1. Place the vegetables, herbs (bouquet garni), seasonings and stock into a saucepan.
2. Bring to the boil. Cover and simmer on low for about 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.
3. Remove the bouquet garni.
4. Blend the cream and egg yolk together and whisk into the soup, heating thoroughly. Do NOT boil.
5. Adjust seasoning as required.
6. Ladle into hot soup bowls to serve, garnished with a bit of chopped fresh parsley.
3 sticks of celery, wiped, trimmed and finely diced
Cooking Times:
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
1. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.2. Heat the oil or dripping in a frying pan and lightly brown the vegetables in it. Scoop out and place into an oven proof dish. Season the chops on both sides and brown them in the remaining fat, then place them on top of the vegetables in the oven proof dish. Bring the stock to the boil and then pour it over all. Cover tightly and then place into the oven. Braise for 30 minutes, or until the chops are tender.3. Scoop the chops out and allow them to cool. Remove any bone and cut into chunks.
4. Blitz any stock in the dish with a stick blender until smooth. Set aside and keep warm.5. Boil the potatoes in lightly salted water until fork tender. Drain well and mash with the butter. Season to taste.
6. Use half of the potato to line a buttered 2 pint (2 cup) pie dish. Press well to the side and base.
7. Place the lamb over top of the potato.
8. Top with the remaining potato, roughing up the top a bit with a fork. Brush with a little milk, and dot with butter if desired.9. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until golden brown.
10. Just before serving, makie a hole in the top of the pie and pour in some of the gravy. Serve the remainder separately in a gravy boat. Serve with some steamed carrots and peas.
Ingredients:
oil or drippings1 carrots, peeled and chopped1 onion, peeled and chopped1 stick of celery, trimmed and chopped8 lamb chops, wiped and trimmed1 pint of rich brown stock or gravy (2 cups)3 pounds of potatoes, peeled and quartereda walnut sized knob of buttersalt and black peppera little milk and butter (optional)To serve: peas and carrots
Serves 4 people
Cooking Times:
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
(Click here for a Printable Recipe)
Frozen fruit baked into a buttermilk batter, served up warm, with a simple custard flavoured with Irish Cream. Not only is this simple to make, but also very quick. You can have everything ready to mix together ahead of time and just do the final mixing at the last minute so that it can bake while you are enjoying your main course. Everyone really enjoyed this. It does make roughly twice what you will need to feed four people, but leftovers are never a problem around here and I think you will find it to be so delicious that they won't be a problem around there either!
1. Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6.
2. Butter a 9 inch round cake tin really well and set aside. Alternately, spray with cake release spray.
3. Beat the butter and 100g (1/2 cup) of sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and the vanilla.
4. Sift together the flour, soda and baking powder. Add to the wet ingredients and mix just to combine.
5. Gradually whisk in the buttermilk. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin.
6. Arrange the frozen fruit evenly over top of the batter. Sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of sugar.
7. Bake for 30 minutes until lightly golden brown and cooked through.
8. While the cobbler is baking make the custard. Gently heat the custard through and whisk in the Irish Cream Liqueur. Keep warm.
9. Allow the cobbler to stand for 10 minutes before spooning out into heated serving bowls, along with some of the warm custard.
Ingredients:
65g of unsalted butter, slightly softened (1/4 cup)
100g plus 1 TBS for sprinking of Caster Sugar (1/2 cup, plus 1 TBS)
1 large free range egg
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
140g of plain flour (1 cup)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
125ml of buttermilk (1/2 cup)
1 bag (480g) frozen mixed berries, unthawed (12 ounces)
For the Custard:
1 large tub of ready made custard from the chiller cabinet
2 TBS Irish Cream Liqueur
Serves 8
Cooking times:
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
(For a Printable Recipe click here.)
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours!
~An Old Irish Blessing
I wish for each of you a very Happy Saint Patrick's Day. May it be filled with some love, laughter, good food and good friends.
We eat a lot of chicken in this house and I am always on the search for new ways to prepare it, so that it never becomes boring. Chicken is such a lovely protein in that it takes to other flavours very well and is so very adaptable. I discovered what looked to be a very delicious recipe for a Chicken Pot Pie Crumble on Pinterest last week. Chicken . . . Check! Pot Pie . . . Check!! Crumble . . . Check !!! The three together . . . well that just spells Winner Winner Chicken Dinner to me!
One of the blessings of having a food blog is that I occasionally get to try new products. That is something which I truly enjoy. I was recently sent a selection of Yushoi Snapea Rice Sticks to try out and I have to say I was pretty excited to receive them. I am always on the look out for a healthy snack to indulge in. I quite like potato crisps, but they're not really all that good for you are they . . . these looked to be a lot healthier.
This is a cookie I used to make for my kiddos quite often when they were growing up and who wouldn't love them? A tasty peanut butter cookie, topped with a milk chocolate candy kiss as soon as they come out from the oven. Peanut butter and milk chocolate . . . a marriage made in heavenly bliss!
Chocolate and Caramel Egg Stuffed Croissants. This quick and easy recipe is something delicious to make with any excess Easter Eggs you find yourself struggling with! (As if!)
All you need is some refrigerated croissant dough and some caramel stuffed milk chocolate Easter eggs.
The only care you need to take is to make sure that the egg is completely enclosed and that there are no holes in the buns for the chocolate to leak out.
An egg wash and a sprinkle of demerara sugar ensures that they are golden brown with just a hint of crunchy sweetness on the outsides.
You will also want to make sure that you let them sit for a few minutes prior to eating . . . the filling can be quite hot and candy is involved.
Everyone will be thoroughly delighted when they break them open and see all of that decadent chocolately loveliness lurking inside!
In honor of the daffodils which are coming into bloom now and the poem by William Wordsworth, I wanted to bake this lovely Seed Cake which was supposed to have been the favourite cake of William's sister Dorothy!
Seed cake is actually a very traditional cake which goes way back in British history. It was very popular in Victorian times, and a good seed cake recipe would have been included in most cookery books of that era.
This traditional British cake is flavoured with caraway or other flavourful seeds. Caraway seeds have been long used in British cookery, and at one time caraway-seed biscuits were prepared to mark the end of the sowing of the spring wheat.
I love caraway seed . . . and I love cake, especially this type of cake . . . the kind of cake which is perfect for enjoying mid afternoon with a nice hot drink . . . during your break from spring cleaning, coz . . . you're all doing that aren't you? ;-)
1 TBS milk
Did you know that Caraway Seeds are thought to aid digestion? They are from a herb related to the parsley family.
Bon Appetit! Happy Daffodil season.
Well, here we are. It's the end of the week and I find myself looking through the refrigerator to find all of the bits and pieces and trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
Not that I mind really . . . I quite like the challenge of looking in the refrigerator and seeing what I can come up with. It makes things more exciting.
I suppose my experience in years and years of cooking helps me a lot in that way . . . that and my love of all things culinary, because it means that I have a natural aptitude for knowing just what flavours go with what.
That is one of the things about cooking which really excites me. Being able to look at a bunch of ingredients and then turn them into something delicious!
Today I found a package of 3 pork loin chops, some rashers of streaky smoked bacon, half a cabbage, half a small bottle of apple juice, half a jar of apple sauce, and a tired looking carrot. I always have onions and potatoes in the larder.
Although there were only three loin chops in the pack, but they were rather thick and so I figured I could feed four people (two adults and two children) with this, adding some mash on the side.
I cooked the bacon and then crumbled it, setting it aside.
I could have browned the chops in the drippings, but there weren't many and so I added a tsp each of butter and olive oil, seasoned my chops really well with salt and pepper and thyme and then browned them off.
I then added an onion and the carrot (cut into half moons each) to the pan drippings and started softening them.
Once I got them really started I began to add the cabbage in handfuls along with a bit of apple juice, letting it wilt down a bit before I added more.
The cabbage was thinly shredded by hand, not too thin, but not too thick either.
Once I had all the cabbage in, I stirred in the apple sauce, apple juice, half of the crumbled bacon and gave it a good stir.
Apples and pork have a wonderful affinity for each other. They just go together like peas and carots. Did you know that quite often in the weeks just prior to slaughter time many farmers fatten their pigs up with apples? It is true. Apparently it sweetens the meat or some such.
Some apple cider vinegar was also added to counteract the sweetness of the applesauce. I nestled the partially cooked chops down into the mixture, covered it tightly and then let them simmer for a bit.
The end result being some really tender and juicy chops, in a flavourful vegetable sauce mixture that went down a real treat with a pile of mash on the side.
I love it when that happens. They do say waste not want not! And when you can make the bits left in the refrigerator taste as special as this did, you just know you have done a great job!
I think I could have added a bay leaf for even more flavours, but will save that now for next time. We both really enjoyed! My husband does love his chops!
Melt the butter together with the olive oil in a large skillet which has a lid. Season the chops all over with salt and pepper and sprinkle with thyme. Brown them well on all sides in the butter/olive oil mixture. Remove to a plate and keep warm.
Add the onions and carrots to the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens. Add the Cabbage a handful at a time, along with a bit of the apple juice, adding more cabbage as it wilts down. Add the remaining apple juice, the apple sauce and the vinegar.
Tuck the chops in amongst the cabbage mixture. Cover tightly and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the pork is cooked through and the flavours have nicely melded.
Sprinkle
with the crumbled bacon. Serve each chop with some of the cabbage
mixture. I served this with creamy mashed potatoes.
This was a really delicious way to eat some simple basic ingredients. I really hope you will be inspired to want to try it for yourself. I highly recommend!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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