé.  But better than nothing. 

 

These sessions can go on a bit.  After all, after a whole week of being confined to the house for seven more days and not being able to go anywhere or do anything much, we have a lot to talk about.  In any case, when we wind up our chat all we want for dinner is something quick and easy to make that's on the plate in minutes.  Pasta with sauce is ideal for that.

 

 

 

With my chilli problem, I carefully study the labels on all foods nowadays so checked this jar of tomato and red pepper sauce for it.  None was listed but guess what?  After two mouthfuls my tongue was tingling and the roof of my mouth was burning.  Chilli, and lots of it.  I stopped eating straight away but Nick continued and said that in fact the overriding flavour of the sauce was not tomato or red pepper, but chilli. 

 

No chilli was mentioned in the ingredients but it did say "spices".

 

We sent an email to Napolina to enquire if we were right and chilli was present and they in turn requested photos of the jar.  So we rescued it from the recycling bin and obliged.  (We are not normally in the habit of bin diving or photographing empty jars, but they did ask.)

 

On receiving the photos this was their reply, worded carefully so as to make it clear they are not at fault and no claim can be brought:

 

"Please can we explain that the ingredients declaration on the label is correct. The chilli powder comes under the spices ingredients as chilli powder is not an recognised allergen, there is no legal requirement to list this separately. 

We hope this information helps and is of assistance to you."

 

So there you have it.  A company that is keen to comply with legal requirements but not concerned enough to label their products clearly so that customers can fully understand what they are buying.  They are not alone in that, I would imagine.  I welcome myself to the world of allergy sufferers.

 

Surely, chilli powder is just powdered dried chilli - in other words, chilli.  Not in legal terms, apparently. 

CHILLI WITH EVERYTHING

For a few years now I have become increasingly unable to eat chillies.  About ten years ago I developed an acid reflux and heartburn problem which was treated with medication called PPI's (proton pump inhibitors) which prevent the stomach producing the acid which leaks into the gullet and causes the pain, (usually in the middle of the night).  The treatment works really well and with a little thought I have been able to keep the condition under control.

Gradually I have been able to identify the foods that make the symptoms worse.  Above all I have a problem with chilli.  Which is rather awkward because nowadays you get chilli in everything.  Or so it seems.

For a few years now chilli has become the must have ingredient, either chopped fresh chilli, chilli paste or chilli flakes.  It's everywhere and for me that is a real pain, literally.  I now seem to have reached the point where I am allergic to chilli. 
It's not that I'm a wuss when it comes to a good curry.  I've had my fair share of decent and spicy curries in the past but sadly that ship has long since sailed.  If I accidentally consume a small amount of chilli in any shape or form my mouth furs up, tongue tingles and a couple of hours later there is intense chest pain.  The kind of debilitating pain that earlier this year caused me to go to A&E thinking surely I must be having a heart attack.  Several hours later I emerged from the hospital having had chest x-rays, multiple blood tests for absolutely everything, several ECG's and a reassurance that I was not going to die, it was just the old war wound playing up.

Chilli has become the ingredient that gets thrown into everything willy nilly.  It's in soups when you wouldn't expect it, pasta dishes, sausages, you name it, there's chilli in it.  Why?

Is it because it's fashionable and all the TV chefs use it with gay abandon?  Or is it because it's a good way to perk up otherwise bland and unpalatable processed food?  Ready meals are a real minefield.  I recently shared a pack of that ultra quick to boil pasta with Nick only to realise after two mouthfuls that the tortellini filling had chilli in it.  Yes, it was listed in the very small print on the back of the pack - but why was it there?  I swear we have had the very same pasta many times before for a quick snack lunch and they have changed the recipe.
It was also in the cauliflower and tomato gratin that came as a starter with a take away meal from the local pub.  You would not expect to find chilli in cauliflower cheese - would you?  Well, I wouldn't anyway.

Interestingly, it's less of a problem in France.  The French don't go for spicy food to the same extent as we Brits so there's less of it about.  Even when a French dish is advertised as "piquant" most of us would be hard pressed to find it spicy at all.  It's also obviously no problem with home cooking.  Nowadays we simply leave the chilli out of the recipe and rarely do we miss it.  We even make a very tasty non chilli version of chilli con carne.

Sadly I have now become not only a wuss where spicy food is concerned, but one of those people who has to study the ingredients on every pack of processed food in detail before I buy.  It no longer appears on the front of the pack as a significant flavour, they just put it in the food.  I also have to inform anyone who invites us round for a meal that I am allergic to chilli.  Restaurant meals are a nightmare.  When the server asks if we have any allergies the face goes completely blank when I say chilli and they usually have no idea if what I have ordered has any chilli in it.
It's a real pain and I shall be glad when the fashion for chilli with everything is replaced by something else.  Fresh herbs would be good.