Welcome to Fancy Butter
I know you don't need another newsletter. But I'd love you to sample this one. Includes soup!
Welcome to Fancy Butter by me, Lucy Corry. I’m a writer, editor, mother and cook, living in Wellington, New Zealand.
I like bread, books, chocolate, cheese and wine (not necessarily in that order).
In Fancy Butter, I’ll be talking about these things (and related topics) every week, with recipes, reckons, recommendations and occasional photos of my dog, Cosmo. Here he is on the banks of the Buller River, in Westport, desperately hoping that I’ll let him off the lead so he can chase some shags (I didn’t).
Fancy Butter is a project I’ve had sitting at the back of my mind for while. I’ve been writing about food for 25 years, first for City Voice, then as part of my day job for various magazines, newspapers and news sites in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. I’ve also written recipes for Bite, frankie, Nadia Journal, NZ Life & Leisure and Shepherdess, as well as co-writing and editing a couple of award-winning books about food.
In 2021, I wrote Homecooked: Seasonal recipes for every day (in hindsight, this was spectacularly poorly timed considering most people were sick of the sight of their own cooking thanks to Covid lockdowns).
I’ve been mostly off the recipe writing tools for the last two years, thanks to a busy new job. Recently I retired my long-standing blog and thought it might be time to try something new. So, here we are. Enough about me, let’s eat something.
French lentil soup with radishes and greens
This might not seem like the spring-y-est recipe, but it’s there’s a biting southerly nipping at Wellington today. At the Harbourside Market this morning the knife-sharpening man told me his hands were so numb he could hardly feel the burr on the knives. This recipe is a riff on something I made for Bite back in 2019. It’s got vague minestrone vibes, but made more spring-like with radishes and lots of greens. Dicing all the vegetables to be lentil-sized might seem like a pain, but it makes everything pleasingly uniform (and it’s a joy to do if you’ve just had your knives sharpened).
I’ve used chickweed today in place of the parsley - any soft herbs (coriander, chervil, maybe celery leaves) can be used. You can use two medium potatoes in place of the radishes if that’s more your jam. Either way, it’s a gentle but sustaining bowl for any time of the year. Crucially, any leftovers are even better the next day.
NOTE: If you’re not a home stock maker, I highly recommend Rapunzel Vegetable Bouillon Stock Cubes - they’re organic, vegetarian and don’t contain any flavour enhancers.
Makes about 8 cups, serves 4-6
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
1 cup French green lentils
2 Tbsp oil (olive, for preference, but whatever you use most)
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
½ tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
4 large sticks celery, trimmed and diced
Freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped (including stems)
150g spinach, washed, stems finely sliced and leaves cut to ribbons
300g radishes (a bunch), washed, trimmed and diced
½ cup white wine
4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
Put the lentils in a pot and cover generously with boiling water. Simmer until tender - about 20 minutes. Drain and set aside.
While the lentils are cooking, set a large pot over medium heat. Add the olive oil, onion, salt, garlic and celery. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft but not coloured. Grind over some black pepper. Add the wine and let it bubble up, then add the parsley and spinach stems. Pour in the stock. Cover and simmer gently for five minutes (or 10, if using potato). Stir in the lentils, followed by the remaining spinach. Simmer for five minutes, then stir through the remaining herbs. Ladle into bowls and serve immediately. Eat with lots of bread and (fancy) butter.
What I’m watching
I don’t usually have much appetite for food TV but I’ve been drawn into the final episodes of Culinary Class Wars, a big-budget Korean cooking show currently on Netflix. Don’t be fooled by the name, it’s not haves vs have lots, but rather 100 Korean chefs duking it out for top honours. Even if you can’t face watching the early episodes, it’s worth tuning in for the penultimate round, ‘Endless Cooking Hell’, in which the last eight contestants must work their magic on a vast mountain of tofu (spare a thought for the judges, avuncular Paik Jong-won and charming Anh Sung-jae, who must sample all the dishes).
What' I’m reading
Christall Lowe’s new book is a big, beautiful buffet-style love letter to her whānau and te ao Māori. It’s a close sibling to Kai, for which she won an Ockham Book Award in 2022, mixing her glorious photography with deeply nostalgic recipes and family stories. I’ve reviewed it in full for Kete Books but the TL:DR is basically ‘wow’. Kai Feast is that rare thing, a ‘coffee table’ book that’s actually more than just pretty to look at.
Thanks for reading. See you soon!