Spinach Soup

Ingredients

a good bunch of spinach leaves, shredded
2 oz butter
2 onions, chopped finely
3 medium potatoes, chopped
2 1/2 pints chicken stock (if I don't have any fresh, I use Kallo organic chicken stock cubes dissolved in 2 - 3 p0ints boiling water.

Method

Saute the onions and potatoes in the butter until onions are soft but not brown
Add the spinach and toss until wilted (At this point the only water you need is the water left on the leaves after washing.)
Add the stock, bring to the boil and cook ffor 30 minutes.

Remove from the heat and blend until smoothe

This soup benefits from a swirl of cream on serving.

Shin of Beef

Yesterday I cooked a shin of beef, bought from a farmers market. The ingredients depend on what you have in the house (or choose to buy in advance)

Ingredients

1 shin of beef of a size to fit into your pan
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 carrot, peeled and cubed (I only had one)
2 leeks, cleaned, with dark green bits removed, and the rest sliced into narrow rounds
1 celery (small) or 2 or 3 stems from a large one sliced thinly
1 large onion chopped finely
2 Kallo Just Bouillon beef stock cubes dissolved in a pint of boiling water

Method

Put all the vegetables into a stockpot
Add bouillon mix until vegetables are just covered
Place shin on top
Bring to the boil then simmer gently for about 4 hours
Leave all in the pan until cooled.

I have an induction hob (boast, boast) and usually simmer vegetables at setting 2, but for this I turned it down after about half an hour to 1 so that it was barely bubbling.

Remove the meat to a plate and slice. (or just divide up as it is meltingly soft) The fat round the outside is so easy to remove and discard.

I had a small shin and divided the meat into enough for two meals with the rest cut up into the beef and vegetable soup, which is what is left in the pot.

Eat some of the soup over a day or two and leave the rest for later.

Pumpkin Terrine

Serves 4 – 6

Ingredients

1 pumpkin (6 or 7 lb, 8 in diameter)
1 cup finely diced onion
2 slices rye bread, diced
½ cup(packed) grated Swiss cheese
2 tsp prepared horseradish
1 ½ cup milk
1 – 2 cups vegetable stock
salt, black pepper, cayenne, nutmeg to taste

Optional rye croutons
2 tsp Dijon mustard

Method

Preheat oven to 350 F

Prepare the pumpkin as though you were going to make a lantern, but stop short of carving the face, cut off the top, remove the seeds and stringy stuff

Place onion, bread, cheese, horseradish and mustard inside the pumpkin, mix with your hands until well combined
Add milk and stock (as much as you can fit in) along with the seasoning, stir it up

Line the pumpkin lid with a piece of foil, place it on top, place the filled pumpkin on an ungreased baking tin.

Bake until the pumpkin is tender (about 2 hours or so).

To test for tenderness, remove the lid and gently stick a fork into the side, it should go in easily

To serve, scoop deeply to bring some pumpkin pieces from the sides and bottom along with the soup. If desired top with croutons.

Leek and Potato Soup

I had been planning on making some tomato soup after I found 2 tins of tomatoes lurking at the back of the cupboard, but when I got my organic veg box delivery yesterday I found it contained 4 leeks, so reckoned it was better to make leek and potato soup just now and the tomato soup can wait.

Leek and Potato Soup

Ingredients

4 small or 2 large leeks
3/4 lb (350g) potatoes
1 large or 2 smaller onions
2 small garlic cloves, sliced
1 oz (30g) butter
1 pint water
4 heaped Tbsps Greek style yogurt
Make yogurt up to 1 3/4 pint (100 ml) with milk
A bouquet garni
Chopped chives or parsley to decorate
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method

Trim and slice the leeks, rinse if necessary by cutting in almost half lengthwise and fanning out each side under a cold tap.
Peel and cut into chunks the potatoes
Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan and fry the onions and garlic gently for a few minutes until softened but not brown.
Add the leek and potatoes and bouquet garni.

(I always remember Gordon Ramsay showing a would be chef the best way to make a bouquet garni - by taking a thick green leaf from the top of the leek and putting the herbs (bay leaf, thyme, etc to taste) into it, fold the top half over the bottom part of the leaf containing the herbs, then tie with a piece of thread to hold it together)

Add salt and pepper to taste
Add the water, bring to the boil and boil for 20 minutes until the veg are cooked.
Remove the bouquet garni
Using a hand blender, whiz until not quite smooth.
Add the milk and yogurt and and whisk in to the soup.

This is a rather pale soup so it is improved in the presentation by sprinkling on some chopped parsley or chives.

Later:

I have been caught out once again. Since I had gallstones removed I cannot tolerate too much fat. I forgot that Greek style yogurt cntains just as much fat as double cream. Next time I would use 1 3/4 pint water or vegetable stock and just swirl a little yogurt or cream and a few sliced chives or chopped parsley to decorate, to serve.

Stuffed Jacket Potatoes with Leeks Cheddar and Boursin

I receive regular updates from http://www.eatttheseasons.co.uk/ and tonight tried this recipe found by following a link to what turned out to be Delia online at the following link http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/stuffed-jacket-potatoes-with-leeks-cheddar-and-boursin.

I have never (funnily enough) tried stuffing any vegetable, so this was a big adventure. It was deicious.

In case the link does not work, here is Delia's recipe;

Stuffed Jacket Potatoes with Leeks, Cheddar and Boursin
In this recipe the potato is scooped out, mixed with soft cheese and topped with leeks and melted cheese.

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 large baked potatoes
1 leek about 4 inches long, trimmed and cleaned
1 ½ oz mature Cheddar, coarsely grated
1 x 80g pack ail et fines herbes Boursin
1 Tbsp single cream
salt and freshly milled black pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

To prepare the leek, slice it almost in half lengthways, then fan it out under a running tap to wash away any trapped dirt.

Now slice each half into four lengthways, then into ¼ inch (5 mm) slices.

After that, put the Boursin into a medium-sized bowl and cut the potatoes in half lengthways.

Protecting your hands with a cloth, scoop out the centres of the potatoes into the bowl containing the Boursin, add the milk or cream and season well with salt and freshly milled black pepper.

Now quickly mash or whisk everything together, then pile the whole lot back into the potato skins.

Now scatter the leeks on top, followed by the grated Cheddar – pressing it down lightly with your hand – then place on the baking sheet and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the leeks are golden brown at the edges and the cheese is bubbling.

Buttery Kedgeree

long grain rice measured up to the 8 fl oz mark in a measuring jug
16 fl ozs boiling liquid (see method)
1 ½ lb smoked fish fillets (haddock, cod or mackerel)
4 oz butter
1 onion chopped
1 tsp Madras curry powder
3 hard-boiled eggs chopped
3 heaped Tbsps chopped fresh parsley
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper
Parmesan on top


Place the fish in a saucepan and cover with 1 pint cold water.
Bring to the boil, put on a lid and simmer gently for about 8 minutes.
Then drain off the water into a measuring jug.
Transfer the fish to a dish, cover with foil and keep warm.
Using the same pan, melt half the butter and soften the onion in it for about 5 mins.
Next stir in the curry powder, cook for ½ min, then stir in the rice and add 16 fl oz of the fish cooking water.,
Stir.
When it comes up to simmering point, cover tightly with lid, and cook very gently for 15 mins or until the rice is tender.
When the rice has been cooking for 10 mins, remove skins from fish and flake it.
Then, when rice is ready, fork in fish, eggs parsley, lemon juice and butter.

I used Basmati rice.

Sadly I could find no curry powder as I make most of my curries from scratch.

Still yummy.
Then cover pan with a folded tea towel and replace it on a very gentle heat for 5 mins.
Fork again and serve.

Mother's other Meat Loaf

1 lb round or shoulder steak minced
½ lb lean ham minced
Mix:-
1 teacup (or more) breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
good dessertspoon Ketchup
2 (or 3) eggs (whisked)
Add: -
Meat
½ beef cube dissolved or sauce

Steam for 2 hours at least

This is the recipe I made today (20/8/08)

I used 3 small slices of bread, and a good brown sauce instead of ketchup (as I had none)

I used 3 local free range eggs and half an organic beef cube.

I found this recipe was too much for my mother's stone jar (which holds 1 1/2 pints), so I made one lot and then a second lot.

I reckon the quantity of loaf mix was about one and a third times the quantity the jar would hold.

Have a look at the other recipe as that looks more likely to fit the jar.