Souper, Smashing, Great...

I adore this soup, based of stock with lots of of good things added.  It can so easily be varied by changing very little. I sometimes make a more 'Spanish' version by swapping the bacon for chorizo, the beans for chickpeas and the pesto for smoked paprika.  However, my most usual soup of the type is this; filling and rustic in an Italian style...

I keep a couple of bags of the shredded leek-and-carrot mix in the freezer; I find it to be so much less hassle to do a big session of chopping once in a while than to have to start knife work every single time!  A couple of handfuls of the mixture is enough for one batch of soup and defrosts ever so quickly - I suspect that you could probably could use it straight from frozen, but I've never tried. **UPDATE: I now have, and you can! **

Bean & Bacon Soup with Small Pasta

I generally use macaroni, as I keep that in the storecupboard as a matter of course; you can always substitute another small 'soup' pasta (like conchigliette), or just use some broken-up bits of spaghetti.  This amount feeds all four of us comfortably, with enough left over for two small portions for lunches in the week.  It freezes well, too.

200g bacon, chopped up roughly
1 leek, halved and sliced
2 carrots, diced
1.5 litres chicken stock
2 tbsp pesto 
150g small pasta (and see above)
2x 300g cans borlotti beans, drained


Grated parmesan, to serve

Heat a very little oil in a large pan.  Fry the bacon until cooked and tinged with brown.  Scoop the bacon out of the pan and set aside.  Put the leek and carrot into the pan and fry until soft.  Add a little of the chicken stock and scrape up all the nice toasty bits that have 'caught' on the bottom of the pan, then put the bacon back in the pan, pour in the rest of the stock and bring to the boil.  Add the pesto and stir well, then tip in the pasta and cook for five minutes.  Add the beans and continue to cook until the pasta is al dente.  Ladle into warm bowls and serve, topped with plenty of freshly grated parmesan.

Cath xx

Planning Ahead...

My regular task on a Sunday is to plan our family meals for the week ahead, before I go food shopping on Monday morning.  I know that some people find this too much to be bothered with, preferring instead to make a decision every day.  Each to their own, but I would find that crippling; I am certain that we would end up eating the same meals over and over again, that supper time would becoming stultifyingly dull and that I would be gripped, nightly, by paralysing  indecision, plus you always have an answer to the whiny "what's for dinner..?" questions.  As a keen cook, I want to try out new things and, by planning ahead, I can build our week of menus to include both the comfortingly familiar and the appetisingly new... It is liberating to come home and be able to start dinner without having to make any decisions and to know that I have everything needed for a meal [a] in the house, not requiring an emergency shopping trip and [b] not still in a solid, icy lump in the freezer (because I knew last night I would want it and I took it out to defrost then).

Making a shopping list inevitably saves you money if you stick to it; it's when you meander around the shops picking up 'what looks nice' with nary an idea of how you intend to use it that you fritter your pennies away.  The excuse that "I wait to see what's on special offer" is no excuse really, lists of all the supermarket deals can be found online, via their websites.  Try somucheasier for a conveniently grouped list of all the stores' sites.  Plan your meals according to what WILL be on offer.

If this sounds preachy, I'm honestly sorry, it's not meant to, but I save so much by shopping this way that my list for the week can always include a few treats; some nice wine for the weekend, a trip to the cheese shop for a beautiful piece of cheese to go with soup and bread, or some delicious olives and chorizo from the Spanish deli; I want others to enjoy these little pleasures too.  Plan midday meals too, if there'll be people in for lunch, or just build in a few simple options to your list.  Likewise with breakfasts...

When you have children of school age, the other advantage of meal planning is that you can check what the next week's school meals will be and cater accordingly, even my children would baulk at the idea of spaghetti Bolognese for supper if they had already eaten it for lunch at school.  Our local council, in Ceredigion, provides parents with a copy of the 4-weekly rolling menu and I'm sure that can't be exclusive to that one authority.  So useful to keep track of what they're eating and plan your family meals at home accordingly.  If your school doesn't provide you with this, ask them; even if they only put the menu on their website it would help, but I would think that most schools would be only too pleased to accommodate a genuine interest in improving the family life and well-being of its pupils.  Happy planning!

Cath xx

On the Pull...

This is a fab Saturday night family supper.  Not much work, then all day in the slow-cooker, a little bit (but again, not much) of work again and you're ready to eat.  I found this recipe on one of my blog-watching sessions, following links and seeing what I can find.  This is taken from the website of an American public media radio show, The Splendid Table and I've bookmarked a couple of other ideas that interest me from this site too.  I've made a few tiny changes (mainly to do with quantities), but the original recipe is here if you'd rather follow that.  Bottled 'liquid smoke' is available in the UK from American Soda, who are based in Ashton-under-Lyne, though I suspect that this would be just as tasty, though in a different way, without the 'specialist equipment'.  I also adore the fact that, in the US, pork shoulder is (inexplicably, to my mind) referred to as 'pork BUTT'.  Oh my, how the evolution of language fascinates...

American BBQ-Style Pulled Pork

I think the dsp (dessertspoon) measure may be a little archaic these days, but I rather like it; it refers to 2 tsp.

2kg boneless pork shoulder
3 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp flaky sea salt 
1 tbsp black pepper
1 dsp garlic powder
1 dsp English mustard powder
4 tbsp bottled 'liquid smoke'

Stir the spices and salt together. Cut the pork into chunks, removing the rind   Put half the pieces into the slow cooker, then add half the spice mix and half the liquid smoke, then add the rest of the pork and the remaining flavourings.  Cook on medium all day (I would say use high if you don't have a medium setting). Put the cooked meat in a bowl and strain the cooking juices into a jug.  Shred (this is the 'pulling' part...) with two forks as for French rillettes or Peking duck.   Put the shredded meat back into the slow cooker pot and add as much of the reserved juice as you need for a pleasantly soft and juicy texture

Serve with rolls, salad and barbecue sauces and condiments of your choice.  Our pre-prandial snack tonight was celery sticks with a cheesy dip.

Cath xx

One Pot Wonder

I love a meal that cooks in one pot... Not only is it easy to serve but, happily, easy to wash up after.  This is something that was quick to throw together with ingredients that, bar the chicken, I always have in the cupboard.  As for the chicken, thighs are always a sensible option, easily portion-controlled and much, much tastier than all the skinless breast fillets you can throw at me!  I usually have these in the freezer so it was an ideal meal to make when we are snowed in.  The Jamaican spice blend can be any of your choosing, bringing a hint of sunshine and warmth to what is - essentially - a very simple meal.

One-Pot 'Jamaican' Chicken with Rice and Peas

3 tbsp dripping or oil
1 large onions, peeled and chopped
1-2 tbsp Jamaican or jerk seasoning
8 chicken thighs (skin on)
350g long-grain rice
1 litre chicken stock
400g can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed well

Heat the fat in a large pan and lightly brown the chicken pieces on all sides.  Remove from the pan and set aside.  Fry the onion gently until soft.  Add the spice mix, then tip in the rice and cook for 1 min, stirring all the time. Stir in the kidney beans and then add the chicken stock.  Lay the browned chicken pieces, skin-side up, on top.  Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down, cover the pan and simmer for 40 minutes or so until the chicken is cooked through and the rice is tender.

Cath xx

Snow Day!

This is our day today.  A white, powdery, perfect snowscape.  So no work for me and no school for the children.  We will be carefully adhering to the 'official' snow day rules of tea, toast and television.  After what feels like weeks and weeks of chickenpox, interspersed with various other ailment, I need some down-time to prepare me.  After all, it's time to take Christmas by the antlers..!

In fact, a couple of Christmassy movies might be just what we need to get us, fully, into the required festive mood.  Earlier this morning I made my usual cranberry sauce, to the same recipe I have made for as long as I can remember.  In fact, the link takes you to a post from 2007 with a three-year-old Christopher helping to stir the berries in the pan, bless his heart!  The marzipan will go on the Christmas cake later today, finally preparing it for decorating at the beginning of next week.  Then it's just a question of waiting for the snow to melt for the final sortie to the shops (to pick up the turkey the Christmas Eve ham, the vegetables and maybe, just maybe, a few little extra treats.  Well, it is Christmas!

Tortilla for the Illa

My children aren't ill very often, we've never (touch wood) had many of the usual childhood bugs, coughs and colds to deal with.  So it comes as a horrid shock when one of my babies is laid low by being really, properly poorly.  Earlier this week, my youngest boy broke out with spots all over his little body; attack of the dreaded chicken pox! We've been holed up at home for most of the week so far, and it shows no sign yet of abating.  Luckily, a homebird like me doesn't feel the cabin fever thing so much, but I am struggling to find seemingly endless ways to entertain a crochety child, who is missing his schoolfriends, feeling a bit pathetic and who is really too young to completely understand why.  We've read lots of stories, talked to Granny on the telephone, done colouring and sticker art.  We have also, snuggled under a duvet on the sofa, watched rather more television than I would normally allow, but I am choosing not to feel bad about that.

We have also made one of our current favourite treats;
chocolate covered pretzels! I say 'made', of course what we actually did was coat a bag of Julian Graves' salted pretzels in melted milk chocolate.  These are always a real nostalgia trip for me; does anyone else remember those bags of Nestlé chocolate-coated 'Pretzel Flipz' that were around about 10 years ago? They were gorgeous.  Then they disappeared, how rude.  I did think of doing a little more baking with him today, but he has spent most of the day in and out of the bath as it seems to soothe the itching, poor boy...

Supper tonight just had to be chicken soup for the invalid, more specifically my Chicken Tortilla Soup, which is comforting and easy-to-eat, with grated cheese and soured cream on the side.  We had a roast chicken for supper last night, so I made my usual 'overnight stock' in the slow-cooker to have it ready for tonight's supper  Quick shopping trips hardly being a priority at the moment, we had no convenient carton ofc soured cream in the 'fridge, but did you know you can make a perfectly good substitute by mixing 3 tsp of lemon juice into 150ml double cream? No? Well you can, and I am more likely to have a bit of double cream knocking around than I am to have bought soured cream 'on the off chance'.  Actually, last week I'd overbought double cream because it was on offer when I did the shopping, knowing that we had visitors at the weekend.  So it all worked out in the end... now we've just good to wait for the pox to vacate the residence!

Cath xx

Pork Rescue

After a fabulous weekend with friends, the centrepiece of which was surely the 4kg shoulder of pork we roasted on Saturday afternoon, I found myself with a huge hunk of meat still left in the 'fridge.  As pork seems to roast so much better when cooked in a large piece (and anyway, you get more crackling this way), it seems silly not to cook a large piece when you get the chance, especially if the only 'problem' is having meat left over; leftover pork is so lovely, whether you cook it or not , and so versatile when you do. This recipe also, happily, uses up the rogue green peppers so often lurking in my 'fridge; refugees from bargain mixed bags of peppers.  The frozen 'mini rösti' I sometimes use to top this sort of meal are easy enough to get hold of in most supermarket freezer sections;  the usual mashed potatoes for the top are great, but ultimately, on a cold Monday evening, these are the easy option, however lazy it may seem... and, justifiably so, as it's very tasty either way!


Pork Pot (as named by James)

1 tbsp dripping, oil or butter
1 onion, peeled, halved and sliced
1 stick celery, chopped
1 green pepper, de-seeded and chopped
200ml pork gravy (or water)
500ml passata
400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 or 4 handfuls of shredded cooked pork
frozen mini rösti (12 or so)

Heat the fat in a large casserole and fry the onion, celery and pepper until softened.  Add the gravy (or just some water if you don't have gravy left over, or to hand) and the passata, then stir in the chickpeas and the shredded pork.  Stir well to mix, then turn it all out into an ovenproof dish.  Top with the frozen rösti (and see picture) and cook at 200°c for 25 minutes.  Serve with something a little crunchy, whether salad or vegetables.

Cath xx