Category Archives: Cooking

Nearly Rotten Vegetable Soup

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Anyone who follows my Twitter (@tee2072) knows that I had intended to make honey balsamic chicken on Monday. My fatal flaw was forgetting that I had used up the honey on Sunday glazing a gammon.

I was going to have it with Champ and cauliflower cheese and so the cauliflower and the spring onions have been staring at me, slowly going brown.

Well today Adam and I have been stuck in the house while the boiler is being repaired and so I decided to make soup!

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So I sweated down an onion along with the spring onions, added the cauliflower, poured in a pint of vegetable stock and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Then I warmed 1/2 cup milk in the micro and added that as well. I seasoned and let it simmer for another 5 minutes.

I then gave it a blend with my stick blender et viola! Nearly Rotten Vegetable Soup:

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I think it needs a better name…

Eating American…With A Twist

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As always we started the week with a meal plan:

Monday: hamburgers
Tuesday: fajitas
Wednesday: stir fry
Thursday: meatloaf
Friday: fried chicken

On Thursday our meal plan came to a screeching halt when we found ourselves in A&E because Adam was throwing up blood. By the time we got home and him into bed, all we wanted was pizza.

So Thursday’s meatloaf became Friday’s and Saturday became fried chicken, corn on the cob and champ.

Very American, except the champ, which is native to Northern Ireland.

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Fried Chicken

Fried chicken is, of course, native to the American South. This is a recipe I made up myself one day when I realized I forgot to buy eggs, since I used to dredge in egg and flour and fry. Now it’s a bit more complicated. But not really. 🙂

One chicken breast per person
3 or 4 heaped tablespoons flour
Mixed spices, whatever you like. We like a bit of spice so I use chilli powder and cayenne pepper.
Salt and Pepper
Water
Vegetable oil

Cut chicken into chunks.

Combine flour, spices, salt and pepper. Add enough water to make it liquid, but not runny. Coat chicken in batter.

Heat abut an inch of oil. Fry chicken until golden.

Eat!

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Champ (Sorry about the picture. Now you know why I rarely photograph food!)
(And, yes, that’s Adam’s plate. My regular plates do not teach a person how to count)
Champ is a Northern Irish dish. It is mashed potatoes with spring onion. You may call them salad onions or scallions.

500 grams potatoes, any sort. I usually use new potatoes because I hate peeling!
100 ml milk
10 grams butter/marg
5 – 6 spring onions, trimmed and cut into teeny tiny pieces.

Cook the potatoes until done. Drain and set aside.

Into the pot heat the milk with the butter and the spring onions until the milk tastes oniony.

Mash it all together. I usually do that in my food processor so the spring onions get even smaller.

Eat!

I have a feeling y’all know how to make corn on the cob. 🙂

Thanks to Everyone with Advice About The Burnt Pot

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but it’s still burnt. And I’ve done everything everyone has said, some of the twice.

So today I went pot shopping.

And found a 4 qt non-stick at TK Maxx for £19.99.

I am still working on The Burnt Pot, but I really can’t live without a good size sauce pan any longer. So I may wind up with two.

Or I may chuck The Burnt Pot in the bin.

It could go either way.

I Think I am Going to Cry…

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So today we are test driving our new slow cooker by making Nigella Lawson’s Gammon in Coca Cola. So far so good. Seems to have cooked well.

To go with it, I make my own apple sauce. It’s very easy to do, is a good way to use up oldish apples and has nothing in it but apples. Adam tends to wear his food, as 2 year old’s will, and we have noticed that when we have jarred apple sauce, his cheeks get very very red. I assume it’s from the sulphates. I think he has other allergies, which is a whole other post.

Anyway, I cut up my apples, put in some water and turn on the burner. Usually, 15 minutes later I have apples to be smushed into sauce.

I also had both of my ovens heating, one for roasted potatoes and one for glazing the gammon and when I smelled something burning I assumed it was something in one of the ovens, because they certainly could use a clean.

I was wrong.

Here is the pot, with the apples scraped out:

It is currently on the stove with baking soda and water and I am praying. I am not hopeful, however, as the outside of the bottom of the pot is black as well.

Hanky standing by as the tears form.

The ham was delish, BTW.