What a beautiful day – sunshine, blue sky but really cold!  Today I thought we would keep it simple – soup and a really easy no-yeast bread to go with it , followed by a nursery pudding – you deserve it!  For me, nothing says comfort any more than custard, even just a bowl on its own – and when it’s served with a simple syrup sponge for one, perfect!

Chunky vegetable soup

• 1 ½ tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 6 medium carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
• 2 large onions roughly chopped
• 2 large leeks, thinly sliced
• 1 turnip, peeled and cut into small chunks
• 2 parsnips, peeled and cut into small chunks
• 1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into small chunks
• 1 large potato, peeled and cut into small chunks
• 6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• Salt and pepper

In a saucepan, melt butter with oil and add carrots, onions, leeks, turnips and parsnips can cook over a gentle heat till lightly browned

Add sweet potato, potato and stock. Slowly bring to the boil and simmer, covered, for about 20 mins or until tender.

Remove from heat and place half of soup in blender and puree *

Return to rest of soup in pan and gently reheat.

Ladle into bowls and garnish with chopped chives and/or parsley

*You can leave it all chunky if you prefer

And to serve with:

Stilton and walnut Soda Bread:

• 500grams white flour
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 100 grams walnut pieces
• 200 grams of Stilton, crumbled (look out for those shelves in the supermarket with discounted goods – you can usually find some bits of Stilton – keep it in the freezer and grate when you need it
• 400 mls buttermilk (a substitute for this is to add 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of white vinegar or lemon juice to ordinary milk and let it stand for 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200oC

Put flour, 1teaspoon fine salt and the bicarb in a bowl and mix well. Add the walnuts and stilton and stir gently.  Make a well in the centre and pour in half the buttermilk.  Using one hand draw the flour into the milk. Continue to add the milk until all the flour has been incorporated and you have a sticky dough.

Tip out onto a floured board, shape into a ball and flatten slightly. Place on a baking tray and make a deep cross with a sharp knife.

Bake for 30 – 35 minutes until golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

It’s best eaten straight away – but freezes beautifully – and also makes lovely toast the next day!

Now for the Piece de Resistance – who will resist? All that lovely syrup oozing out when you turn it upside down?

• 50g Margarine
• 50g Granulated Sugar
• 50g SR Flour
• 1 Egg
• 2tbsp Milk
• 1 – 2 tbsp Jam or Syrup
• Flavours: 1tsp Ginger, 1tbsp Coconut, 1tbsp cocoa (alternatives)

Put the syrup (or jam if you prefer) in the bottom of a small glass bowl.

Beat the margarine with the sugar, add the egg and fold in the flour (if you want to add any other flavourings do it now).  Add the milk (it will seem quite sloppy but that’s ok)

Spoon on top of the syrup and microwave for 4 – 5 minutes.

THE SYRUP WILL BE MEGA HOT so leave it for a moment or two before turning out

Its almost worth delaying Spring for!

 

 

We’ve got a 1960’s jukebox at home and, if he is over, my son always plays this one – so naturally I would have to have this one on my desert island to think of him.

 

And just because I like it . . . . .

As I said before my husband plays in a band and when we met the first time ever, he played this – because I was wearing a red dress!

And this just makes me . . .  Happy!

I love my kitchen. It’s warm and inviting and hopefully filled with all sorts of lovely smells.  If I had my bed in it, I would probably never leave!  I don’t have TV though as it’s also a place where I read the newspaper and books and listen to music.

So I thought I would give you a small selection of what I put on my ipod and play whilst I am cooking – my Desert Island Discs – 8 in all but only 4 today.

My favourite of all time is Maggie May by Rod Stewart.  Love dancing to it, love cooking to it.  When I started nursing in 1971 this had just come out.  My friend and I lived in the nurses home – and we had to be in by 11.00pm or we were locked out!  We had been out with some friends and this came up on the car radio – and listening to it took us over the curfew!  We managed to wake someone up and climbed up the drain pipe to her window.  However, apparently we were seen and reported and we had to confess to the Matron!

 

Just after I met my husband we managed to get tickets for the Cambridge Folk Festival where James Taylor was playing.  It was the perfect weekend music and weather wise and I fell in love with John,  listening to James Taylor.

This one always makes me think of my youngest daughter, Alice, when she left home to live in London – and still can make me cry!

This is my older daughter’s favourite.  My husband and his band recently did a charity concert – and this was definitely the star of the show!  Shall always remember her dancing to this!

I’ll post my other four with a recipe or two – in the meanwhile get thinking about what music makes you happy – and you’ll love being in the kitchen even more!

Whilst we were away, all my husband could dream about (because he couldn’t find any) was – curry!  As I am sure you know, curry is apparently one, if not THE favourite dish of the nation.  It’s not impossible, of course, to make a curry for one – you can always do the usual of making for the freezer too – but Sundays are our comfort, special just-for-me days so go and you can treat yourself to a takeaway.  All that spice and heat without the work. HOWEVER to go with it, a home made tarka dhal – if soups are a hug in a mug, dahl could be love-in-a-mug as you have to make it with care and time but it will reward you with a lovely healthy glow of delicousness!

This will make enough for  2 – 3 but it will keep in the fridge for a couple of days and is lovely cold with hot pitta bread as a snack – or you could add some stock and whiz it up into a spicy lentil soup.

• 75 grams lentils
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 -2 cloves of garlic, grated
• small knob of fresh ginger, grated

Rinse the lentils well and put into 1/2 litre of water in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum. Add the turmeric, garlic and ginger and simmer, covered, for about 40 minutes with an occasional stir till the lentils are soft – you may have to add a little more water as you do.

Meanwhile . . . .

• 2 tablespoons vegetable/rapeseed oil
• 1 dessertspoon butter
• 2 dried chillies
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 2 small tomatoes chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala or to taste

Heat the oil and butter and add the chillies and cumin.  Once sizzling, add the onions  and cook till brown.  Add the tomatoes, masala and some salt and pepper and cook down till soft and mushy.

When the lentils are cooked, mash them a little and add to the onions, mix around to pick up all the spices and then combine them all together in one  dish.

To serve, I fry some more onions in oil and butter till crispy and tip over the dhal.

If you are vegetarian, this is excellent on its own with chutneys, rice, naan or pitta bread .

You can make this the day before (in fact, sometimes I do deliberately so that the flavours intensify). Just pick up your takeaway if you want one on the way home after a long walk in the cold sunshine!

Back from my hols!  A lovely break in Cape Verde – doing absolutely nothing but read, swim, sunbathe and eat good food!

Whilst the meals were always of  great quality (lots of fresh salads and fish particularly), the hotel we stayed in was obviously catering for a wide range of tastes and failed to hit the spice notes we like so I didn’t get to find any new recipes worth bringing back.  However, what I did note, was that they were very good at trying to minimise wastage which I thought we could look at it.

Whilst I am hoping to bring you recipes for one without all the maths involved halving even quartering ingredients, sometimes its just not possible so there will be food left over.  For instance, any big breakfast pancakes were used up at night filled with spinach and garlic with a cheese sauce on top; leftover bread was sliced, spread with butter and garlic (and sometimes cheese) and grilled alongside a salad dish; fresh fruit served whole one day appeared the next chopped up small in a fruit salad with yogurt. And, of course, any left over vegetables can easily be made into soups with stock, cream and herbs.

Hope you are enjoying the lovely sunny day – cold but bright keeps away the flu bugs. Blue skies always make me smile and comfort Sunday tomorrow should warm you up!

Snow just beginning to fall – but I’m off on my hols for a week tomorrow!  I’m not sure if we will have wi-fi so have just left two more soups on the Soup Collection section – just in case it gets really cold and you need that hug in a mug!

I’m off to foreign climes – but if I get a chance to badger a chef or two I will hopefully come back with some new recipes!

Keep safe and warm xx

 

Thought you might like to see a picture of my hens, my lovely girls who give me such wonderful eggs! The black one is Topsy – she’s 7 years old now, doesn’t lay any more but keeps the youngsters in check! The other four, Eeny, Meeny, Miny and Mo are rescue chickens who are loving being out in the fresh air and scrubbing around in the soil for worms!

One of the most comforting bowl of food you can eat is risotto.  Soft, silky and easy to eat, it slips down a treat leaving a lovely warm and satisfied tummy!  It is one dish, however, which can’t be hurried – you really do have to “slave over a hot stove” for this one – and take it slow, adding liquid one ladleful at a time.  So put the afternoon play on the radio and enjoy the making as well as the eating!

Basic Risotto

• 60g / 2 oz Arborio/ risotto rice
•  ½ small onion
•  1 chopped garlic
•  ½ glass Dry white wine (don’t worry if no wine, just make up with extra stock)
•  ½  pint hot chicken or vegetable stock
•  1 Teaspoon butter
•  1 Teaspoon olive oil
• A little cream or crème fraiche
•  30g/1oz grated parmesan cheese

Prepare all ingredients, chop onions, grate cheese, etc.

Melt butter and olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 3-5 minutes until softened. Add garlic and cook for another minute or two.

Add rice and stir to coat with butter. Cook for 2-3 minutes to toast the rice.

Add white wine and stir until wine is absorbed.

Add stock a small ladle at a time and stir until most liquid is absorbed.

Continue adding stock a ladle at a time, stirring after each addition.

Taste-test a few rice grains after the 5th or 6th stock addition to test  – it should not be crunchy or chewy.Continue adding stock ladle at a time until rice taste-tests done.

Add 2-3 tablespoons of cream or crème fraiche and stir until combined.

Remove from heat and add cheese.  Stir until cheese is melted.

The above is lovely on its own – but you can have fun now and add lots of different other ingredients.  Whichever one you choose, do BEFORE adding the cheese.

A dollop of Pesto

Gently fry some mushrooms ( and more garlic if you Like) in butter. When soft, stir all the mushrooms and buttery juices into the rice, add cheese and serve.

Poach some smoked haddock in milk with a bay leaf.  Take out and again stir into the rice, then cheese.  Even more lovely is a poached egg on top!

Fry some tomatoes in olive oil (more garlic?) and basil leaves if you have them. When soft but still holding their shape, stir in (again) into the rice

You can also add cooked spinach / cooked peas / parsley / tinned artichokes

I’ve tried all of the above at different times and they are all delicious – try them all until you find YOUR favourite – or, better still, keep experimenting and share what you come up with!

Now, if you opened a bottle of wine to add to the risotto, pour yourself a glass, take your lovely bowlful, put your favourite programme on the TV and settle down to a cuddle of food.  You are allowed . . . x

You may have noticed if you have visited the site before that I have added a new heading  – “Soup Collection”  I thought it would be easier to find recipes by catagorising rather than have to scroll through all my meanderings to find one.  In time, I may add Starters, Mains and Puddings.  What do you think?

We’ve been up and running for a week now so thought we would go for a whole meal!  And because I am so mean we are going to cook two courses in the oven so as not to waste energy!  You might want to invite a friend over as both of these dishes can be easily doubled up.

Chicken Thigh in a creamy leek sauce

• 1 -2 chicken thighs (depending on their size and how hungry you are) skin left on
• 2 -3 small potatoes, halved or quartered
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 6 tablespoons double cream
• 50 ml stock (cube) or white wine if you have it
• 1 garlic clove crushed
• 1 small leek

Preheat oven to 200oC.

Put the chicken and potatoes in a roasting tin and toss with the olive oil.  Arrange the chicken skin-side up and season generously. Roast for 25 minutes until the skin is crisp and turning golden

Combine all the other ingredients in a jug with 50 mil of boiling water.

When chicken is roasted, pour the mixture into tray, turning the chicken in the liquid to coat it, returning the chicken to skin-side up

Roast for another 20 -30 minutes until chicken thoroughly cooked and the sauce is bubbling.

As everything is going to be in the oven, bake a potato alongside and some roasted tomatoes (halve and toss in olive oil with some sliced garlic (if liked) and a tiny bit of sugar, cooking for about 20 minutes until caramelized.

And to follow:  Bread and Butter Pudding

The beauty of this dish is that you can really mess around with the ingredients and use what’s to hand.  You can use fresh or stale bread, brioche or leftover pannetone from Christmas.  I also like to spread the bread with apricot jam or marmalade.  You can use whatever dried fruit you like, too – raisins, sultanas, dried apricots.

• 2 -3 slice bread depending on size
• butter – just spread the butter as you would a sandwich, putting jam or marmalade on if wanted
• 1 oz/25 grams dried fruit
• 100 mls of milk ( you can use some cream if you have any left over from the chicken sauce – or keep it to pour over at the end!)
• 1 egg
• 1oz/25 grams of sugar – I like dark brown sugar best but it’s up to what you have
• Pinch of cinnamon/nutmeg or mixed spice

Cut the buttered bread into triangles and put in an overnproof dish. Add dried fruit, interlacing the layers.

Warm the milk, add the egg and sugar and mixed spice if liked and pour over. Leave to stand for about 20 minutes. Grate some nutmeg or sprinkle of cinnamon on top.

Now stand the dish in another dish of water coming up to about halfway of the pudding dish – this is a bain marie and gives a much gentler way of cooking.

Put into the oven about the same time as you put the chicken back into the oven with the sauce ie it needs to be baked for about 20 – 30 minutes. It can be on a lower shelf.

NB it may collapse at the end of cooking but will still taste delicious!