So, I have two litres of stock left over from boiling the Christmas Ham in the last December post. What I didn't mention is that the stock isn't water... its apple juice (the 100% kind) and ... CIDER! (oo-arrr!) . Sweet applyness isn't in it! ... ;-) .
250g of red lentils (split peas) into the pot, bring to the boil and let simmer for maybe 50 minutes ... throw in the chopped up bits of ham left over (and frozen) from New Years Day , whizz with the whizzer and thats it.SOUP to warm the most frozen soul . It's that simple. Who needs Heinz? I have had it two days running for lunch at work and its lovely... yum...
Chowing Down Through History
Wednesday 19 January 2011
Saturday 1 January 2011
Happy New Year!
1/1/11 (!) Got a bit adventurous this time around: didn't QUITE work, but was ok. Had a great New Years Eve mashing up Jamie's Butternut Squash soup from 2002 with the old trick of crumbling some black pudding into it along with some parsley.It really works.
Main course was James Martin's Honey Fried Duck Breast with Winter Vegetables; bit too heavy on the old butter, so I halved the amount and it worked well without as much. On Mrs Fod's request, I added Jamie's 30 minute Dauphinoise, but I didn't really rate it and that was the first disappointment for me, it has all the right stuff, but doesn't quite have the body or creaminess of a "proper" Dauphinoise.
For dessert, we moved onto pomegranate surprise Panna Cotta with a pomegranate glaze (the surprise is that the pomegranate seeds ("arils") were hidden inside the pannacotta). The glaze called for 600g of sugar! But I was a little disappointed again, because I had wanted it to set like brittle boiled sweets, so I could do a "stained glass" effect, and it came out like a syrup...more research needed I think... That said, it was sweet and sharp and really offset the creamy pannacotta (which is easy to make and lovely when sprinkled with a little lemon zest whilst cooking) . Don't put the pannacotta in the freezer like I did, though; it's meant to be soft and creamy, not like hard ice-cream!
Meal over, port and cheese to finish, fireworks in the garden to welcome in 2011 and then I slipped on some moss and tore my ligament ...ho hum ... managed to cook a "hangover cure" breakfast this morning, though :-)
Main course was James Martin's Honey Fried Duck Breast with Winter Vegetables; bit too heavy on the old butter, so I halved the amount and it worked well without as much. On Mrs Fod's request, I added Jamie's 30 minute Dauphinoise, but I didn't really rate it and that was the first disappointment for me, it has all the right stuff, but doesn't quite have the body or creaminess of a "proper" Dauphinoise.
For dessert, we moved onto pomegranate surprise Panna Cotta with a pomegranate glaze (the surprise is that the pomegranate seeds ("arils") were hidden inside the pannacotta). The glaze called for 600g of sugar! But I was a little disappointed again, because I had wanted it to set like brittle boiled sweets, so I could do a "stained glass" effect, and it came out like a syrup...more research needed I think... That said, it was sweet and sharp and really offset the creamy pannacotta (which is easy to make and lovely when sprinkled with a little lemon zest whilst cooking) . Don't put the pannacotta in the freezer like I did, though; it's meant to be soft and creamy, not like hard ice-cream!
Meal over, port and cheese to finish, fireworks in the garden to welcome in 2011 and then I slipped on some moss and tore my ligament ...ho hum ... managed to cook a "hangover cure" breakfast this morning, though :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)