Ham & Pea Soup

My father loved this soup and used to make it during the winter months.

We would always know that a split pea and ham soup was on its way when we saw the lentils soaking over night on the counter top.

Every Saturday Daddy and I would visit his favourite delicatessen in the nearest town, and amongst the usual cheeses and charcuterie, we always had hand carved off the bone ham.

Whenever my father fancied this soup, he would ask the deli to keep the ham bone for him.

This is a great soup to make in the morning before going out in the cold, as it happily sits on the hob for hours. I fondly remember the warm comforting delicious aroma of the ham soup bubbling away gently on the aga.

I wasn't able to obtain an entire bone, but was able to get a 1.5kg ham knuckle from my butcher.

Unfortunately, Alex didn't seem as excited as we were when he saw the lentils on our kitchen counter top!

Here's what I used:-

1.5kg knuckle of ham
500g green lentils
A couple of onions, chopped
A couple of carrots, chopped
A couple of sticks of celery, chopped
A handful of bay leaves
A handful of whole black peppercorns

Put everything in a very large pot, and cover with cold water.

Bring to the boil, and simmer gently for a couple of hours.

Remove the ham knuckle, and blend the soup, as I like it smooth.  Strip the meat off the bone and keep warm.  There will be more than enough ham for the soup servings, and I usually like to use the leftovers in a chicken, ham and mushroom pie.

Ladle the soup into bowls, adding nice chunks of the cooked ham....sprinkle with a little chopped parsley and snipped chives.

Serve with cheesy Irish wheaten bread crutons....

and of course....
.....with love...xoxo

Soupa Rizi Avgolemono

As I mentioned a few days ago, Alex and I were feeling rather under the weather.  Now we all know that when a man is exposed to any form of the treacherous Common Cold, they fall prey to a gravely serious illness widely known as “Man Flu”.

To date, (unfortunately for us), no complete cure has been found for the vicious and dilapidating “Man Flu”, and we must pander to our poor, injured little soldiers as they hover around death’s door. 

In times of such affliction and convalescence, a man will need his wife or mother, or preferably both, to be on 24 hour duty to mollycoddle him back into the land of the living.

Unfortunately for me Alex’s mother wasn’t to hand, but I did remember how to make the Cypriot version of the wondrous chicken soup.

I usually make my own spicy Asian inspired chicken soup, but Avgolemoni is perfect for colds, and for Alex this soup embodies TLC in a bowl.  Avgolemoni is a lovely silky soup, full of vitamin C, protein, and rice and it is very comforting indeed.  Usually for an entire family, you would use a whole chicken, however, I didn’t have one to hand so I defrosted some chicken legs that I had in the freezer for a rainy day.

I have spoken to several Cypriot women about the best way to make Avgolemoni, taken notes, and this is my version of the Cypriot classic.

Here’s what I used:

4 organic free range chicken legs

1 small carrot + 2 bay leaves + 1 small onion, peeled + pinch of whole black peppercorns

(as if you were making a normal chicken stock)

½ a mug of basmati rice, starch rinsed off

2 organic free range eggs

3 lemons

Sea salt and black pepper

Put the chicken legs, carrot, bay, onion, and peppercorns in a large pot, and cover entirely with cold water.

Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat to medium so that it doesn’t bubble and overflow whilst it simmers away.

15 minutes later the chicken will be cooked, so remove the chicken and vegetables.

Now skim the scum off of the surface of the stock.

Take the skin off the chicken and discard.  It was important to keep the skin on during cooking, as it keeps the flesh moist, but we definitely don’t want to eat it now.

Take the meat off the bones, and place the bones back into the stock.  Put the rice into the stock and cook until just under done.  This should only take around 15 minutes.

In a bowl whisk the juice of two lemons together with two eggs.  Add a little of the chicken stock into this eggy mixture, whisking continuously.  Add ladle by ladle until the eggy mixture is warm.

Remove the bones from the stock pot.  Add the eggy mixture to the soup whisking continuously.

You will see the soup turn opaque to a creamy yellow colour.  This is exactly what you want. 

Check for seasoning now, add salt and pepper as necessary.  Simmer the soup for a few minutes, but do not boil.

Serve with the cooked chicken, extra wedges of lemon, and some warm crusty bread….

…….and of course with love….xoxo……..

Carrot & Coriander Soup

I, like many other brides-to-be have put myself on a strict diet - if there's one day a girl can be the belle of the ball, it is on her wedding day!  I, like many other women, struggle with my weight.  Having transitioned from a carefree young woman who could eat as much as she liked, go to the gym as little as she liked, and still be a size 8/10, to a more curvaceous woman in my late 20's, it took it’s toll on my self-esteem.

I am now taking charge.  Exercising on it's own is simply not enough.
One's diet is fundamental to healthy weight loss.

Winter is a tough time to watch the calories and fat intake.  When it’s cold, grey, damp and miserable, I, a self-confessed ‘foodie floozy’, usually sought solace in the usual winter comforts, Sunday roasts with the works, pasta dishes, baked potatoes, stews with mash, toad in the hole, sausages, fondue, bread…..(oh how I miss bread….).

One of the things I've taken to doing is making large vats of varying vegetable soups.  I can easily make a soup one morning, leave it on the hob, and heat it up and have it for a few days.  Please note, that soups, like many other things, only get better with age.

Here is the carrot and coriander soup that I made the other day......(needless to say I did not eat the bread that you spy in the picture......but I might have had a riot on my hands if I'd attempted to give Alex a bowl of soup on it's own!).  This was pretty cheap to make as I already had the stock cubes and herbs in the store cupboard, and the carrots, onions, and fresh herbs cost under £5!

Here's what I used:

1 kg carrots - peeled, topped and tailed, roughly chopped into similar sizes

2 onions - finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic - finely chopped

2 bay leaves

1 litre of vegetable stock

good seasoning with salt & white pepper

fresh coriander

3 tsp dried coriander

Heat the onions and garlic gently in olive oil over a gentle to medium heat.  Do not brown.  We want to bring out the natural sugars in the onion and garlic, and we can only achieve this with slow cooking. 

Once this looks translucent and is verging on the caramelised stage, add the carrots.  Cook the carrots a little with the onions and garlic, this will encourage some of the carrots natural sugars to be released also.

Add the dried coriander.  I always find that cooking spices helps to bring out depth of the flavour, as opposed to sprinkling them when the stock has been added.

Add the vegetable stock.

Add the bay leaves.

Bring to the boil. 

Transfer the pot to smallest ring on your hob, and turn the heat right down and simmer gently for around an hour.

(I actually went to the gym, and came back, and it was perfectly fine).

Take the soup off the heat. 

Now this is important, let the soup cool a little, before blending with a hand held blender stick.

I once made the mistake of trying to blend soup when it was still scalding hot.  I looked at my BlackBerry for what must have been no more than a millisecond, and before I knew it, molten hot butternut squash soup sprayed all over a beautiful silk Alberta Ferretti blouse, and of course every conceivable surface within a metre radius!  Lesson learned.

Yes, accidents happen, but darlings for the purposes of damage limitation, let's not burn ourselves, or damage clothes as well....!

Now is the time to check for seasoning.  Remember you can always add, but you can never take away, (how ironic - I really should have thought of that when consuming all those Singapore noodles over the last 29 years). 

Carrots and onions are sweet, and for me, soup should be savoury.  I like the hum of spicy white pepper, and I think it compliments the gentle heat of the coriander; however, you should just season to your liking.  You could also add a few chilli flakes if that takes your fancy.

Serve this hearty, winter warming soup, with a dollop of 0% fat Greek yoghurt and a sprinkling of fresh coriander and parsley.....oh and some warm, crusty French bread for those who are not yet at war with carbs.

Give yourself a big pat on the back....xoxo....