Showing posts with label soups and stews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soups and stews. Show all posts
We are real soup lovers in this house. I don't think I have ever met a soup I did not like and neither has Todd. There is a cafe at the market in town that does lovely bowls of soup and for a really good price. Todd just loves to treat himself to a bowl when he goes into town in the winter.
This is a great soup for cold and windy days and a great soup for using up what is in the vegetable bin. You can vary the vegetables according to whatever you have on hand.
This is hearty and delicious. Today I used carrots, swede, celery, onion, leeks, cabbage . . . and I might even have added a splash of tomato juice. I can't remember. But if I did it was only a splash.
The barley makes it especially hearty. I do so love barley or rice in a soup, don't you?
You could add a handful of dried peas as well if you wanted to. They would go very well. In any case this basic recipe can be a canvas for you to work upon and create your own speciality!
*Hearty Vegetable Soup*
Serves 4 to 6
a few handfuls of chopped cabbage
3 large cloves of garlic, crushed
1 1/2 litres chicken or vegetable stock (about 6 1/2 cups)
60g of uncooked pearl barley (1/3 cup)
Heat the olive oil and butter together in a large saucepan. Add all of
the vegetables except for the garlic. Stir to coat. Sweat over low
heat, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes, until beginning to
soften. Add the garlic and thyme. Cook for a few minutes longer. Add
the stock along with some seasoning. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a
simmer. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir in the barley. Simmer
gently for about half an hour until the barley is cooked. Taste and
adjust seasoning with salt and black pepper as desired. Serve hot with
some crusty bread.
(Don't forget to fish out and discard the thyme stalk!)
Todd has his with a roll. The Canadian in my loves it with crackers and the commoner in me likes them crumbled over top like croutons. ☺
Happy Friday and Bon Appetit!
I confess I have only ever really had Cassoulet once. It was when we were visiting my son in Canada and it was delicious. He's a good cook, and he's not afraid to try new things. He's always been that way. Normally Cassoulet contains duck and takes hours to prepare. This delicious casserole uses chicken thighs and tinned beans and uses only a fraction of the time of this traditional French stew.
There is a definitive nip in the air these days. We are getting to the end of autumn days now and its time to break out the throws and light the fires.
These kinds of days call for comforting sustaining dishes like this delicious chicken stew, Chicken with Leeks & Butternut Squash. It's British Leek season now as well, so there really is no better time to cook this simple supper!
This is such a simple dish . . . with plenty of leeks and butternut squash. I have used chicken thighs which are perfect for oven braising.
There is also stock, herbs and barley. This is a really beautiful combination to be sure.
You just bang it all into a casserole and then let the oven do the work. I love meals like this.
Meals that you can just throw together and then cook in a casserole, or slow cooker, etc.
The chicken gets all tender and succulent. You can cut it with a fork.
It is juicy and so flavourful after having braised in the oven, soaking up all of those lucious flavours.
All you need on the side is a nice pot of buttery mashed potatoes and a nice pile of lightly herbed green beans.
I love these kinds of suppers, don't you? This is the colour and flavour of Autumn, right here. Soak it up.
*Chicken and Leeks with Butternut Squash*
Serves 6
Printable Recipe
Chicken and autumn vegetables simmered together in one deliciously hearty pot!
1 TBS olive oil
plain flour, salt and pepper
1 kg of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, each one cut into four chunks
1 pound of butternut squash (Peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks)
4 leeks, washed trimmed and thickly sliced
hot chicken stock
two small handfuls of pearl barley
2 small bay leaves
1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
1/2 tsp savoury crumbled
Heat the olive oil in a large stove top/oven proof casserole dish over medium heat. Toss the chicken bits with the flour and seasoning to taste. Brown them all over in the hot oil. Add the butternut squash and leeks. Cook and stir until the leeks begin to soften. Add hot chicken stock to barely cover and the pearl barley. Add the seasonings. Bring to the boil, then cover and cook for several hours in a moderate oven, (180*C/350*F/ gas mark4) until the chicken, vegetables and barley are tender and the liquid has deliciously thickened. (About an hour and a half.) Remove the bayleaves and serve hot spooned out onto heated plates along with some buttery mashed potatoes and a green vegetable on the side.
This would make a great one pot meal for Bon Fire Night! Bon Appetit!
Here in the Western world putting fruit in with meat isn't something which we do very often . . . however having said that we do like our pork with applesauce and our cranberry sauce with turkey . . . but fruit in a stew, its not a really common thing. In the Middle East it is a fairly common thing . . . just think of a Tagine with apricots or dates . . . really delicious dishes.
This is a really delicious chilli that you can make either in the slow cooker or on top of the stove. It works well either way, so in the summer when it's hot out, I do it in the slow cooker, and in the cooler months when I don't mind a bit of heat in the kitchen, I do it on the stove! It's hearty and delicious and actually very healthy!
This is a delicious recipe I adapted from one of my cookerybooks entitled "Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook" by Phyllis Pellman Good. Its perfect for those hot summer nights, when you don't want to heat up the kitchen but you want something just a tad bit heartier than a salad! And . . . no surprise here . . . its fabulously delicious!
There is one thing with the British weather that you can rely on for sure, and that is that it is highly unpredictable and unreliable! Today (Sunday) has been cold and rainy. The perfect day to make something delicious like this White Chicken Chillie!
When I was a child my family lived for a time in a small town situated on the shores of Lake Winnipeg about two hours North of Winnipeg city itself. I have really lovely memories of the time that we lived there. The first house that we lived in was a duplex bungalow. Our neighbors on the one side were the Dukemon (not sure about the spelling) family and Mr Dukemon often made this soup. Borscht. On the days that he made this the amazing aroma of it would waft over to our house . . . it smelled amazingly delicious. I never got to actually taste it, but the smell of it was pretty tantalizing to my tiny tastebuds. Yes. I was a foodie even then.
Having spent a great deal of my formative years and part of my adulthood in Nova Scotia, Canada, I consider myself to be from Nova Scotia, even though I was born on Prince Edward Island. I am an Airforce Brat, and the ex-wife of a Canadian Serviceman, which means I have lived in many places in my life . . . but Nova Scotia is where my heart and allegiance lay.
IF I am really on the ball on Sundays, I make good use of my slow cooker by popping dinner into it before we leave for church. This week I got lucky and got this lovely Merlot Beef Ragout on quite early in the morning, so it was cooked to perfection by the time we got home. Some rice and a couple of veg and dinner was served in short course! I love it when that happens. I am usually starving when we get home!
It's been positively frigid here today in the North West, which is a shame really as it seems as if we have had no summer at all this year. A few days which we could call warm, but that was it.
The fiddliest bits are grating the cheese and peeling the potatoes.
There's nothing too out of the ordinary here . . . bacon, cabbage, onions . . . Gruyere and Cheddar cheeses . . . dried herbs, and some chicken stock and that's basically it!
The end result is a simple, yet hearty soup that is deeply satisfying and quite filling, and very,very delicious! My husband likes his with buttered bread . . . myself . . . I'm a cracker girl. ☺
Today was definitely soup weather and what a soup this is! Cabbage Soup with Cheese! This is one of my favourite soups, and I don't make it near often enough. I say that to myself every time I make it!
Not only is it delicious but it's really quick to make as well. Once you have all of the vegetables chopped, it goes together lickety split.
And none of the veg has to be precisely cut either, so that makes it even quick.
The fiddliest bits are grating the cheese and peeling the potatoes.
I always buy little tubs of already chopped bacon/pancetta/lardons which I keep in the freezer so that if I am ever in a real hurry, I can just throw them in as they are.
There's nothing too out of the ordinary here . . . bacon, cabbage, onions . . . Gruyere and Cheddar cheeses . . . dried herbs, and some chicken stock and that's basically it!
The end result is a simple, yet hearty soup that is deeply satisfying and quite filling, and very,very delicious! My husband likes his with buttered bread . . . myself . . . I'm a cracker girl. ☺
Who would have thought that at the beginning of September you would be wanting to tuck into a nice hot bowl of soup.
The weather is just crazy . . .
This soup recipe is an oldie but a goodie. I think you will love it. It's almost like a cabbage chowder.
*Cabbage Soup with Cheese*
Serves 4 to 6
Printable Recipe
My goodness but this is tasty. Just perfect for these cooler autumn nights when one has been out and about in the chill. Makes a sturdy lunch, and a delicious light supper, especially when accompanied with some crusty bread or homemade scones!
8 ounces streaky bacon chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1 bunch spring onions, chopped
1/2 head of cabbage, coarsely chopped
2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
2 1/2 pints chicken stock
1 tsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp dried chervil
1/4 tsp dried tarragon
1/4 tsp dried chives
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 ounces emmenthaler cheese, grated
4 ounces strong cheddar cheese, grated
6 ounces double cream
1/2 tsp dried dill tops
a few dashes of tabasco sauce
Heat a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring, until partially crisp. Scoop out with a slotted spoon and set aside.
*Cabbage Soup with Cheese*
Serves 4 to 6
Printable Recipe
My goodness but this is tasty. Just perfect for these cooler autumn nights when one has been out and about in the chill. Makes a sturdy lunch, and a delicious light supper, especially when accompanied with some crusty bread or homemade scones!
8 ounces streaky bacon chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1 bunch spring onions, chopped
1/2 head of cabbage, coarsely chopped
2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
2 1/2 pints chicken stock
1 tsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp dried chervil
1/4 tsp dried tarragon
1/4 tsp dried chives
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 ounces emmenthaler cheese, grated
4 ounces strong cheddar cheese, grated
6 ounces double cream
1/2 tsp dried dill tops
a few dashes of tabasco sauce
Heat a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring, until partially crisp. Scoop out with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Add the chopped onions and cabbage to the drippings. Cook and
saute for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft, stirring
occasionally.
Add the potatoes and chicken broth. Stir in the parsley,
chervil, tarragon, chives and potatoes. Bring to the boil.
Immediately reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes, or until
the potatoes are quite tender.
Just before serving add the cheeses and
cream. Stir to melt the cheese and heat without boiling. Add the
bacon, dill and tabasco sauce. Taste and adjust seasoning as
necessary. Serve hot. Do Not Boil.
We've had a couple of really cool, breezy and showery days this past week and that has called for some belly warming meals. This is one of my favourites. It's simple and quick to make (like, like) and quite delicious. It's like a thick bean stew, but filled with fabulous flavours that really please!
This was something that I made at the weekend, and am only now getting on to writing about it on here. I actually made it on Saturday, and then warmed it up in the slow cooker on Sunday when we were at church.
This is a delicious dish I made a while back and am only getting around to showing you now. It's a delicious Greek Stew made with lamb shoulder, tomatoes, wine and a variety of spices. It may not look like much, but it's really fabulous!
Sunday lunch/dinner is a huge tradition over here in the UK . . . with roast dinners and all the trimmings. In fact in most pubs on a Sunday you can't order off the menu. It's roast dinner or nothing. Mind you, most give you a choice or beef, pork, lamb or turkey, so it's not that bad really. We don't eat out on Sundays and we never have a roast dinner at home. We spend half of the day in church and to be honest . . . when I get home I can't be asked to cook a big roast dinner then.
I think it's pretty much a given that whenever we go to a pub for a meal out Todd will order a steak pie and I'll order the fish and chips. They invariably disappoint however . . . which says more about the type of restaurant we can afford to eat in rather than the restaurant themselves. I guess when you are used to eating really good food at home then it's not that hard to be disappointed when you go out to eat!
I have quite a few cookbooks in my collection actually. I've never actually counted them all . . . but there were (at last count) probably close to 1000. (Don't judge me.) I've been collecting cookbooks since I was about 16 and as I am now 59 (how did that happen???), that's a pretty long time. I do have my favourites and I wanted to show you one of those today . . . it also happens to be one of my oldest ones. In fact . . . this cookery book was published before I was even born.
With Halloween only 11 days away I've been working on creating some lovely Halloween treats and dinners in my kitchen. I just love the holidays and I especially love Halloween. I miss having the children around these days of course as there are only the two of us, but that doesn't mean that we can't enjoy ourselves and chow down on some tasty Halloween goodies anyways!
Continuing on with my week of celebrations, I just have to share with you one of my favourite soup/stews! Corn Chowder! This is a hearty family favourite that I have been making for my family and myself for many, many years. It is a tried and true!
It is chock full of vegetables . . . potatoes (of course!) celery, onions, carrots . . . and of course bacon. I use pancetta these days because I like the flavour of it, but you can use just ordinary bacon. I like the thicker cut bacon, and if you are lucky enough to be able to find home smoked bacon, then you are in for a real treat!
Food seems to be getting more expensive with each week that passes. It is becoming increasingly difficult to feed a family well, and still stay within a budget.
It's ironic that the things which are the healthiest are the things which cost the most in the shops and it's the stuff which is loaded in sugar, fat and calories that are the cheapest.
Walk down the aisles in any grocery shop and you will see what I mean.
Walk down the aisles in any grocery shop and you will see what I mean.
There's lots on offer for a pound, but it's all sausage rolls (mostly fatty pastry and cheap fatty sausage, and not much of that!) jumbo packets of crisps, candy bars, cakes filled with chemicals and artificial flavours, etc.
It's the same in the frozen food section . . . lots of ice cream bars and chips on offer, pizzas, but not a lot that is healthy really. The last time I bought some apples, I paid more than 50p per apple and that's the truth!
Another thing I have noticed of late is that sizes are getting smaller. They may be charging the same prices for certain things . . . but the tins are smaller, etc.
Another thing I have noticed of late is that sizes are getting smaller. They may be charging the same prices for certain things . . . but the tins are smaller, etc.
Oh . . . and don't get me started on toilet paper. Have you noticed how big around the paper tube in the middle has gotten?
It looks the same from the outside of the roll, but with the inner tube having doubled in size, you are only getting half the amount of loo-roll these days.
I was recently challenged to create a meal for a family of four for less than a fiver. It wasn't easy but I managed to do it and I think I did it very well, if I don't say so myself.
I was recently challenged to create a meal for a family of four for less than a fiver. It wasn't easy but I managed to do it and I think I did it very well, if I don't say so myself.
I created a simple dish of Chicken with Cheesy Dumplings, which I think is relatively low in fat, with lots of veg, and a goodly amount of chicken.
I had gotten a package of chicken breasts, with two nice sized ones in the pack, for £3. I cut them into strips and ended up with a nice little pile of chicken.
I had gotten a package of chicken breasts, with two nice sized ones in the pack, for £3. I cut them into strips and ended up with a nice little pile of chicken.
With a bit of veg and a bit of stock, I created a tasty chicken stew chock full of flavour, with peas and carrots and onions.
I then topped this delicious stew with some fluffy dumplings, which I added a bit of cheese to for a bit of extra flavour.
I then topped this delicious stew with some fluffy dumplings, which I added a bit of cheese to for a bit of extra flavour.
The end result was a very delicious meal for four, made from scratch, and coming in at less than a fiver. You could add some mashed potatoes to make it even more filling if you wished.
We both liked this. It really was quite good and fed us for two meals.
*Chicken and Cheesy Dumplings*
*Chicken and Cheesy Dumplings*
Cheap and cheerful. Who doesn't like chicken and dumplings. If you buy your chicken breasts on sale and freeze them individually, you can bring this delicious entrée in for less than a fiver.
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 TBS cooking oil
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp dried sage
2 TBS plain flour
428ml chicken stock (use a stock cube and equivalent in water, 14 1/2 ounces)
225ml water (separate from above, 1 cup)
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
150g frozen peas (1 cup)
2 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
For the dumplings:
200g of plain flour (2 cups)
4 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 TBS white vegetable fat
2 ounces grated strong cheddar cheese (1/2 cup)
180ml of milk (3/4 cup, you may not need it all)
4 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 TBS white vegetable fat
2 ounces grated strong cheddar cheese (1/2 cup)
180ml of milk (3/4 cup, you may not need it all)
Season the chicken pieces with the salt and black pepper. Heat the oil in a large skillet which has a tight fitting lid. Add the chicken. Cook and stir until almost cooked through. Add the carrots and onions. Cook and stir for a few minutes, then add the stock, parsley and sage. Cover tightly and cook for about 5 minutes. Stir in the frozen peas. Bring back to the boil, then reduce, cover and simmer for a further few more minutes, until the carrots are tender and the chicken is cooked through. Shake the flour in a jar with the additional water. Pour this into the chicken mixture, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to bubble and thicken. Taste and adjust seasoning as required.
While the chicken is cooking make the dumplings. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Drop in the vegetable fat and rub it in with your finger tips until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in the cheese and the milk to make a soft dough that easily drops from a spoon.
Using a tablespoon, drop the dumpling dough over top of the hot bubbling chicken mixture in dollops. Cover tightly with the lid and cook for 12 to 15 minutes or until the dumplings are well puffed up and look dry on top and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Don't be tempted to peek ahead of time. Divide the chicken stew and dumplings between four heated plates and serve hot.
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