A NEW YEAR

2010 saw me MIA from blogging. It was a busy year, new home in another country, a daughter married, a new hip for my husband and a new baby granddaughter. Phew! So please forgive me.

As 2011 arrived I found myself celebrating in Poznan, Poland. I also found myself resolving to give more care and attention to my blog. So as this is my first day back home and back in the kitchen, what better time to begin.

I've enjoyed a really long break over the festive season and as a result have come home to an empty fridge, and bare cupboards, so something would have to be concocted out of not very much. There was some pancetta, which was wavering on best before, and an onion in the fridge. Red lentils, a tin of tomatoes, some garlic and stock, and I had the makings of a pot of soup.

I fried off the pancetta, onion and a clove of garlic, added the lentils, tomatoes and stock. With the addition of salt and lots of freshly ground pepper my first soup of the new year was already smelling good. Lentil and tomato soup on the menu tonight.

I am always amazed at how easily a good hearty meal can be made without too much effort, or indeed with very few ingredients. How many of you I wonder have fridges and food cupboards overflowing with ingredients we might just need? Lots of you I'm sure. I am going to try and use up some of the stuff at the back of the freezer and cupboards over the next few months.

This won't stop me trying some of the new recipes from all the lovely new cookbooks I got for Christmas, and yes I will buy ingredients on he off chance I'll need them. But that's the fun of cooking. Always thinking ahead, imagining delicious meals you can cook and enjoy with family and friends.

I am so looking forward to getting back to my blogging, and to trying to think of dishes using up these impulsive buys. Some I know will be a success, some will be just okay and maybe one or two will go straight to the bin. But then if you never try you never know, and there will be space waiting to be filled!

A HAPPY and PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR to all my fellow bloggers. I look forward to following your blogs in the coming months.

COLD WEATHER COMFORT

Just when I was once again able to see my deck free from snow and was starting to think of warmer days ahead, the unthinkable, but not unexpected happened. Last night a few inches of snow fell and once again everything is white. Beautiful I have to say, but cold and wintry once again. Not that winter had ever checked out, but I had been fooled by a few warmer spring like days. However I cannot forget this is Minnesota and this is what winter means so no point in complaining.

So once again I turn to my kitchen and cookbooks for solace. This time it was to be found in the form of a soup. A Lamb and Barley Soup. Sounded good, seemed pretty healthy but importantly it sounded comforting, just what was needed to help get through the snowy days ahead. Also it was an easy soup to make, so it is getting better by the minute. An easy to cook comforting soup to put an end to winter blues. I was onto a winner here, at least at this point I really hoped I was.....

1Tbsp olive oil
200g (8oz) lamb neck fillet trimmed of fat and cut into small pieces
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
50g (2oz) pearl barley
600g (1lb5oz) mixed root vegetables, cubed. I used potato, parsnip,
swede and carrot as that is what I had on hand.
2tsp Worcester sauce
1 litre (1 3/4 pints)beef broth or stock
sprig of thyme
salt and pepper to taste
4oz frozen green beans

Heat oil. Season the lamb with S&P and fry for a few minutes until browned.Add onion and barley and gently cook for a minute. Add rest of vegetables and cook for 2 more minutes. Now add the Worcester sauce stock and thyme. Bring to boil, turn down to simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes.
When everything is cooked spoon about 1/4 if the mixture into a separate bowl and blend until smooth. Stir back into the soup and add green beans, check for seasoning, and cook for a further 3 minutes before serving. SERVES 4

So there you have it a soup ready to eat in just over 30 minutes. Add some delicious crusty bread and you have a hearty warming supper dish. Just what's needed on a cold day like today.



Recipe from Good Food Magazine.

COLD WEATHER COMFORT

Here in Minnesota we had our first snowfall of the year on Sunday! I'm so not ready for Winter. However when I saw the forecast I decided there was only one thing to do and that was to make my Gran's soup. As children we visited every Wednesday and through the cold Winter months there would always be a pot of soup on the stove I can clearly picture us seated around the kitchen table warming ourselves over a plate of the hot homemade soup. My Mum also made this soup and when I got married it was one of the first family recipes I wanted to master. Made me feel home was not too far away, my real comfort food. As far a recipe was concerned there really wasn't one, certainly nothing down on paper, just a collection of root vegetables and pulses added to a good beef stock. In those days the soup bones would be boiled for hours before everything else was added and then it was left to simmer for most of the day, way too time consuming in this day and age. At one time I used a pressure cooker but more recently I decided to try it in the slow cooker. Success. I can now put it all in there and go about my day and when we are ready to eat there it will be, ready and waiting, yum. When I made it this weekend I paid close attention to what I was putting in to give you some idea of how it should go, however please feel free to use whatever veg you please in whatever combination takes your fancy, there is no right or wrong way for this soup. It's going to taste good whatever you put into it.

Soup Bones with meat on
4 med carrots,+ 3 extra (grated)
1/2 med turnip for Scots, swede if you are English and rutabaga for the Americans
2 large potatoes
Peel and chop all the veg into approx 1/2" dice. Save the extra carrots to grate at a later point.
Put the bones and veg into the slow cooker (5 quart) and add 2 cups broth mix.
Cover with water. Season generously with S&P. You will almost certainly have to add more seasoning at the end. I have never got it right first time.
Cook on low for approx 6 hours.
Towards the end of cooking add grated carrots and check seasonings. Stir and leave for another 30 mins.
Remove the bones and strip the meat from the bones and add to soup. I am now so ready to eat my first bowlful. The smell in the kitchen is so reminicent.
You will now have a pot of delicious hot thick soup. My Gran always said the spoon should be able to stand up in it! and it will especially when it has had time to cool.
The first plate is always the best of the season, but also tastes really good next day when all the flavours have melded together.
You will find as it cools it will thicken up but I just add water until I get it how I like it. I even, in the past have added a tin of chopped tomatoes to the last potions to make it go further. This will be enough for 8-10 servings.
I hope you enjoy it as much as our family does. I so enjoy the practice of recipes being handed down from generation to generation and hopefully my children will continue this tradition.

FRUITS of our LABOURS

This weekend saw my husband harvesting his sweet potatoes. Of course until he dug them up he had no idea what he might find. To our complete surprise he had managed to grow some wonderful large potatoes. It is really exciting to have vegetables picked fresh from the garden knowing they are completely organic. Robin had done the hard work now it was my turn to create something delicious from his labours. Being that Autumn is upon us what can be better than a hot bowl of soup? And sweet potato soup sounded good to me. Let me say at this point I do not have recipes for all the different soups I prepare instead I have one guideline which I follow and add to that whatever I fancy on the day. The rule is simply this:
Use 3 x's the veg to onions and add stock or water and seasonings to taste.
I know it seems really too easy to believe but I can assure you it will work.

So today I sweated 1 onion in a tablespoon of olive oil with 2 tablespoons curry powder for about 5 mins on med heat until onion is soft.
I then added 3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped.
You need to have all pieces roughly the same size so they cook at the same rate, but as this will be blended at the end, the size, in this case, doesn't matter. To this I added enough water, or you could use vegetable or chicken stock, to the pot to cover the vegetables, add salt and pepper to taste. Bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer, and cook until soft.
At this point I added, but not essential, 1 can coconut milk and then blended everything together. I like to use a hand blender but you can use whatever piece of equipment you have to hand. At this stage it was still a bit too thick so I added some boiling water until I had the right consistency. Sometimes I like it thicker, just depends, so suit yourself. Taste for seasoning and more add if you need to. With the addition of some chopped cilantro I had of pot of delicious sweet potato soup which had taken about 30min from beginning to end. This was fortunate as my husband called to say he was bringing someone home for lunch. The soup went down well with the addition of some nice crusty bread.

If you use the basic rule you can produce soups form carrots, parsnips, squash, cauliflower, or anything else you can think of. I sometimes use frozen peas, tins of tomatoes. Add mint to the peas and basil and garlic to the tomatoes. To the cauliflower I recommend stirring in some cheese at the end, to the carrot freshly grated ginger, ground at a push, is a nice compliment, once again just use your imagination. I use curry powder with sweet potato and butternut squash as it cuts through the sweetness of the vegetable.

So all that is left for you to do is get your imagination going and start producing some deliciously tasty soups, just perfect for a chilly Autumnal night.