: Eating in - Bowled over.

Byline: Paul Heathcote 

THANKS for all the emails on the list of herbs from last week's article, I was a little surprised at the interest and how unsure many are on combining certain ingredients with herbs.

With that in mind, I thought, I would do another list albeit slightly different with regard to oils and the flavourings you can impart into them. Besides olive, vegetable and sunflower oil there is now a great range of others such as peanut, walnut, hazelnut, sesame and truffle oil. In addition to these are some ridiculously expensive but decorative bottles with all kinds of bits floating around in them, ranging from chilli and garlic to rosemary but these are easy to make yourself. Here is a list of a few and after a while you will get the idea.

Basil oil Take 500ml olive oil, a good handful of basil, liquidise and pass through a sieve. This is wonderful with salads and as an alternative to sauce, particularly with fishor just rubbed all over a good piece of cooked chicken or pork.

Rosemary oil Take 500ml olive oil, wash well two or three sprigs of rosemary, add to the bottle and leave for a week before using. Works particularly well with cooked red meat such as lamb and beef. It is great as a finishing touch to a barbecue, excluding beef burgers of course! Thyme, Garlic and Chilli oils, apply as above.

Mint Oil Alternatively, a good use for that fast growing mint that you have in the garden is to pick the leaves, drop into boiling water for no more than 15-20 seconds, liquidise in 500ml olive oil and pass through a sieve. It's great, believe it or not, with desserts like chocolate ice cream and wonderful with salads or drizzled on top of today's recipe.

CREAM OF PEA AND MINT SOUP serves eight

450g fresh or frozen peas 600ml chicken stock or 1 chicken cube brought to the boil with 600mls water 1 level tblsp cornflour 1 tblsp water 150ml cream Half onion, chopped finely Mint oil to finish Sea salt, pepper

Cook the peas and onion together in boiling water, drain in a sieve and run under cold water to cool quickly, drain again and reserve to one side.

Bring the stock to the boil, dissolve the cornflour with a little of the water and add, whisk in well, remove from heat and allow to cool.

When warm - but not hot - add the peas and liquidise well. Pass the soup through a sieve, season with salt and pepper and when ready to serve heat up and serve immediately.

Drizzle with mint oil.

If you don't want to make the oil, try chopping fresh mint, add to crme fraiche and float on top of the soup.