MERRY CHRISTMAS !!

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL !!

(No Christmas cake this year.)

ITALIAN STYLE VEGETABLE SOUP (soup maker recipe)

This soup was made by my OH, Nick.  It started out as a kind of minestrone but when the cooking process was finished he thought it didn't quite look right so he processed it using the "blend" function on the machine until it was just slightly chunky, not entirely smooth.  I shall use this technique myself in future as I don't always want a completely smooth soup which you get when using the "smooth" function.

I was out doing some Christmas shopping and had no idea my lunch would be ready when I got home.  The house smelled divine as soon as I opened the front door and the soup was absolutely delicious.

Ingredients

1 red onion

1 large carrot

1 large parsnip

1 medium potato

2 sticks celery

½ a red pepper

½ a yellow pepper

1 garlic and thyme stock pot

1 400g tin chopped tomatoes

1 tsp Italian seasoning

 

Method

Prepare enough veg to fill the machine to the bottom line.  Add enough water to the top line.  Cook on the chunky setting then use the smooth setting to get the consistency you would like.

Makes four generous servings.

SPICED PARSNIP AND APPLE SOUP (soup maker recipe)

I spotted a recipe for something similar to this in a magazine recently.  The recipe included, like so many often do, chilli.  Chilli no longer agrees with me so I have to avoid it, which is a real shame because I do enjoy a nice curry - or at least I used to.

There seems to be chilli in everything these days and it turns up unexpectedly all over the place.  Goodness only knows why it ends up in some foods, such as the cauliflower cheese served in a local pub.  Cauliflower cheese is one of those foods that is perfect just as it is and definitely does not need any chilli.  The UK food scene seems to have gone chilli mad!

To make my version of the soup I used Sainsbury's garam masala because it contains lots of the spices I like but there is no chilli listed in the ingredients.  I also added a touch of fenugreek just for the sake of it.

It was very tasty.

Ingredients 

2 fat parsnips

2 dessert apples

1 onion

1 medium potato 

a chunk of celeriac

2 tsp garam masala

half a tsp ground fenugreek

2 tsp Marigold veg stock powder (or use a stock pot or home made stock)

Prepare enough veg to fill the machine to the lower line.  Add enough water (or stock) to fill to the top line and cook on the smooth setting.

Makes 4 generous portions.

CHICKEN WITH GRAPES, LEEKS AND ROSEMARY

This recipe is adapted from one of those recipe cards I picked up at Waitrose some time ago.  The original uses chicken legs but we had some skinless chicken breasts in the fridge already so I used them instead.

Waitrose recipes tend not to disappear or be hijacked so to see it on their website click here.

I cooked it in a favourite cast iron casserole dish that was given to me by my Aunty Vera donkeys years ago.  Probably in the 1980's when cast iron cookware was all the rage - if the cookery magazines were anything to go by in those days.  I suspect that my aunt bought one but was not enamoured with it, preferring her Pyrex instead!  I like it because it's actually quite small and ideal for making something for just the two of us.

Of course if you don't have a cast iron dish you can do the first part of the recipe in a frying pan on the hob and finish it off in an ovenproof dish in the oven.

The recipe was easy to make and with the grapes and wine had a slightly "weekend" appeal, yet was quick enough for a midweek meal.  The chicken was moist and delicious.  We had ours with the usual selection of weekday veg and mash.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts

a splash of oil

1 large or 2 small leeks, washed and sliced, not too thickly, not too thinly

a large handful of green grapes, washed and halved

2 small sprigs fresh rosemary

1 small glass of white wine (or use chicken stock)

a squeeze of lemon juice

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180° fan / gas mk 6.

Using a cast iron casserole dish* on the hob, heat the oil then fry the chicken breasts, skin side down for 10 minutes until golden brown.  Turn the chicken and cook on the other side for 2-3 minutes.  Remove from the dish and set aside.

Add the leeks to the dish with a pinch of salt and fry for 3-4 minutes until beginning to soften.

Stir in the grapes, rosemary, wine and lemon juice.  

Remove from the hob, place the chicken breasts on top and roast, uncovered, in the oven for about 25 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve with mashed or baked potatoes and veg.

Serves 2.

*If you don't have a cast iron casserole or one that can be used on the hob, do the frying in a frying pan then transfer the leek mixture to an ovenproof dish of some kind, maybe ceramic or enamel.  Place the chicken on top as above and roast as above.

CHICKEN STIR FRY SOUP (soup maker recipe)

Our kettle in the UK died last week.  Actually the kettle still boiled water but the catch holding the lid broke and my other half declared it unfixable so we went to buy a new one.

Curiously, exactly the same thing happened to our kettle in France last month; the lid broke on that one too.  How bizarre to have both give up the ghost at the same time, for the same reason!  As it happens both kettles were at least ten years old so didn’t owe us anything.

In France we got a new decent one from a small selection at our nearest supermarket.  In the UK the choice in our local Tesco, usually quite extensive, was poor.  In fact since their recent refurb they have changed the way they display their small electricals and it’s not good.  Previously they had a top shelf with each item on display so you could pick it up and look at it, with sealed boxes of them stashed on shelves underneath for you to buy your selection.  Now, nothing is on display.  There are simply boxes of things piled on the shelves and none that you can look at, only the picture on the box to go on.  Hence there are damaged boxes of the things where people have ripped them open so they can see what they actually look like. We looked at a couple that had already been opened and gave up, eventually ordering one from Amazon.  

However, I suggested that it might be worth looking at the sale shelf, where they dump items for clearance.  They had no kettles but they did have a wok, reduced to less than £10.  I have never owned a wok in my life and have never tried making stir fries at home but my OH reckons he has.  He mentioned it in the same wistful way that he refers to all his awful 1970’s clothes that filled his wardrobe when we met and that were expunged when we got together and combined our two households in the 90’s.  The implication being that I took it to the charity shop along with his flares and skinny rib jumpers.  I can honestly say I don’t remember doing that.

Anyway, I am on a mission to lose a bit of weight* and thought a wok might help, stir fries being generally lower in calories than say sausages and chips for a midweek dinner, so we bought one.  We picked up a bag of stir fry veg, some noodles and chicken fillets, and that evening Nick made a delicious chicken stir fry, making a sauce with garlic, fresh ginger and soy sauce.

There was a good portion leftover and about a third of the pack of veg so I turned it into soup.  It was also delicious!

The soup maker makes four good portions and as there are only two of us I store the remaining half in the fridge.  Having experimented with various ways of storing it I have finally settled on using the ancient Tupperware jug that belonged to my mum.  It was found at the back of the cupboard when we cleared Dad's flat after he died and I'm pretty sure neither of them ever used it.  It was no doubt a rogue purchase from one of the Tupperware parties that Aunty Vera used to drag Mum to in the 1970's!

*There will be no cake posts for a while, sadly.  If I make it I will eat it and we have even decided not to make a Christmas cake this year, which is the first time ever in my whole life that there will not be a home made Christmas cake in the house.  

Ingredients 

one portion of leftover chicken stir fry, including the noodles

the remaining unused stir fry veg in the pack

three small potatoes

1 carrot

1 leek

1 stick of celery

Method

Add the stir fried chicken and veg to the machine and prepare enough veg to fill to the bottom line.

Add enough water to fill to the top line and cook on smooth setting.

Makes four generous portions.

DESPERATION SOUP! (soup maker recipe)

The fuel shortages carry on here in France but at least it has for now stopped raining and it has started raining again but at least our colds are on the mend.  However, we are keenly focussed on getting the bedroom ready for its new carpet so still keen desperate not to have to spend time food shopping if at all possible.  Therefore, when looking for something we could have for lunch yesterday I put together an extreme version of "fridge bottom soup".   In the fridge there was one portion of blanquette de veau (made the night before from a pack of stewing veal found in the freezer) and a few veg oddments.  

It made an interestingly delicious soup and just goes to show how a bit of lateral thinking can produce a nice meal.  I'm so glad I bought the soup maker - if I'd had to get the blender out we might have had beans on toast instead!

Speaking of toast, with it we had a "pain de campagne".  I sacrificed five minutes and some of our precious petrol to nip to the village for a baguette from the village "shop".  This is in the former bar café and consists of racks of vending machines and a baguette machine.  You pop your euro coin in the slot and a beautiful baguette from the boulangerie in Ligueil pops out.  They fill it up twice a day so timing can be crucial and I knew I was in trouble as soon as I pulled up outside.

The very large gite in the village was clearly occupied and this usually means that the shop has been cleared out of baguettes and croissants by mid morning.  Sure enough the machine displayed the word "vide" above the coin slot.  I perused the racks of display cabinets to find all those normally containing bread and pastries of any kind empty.  The locusts from the gite had obviously got there before me.  Then I spotted a single loaf lurking in the depths of one cabinet, its pointy end only just visible.  Thinking to myself  "ha, you missed this one!" I nabbed it.  It was a tasty brown loaf, moist and delicious and we will have one again, a great discovery.  Every cloud and all that!

Ingredients

About a pint of leftover casserole of any kind

4 medium carrots

1 small turnip

Half a punnet of mushrooms

1 large onion

Home made stock or a stock pot of some kind

Splash of sherry and a swirl of cream (optional)

Method

Tip the casserole into the machine then prepare enough veg to fill the machine to the bottom line.

Give it all a stir.

Add the stock or stock pot and enough water to fill to the top line and cook on smooth.

Stir in the sherry when cooked and serve with the swirl of cream.

Makes 4 generous portions.

CARROT, LEEK AND APPLE SOUP (soup maker recipe) and home made stock

Our new velux windows are fitted here in France and we're now on with decorating the master bedroom.  It's a big job because it’s a big room.  However the timing is right as the very day after the last window was finished off it started raining, so being confined to indoors seems like less of a sacrifice.  On top of that we both have colds.  As per usual Nick's has been mild but mine is what my mum would have called "a stinker".  Neither of us has had a cold for three years so we're not going out and I had quite forgotten how much of a hinderance they can be.

On top of that we have another fuel crisis on this side of the Channel.  The tanker drivers have "downed tools" (do tanker drivers have tools?) and supplies are patchy.  I knew nothing about it until my Nick's sister mentioned it after seeing it on the BBC news.  Filling stations are all a good distance apart in rural France and it's risky to head off in one direction only to find no petrol to be had.   With our petrol tank already very low we managed to fill up but are conserving our supply for essential use.  Going to buy more paint might be the next trip.

Consequently we haven’t done any food shopping for a while and are eating what we have in.  The carrots looked a bit tired and there was one leek but plenty of potatoes and a huge bowlful of apples.  A very tasty soup they made!

THE UGLY BAG - home made stock (broth in the USA)

For the stock I used home made. Never in a million years did I think I would turn into the kind of person that made her own stock but then I read somewhere about something called an "ugly bag".  (At the risk of going against my own most recent rule I'll give the link for it here.)  The idea is simple in that every time you prepare a meal you put all the carrot tops, onion trimmings, celery leaves, chicken bones, tomato ends etc into a large bag in the freezer.  

When the bag is full you tip the contents into a large pan, cover with water, add any fresh herbs you have, bring to the boil and simmer for an hour, no longer.  Strain through a colander into another large container and discard the veg.  Fill sturdy freezer bags with quantities suitable for your needs and pop in the freezer. I even reuse the same ugly bag!  Clever or what!

Ingredients

5 medium carrots

1 large leek

4 smallish potatoes

1 eating apple

350 ml home made stock (or use a stock pot/cube) - save your trimmings for your ugly bag!

nutmeg

dry sherry

salt and pepper

Method

Prepare enough veg to fill the soup maker to the lower line.  Add the stock and enough water to the top line.

Cook on smooth.

When it's done, add a little grated nutmeg, fresh if possible but otherwise from a jar.  Add a good splash of sherry, season to taste and stir.  Serve with a swirl of cream if you have any.

Makes 4 generous portions.