SNOW!!!

Wow can't believe we're well into December now, we've had a foot of snow and I've not posted for ages.

Well I'm recovering well, going back to work after the weekend and starting the cardio re-hab course at hospital in a few weeks. But what about all this snow then. It started on Tuesday and didn't stop for 2 days, it's certainly the most I've seen for a while. Of course everything ground to a halt, buses, trains, cars, schools and the kids enjoyed 3 days off. Can't remember ever having to have a day off school because it snowed, got sent home once cause the oil lorry couldn't get through for the heating but even then the upper school stayed.

Its definitely time for another winter soup, and today its going to be pea and ham. Terribly easy and very delicious. There are different ways of adding the ham, use either a couple of gammon steaks or stick in a whole joint of ham, it depends really on the quantity you are making. Its also a fab way of using up odds and ends after cooking a ham. When you boil a piece of ham save the stock to use for this soup, thats what I've done here.

Pea and Ham Soup.

The stock from a boiled ham. (If you can get a hock thats fab and you can use the meat for the soup too.
Ham off cuts.
2 onions
Half a pack of dried peas. (you can use big yellow lentils for this if you can't get dried peas)
Knob of butter
Salt and pepper.

• Roughly chop the onions and fry in the butter until golden brown. Add the peas and then the stock and probably some water depending how much stock you have. Dont worry it will boil down and you'll still get the flavour.

• Chop the ham up and add to the soup saving a hand full for later.

• Bring to the boil and simmer for several hours, adding more water as needed until the peas are c cooked and mushy.

• Using a hand blender, the type you can put into the pan, blend the soup to break up the peas and but don't go mad, you don't want a smooth soup. Of course if you do want a smooth soup then keep blending until you're happy with it.

• Season the soup and add the reserved chopped ham to chunk the soup up a bit.

And thats it really, go easy on the salt until the end as ham stock is usually quite salty. I serve this with chunks of wholemeal bread and a good cheese and its flipping lovely.

News From The Kitchen.

Well I hope you've noticed that I've been missing in action. Not been feeling all that fab for a while and last Saturday I had a heart attack. I've been fixed now and I'm back home and resting by order of the PS and Drs and I can tell you I'm getting pretty bored now.

Think I'm going to make a start on my Christmas cards, I've got all the stuff to make them, not sure if I'm allowed to use the heavy sizzix machine yet as its quite a lot of pressure to push down (not allowed to carry shopping or push the hoover for a good few weeks more)

Anyway I don't have a recipe for you today, will sort one out and get my act together again soon, they will have to be good for your heart type recipes of course so you're all going to be super fit if you make any of them with me.

Cheerio for now and take care.

Kate x

Willy Warmers And Winter Warmers.

Sitting outside a coffee shop this afternoon supping tea from a paper cup and soaking up the glorious sunshine of an early November day it struck me what a funny old thing this winter weather is. Time was when November was chilly, damp and grey but today was a glorious litter of autumnal reds, oranges and browns, bright sunshine dancing off the silver cafe tables blinding me every time I took a swig of the luke warm grey liquid.

Oh yes, sorry, dinner and knitting wool. A friend of mine took on some battery hens recently and I don't know if you've ever met any but they are all rather bald and sorry looking and get very cold in the winter without their usual covering of feathers so the Willies need some jumpers. (No I don't know why she called all her new hens Willy, can't be anything to do with our last lot all being called Dave I'm sure) Anyway I've been to the charity shops and brought up all the spare oddments of wool to knit Warm woolies for her Willies until they grow their new feathers in a couple of months. So thats the wool and so to dinner.

I bumped into a cart selling lush organic fruit and veges in the pub carpark round the corner, ( I didn't actually bump into it, and no I hadn't been in the pub.) So armed with my newly purchased organic swede, onions, carrots and leeks I decided soup sounded good with hunks of bloomer and a good strong mature cheddar, the type that bites you back. It was delicious but you'll have to make your own if you want to taste it cause its all gone. As usual here it is.

Winter Veg Soup

1 Med swede (organic or otherwise)
2 Med onions (likewise)
4 Good sized carrots (as above)
1 large leek (whatever)
2 Chicken, beef or veg stock cubes
1 Tin chopped tomatos
1tbsp Olive oil
1 Bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste.

1. Chop the onions and leeks and fry until golden in the olive oil.
2. Chop all the rest of the veg, I don't bother peeling the carrots, just wash them and add to the onions along with the rest of the ingredients.
3. Top up with water and bring to the boil. Simmer for an hour, sometimes I just leave it on low all morning. You may need to add more water as it evaporates.
   
4. When the veges are all soft remove the bay leaf and liquidise half the mixture and pour it back in. The soup should be wonderfully thick with lumps of veges in it.
   
5. Season to taste with the salt and pepper.

This is gorgeous and keeps well in the fridge for a few days or freeze portions in bags to pop in the microwave when you come home tired, wet and grey. Recently I've been using my stick blender in it and just blending it enough to get the right amount of thickness and lumpy veges. Make it how you like, it's wonderful and you can add any veg you like to it.

Howling...

A day of mixed emotions. Crying my eyes out in the kitchen, not a good look, mascara streaming from bloodshot eyes in rivulets of black down my face like something half dead in a goulish film with wobbly scenery from the 60's. I tried on a pair of the kids swimming goggles which made my eyes pop out of their sockets (very frog like) and ran down the shedio for a pair of too big diddies but still the 2 kilos of onions I was chopping up were determined to make me howl.

So what is the answer to peeling onions then. Has anyone actually found the cure. I've heard that peeling them under water works but you can hardly chop them under water can you. Some say wear a peg on your nose, nope tried it. I'm thinking perspect shield between the chopper and the onions might work, bit of a fag though setting it all up each time. Anyway 2 kg of onions peeled and shredded and in the pan, worried comments turning to amusement and mirth from the kinder and two hours later I have a pan of glorious smelling, tarty tasting onion marmalade. Of course you want the recipe, here it is.


Onion Marmalade

• 2kg Red or white onions
• 140g Butter
• 4 tbsp Olive oil
• 140g Demerara sugar
• 1 tbsp Fresh thyme leaves
• 75cl Bottle red wine
• 350ml Red wine vinegar
• 200ml Port

1. Peel and shred the onions thinnly.
2. Place in a heavy bottomed pan (I actually put mine in a wok) with the butter, olive oil, sugar and thyme and cook them until there's no juice left and the onions are very soft. This takes around an hour of very slow cooking.
   
3. Add all the liquid and bring to the boil and then simmer.
4. Cook until the marmalade has thickened and you can see the bottom of the pan when you stir with a wooden spoon.
   
5. Allow to cool slightly and then spoon into clean sterilized warm jars.
   

This gorgeous onion marmalade should be eaten within app. 4 months and should be kept in the fridge once opened. It's gorgeous with cheeses, hams and sausages. Tonight I stir fried some curly kale and added a big dollop whilst cooking and it was fabulous.

Not Takeaway...

Takeaway comes the shout from the living room, Not takeaway comes my shout from the kitchen in reply to what shall we have for dinner. What is it with kids and takeaway. Anyway a search through the freezer revealed a bag of cod pieces, frozen parsnips, a bag of chips and a frozen block of mince. My offer of fish pie fell on deaf ears and shepherds pie got a yeah ok. Hmmm whats a girl to do. So I'll make my own takeaway. Burger and chips. I sent Joe down to Sainsburys with a list of supplies and popped the mince in the michael wave to defrost and the chips in the oven to cook and 20 mins later we had cheeseburgers and chips with a healthy mixed leaf salad and tomato's on the side. Perfect. Did they like them, a resounding yes, and they're now a firm Francis family favourite. Oh all right then, here's the recipe.

1lb of Minced beef
1 Beef stock cube
Sage and Onion stuffing.
1 Egg

1. Place the minced beef in a large mixing bowl.
2. Put the stock cube (I use Knorr but you could use any cube) into a cup and pour on just enough boiling water to melt it.
3. Add the stock, egg and half a pack of stuffing to the mince and give it a good mix with your hands until it is thoroughly combined. The mixture should be firm enough to stay in a burger shape but not to dry that it crumbles. If you've added to much stuffing add a little water to loosen it up a bit or leave the mixture for 10 mins if its too wet for the stuffing to absorb some of the liquid.
4. Shape the burgers in your hands and place them under the grill. I cooked ours on the George Forum type grill we have.

These are so easy to do and if you stick all the ingredients in a bowl theres usually a willing child available to stick their hands in and mix it up. You can use lamb or turkey mince, the latter making a good very low fat version. If you want to put them on the bbq I would leave the shaped burgers in the fridge for a few hours to firm up a bit.

Frosty On The Toes.

Fool that I am, I was out there this morning gleaning beads from the kiln in my Pyjama's wading through frost up to my ankles. Yes its up to my ankles because the grass still needs cutting before winter sets in but the PS has been so busy ripping out the old bathroom, re-tiling, plumbing and electrocuting ready for the new one that he's not had time so up to my ankles it is. Anyway the beads were fab. I've been making a few buttons lately, think I'm going to have to knit myself a new winter woolly soon to sew them onto.

I'm digressing, while I was plodding down to the shedio in the frost I collected a handful of mushrooms growing next to the pond, had a couple for breakfast on toast and threw the others into a pan of vegetable soup later on. Very nice they were too, a much woodier flavour fresh from the garden than when they've been sitting around in a plastic container in a warehouse, lorry and finally the supermarket, they smell gorgeous too. Anyway this soup I made, its a wonderfully thick wintery soup full of hot goodness It's fab for keeping in the fridge and coming home to on a cold evening with a hunk of crusty bread and some cheese. Perfect as a winter warmer and wonderful after a bonfire. Makes a great base for a chicken pie too.

Leek and Potato Soup

4 Leeks washed and sliced.
6 Medium sized potatoes
Water
2 Chicken or veg stock cubes
I large onion
1 tbsp olive oil

These ingredients are not written in stone and can be taken away or added to as desired.

Heat the oil in large pan and fry of the chopped onion and leeks until softened.

Cut up the potatos into inch sized pieces and add to the leeks. I leave the skin on but take it off if you prefer.

Add the stock cubes and the water and bring to the boil. Simmer until the potatos have cooked and the water as reduced to give a good flavour. Depending on the quantity of water you add the soup will be thicker or thinner, reduce it more for a thicker soup.

When the potatos start to mush up a bit use a stick blender (the type you can put in the pan) and blend the soup slightly to break up the potato and thicken the soup. If you prefer a smooth soup just blend it until its the consistency you want.

If you don't have a stick blender or like me you have a battery one that you've forgotten to charge, you can put a potato masher into the soup and give it a good mash around.

This is delicious with crusty wholemeal bread and I like to drop some cubes of cheddar into the soup when its in the bowl.

Plum Chutney

A mixed day, far to busy for a Sunday in my opinion. Don't know what happened to 'Day of Rest'
Church and a very long sermon followed by lunch followed by a few hours in the shedio. Made some nice beads, well I hope they are, they're in the kiln right now cooking, came in and sorted dinner and remember those plums I had left over from the jam the other day, well I made chutney with them today. Oh my goodness, it smells lovely here. A mish mash of plums and cinnamon, cloves and apple cider vinegar, apples and raisins all the gorgeousness of spicy smells hopping around the kitchen. It's all bottled up in kilner jars now (my Ikea special buy) and sitting in the cupboard maturing. Anyone know how long it needs to sit in a cupboard maturing. Will give it a week but don't think I can hold off much longer. It was dead easy to make, want the recipe?

Plum Chutney

2lb Plums
1 Large onion
6oz Dark brown muscavado sugar
10oz Demerara sugar
1/2 pt Malt vinegar
1/2 pt Apple cider vinegar
Handfull of raisins
1 Bramley Apple grated.
3cm Piece of ginger grated
1 tbsp Cinnamon
8 Cloves
2 tsp Salt

Quarter the plums and remove the stones. Put all the ingredients in the pan and boil until the chutney has thickened. You can tell its ready if you can see the bottom of th pan briefly when you stir the chutney with a wooden spoon.

As it comes to the end you really need to keep an eye on it to ensure it doesn't catch on the bottom of the pan. Keep stiring but mind the splashes.

Allow to cool very slightly and pour into jars. Seal and label and leave to mature for as long as you can bare.

Very easy and its the sort of chutney that you can put in or take out of. The load I made today I slung in a handful of flaked almonds and I only had a very few raisins that went in. You could use all malt vinegar or red wine vinegar or any vinegar you like really. Have a go and let me know what you think.