Red lentil, butternut squash & chilli soup

Red lentil, butternut squash & chilli soup. Get your fix of beta carotene here, orange coloured food for the win. LOL You certainly know you've eaten something by the end of a bowl of this - and all for around 300 calories, which can't be bad. Of course, the crusty bread and butter blows the calories out of the water, but it's good to start low!

When I dreamt this soup up, I was after a main course soup that didn't involve much meat but that tasted like it did. Because of my predilection towards developing gouty painful feet from time to time, it is useful to have a few mainly vegetable recipes to lean on during these periods. Now I know there are those who would tut heavily and announce that lentils are incredible bad for gout - and I know that. However, not with me. They most definitely are not one of my gout triggers, whereas meat very often is - and pork (not bacon, interestingly!) can often be a prime trigger.

Well, I certainly scored with this soup as it is hearty, wholesome and would fill you up on a chilly winter's night. The chilli gives it a nice friskiness that helps to keep your tongue interested, while the butternut squash and lentils give it that heartiness that satisfies. Oh and of course, discovering a piece of bacon every so often will reassure those carnivores amongst us that there is, in fact, some meat in their dinner and they haven't had a vegetarian dish sneaked onto their plate.

Now, where Cook's Tips are concerned, the top one for today is that it is really important to use low sodium stock cubes for this soup. Ordinary, salty, stock cubes will spoil the soup with salt overkill so it is way better to use a low salt stock powder or cube and have to add a little extra salt at the end, rather than the alternative.

As you will see from the recipe, I recommend using a potato masher a few times to break up the vegetables a little and so thicken the soup. Now, you can use a stick blender and whizz the lot, but you will lose a lot of the lovely interest from the texture and of course, you will lose the bacon pieces. However, if that's not important to you and you prefer a more pureed texture to your soup, then whizz away.

For all you vegetarians out there the soup is easily converted to being veggie. Simply leave the bacon out, use all vegetable stock and add half a tsp smoked paprika for the smoky flavour the bacon would have brought and you're home and dry.

Okay, well, I think that's it - so onwards to the recipe!

RED LENTIL, BUTTERNUT SQUASH & CHILLI SOUP (serves 3 as a main meal)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil
6 rashers streaky bacon, cut into lardons
1 red onion, diced finely
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
1 large red chilli pepper, de-seeded and diced finely
2 carrots, peeled and diced finely
1 celery stick, diced finely
half a butternut squash (I used the stalk end), peeled and diced
3 large juicy tomatoes, cored, diced and as much juice as possible included
8 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp low salt chicken stock powder or 1 low salt stock cube
1 tsp low salt vegetable stock powder or 1 low salt stock cube
500ml hot water
150g dried red lentils
sea salt
ground black pepper.

Method :

Use a large sized saucepan and heat the olive oil over a moderate heat. Add the streaky bacon lardons and cook until the fat has rendered and the bacon is golden.

Add the onion, garlic, chilli pepper, carrots and celery and continue to cook, sweating the vegetables down and stirring regularly until they have just begun to soften - around 10-15 minutes.

Add the butternut squash pieces and give them enough time - stirring regularly - to warm up.

Next, add the diced tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and tomato puree and stir to combine. Cook on until the tomatoes have begun to break down.

Add the dried basil, the two stock powders (or stock cubes), hot water and red lentils. Stir through until well combined, then cover the saucepan and bring to a lively simmer.

Remember to stir the contents regularly, as red lentils can sink to the bottom and singe if left unstirred.

Once the lentils are almost cooked and the butternut squash is tender, taste to test for seasoning and add sea salt and ground black pepper as necessary.

Continue to simmer the soup until the lentils, carrots and butternut squash are tender, then taking a potato masher, press it through the soup some three or four times to just break up some of the vegetables which will have the effect of thickening the soup. You can, if you prefer, whizz the soup with a stick blender, but I much prefer to have some chunky texture to it - I think it keeps you interested as you eat it.

Ladle into warmed bowls and serve with warm, buttered chunks of bread for dipping.

Printable version

Crunchy Lamb Spring Rolls

Okay, so you remember the lamb shoulder that I slow cooked for the Minty Aromatic Pulled Lamb Pittas?  Well, I only used half of the joint of lamb in the pittas and put the other half into the freezer while I pondered on what to use it for.

Today's Crunchy Lamb Spring Rolls is the first instalment of "making the most of a socking great piece of rolled lamb shoulder - the leftovers".

Now I've never made Spring Rolls before, but I've eaten plenty of them!  As a result, I had a pretty good idea of how they are supposed to taste.  However, I've not had a lamb version of them before, so that was something new.  Plus of course, the lamb had been marinated in about a thousand different spices before being slow cooked, so I very definitely wasn't looking for something that needed a lot of spice, or a lot of cooking.  I wanted to be able to taste the spicing on the lamb and certainly didn't want to dry it out.  All those points ruled out a lot of options that you might classically use when dealing with roasted meat leftovers.

The quarter of leftover lamb, prior to being shredded. Such leanness!

I have to say that the idea of putting it into Spring Rolls wasn't mine, it was my hubby's.  However, I liked the idea immediately and could see how it fitted the short cooking style and capitalised on the spicing of the lamb.

I'd make a rubbish cigar roller!

Before we go any further, I just have to say a few things about the wrapping.  Yes, I used filo pastry and no, I didn't use spring roll wrappers.  Why?  Well because filo pastry is easily accessible from the supermarket and spring roll wrappers aren't.  Simple as that.  I know that, in the past, I've used some bizarre ingredients that aren't generally available but as with the original recipe for the lamb, I wanted everything to be easily accessible so that the majority could have the opportunity of enjoying these recipes.  If, however, you have a shop on your doorstep that sells spring roll wrappers then by all means use them!  I'm all about accessibility, even if not authenticity.

I had 640g of lamb left from the joint (it really was huge!) and a few Spring Rolls weren't going to use all that, so I cut it in half (again) and the remainder is in the fridge awaiting its fate - Lamb and Potato Pasties.  Yum.

As it turned out, the 320g of cold lamb was perfect for 9 of these rather oversized Spring Rolls.  I think in future, instead of cutting the pastry in half, I'll cut it into thirds so as to achieve rather shorter Spring Rolls.  However, the length didn't matter one jot from a cooking point of view - it's simply a visual thing and an ease of eating thing.  Being so long, it did make the dipping of them an interesting operation that was resolved with a paper napkin under the chin - but being shorter would solve that problem rather more elegantly.

The stir fried veggies with shredded lamb and five spice.

I was concerned that the veggies would be cooked sufficiently so as to retain a bite, but not be super crunchy.  After all, there was carrot in there and you know how hard carrot can be.  I didn't want hard pencils of semi raw carrot to detract from the soft gentleness of the lamb.  As such, don't feel tempted to skip the stir frying part of the recipe.  It really doesn't take long (far shorter than prepping the vegetables did!) and is very important in bringing the right kind of texture to your Spring Rolls.

I didn't include the meat in the stir frying, as having been cooked once it didn't need any extra and the heat from the baking would be sufficient to heat it through.

So - cook's tips.  The rolling up of the things didn't go quite according to plan initially, but I did get better as we went on and the last two were perfect.  It is well worth folding the edges in before the last two turns, so as to achieve a neat pocket that prevents the filling from escaping.

Also, don't feel compelled (if you are using filo pastry) to bathe the things in oil once they are rolled.  Just a smattering brushed over the top is sufficient to achieve a nice golden colour and crisp pastry.  Too much oil can result in a greasy Spring Roll and as we're oven baking them, that would be a shame.

Because the lamb I used was quite highly spiced in its original incarnation, I only used a teaspoonful of five spice in the filling mixture.  However, if your lamb, chicken or prawns (all of which would be fab) don't already carry spice, I would increase the five spice by a half a teaspoonful, or perhaps a little more.

If you have one, I can recommend using a mandolin for the carrot julienne.  Makes it so much quicker unless your knife skills are pretty darned hot.

They (spring rolls, not mandolins) really are the easiest of things to produce - and I'll be tempted to use the leftovers from our next roast chicken for the next batch.  I'm sure that would be just as scrummy. I served mine with vegetable & egg fried rice plus a Chinese style dipping sauce, but they would be just as good with a sweet chilli sauce.  Equally, they would be great with salad or as picnic food (when the weather improves!).

CRUNCHY LAMB SPRING ROLLS  (makes 9 large sized, 12 smaller)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp peanut oil
8 good sized spring onions, chopped diagonally and including as much of the green as is possible
Half a Hispi or Pointed sweet cabbage, shredded
1 carrot, peeled and julienned finely
2 big handfuls of beansprouts
1 tsp Chinese five spice
a pinch of freshly ground black pepper
300g cooked, roasted lamb, shredded
200g filo pastry sheets
2 tbsp olive oil.

Method :

1.  Prepare the vegetables prior to needing them and heat the peanut oil in a wok until really hot.

2.  Stir fry the vegetables, keep turning them to prevent from browning in any way, until the carrots are just tender.

3.  Tip the veggies into a heat proof bowl and set aside to cool a little.

4.  Chop and shred the lamb.

5.  Add the five spice, pepper and lamb to the veggies and stir to combine.

6.  Cut the pastry pieces to size.

7.  Brush a little oil onto the edges of the top half of the first sheet.

8.  Place a spoonful (or more if you are making larger rolls) of the filling onto the lower half of the pastry sheet.

9.  Gently start to roll the filling into the pastry, keeping the pastry as tight as possible without splitting it.  Roll up to the oiled section, then fold in the edges to seal the filling into the tube.

10.  Continue to roll until the pastry sheet is taken up.  The oil should help the last bit to stick.

11.  Gently place onto a baking sheet and continue with the next pastry sheet.

12.  Once all are rolled, place into a pre-heated oven at 180degC/340degF/Gas4 for 25-30 minutes or until the rolls are golden and crispy.

Printable version

Tonight's dinner : I cut my finger - does that make me a cook, now?

There is a train of thought in amongst the Shamanic fraternity that it takes a near death experience (preferably with lightning) in order to make a Shaman.  So, I was wondering whether nearly taking the top of your finger off on a mandolin, qualifies you as a Cook with a capital "c"?

I'll go with a "yes", I think.

I was slicing parsnips and squash (beautiful parsnips and squash from thevegibox.com), to make this creamy parsnip & squash bake.  Poor hubby and son & heir came back from walking the dogs, to find me hyperventilating whilst holding my right hand in the air with my little finger swathed in kitchen paper.  Yes, it did leak - copiously.  However, with the addition of a dressing, a plaster and a latex glove, I soldiered on like the brave likkle Cook that I now am.

Now, this 'ere bake very definitely deserves its own recipe post - so watch this space and it shall appear.  It was utterly delicious, incredibly moreish and comfort food to the Nth degree.  Like so many of my favourite recipes, it was so easy to make too!  (Well, not counting the first aid requirement).

I partnered the bake up with some honey & mustard chicken (gorgeous) together with some  steamed young carrots and rainbow chard from thevegibox.com.  This was our first go with chard as a side veggie and combined with the cooking juices from the chicken, it was really good.  It didn't taste how I was expecting it to - it has a definite spinach quality, whereas I was expecting more of a cabbage quality.  Very nice!

The chicken was rolled around in some runny honey that I'd combined with Dijon mustard, a little dried thyme and a pinch of salt and pepper.  It baked up well and provided some lovely juices that stood in well instead of having to make a gravy or jus.

The whole family enjoyed the meal and there were clear plates all round.  Can't ask for more than that!

 

Tonight's dinner : Simon Hopkinson I might love you ...

Why this sudden devotion to Simon Hopkinson (he of "Simon Hopkinson Cooks" on the t.v.)?  Two words : Piedmontese Peppers.  I'd seen him make them on his t.v. programme and saw how much he enjoyed them and was attracted to the idea from way back then.  So when I had tomatoes and peppers in the same space, both looking for a job to do, I remembered the recipe.

This evening's dinner consisted of a gammon joint, pot roasted slowly in apple juice with a bouquet garni and black pepper, along with Piedmontese Peppers (half a capsicum pepper, with slices of garlic, half a tomato, salt & pepper and rapeseed - or olive - oil), almondy green beans, steamed carrots and potatoes, with gravy.

Those Piedmontese Peppers.  Well, I can't remember the last time I ate something that so rattled my cage with delight in the way these did.  The only trouble was - I was the only one!  Hubby wasn't keen on the skins of either the peppers or the tomatoes, although he liked the flavours apart from too much garlic.  He felt the garlic clashed terribly with the gammon.  Son & heir didn't even try his pepper, having had a little taste of the anchovy on top.  I was SO disappointed about that.

So.  The next capsicum pepper I get, is going to be made into Piedmontese Peppers and I'm going to eat them on a socking great chunk of toasted ciabatta for a totally awesome and amazing lunch.  Then I'll blog them - and try not to go on .. and on .. and on .. about how gorgeous they are.

Aside from that, the meat was tender and luscious - just so juicy, from being slow cooked in the apple juice.

It was the first time I'd made the almondy green beans, too.  It's a bit of a shame that I chose the same day to make the peppers, as without them overshadowing the beans, I'd have been waxing lyrical about how gorgeous the beans were!  Cooked normally (in boiling salted water), when you drain them, you melt a big old knob of butter in the hot pan then add the toasted almonds (I toasted them first in the same pan), put the beans back and warm them through over a low heat.  Gosh but they were good!

With the Vegibox's fabulous carrots which are so mild and sweet and their lovely robust potatoes, everything about this evening's meal just hit the spot with me.  It's just as well somebody liked it all!

Today's dinner : Indulgent potatoes and pesto chicken

Owing to the Vegibox deliveries - which are a weekly delivery of locally grown fruit and vegetables - we have had something of a potato glut in the house.  Now this is very okay where myself and son & heir are concerned, but not so good for hubby - who would see all potatoes fired into the face of the sun, if he had his way.

So this has set me the difficult task of trying to find potato dishes that hubby either does like (one in a million) or might like (even rarer).

I remembered that I cooked a dish of scalloped potatoes that he enjoyed - and reported that he really quite approved of - so I decided to go there again.
 

Looks good to me!

Scalloped potatoes (well, my recipe anyway!) involves slicing the potatoes very thinly and laying them in a dish interspersed with finely cut celery and grated garlic and pouring over a concoction of milk, cream cheese and cream.  Bake in the oven for the next hour or so until the potatoes are soft.  So very indulgent!  Definitely not something to have more than once a year!  I paired them with some chicken that had a layer of green pesto through the middle - just for a bit of added flavour - and was then roasted with a little butter on top for around 30 mins at 180degC.  A final flourish of steamed carrot, broccoli, peas and a little gravy rounded off the plate.

Myself and son & heir loved it - poor hubby was less than impressed with both the potatoes and the chicken.  Oh dear.  I'll try to do better next time!

For dessert, son & heir and myself had our current favourite thing - little pre-packed jellies with fruit inside.  Our choice this evening, was orange flavour jelly with mandarins.  They are so refreshing - and just a few spoonfuls big.  They really hit the spot.

Using up your leftovers - Chicken & Ham Pie

We bought a whopping great big piece of Gammon to do as a pot roast last Sunday - and it was scrummy.  I served it with gnocchi in a Carbonara sauce plus some veggies and it was very acceptable indeed as a different sort of Sunday dinner.

However, we were left with rather a lot of Gammon that needed to be found a job to do.  As I didn't think that using it as a door stop would be much good - not with the dogs around, anyway (joke!) I set my mind to what we could do with it.

Immediately, I found myself liking the idea of a pie.  It would need to be a pot pie sort of pie, with a white sauce holding it all together rather than gravy (didn't fancy a gravy pie) and it occurred to me that I had a perfectly sized piece of pastry left over from the Rhubarb & Ginger Pie (oh dear, I really must blog that!) to make a lid for a pot pie.  It also occurred to me that I had one chicken breast in the freezer, also waiting for a job to do.  Perfect!  There was certainly enough gammon there that the addition of a chicken breast would turn it very much into sufficient for a pie, so long as some veggies came along for the ride.


I knew I had a selection of veggies in the fridge that would do the trick, so there I was rummaging through the vegetable drawer, thinking "what can I use?".

The original use for the gammon - with gnocchi in Carbonara sauce

Onion was a definite, that will start off the flavour base - with some garlic to lend depth.  Then carrot for sweetness - some finely diced with will lend flavour to the sauce and some rather bigger to add interest to each bite.  Celery was a definite - again finely diced to add flavour to the sauce and some sliced bigger to add interest to the pie.  Aha!  Mushrooms - perfect, but I'd have to make sure they were well cooked before putting the pie lid on, or they'd release a heap of water into the pie which would make the sauce thin and watery.

Hmmmn ... it needed something else.  Peas?  Well yes, but I had thought to serve peas alongside and too many peas isn't good (even though I love 'em and can eat dozens of the little green lovelies).  What else is small and sweet?  Aha!  Sweetcorn.  Perfect.

Now then, what herbs to use.  I had fresh parsley and dill.  I pondered long and hard over the dill because I know it goes well with chicken - but I just wasn't convinced about how well it would go with the gammon.  I decided upon just the parsley and the dill went back into the fridge.

Now, to make a white sauce or to "cheat" and use a tin of condensed cream of chicken soup?  Well, the way my knees have been, just lately, the simple act of making the pie will be enough to upset my knees severely.  So perhaps the length of time it takes to make a white sauce would be rather more than my knees could handle, so opted for the condensed cream of chicken soup.

I have no qualms in using ingredients like a tin of soup in recipes, as I am quite sure that there are more people out there who - like me - have reasons to not spend the entire afternoon in the kitchen (nice as that may be) than there are devoted cooks who do!  Things like gravy granules - these days - are perfectly nice ingredients that have a place in everyday home cooking, in my opinion.

To reduce the strain on my knees, I made the filling for the pie during the afternoon - which gave it plenty of time to cool (and for my knees to recover) before putting the lid on and baking it.  The 35 minutes it was baking were perfect timing for preparing and steaming some vegetables and making some mash, too.

Oh and I must have a quick word about the mash!  I peeled a roughly 50/50 combination of potatoes and parsnips and simmered them until they were tender.  After draining and leaving to dry for a moment or two, I put them back into the hot pan along with a good (and I'm talking "good to big") knob of butter and a tablespoon of Creme Fraiche D'Isigny - my favourite creme fraiche.  The D'Isigny type has a lovely savouriness about it that comes from a slight hint of cheesiness - which goes so, so well with savoury dishes.  It was just beautiful in this mash, as once the potatoes were seasoned and mashed together, everyone declared it to be really tasty.  So that was a success!

As a cook's note, once baked the juices from the vegetables and meat had reduced the soup base very slightly - so do be careful to not overdo the water in the first place.  It is far, far better to have your filling - pre-baking -  be on the thicker, more gloopy side than to be a perfect degree of sauciness.  Once baked, you'll find it comes out perfectly.

I made some additional chicken gravy, as we are all gravy hounds and I knew that the sauce in the pie would be insufficient for mopping up with mashed potato - but it is entirely up to you.  If you aren't a gravy hound, then don't make additional gravy!

A note for the more health-conscious amongst us, is that Campbells have brought out a range of low fat condensed "cream of" soups.  Now I've had a peek at the ingredients list and they don't appear to contain anything terrible (such as Aspartame), so they might be worth a look for you.

I can't let the opportunity pass to make another little mention of the fabulous Essential Cuisine stocks.  I'm not joking in that obtaining these stocks has made the thorny question of "is there too much salt" in a recipe, incredibly easy to deal with.  I used the fantastic chicken stock in this recipe and the flexibility of being able to add just a little bit of water, but a lot of stock powder which ups the chicken flavour beautifully without making it too salty, is worth so much to me as a cook.  I couldn't do that with a stock cube - even the low salt stock cubes would be way too much.  The Essential Cuisine range of stock powders are so reasonably priced at £3.95 a tub (which lasts longer than its equivalent in stock cubes, as you can be so much more flexible in how much you use) and delivery is amazingly quick - I can't sing their praises enough. 

My hubby - who is notoriously particular about his pie fillings - really liked this pie.  Now I consider that a total win, without anyone else having given their approval!  However, as it was, son & heir also thoroughly enjoyed his dinner and would happily have it again.  I really liked how no two forkfuls were the same - and you ate all the way to the end of your dinner without getting fed up with eating the same old thing.  A pie that holds your interest, is a thing of beauty!  Another good point is that I ate the last piece of pie for lunch the following day and it had lost none of its flavour or its appeal.  Having been warmed up via microwave, that's quite an accolade for a leftover piece of leftovers pie!

CHICKEN & HAM PIE   (Serves 4)

Ingredients :

1-2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
1 onion, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, halved and sliced finely
1 fat donkey carrot, half diced finely, half sliced
2 sticks celery, one diced finely, one sliced small
4-5 chestnut mushrooms, sliced
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced thinly
1-200g sweetcorn niblets (defrosted, if frozen)
295g tin of Campbells condensed cream of chicken soup
100ml water
a low salt chicken stock cube or 1 tsp chicken stock powder
a handful of fresh parsley, chopped finely
300-400g cooked gammon ham, broken into random bite sized pieces
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
300g (approx) short crust pastry
2 tbsp milk.

Method :

1.  In a large frying pan, heat the oil on a moderate heat and add the onion.  Cook, without browning, until transparent.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so.

2.  Add the carrot, celery and mushrooms and continue cooking until the mushrooms have softened and given up a certain amount of their moisture.

3.  Add the chicken pieces and cook - still on a moderate heat - until the chicken has turned a uniform white.

4.  Add the sweetcorn, soup, water and chicken stock and stir to mix well.

5.  Once well combined, add the parsley and the gammon.  Stir gently, so as not to break the gammon up.

6.  Taste for seasoning and adjust.  The very least you should need, will be a good shake of pepper.

7.  Set aside to cool.

8.  Once cool, decant into your pie dish and roll out the pastry to fit over the top of the dish.  You are aiming to keep the pastry fairly thick.

9.  Brush some milk onto the edge of the pie dish and place the pastry over the top.  Press down lightly onto the edges to make a seal and then cut off the extra with a sharp knife.

10.  Cut a small hole in the centre of the pastry to allow the steam to escape without blowing the pastry lid off, then crimp around the edges to finally seal the pastry.

11.  Paint the pastry lid with milk and place into a pre-heated oven at 180degC/350degF/Gas 4 for 35-40 minutes.

Serve with mashed potatoes & parsnips and a selection of in season vegetables.

Printable version

Slow cooked Cumberland beef stew with donkey carrots

When I first set out to make this meal, it was supposed to be a crispy topped Cumberland pie.  However, I ran out of puff part way through it - and discovered how yummy just the beef part of the recipe could be on its own.

As with a lot of my recipes these days, this one has taken bits from several different recipes.  However, the original inspiration came from the BBC Good Food website and their Crispy topped Cumberland pie.

The original version was made with feather blade beef, however I opted to use our favourite shin of beef because a) I was going to be slow-cooking it and b) the flavour of beef shin is amazing.  However, this plan back-fired on me this time around - as you'll discover later.

I liked the idea of the sliced potatoes on top, along with the baked to crispiness cheese coating.  Cheddar always goes so well with beef, they are a real comfort food pairing.  I was a bit nervous about the sliced potatoes, however, as I've not had a lot of luck with them in the past.  They either wind up still hard (not long enough in the oven) or turn black and unappetising looking (wrong type of potato, left too long before baking).  You see, I know what I did wrong in the past - so I was determined not to commit any of these crimes this time around.  Hubby always greets the idea of sliced potato on top of a savoury dish with great scepticism, so I not only had my own failures to beat, I had his expectations to exceed too.

Swimming around happily

When it got closer to the time when I would make the transfer from the slow cooker to the oven, I think I had got myself so wound up over the potatoes failing (again), that I just opted for the easier route and didn't bother.

The marriage of beef and cheese is what makes a "Cumberland" something, Cumberland.  So, rather than miss the whole point of the recipe, I remembered seeing Jamie Oliver adding some grated cheese to a beef casserole - and did the same.  It was very definitely counter-intuitive to be grating cheddar into a beef casserole, but for all that it didn't taste obviously of cheddar cheese, it very definitely made a difference in both flavour and texture.

I must pause here and comment on the carrots.  You see, carrots have such a fundamental part to play in British cooking.  They appear on so many plates over the course of a lifetime's meals, yet rarely do you see anyone doing anything exciting with them (apart from the occasional carrot cake and maybe a carrot & coriander soup).  Now, I'm not saying that adding them to this stew was exciting, but if we could just have a little bit of appreciation here for the 'umble carrot in all its many forms, I think it would be appropriate.  The carrots used in this stew were the big fat donkey carrots.  None of your thin, springtime carrots, or your fancy Chantenay carrots.  Oh no.  What you need are big, fat, coarse carrots that are going to stand being cooked for a long time and have loads of sweetness to impart.

I love the name "donkey carrots" and have been wracking my brains to try and remember where I first heard the term.  It was either care of Raymond Blanc on his "Kitchen Secrets" programme - he is so funny in this programme! - or with Michael Caines during his carrot episode of the Great British Food Revival.  Either way, "donkey carrot" just suits this great big honking lump of carrotiness perfectly - and "donkey carrots" they shall be, for me, in future.  (I can remember when I owned horses and a donkey, buying a 25kg bag of just these type of carrots, for their feed!  More than one of them went home with me and wound up on my plate!).

Now, what was the end result like, I hear you ask?  Well, I loved it, son & heir loved it but hubby - oddly - couldn't take the texture of the beef shin.

See what I mean by connective tissue?  Can't trim it all out!

I'm really not sure what the difference was, as we've had and eaten beef shin on many other occasions and he hasn't experienced the same problem, plus I didn't notice any difference in the meat as I was trimming it up.  Trimming up beef shin is always a labour of love, so I very definitely went over it with a fine toothcomb for yukky fat and globby bits.  Shin of beef contains a lot of connective tissue, which during the course of slow cooking melts into the gravy and gives it a very rich, almost glutinous texture.  It makes me wonder if the addition of the cheese to the gravy didn't just push the texture over the edge of palatable for hubby, as he really is so terribly sensitive to soft textures in food.

For me, the cheese made the gravy incredibly savoury, rich and unctuous along with giving it a certain indefinable and very pleasant something.  I really liked the carrot and the combination of onions and celery had just melted away into the gravy.  I used my favourite Knorr Rich Beef Stock Pot to provide a good amount of additional "oomph!" to the gravy base - they really are indispensable to me, now.

That oddly coloured carrot on the right, is a purple carrot!

So all in all, I'd very definitely do this recipe again - but I think I'd choose something like Brisket of beef, or perhaps Silverside (depending on the price!), both of which have far less connective tissue and thus would make it palatable for hubby.  After all, there's no point spending all that time trimming, cooking and serving if he can't eat it!

SLOW COOKED CUMBERLAND STEW WITH DONKEY CARROTS   (feeds 4)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp rapeseed oil
6-700g beef brisket (or braising cut of your choice)
2 big donkey carrots, peeled and chopped into chunky pieces
2 onions, chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
3 bay leaves
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Knorr Really Beefy Stock Pot (or a beef stock cube)
1 tsp Bovril
half a tsp of freshly ground black pepper
500ml hot water
1 tbsp softened butter
2 tbsp plain flour
a large handful of grated mature cheddar cheese.

Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a frying pan until really quite hot.  Add the beef - you may need to do this bit in stages, so as not to overcrowd the pan - and sear until you have a good dark golden brown colour on at least two sides.  Decant into the slow cooker with a slotted spoon and turn it to low, making sure to replace the lid.

2.  Add the carrots to the slow cooker and replace the lid.

3.  Add the onion to the frying pan (you may need a touch more oil) and cook gently for 5-6 minutes until softened, transparent and just beginning to take on colour.

4.  Add the celery and continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes.

5.  Add the bay leaves, tomato puree, tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, stock pot (or stock cube, if using), Bovril, pepper and water and stir gently to combine as it heats through.

6.  In a small dish, mix the butter and flour together.  Remove the frying pan from the heat and add a teaspoonful of the flour mixture to the gravy.  Stir well to ensure it mixes in without forming lumps.  Continue until you have the consistency you prefer - less flour mix for thinner, more flour mix for thicker.

7.  Return the pan to the heat and stir until properly thickened.

8.  Decant into the slow cooker.  Replace the lid and leave to cook for the next 8-10 hours.

9.  Just prior to serving, remove the lid and using the slotted spoon, move the meat to one side of the slow cooker.

10.  Add the grated cheddar to the non-meat side and stir it gently into the gravy.  Once melted, stir the meat back in to the cheesy gravy.

Serve.

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Slow Cooker Braised Pulled Pork

Oh my goodness, but this Pulled Pork interest is turning up some cracking recipes!

This one came about because we just couldn't resist a piece of pork shoulder that had been marked down in Asda.  Needless to say, we put it straight into the freezer and then worked out what to do with it.

There was some interest in keeping it for Christmas, but when we thought about Christmas, there didn't seem to be a space for it in our plans.  Then, when son & heir's birthday hove into view and we needed to devote many pennies to that cause, we began to wonder what we had in the freezer that could be press-ganged into use.  The obvious thing to do with the pork was to just roast it and have it for Sunday lunch.

However, because the BBQ pulled pork that I'd made was so good, I was interested in carrying it a little bit sideways and maybe not involving so many flavours, but letting the pork speak for itself.

It was a big old piece - around 2kg - and so it would be perfect for this, as we could dress the leftovers any way we wanted with additional flavours and so transform the piece of pork into several dishes.

So it was decided.  I'd put the pork into the slow cooker with the normal collection of stock vegetables and we'd have a pulled pork roast dinner, then decide what to do with the rest another day.

Oh yes.  That worked - it worked beautifully.

I put the pork into the slow cooker at around 9.30 a.m. - accompanied by the usual suspects of carrots, celery, garlic, onion, parsley etc.  I kept the cooker on high all day, as it really was a very chunky piece of pork and I did want to pull it apart.

When it came time to remove the pork, my goodness but it was just falling apart.  Because I'd left the thick fat along the top, this had been slowly rendering down all day and trickling through the meat, keeping it succulent and juicy.

Now normally, I'd run the stock through a sieve and throw away the stock veggies - which always hurt, as they look so soft and unctuous after cooking with the meat.  It really is a wonder I hadn't thought of doing this myself - but I recently saw a lady on t.v. use a hand held blender to whizz the stock veggies into the stock for an incredibly tasty gravy.  This fits so well with my "don't waste a thing!" ethos that I had resolved to do the same the first chance I got.

So I picked out the woody stems of the herbs, plus the garlic.  I'm not that keen on heavily garlicked gravies and sauces - but feel free to leave them there if you try this and are very keen on garlic!  The stock veggies didn't argue and disappeared into a lovely russet coloured, enriched stock - which tasted absolutely divine.

I added a little Essential Cuisine Veal stock powder (just a small teaspoonful) to help bring out the meatiness, plus a little salt and pepper and it was ready for thickening into a gorgeous gravy.

I've frozen another two helpings of the stock, one to go with the other half of the pork - which I've also frozen - and another which may very well become soup!  Liquid gold!

The pork, with some gravy and a dot of apple sauce, was utterly gorgeous.  No other word for it.  Soft, tender, unctuous, well flavoured, sweet, savoury, tiny sour notes from the apples - just divine.

For me, this pork beat the BBQ version into a cocked hat.  Given the choice, I'd have this one any day - and BBQ it up, if I wanted it to go that way!

So the next time you have a piece of pork shoulder that you don't know what to do with, either break out the slow cooker, or put it in the bottom of the oven on low for some 8 hours or so.  You won't regret it!

SLOW COOKER BRAISED PULLED PORK  (serves 6-7)

Ingredients :

2kg piece of pork shoulder, fat and skin on
1 large carrot, sliced thickly
2 large celery sticks, chopped into large pieces
2 garlic cloves, still in their jackets but bashed with the back of a knife
1 onion, peeled and cut into 4 quarters
1 bunch parsley (around 10g)
1 bunch tarragon (around 10g)
1 Knorr chicken stock pot
1 Knorr herb infusion stock pot
sea salt & black pepper
1 tsp veal stock powder (optional)
cornflour.

Method :

1.  Fairly early in the morning, place the carrot pieces into the bottom of the slow cooker to form a trivet.

2.  Place the pork - skin side up - on the carrots.

3.  Throw the remaining ingredients except the stock pots, into the slow cooker with gay abandon.

4.  Make up the two stock pots (together in the same jug) with 800g hot water and decant into the slow cooker.

5.  Sprinkle the top of the pork with a tiny pinch of sea salt and a whole heap of black pepper.

6.  Put the lid on, turn it on to High and forget about it for the next 7 hours.

7.  Remove the lid and place the pork onto a warmed plate.  Cover with tin foil and leave to rest while you deal with the stock.

8.  Remove the garlic (unless you're particularly keen on garlicky gravy!) and the woody stems of the herbs and discard.

9.  Blitz with a hand-held blender until all the vegetables have disappeared.

10.  Decant as much of the stock as you anticipate you'll need for gravy into a saucepan.  the remainder can be cooled and frozen for use another day.

11.  To thicken the gravy, use approximately 1 tablespoonful of cornflour per third of the quantity of the stock.  So, if you're using all the stock, you'll need around 3 tablespoonfuls.  I used a third of the stock, so I used just the one tablespoonful.  Slake the cornflour with a little water, until you have a runny paste.

12.  Pour half the cornflour mixture into the gravy and begin to heat it through to a simmer, whisking all the time to prevent the gravy forming lumps.  Once it has thickened, you will be able to know how much of the remainder of the cornflour you will need to obtain your preferred thickness.

13.  Once the gravy is done, uncover the pork and carefully remove the skin and thick fat.  (You can hang this fat from the nearest tree for the birdies, once it has cooled.  It's also good entertainment for the local cats and dogs - who will sit beneath it trying to exercise telekinesis in order to get at it).  Begin to pull the meat apart into shreds.  This is a perfect opportunity to remove any lumpy bits of fat, which are quite unpleasant to discover on your fork.

14.  You can serve this pork in any way you so desire.  I served mine as part of a roast dinner.

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Egg & Vegetable Curry

It has been a long time since I made a curry.  Well, a curry from scratch that is - you know, without the "benefit" of a shop bought curry paste or suchlike.  One where you devise the spicing yourself and pray it comes out okay.

Now I have made a couple of meals that involved curry in the recent past and all have been pretty darned poor.  Take the Kedgeree that I made only a couple of weeks ago.  It really was horrid.  For some reason I overcooked the rice and also used a pre-made curry paste that was really bad.  I've no idea why I didn't spice it myself and have no clue as to why we seemed to go back to buying curry paste - as the marked decline in my curried fortunes seemed to coincide with that.

I have been having a dalliance with "authentic" type curries recently, which has meant that hubby hasn't been too pleased with them.  You see, generally, "authentic" i.e. not British Indian Restaurant style curries are a lot wetter than the BIR style ones.  I've talked in the past about hubby's hatred for "pond water" (i.e. broth) rather than a more robust sauce and these "authentic" style curries (such as Malay and Thai) just aren't his "thing".  It's a shame, because I was quite keen to investigate these more "brothy" types of curry and explore the flavours involved.  Hey ho - another single person lunch project, maybe!

Looking like magma with a couple of eggs inside it!

Hence, I had made a mental note that my next curry was to be a BIR style one - and I suspect that the curry paste came along because I'd lost confidence in my ability to cook a curry from scratch.

However, the meal on this night wasn't supposed to be curry at all.  It was supposed to be cornish pasties!  Not a lot of difference there, is there?

I served mine with curried flatbreads

Well the cornish pasty thing got scotched (or cornished) when I realised that I'd left the beef in the freezer and it wouldn't be defrosted by lunchtime, when I was going to be making the pasties.  This demanded a bit of a side-step and an audit of the contents of said freezer and the fridge, for alternative ideas.

I'd accumulated a fair amount of little bits of vegetables that had been left over from previous meals and which set me to thinking about a vegetable curry.  At this point, a lightbulb went on and I remembered that I'd been vaguely hankering after an egg curry, after seeing a photograph of one on the excellent Facebook page "The Food Court".  Obviously, I couldn't make simply an egg curry, as hubby's sensitivity to eggs would rule him out of one of those - but a veggie curry with a couple of additional hard boiled eggs for son & heir and myself was sounding increasingly good.

A quick rummage in the tin cupboard turned up a tin of coconut milk and a small tin of chick peas and a rummage in the larder cupboard turned up a carton of tomato passata.  Along with a bit of leftover single cream in the fridge and a well stocked spice cupboard, I had just about all I needed.

The curry was delicious.  Hubby really enjoyed his vegetable version and son & heir loved his egg along with the curry.  My vague lusting after an egg curry was assuaged and we all went away smiling.  Can't ask for more than that - especially from a last-minute decision of a curry that was made out of leftover and forgotten ingredients!


EGG & VEGETABLE CURRY    (serves 3)

Ingredients :



1 tbsp vegetable or groundnut oil
15g butter
2 onions, one chopped fine and one sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tsp ground cumin
2 heaped tsp ground coriander
1 heaped tsp ground black pepper
1 flat tsp ground turmeric
a hefty pinch of red chilli flakes
1 heaped tsp Madras curry powder
3 green cardamom, crushed
250ml tomato passata
2 carrots, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 medium potato, peeled and cut into small chunks
a quarter of a swede, peeled and cut into small chunks
400ml can of coconut milk
1 heaped tsp (or 1 crumbled cube) vegetable stock powder
220g tin of chick peas
2 big pinches of dried Methi (Fenugreek) leaves
1 courgette, sliced thickly on the diagonal, then halved
sea salt
200ml single cream
a knob of Jaggery (or 1 tsp brown sugar)
another (smaller) knob of butter
3 eggs, just hard boiled (around 7 minutes).

Method :

1.   In a deep saucepan, heat the oil and butter until the butter has melted.  Add the onion and fry on a medium heat until soft and deep golden brown.  Add the garlic and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.

2.  Add the cumin, coriander, black pepper, turmeric, chilli flakes, curry powder and cardamom and stir to combine.  Cook for another 3-4 minutes, stirring all the time to prevent the spices burning.

3.  Add the tomato passata and stir to combine.  Continue to cook until the mixture has lost a good deal of its water and the fat is being released.

4.  Add the carrots, potato and swede and stir well until the vegetables are all coated in the spice mixture.

5.  Add the coconut milk and vegetable stock powder and gently stir to combine.

6.  Add the chick peas and the methi leaves and bring to a simmer.  Cook, simmering, until the vegetables are softened, but not quite tender.

7.  Add the courgette, stir to combine and continue to cook until the vegetables are tender.  You may need to add a little water from time to time, if the curry begins to get too thick.

8.  Once the curry has thickened, add the cream, jaggery (or sugar) and salt to taste.  Once you are happy with the flavour and the cream is well combined, add the knob of butter and the three shelled hard boiled eggs.

9.  Allow the eggs time to heat through and serve on white rice, with the eggs halved and placed on top.

Serve with naan bread, chapatis or flatbreads.

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