Fridge-bottom soup

This sounds pretty horrid but actually it's how I use up all the ends of last week's vegetables and make lunch for the week. It's a lot nicer than sandwiches and particularly in cold weather, a welcome change.

Obviously the vegetables will change week by week but the basic premise is: everything you've got left over, plus some stock and tomatoes, plus lentils and whatever flavouring you fancy.

Today's soup consists of:

3 rashers of leftover smoked bacon
1 onion
1 sad leek
1 red pepper
1 head of celery that was looking a bit floppy
half a bag of grated carrot
1 slightly bashed courgette
half a pack of mushrooms (about six)
Garlic, plenty
small carton of passata
chicken stock
Italian herb seasoning
salt and black pepper
a bay leaf
about 300g red lentils

It's the same basic process as usual: crisp up the bacon, sweat off the onions, celery and carrots for a few minutes, add the garlic, allow it to cook in for a few more minutes, and then add all the chopped veg, pop the lid on and leave them for about ten minutes or so to get a bit tender.

Then add the passata, herbs, seasoning and bay leaf, give it five minutes and then the lentils, followed by the stock. Stick the lid on and leave it to do its thing for about half an hour, with periodic stirring - and you're done.



See, it doesn't look nearly as grim as it sounds!

PS - DON'T FORGET TO FISH OUT THE BAY LEAF!

Useful equipment

I don't have loads and loads of fancy kitchen equipment.

Here's my list:

One large heavy bottomed metal pan with a lid that can go into the oven
One elderly Kenwood hand mixer that is older than me (and I was born in 1978!) and belonged to my mum
One small Braun hand blender that cost me a tenner from ASDA
Wooden spoons x 3
Set of sharp knives - vegetable knife, bread knife, carving knife, paring knife
Scissors
Can opener
Peeler
Mixing bowl
Chopping board
Set of scales
Sieve
Measuring cups and spoons and a jug

I've also got a few Pyrex oven dishes and cheap oven trays. You don't need to get expensive ones, just get a silicone sheet to line them with for about £3 and then wash it. Bingo.

I also use a set of silicon baking moulds - no need for paper cases or farting about greasing and lining stuff. Easy.

Potato and celeriac soup

This is a work in progress but the recipe so far goes like this:

1 celeriac, peeled and diced with the bobbly bits taken off
3-4 potatoes
1-2 leeks
1 small onion
2-3 cloves crushed garlic
Garam masala (half a teaspoon)
Cumin (1 teaspoon)
salt and black pepper to season
enough chicken or vegetable stock to cover
Cayenne pepper to finish, if you like that sort of thing

Peel and chop the celeriac, onion and potatoes and halve and slice the leeks.

Start with the onion as ever, softening it for a few minutes before adding the garlic to cook down. Then add the rest of the veg, cover and sweat gently for a few minutes. Add in the stock and spices, cover and leave on a low heat until the vegetables are tender.

Using a hand blender (and in my case, goggles and a full waterproof boiler suit - you know the drill, be careful and sit the pot on a folded tea towel so it doesn't go gallivanting around the work surface), blend carefully until smooth.

Check the thickness level - if it needs extra stock, add now and mix well over a low heat. Check for seasoning at this point too.

When you're ready, serve it up with a dust of cayenne pepper on top and some nice bread if you're really starving.

Lemon drizzle cake

This has been known to make grown men cry. And salivate at the same time. It's quite exciting.

225g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
225g self-raising flour

For the lemon syrup:
2 lemons' worth of juice
Enough sugar to stop you knocking your head off the ceiling - about 100g.

Heat oven to 180 and prepare a loaf tin or silicone mould.

Cream the butter and sugar together til they're pale and fluffy and then, then add the eggs, one at a time. Fold the flour in and then the lemon zest.

The cake should take about 45-50 minutes to cook but do check in a bit earlier if it's a fan assisted oven. A skewer should come out clean.

While the cake is still warm, prick it all over with the skewer and pour about half the syrup in, then leave it about 20 minutes and do it again. You should get a good lemony sugary crust on top, a soggy lemon cake that makes your teeth itch, and a request for another loaf :)

Salted vanilla cake

This cake is so delicious it's actually a danger to public health. If too many people find out about this cake we will all waddle our way into an early grave, unable to stop shovelling it in. It's the real life version of the Winter Queen's enchanted Turkish Delight from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe...in short, just be warned if you're going into this blind.

The first time you make it you may want to make sure you've got an uninterrupted weekend to, you know, stay home. With your cake and unlimited access to the teapot.

Taken from Christie Matheson's Salty Sweets.

8oz unsalted butter, softened
8oz caster sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (but, you know, feel free to sneak some extra in)
3 large eggs, beaten
8oz plain flour, sifted
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
half a teaspoon fine sea salt
quarter of a cup of milk

To finish:
vanilla sugar for dusting
grinder sea salt for sprinkling
vanilla simple syrup

Preheat the oven to 170.
I used a silicone loaf 'tin' for this; the book states an 8-inch square baking dish; you get an idea of the proportions. Anyway line/grease/spray as you need to.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and pale. Add the vanilla essence, and then beat in the eggs one at a time.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and fine sea salt. Fold in half the flour mixture first then the milk. Fold in the rest of the flour and combine until just mixed. Bake for about an hour until the top of the cake is golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.

When the cake is warm, drown it somewhat in the salted vanilla syrup*. Oh how dirty. Okay don't DROWN it. Brush it heavily and then, you know, brush it some more when it's soaked in. And then a little more. I like it damp.

Dust liberally with vanilla sugar and sea salt, then close the curtains and get busy.

*Salted vanilla syrup

half a cup of sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
salt to taste
half a cup of water

Combine the ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer until all the sugar is dissolved, for about 4 or 5 minutes.

Toulouse sausages

Mm, Toulouse sausages. They're garlicky porky wine-y goodness all wrapped up in...well, I guess technically animal guts, but let's not be picky. So, the Toulouse sausage. It is of course good by itself shovelled into your mouf from the pan but you know...it's even better with a load of other lovely ingredients shovelled into your mouf.

1 pack of Toulouse sausages (usually 6)
1 small pack of cubetti di pancetta
2 red onions, sliced finely
2 courgettes
1 green pepper
head of celery, leaves and all
garlic - as much as you like
slosh of balsamic vinegar
pitted dried black olives, chopped
small carton of passata
tomato puree
dried marjoram and parsley (a pinch of both)

Down to business.

First things first cook the sausages very gently in a pan, turning regularly so they're golden and cooked through but not burned. While that's happening you can chop your vegetables ready.

When the sausages are done, take them out and set them aside. Put in the pancetta and allow it to render a little bit, and then add the onions to soften, with a little slosh of balsamic vinegar, then the celery, followed by the garlic, followed by all the other ingredients except the passata. Let everything cook together gently for about ten minutes with the lid on. While that's cooking, cut up the cooked sausages into rounds to be added back to the pan with the passata.

When the vegetables and pancetta are looking soft and smelling good, add the tomatoes and sausages to the pan, stir and cover. Lovely.

Now you have the frankly torturous decision of how you're going to eat all this. Options:

Add stock and rice, or stock and lentils. Not risotto rice - basmati or long grain.
Add some butter beans, thicken the sauce a little if it needs it and eat over baked potatoes
Have it as is with some bread
Thicken it like a sausage stew and serve with some wintry veg - roast parsnips, cabbage, the dreaded sprouts, whatever you like

If it's all too much...freeze it and come back to it when you're in need of something to really kick your arse after a hard day. It freezes really, REALLY well.

Cold weather chicken, rice and vegetables

This is something I make a lot in winter when I've bought some cheap chicken portions and have leftover odds and sods of vegetables in the fridge, so it's normally never the same twice. However, the setup and cooking always go the same way and it typically comes out about the same. It sticks to the ribs, you can make as much as you like, and it's quite fridge-friendly so if you want to save some for lunches in the week, go for it. Poorly? Fed up? Hard day? It will love you back :)

Chicken thighs
Good fatty streaky bacon
All the vegetables at the bottom of the fridge!! Typically a combination of:
leeks
peppers
courgettes
mushrooms
grated carrot
celery
onion
garlic
small carton of crushed tomatoes or passata
chicken stock
butter (sorry)
rice

You need a good big heavy bottomed pot for this really.

Start by browning the chicken thighs in the pot. Obviously bone-in are going to give you more flavour overall but it doesn't really matter either way as long as they get that good initial browning going on. If you REALLY want it to taste nice, brown them in a bit of butter. But I never said that.

When the chicken's looking good and brown and smelling delicious, take it out and put it to one side. Then, it's business as usual - get the bacon in, chopped up small, and let it render down. Then add the vegetables - onion first, then celery, then all the others and the garlic, put the lid on, medium heat, while you make a cup of tea (and possibly drink about half of it).

When everything's looking good and soft, add the passata and whatever herbs you fancy. I think I put thyme in last time, but you know, anything you like. Then add rice and chicken stock, give it a good stir and some seasoning and either leave it to simmer on the hob top with the lid on til the water is sucked up or stick it all in the oven (lid on) for about 30-40 minutes on GM4 (180 degrees) to start with. Do check in on it though.