Tomato, Chilli and Red Pepper Soup

Another lunchtime soup recipe to warm you up.

Tomato, Chilli and Red Pepper Soup

It made about a week’s worth of lunches for me.

Ingredients:

1/2 Red onion – diced

1/2 White onion - diced

1pt Hot Stock (I used chicken, but use what you prefer)

2 Cloves Garlic – chopped or 1tsp Garlic Puree

1tsp chilli powder

½tsp chilli flakes

1tbsp Fresh chopped basil or 1tsp dried basil

2 x 400g Tins Plum Tomatoes (Or 700g Passata)

1tbsp oil

2 Red Peppers - deseeded and diced

1 Red Chilli – deseeded and diced

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tbsp Creme Fraiche or cream cheese

1. In a large, heavy pan fry the onion, pepper, chilli and garlic in the oil until soft. Add the chilli flakes and powder and stir to heat for a couple of minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes and mix well.
3. Pour in stock. Stir in the basil. Simmer gently for about 30 minutes. If the water reduces too much just top up with boiling water.
4. Remove from heat to cool slightly. Blend with either a hand held blender or a processor until creamy. Place back on the heat. Adjust seasoning and heat through. If you find it too thick at this stage add hot water or more stock until it suits you.
5. Before serving stir in some crème fraiche or cream cheese.

***The soup does freezer okay. But do this before you add the crème fraiche/ cream cheese.

Curried Winter Veg Soup

In an attempt to save some money and not be tempted by the M & S van that comes around work I decided to make some soup. (Queue an array of soup recipes!) On offer in Sainsbury’s was a winter vegetable selection pack comprising of a turnip, potatoes, onion and parsnips. So I thought it’d be a good base for a soup. The resulting effort was a Curried Vegetable Soup. You may want to adjust the seasonings – spices to taste.

Curried Winter Veg Soup

It made a week’s worth of lunches.

Ingredients:

1 Winter Veg Selection Pack (2 Parsnips, 1 Turnip, 2 Potatoes and 1 Onion)

2pts Hot Stock (I used chicken, but use what you prefer)

2 Cloves Garlic – chopped or 1tsp Garlic Puree

1tsp chilli powder

½tsp chilli flakes

3tsbp Curry Paste (I used a Tikka Masala one)

1tbsp oil

Salt and pepper to taste

3 tbsp Plain Yoghurt

1. Peel and chop the veg to roughly the same size chunks. In a large, heavy pan fry the onion and garlic in the oil until soft. Add the curry paste and stir to heat for a couple of minutes.
2. Add the veg and mix to coat with paste. Add chilli powder and flakes. Fry for a minute.
3. Pour in stock. Simmer gently until the veg is soft – this can take up to an hour. If the water reduces too much just top up with boiling water to just cover the veg.
4. Remove from heat to cool slightly. Blend with either a hand held blender or a processor until creamy. Place back on the heat. Adjust seasoning and heat through. If you find it too thick at this stage add hot water or more stock until it suits you.
5. Before serving stir in some yoghurt.

***The soup does freezer okay. But do this before you add the yoghurt.

Basic Lemon Biscuits

I had a lemon sitting in the fridge that needed using up and with the other ingredients in my cupboard and fridge I decided to make some lemon biscuits.Very basic, light ones just to go with a cup of tea. It's a really easy recipe and you could substitute the lemon for orange or any other flavour. They only take about 30 minutes.


Ingredients:

100g Softened Butter
100g Caster Sugar (though I will admit I only had granulated, but whizzed it up in the food processor and it worked fine!)
Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
1 Beaten Egg
340g Plain Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
1-2tbsp milk

1. Grease baking tray and preheat oven to about 180/ Gas Mark 4.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in the lemon rind.
3. Beat the egg with the lemon juice and beat into the sugar mixture.
4. Sieve the flour and baking powder into the mixture and combine.
5. Add in milk to form a dough.
6. Roll out on a flour dusted surface to about 1/2 cm thickness and cut using whatever shape you fancy.
7. Place on baking sheet and bake for about 15 - 20 minutes until lightly golden.
8. Cool. I then dusted mine with some vanilla icing sugar I randomly have in my cupboard.

Steak (courtesy of The Ashmount Country House Hotel, Haworth)

In one of my previous posts I reviewed the Ashmount Country House Hotel in Haworth, Yorkshire. I mentioned the amazing steak we had there. Below are the instructions on how to cook it. It's the only way I cook steak now.


Steak!


Serves 2

Ingredients

2 x good quality steaks (I've tried it with fillet, rump and T-bone so far!)
Salt and pepper
Dash of olive oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to medium (I have it on 180.)
2. Season steaks on both sides with salt and pepper.
3. Add a dash of oil to a heavy frying pan.
4. Sear steaks for 1 - 2 mins on each side till lightly coloured.
5. Remove from heat and place in a baking dish.
6. Pop in the oven for about 5 - 8 mins (I like mine medium rare!)

With this your steak wont dry out and will remain juicy. It will take a couple of goes to get your timings right because everyone likes their steak done differently. But I am not a fan of charred steak, so this method is perfect for me!

Chicken and Mushroom Pie

I used to have a habit of throwing away a fair bit of food, but as prices have gone up I’m a bit more conscious of how much I waste. One of the worst areas I noticed was after a Sunday lunch. With chicken I was not a fan of the legs so just ended up binning them – bad I know! Since I changed my mindset one of my favourite ways to use up leftovers is in a pie. Really easy to make and just as good the next day to take to work for lunch.

Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Serves 4 – 6 (depending on how hungry you are!)

Ingredients:

Leftover Chicken – chopped

1 Onion – chopped

8 Mushrooms – sliced

1tbsp Dried Sage

2 Bay Leaves

25g Butter

25g Plain Flour

600ml Milk

Salt and Pepper

250g Readymade Pastry (Puff or Shortcrust)

1 egg – whisked

1. Preheat oven to 180/ Gas 4 – 5.
2. Gently heat the milk in a small pan with the bay leaves and chopped onion to infuse. Remove the bay leaves and discard.
3. In a seperate pan melt the butter. Stir in the flour and cook stirring continuously for 1 – 2 minutes to cook off the flour.
4. Take the pan off the heat and gradually whisk in the milk and onion until smooth. Return to the heat and bring tothe boil – stirring all the time.
5. Add the chicken, mushroom and sage. Simmer gently for 5-10 minutes till thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Roll out pastry on a floured surface to about 0.5cm thickness.
7. Tip the chicken mixture into your chosen pie dish. Lay your pastry over the mixture. Trim to about 1cm over your dish. Push the edges down arond the sides to seal. Put a few slits into the pastry to let the steam out.
8. Brush pastry all over with egg. If you don’t like egg use some milk. Bake for approx 25 minutes until golden. 

Nigella's Chocolate Olive Oil Cake - Gluten free!

I am in the process of testing out some new baking recipes in preparation for my birthday in November. As is a tradition across the country I have to provide cake on my birthday. This year I will not be beaten by others and will bake my own rather than resort to the supermarket!

One of our Senior Management team at work is gluten intolerant and I always feel a little sorry for her when all the lovely treats come out and she can’t have any due to the dreaded flour! I managed to catch Nigella Lawson’s Nigellissima on Monday night and she had a Chocolate Olive Oil Cake made with ground almonds rather than flour – perfect for gluten intolerant folk. So I gave it a practise run this weekend.

The result was actually really nice. It is a heavier, denser cake than you can expect if you use flour instead of ground almonds but it’s worth a go. I will be making it again. I served it warm with a little cream – marvellous!

Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

Serves 10

Ingredients

150ml regular or light olive oil

50g cocoa powder – sifted

125ml boiling water

2tsp vanilla extract

150g ground almonds

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of salt

200g caster sugar

3 eggs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170/325/gas3. Grease and line a 23cm spring form tin.
2. Sift cocoa into a bowl or jug and whisk in water until it forms a slightly runny paste. Whisk in anile and set aside to cool a little.
3. In another bowl combine almonds, bicarbonate of soda and the salt.
4. Put the sugar, oil and eggs into the bowl of a freestanding mixer ad beat for a few minutes. Or if you don’t have one like me in a large bowl and use an electric whisk. It should take about 4 minutes to become pale and thickened.
5. Turn speed down a little and add cocoa mixture. Tip in the almond mixture. Beat.
6. Pour mixture into the tin (it will seem runnier than a normal cake mix) Bake for 40 -45 minutes - it should look like the sides are set, but the middle is slightly damp. If you use a tester it will come out mainly clean with a few crumbs on it.
7. Cool for 10mins in the tin then remove.
8. Serve warm or cool completely.

Beer Braised Lamb Shanks

With weather as grim as it is I have started looking for winter warming dishes. Lamb shanks are a particular favourite as I love the way they melt in your mouth. I usually do a red wine and chorizo or a mint gray version, but wanted something a bit different this week. I found a recipe for ale braised lamb shanks on the Delicious website (a great source of seasonal recipes)

I adapted it for 2 people. It was really easy to make and the most fabulous smell was coming from the oven and we couldn't wait to tuck in! We certainly weren't disappointed.

Beer-braised lamb shanks recipe – Delicious Website

By Lizzie Kamenetzky

 

Serves 6

Takes 15 minutes to make, 3 hours to cook

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil

6 lamb shanks

1 large onion, finely sliced

1 celery stick, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely diced

2 garlic cloves, finely sliced

500ml bottle pale or golden ale

300ml lamb or chicken stock, hot

2 bay leaves

5 fresh thyme sprigs, leaves stripped

Knob of unsalted butter

Handful flatleaf parsley, chopped

Method

1. Heat half the oil in a large, heavy-based casserole (with a tight-fitting lid) over a medium heat. Add the lamb shanks and cook to brown all over for a few minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.
2. Heat the remaining oil in the pot and fry the onion, celery, carrot and garlic over a gentle heat for 10 minutes until really soft and beginning to colour. Return the lamb shanks to the pot and pour in the ale and stock. Season well, add the herbs, bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover with the lid and cook over a low heat for 2½ hours, turning halfway through, until the lamb shanks are meltingly tender.
3. Remove the lamb to a warmed serving dish and keep warm under foil. Discard the bay leaves. Bring the sauce to the boil and reduce it by half until it’s nice and glossy. (I needed to add a bit of cornflour, but I like my sauces thick)
4. Whisk in the butter and return the lamb to the casserole to warm through, if necessary. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve with creamy mash.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture. But I wanted to share the recipe anyway and when I make it again I'll upload a photo!