Chicken and Chorizo Bean Soup

This is my current favourite soup to make. It's especially good with home made chicken stock (recipe here) and leftover pieces of chicken from a roast, but if you use any decent chicken stock and leave out the chicken it'll still be good.

Ingredients

180g chopped chorizo
1 large red onion, chopped
1 leek, chopped
1 large carrot, diced
1 tsp oregano
2 bay leaves
1 tsp paprika
1 crushed clove garlic
1.2l chicken stock
1tbsp tomato puree
3 or 4 chopped freh tomatoes
2 tins beans (butter beans and black/borlotti beans are my favourites)
handful chopped cooked chicken (optional)
large handful sliced savoy cavage
80g mini pasta shells

-Start to fry off the chorizo in a dry soup pot
-Once the oil from the chorizo has coated the pan, add your chopped veg and herbs and continue to sweat on a medium to low heat until soft.
-Add the garlic and paprika a couple of minutes before the stock, tomaotes and puree
-Simmer for around 15mins before adding the rest of the ingredients.
-Simmer for a final 10 mins or until everything's cooked, season to taste, and serve.

Beef Stroganoff

This is just my version of the recipe but I like it, so you might too. Apart from having to be a little more careful about cooking the meat, this works exactly the same with pork. I like stroganoff with a mixture of wild and long grain rice, but you can also serve it with pasta or potatoes. If you've got a bottle of brandy or whisky then chuck a shot in, then either cook off the alcohol, or burn it off if you're badass and want to feel like a brilliant chef. Seves 4

Ingredients

500g thin frying steak, cut into strips
1 knob butter
2 medium onions, sliced
pack chestnut mushrooms, quartered
1 shot whisky or brandy (optional)
2 cloves crushed garlic
2tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
3-4tbsp sour cream

Fry the steak on a high heat till browned, then wrap in foil and set aside

Add the butter to the pan, turn down the heat and cook the mushrooms and onions for 15 mins

Add your whisky or brandy if you're using it. Burn or boil off the alcohol before adding the steak along with the garlic herbs and spices

Heat through or 1 or 2 mins, stir in the mustard and sour cream, adjust seasoning to taste and serve

Bolognese Sauce

This is probably something everyone can cook, but I thought I'd share the version I just made because I think it was pretty damn good. This is a fairly extravagant version, so feel free to chop and change. Also, some people will probably prefer more tomato in a bolognese, as there's not much in this version. I don't care if you use this recipe or not, but don't buy bolognese sauce in a jar, you're paying through the nose for a tin of tomatoes and a teaspoon of mixed herbs.

Ingredients
100g cubed pancetta
3 small diced onions (I did them in a food processor)
2 large grated carrots
500g lean beef mince
3 bay leaves
3tsp dried oregano
3 cloves crushed garlic
1 tbsp sundried tomato puree
2tbsp regular tomato puree
1 can tomatoes, blended
1 can full red wine
1 can full beef stock
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 pack mushrooms, thinly sliced

Fry off the pancetta in a large dry pan.

Once it starts to brown, add the onions and carrots and soften over a low heat for 10 mins

Add your mince and brown off with the veg

Chuck in the garlic and herbs when the meat's brown and cook for a further 2 mins or so.

Add your liquids and mushrooms and simmer for as long as you can bear. Top up the liquid if it starts drying out.

Once the mince is tender and the carrots are starting to disintegrate, remove the bay leaves, season well, and serve with pasta and a little parmesan if you have some knocking around.

Broccoli and Stilton Soup

This is one of my favourite soups, and I think I do an OK version of it. My version is thickened with potato rather than cream, which I prefer. I don’t really ‘do’ cream in soup. The amount of cheese you put in is kind of down to personal taste. Best served with crusty bread.

Ingredients

1 sliced onion
1 sliced leek
2 sliced carrots
1 diced baking potato
1 bay leaf
1 large head broccoli, cut into florets (cut the tough outer part of the stalk off and dice the rest)
2 chicken or vegetable stock cubes
100-150g Stilton

Soften the carrots, onion and leek in a little oil on a low heat for 15 mins.

Add the potato, bay leaf and stock cubes and cover with boiling water.

Simmer for 10-15mins, then add the broccoli (top up the water if needs be.

Cook fur a further 10 or so mins until the broccoli’s cooked, and then crumble in the Stilton

Retrieve the bay leaf, blend with a hand blender and adjust thickness and seasoning to taste (easy on the salt, it’ll already be quite salty from the cheese and stock cubes).

Roasted Cauliflower and Mature Cheddar Soup

I made this the other day, and I was really pleasantly surprised with the results. I'm always suspicious of cheese in soups bar broccoli and stilton (recipe forthcoming). You may have noticed I've started using Henderson's relish in soups. This is basically because it's less pungent than Worcestershire sauce, and it's suitable for vegetarians, so works better in vegetable soups. As you're blending the soup, there's no need to grate the cheese.

Ingredients

2 small heads of cauliflower or one v. large one, cut into florets
2 onions, sliced
2 or 3 veg stock cubes (to taste)
2 crushed cloves garlic
2 tsp dried parsley
2 bay leaves
1 heaped tsp wholegrain mustard
2tbsp Henderson's relish
100-150g mature cheddar cheese, sliced
200ml whole milk.

Roast the cauliflower in a medium oven with some oil, salt and pepper for about 20 minutes until it's golden

Meanwhile, soften the onions in your soup pot. Once the cauliflower's done, add the herbs and garlic to your onions, cook for a futher 1 or 2 minutes before adding the cauliflower and just covering in water.

Chuck in the stock cubes, Henderson's relish, and mustard and simmer until everything's tender.

Remove the bay leaves, add the milk and cheese, and blend.

Season to taste (you won't need much if any salt, but lots of black pepper is advised) and serve.

Pulled Pork Cheek in a Cider Cream Sauce

This was a triumph for the slow cooker. Pork cheeks are incredibly tender when cooked in this way, and the result is a pulled pork-style sauce that's fantastic served over pasta, on a jacket potato, or with rice. Please don't be perturbed by the cut of meat. If you eat meat, you should eat every part of the animal, and pork cheeks are one of the most flavourful parts of the animal.

Ingredients

8 pork cheeks
2 red onions, thinly sliced
2tsp sugar
1 pack chestnut mushrooms, sliced
1tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
2 Garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp whole grain mustard
Half a can/bottle dry cider
1 vegetable stock cube
Splash double cream

Caramelise the onions with the sugar in a little oil over a low heat for 15-20 mins. Add the herbs and garlic and cook for a further couple of minutes.

Add the onions to a slow cooker and fry off the mushrooms. Transfer to the slow cooker.

Brown the cheeks on a high heat and transfer to the slow cooker.

Add the cider, mustard and stock cube and top up with boiling water. Cook on LOW for 12-16 hours.
The cheeks will have mostly disintegrated, but you can help this along a little with a fork.

Finish the sauce with cream, and season to taste.

Veggie Burgers

Last night I had an urge to make burgers, and because I live with a vegetarian, I made veggie burgers too. As is often the case, I read a few recipes for veggie burgers, failed to memorise them and then made my own version. They worked pretty well, so I thought I'd put my recipe up here. This makes about 4 burgers. I served them with some rocket, a slice of mild cheese, a seeded bun and ketchup mixed with chipotle paste.

Ingredients

2 tins red kidney beans
2 small red onions
2 slices stale bread
1tsp cumin
1tsp coriander
1tsp smoked paprika
splash Henderson's Relish
splash Tabasco or other hot sauce

Place the bread in a blender and blend into crumbs

Add the onions, spices and sauces, and a little salt and pepper and blend again

Add the beans and give it a couple of bursts till they're broken up but not completely blended

Form into patties and fry in a little oil on a medium to low heat until golden brown and cooked through

Pie and Mash

This isn't a soup recipe but it's by far the best thing I've ever cooked. It's not particularly quick, simple, cheap or healthy, but it's well worth it. You could make regular mashed potatoes to go with this, but the flavours in this version go really well with the pie. If someone tells you that you should always make pastry from scratch, they're wrong and they're awful. Shop-bought pastry is fine. Everyone knows this. I served this pie with honey and thyme roasted baby carrots and steamed savoy cabbage. This recipe serves 4

Pie Ingredients

5-600g shin beef or stewing steak cut into 1 inch cubes
350ml Badger beer 'Poacher's Choice' (or another dark beer)
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2tsp black peppercorns
2 tsp garlic puree

(Marinate these ingredients together overnight in a non-metal bowl. Tie the herbs together with a piece of string.)

2 tbsp seasoned flour
4 rashers streaky bacon, cut into lardons
knob of butter
12-15 small round shallots, peeled
1 pack button mushrooms
1 litre decent beef stock
2 tbsp tomato puree
2tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2tsp dried mixed herbs
2 bay leaves
1 pack puff pastry
1 beaten egg

Fry off the bacon in a big frying pan until crisp, then transfer it into a large stew pot.

Strain off the beef, retaining the beer and the herbs. Coat the beef in the flour and brown it off in the bacon fat over a high heat. you may need to do this in a couple of batches. Transfer the browned meat into your stew pot.

Add a knob of butter to the frying pan and brown the shallots and mushrooms. Sprinkle over any remaining flour. Transfer the veg into the pot.

De-glaze the frying pan with the beer and then add it to your pot with the meat and veg. Add the herbs from the marinade, as well as all the other ingredients, bar the beef stock. Top up the stew with stock as and when it is needed.

Either simmer the stew on a low heat on the stove, or put it in the oven at gas mark 3 for about 2 and a half hours, till the beef is tender. When it is done, you should have a thick stew. Season to taste.

Using a slotted spoon, add the meat and veg to a pie dish, and pour over some of the liquid from the pot, making sure to remove the bay leaves, rosemary and thyme. You should have a fair bit of the liquid left over. Retain this.

Roll out your puff pastry, cover the pie dish, and glaze with the beaten egg.

Pop it in the oven at gas mark 5 for about half an hour, or till the pastry is golden brown.

When you're ready to serve, heat up the remaining liquid with a bit more beef stock for a gravy.


Mash Ingredients

4 baking potatoes
4-6 finely chopped spring onions
knob butter
2 heaped tsp wholegrain mustard
Splash single cream
handful chopped chives

Boil and mash the potatoes as you normally would.
Soften the spring onions in the butter a little, then stir them into the mash along with the other ingredients, and plenty of seasoning.

Mushroom-strone

This recipe came from not having a good mushroom soup recipe or a decent vegetarian minestrone recipe. I personally think blended mushroom soup is kind of hard to pull off, and if you want an easy mushroom soup, this is a pretty good place to start. Buying bags of 'soup mix' from supermarkets is a good way to save time and money. They're just a collection of dried veg and pulses, usually either with or without pasta. Feel free to use whatever mushrooms you like, or a mixture, but if you only have button or chestnut, that's fine too.

Ingredients

2 medium red onions, chopped,
3 celery sticks, chopped
3 large handfuls mushrooms, quartered
1 large red chilli, chopped into rings
3 crushed cloves garlic
1tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp sundried tomato puree (or regular tomato puree)
2 1/2 vegetable stock cubes
couple of handfuls of soup mix with pasta.

Soften the onions, celery, mushrooms and half the chilli in a little oil for 10-15 mins

When the onions are translucent, add the garlic and herbs and cook for a further couple of minutes

Add the rest of the ingredients along with enough water to give the consistency you're after. Simmer on a medium/low heat with a lid on your pot.

When the pulses are cooked through, add the rest of the chilli, and some more water if you need to, season to taste (I recommend a LOT of black pepper), and serve.

Chicken and Beans

This is a really simple and versatile stew that's a regular in my cooking habits. It's really hard to get wrong, and it's perfect for a winter evening. You can use whatever beans you like really, but I do recommend using more than one different kind. Last time I made it I used my two favourites, black beans and butter beans, but you can use anything you can get your hands on. If you've got the end of a bottle of white wine, chuck it in, but you can still make an amazing stew without it, I promise. I think this is best served with crusty bread.

Ingredients:

6 whole chicken thighs, skinless and boneless
1tbsp seasoned flour
2 white onions, finely chopped.
2 crushed cloves garlic
about 1 litre chicken stock
splash white wine (optional)
1 large tsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
2 tins of beans
large handful of green beans, or a mug of frozen peas

Soften the onions in a little oil for a few minutes, before adding the chicken.

Brown off the chicken, before adding the garlic, herbs and seasoned flour and cook for a further 1 or 2 mins on low.

Pour in the stock, and wine if you're using it.

Simmer on a low heat for about 25 minutes, allowing the stock to thicken and reduce.

Once the chicken is cooked through, add the green beans if you're using them and cook for 3 or 4 mins.

Add the peas (if you're using them) and tinned beans and simmer until they're cooked through.

Season to taste.