venta

Yesterday I took myself for a little wander round Kew Gardens. In between the exciting plants and inconvenient rainshowers, I paused in the café and bought myself a cake and some pop. The cake I bought was a strange-looking thing, rather like a small, dense pain au chocolat. It was, I discovered, actually a giant fig roll.

I presume the giant fig roll is a rare species which Kew is busy conserving. Anyway, I approve. But it has suddenly been revealed to me that I could make fig rolls. I could make giant ones! And eat them all myself!

Anyway... ( any advice on the recipe? )

Another recipe request: anyone got any good ideas for interesting vegetarian soup which will also appeal to committed carnivores? Must be something which can be easily prepared in advance and reheated with minimum fuss, possibly more than once.

Your answer must not include lentils :) (I don't have anything against lentils, just two of us are supposed to be making soup so there is a choice, and the other soup-maker is planning lentil and vegetable).

For bonus points, any tips on making good vegetable stock appreciated. I usually make vegetable soup with meat stock of some kind, and when cooking soup for vegetarians I always find the results are just less tasty than I'd hope. Last time I made leek and potato soup it was really quite woefully bland with vegetable stock. I assume this is a resolvable problem which is just me doing it wrong.

Some of the committed carnivores are also the sort of people who are liable to look askance at anything which might be regarded as "a bit funny". So the ideal recipe will avoid outré ingredients like, say, anything which has not been commonly used in Britain since the 1950s. Identifiable ingredients, that is :) What they don't know won't hurt'em.