Ancient Grains soup - good health in a bowl!

 This soup is based on one of good old McKenzie’s soup mixes. I can’t recall when I first started using them but the company has been around since 1852. This mix is ancient grains not the bean mix, which I love, but the ingredients in this mix appealed to me – lentils both red and green, buckwheat, barley, split green peas, kibbled spelt. Just reading the ingredients is making me feel healthy already!

The soup has been decanted into freezer containers aleardy

Ingredients

1 cup Ancient Grain soup mix – picked and rinsed

1 Tbsp oil

1 lg onion diced

3-5 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 carrots, diced

2 celery sticks, sliced (leaves work well here too)

2 tomatoes, diced

1 medium zucchini, sliced (no need to peel)

2 litres vegetable or other stock

Lg handful of baby spinach leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

Sour cream, pesto, chili flakes to serve (all optional)

Method

Heat the oil and cook onion and garlic until tender

Add carrot and celery and cook for 2 mins then add, tomatoes, washed grain mix, stock and zucchini.

Bring to the boil and cook ~30 mins until grains are to your liking.

Add spinach last to just wilt

This quantity made enough for  9-11 serves.

The Chook's alternatives because there are always alternatives!

This is one of those soups that is ery tolerant of tweaking - just see what you have in the fridge.

Fry a couple of rashers of bacon with the onion mix

Add shredded cabbage in place of spinach (because I had it)

Add herbs – mint and parsley or oregano work well

Throw in a few dried shiitake mushrooms to add depth (remove them once the soup was cooked).

Sprinkled in some chili flakes while the soup was cooking. 

I used up cup of leftover pasta.  

I suspect it would be delish served with small croutons with grilled cheese a la French Onion soup

This quantity made enough for 10-11 serves.

Bon Appetit. Enjoy!

Rice and super green soup

 

This soup is packed with vitamins and minerals - a healthy choice and very quick and easy to make.

Ingredients
1 1/2 Tbsp EVO
2 bacon rashers, chopped
500g packet frozen peas
1 brown onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1.5 lt chicken stock
3/4 cup jasmine rice
250g packet frozen chopped spinach, thawed
To serve:
100g Danish fetta
crumbled bacon
fresh mint leaves

Method
Heat 2 tsp oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add bacon. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until golden and crisp. Drain on paper towel (either discard fat or use it to fry the onions).
Meanwhile, place peas in a heatproof bowl. Cover with boiling water. Stand for 2 mins. Drain. Transfer half the peas to a food processor. Process until almost smooth.
Heat remaining oil in pan over med heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 3 mins. Add stock. Bring to the boil over high heat. Stir in rice and processed peas. Boil for 10 mins or until rice is tender. Add spinach and remaining peas. Bring to the boil.

Serve soup topped with bacon, fetta and mint. Depending on the rice you might need to add  little water to thin it down.

Blackcurrant jam

 

Ingredients

600g blackcurrants (strip off the stalks)

~ 400g white caster or granulated sugar

juice of ½ a lemon

Method

Sterilise your jars (I do mine in microwave or dishwasher). 

Tip the blackcurrants into a heavy-based saucepan with about 100ml of water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 mins until the fruit has broken down to a chunky pulp. Leave to cool slightly.

You now have 2 options. For a smooth jelly-style jam, squash the fruit through a sieve into a bowl. If you prefer your jam chunky and seeded, leave the pulp as it is. Whether it's strained or unstrained, weigh the fruit pulp and then add 400g of sugar to every 500g of pulp, then tip pulp back in the saucepan.

Pour in the lemon juice then heat gently, stirring, to dissolve the sugar completely. Turn up the heat, then boil hard for about 10 mins or until it reaches 105C on a cooking thermometer (the setting point evidently). If you don’t have a cooking thermometer, put a saucer in the freezer. You all know this but to test for setting point, spoon a little jam onto a cold saucer. After a couple of mins gently push your finger through the jam – if the surface wrinkles, it's ready. If not, return to the boil for 2 mins, then re-test.

Take off the heat and skim off any froth with a slotted spoon. Cool for 10-15 mins. Stir gently to distribute the fruit, then ladle into sterilised jars. Keeps for 6 months in a cool dry cupboard – at least.

Chook’s note: Adjust the quantities up or down depending on the amount of fruit you have,  My fruit all had the remnants of the flowers attached and I thought that I would perhaps strain the pulp and make jelly rather than have floaties but the dead petal remains disintegrated leaving a glorious jewel-like textured potful.

The flavour is so worth the small amount of time spent cooking these wee berries. The colour is simply stunning.

I use this h=jam as the base for a gastrique *see elsewhere.

Guacamole

Ingredients
1-2 ripe avocados, depends on size
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp fresh lime or lemon juice
3 to 4 Tbsp minced red onion or thinly sliced green onion
1 to 2 serrano (or jalapeño) chilis, stems and seeds removed, minced
2 Tbsp fresh (or semi-dried) coriander (leaves + tender stems), finely chopped
Pinch freshly ground black pepper
Optional - 1/2 ripe tomato, chopped and added just before serving

Method
Cut the avocados in half, remove the pit, scoop out the flesh.
Using a fork, roughly mash the avocado. 
Sprinkle with salt and lime (or lemon) juice. The acid in the lime juice will provide some balance to the richness of the avocado and will help delay the avocados from turning brown.
Add the chopped onion, cilantro, black pepper, and chilis. Chili peppers vary individually in their heat, so start with a half of one chili pepper and add more to the guacamole to your desired degree of heat.
Serve immediately or if it is to be used later, cover with plastic wrap, press plastic down on to surface 
Refrigerate leftover guacamole up to 3 days.

Chook’s note:  A simple recipe made in minutes. I have frozen this when I had a glut but it’s best served fresh.
There are all  manner of variations to this, it's really a matter of taste and time! Here are a couple of simple ones:
1/4 cup salsa mixed with a mashed avo.
Mashed avo with a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon and perhaps a sprinkle of chili flakes

'Kashmir' Lamb - a 1982 mock up

 

Woman's Day May 4 1982 - almost a collector's item!

Ingredients
1 Tbsp oil
1 onion, sliced
½ capsicum, sliced
1 Tbsp parsley, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 Tbsp pine nuts
½ cup raisin
3 cups cooked rice
1 cup cooked lamb, sliced
3 beef stock cubes crumbled 
A little water if needed
1 Tbsp curry powder

Method
Heat oil in large frying pan. Add onion, capsicum, parsley and garlic.
Cook until soft, stirring occasionally.
Mix in crumbled stock cubes and remaining ingredients.
Gently stir over a medium heat until all ingredients are combined and heated thoroughly. 

Chook’s note:  The page I tore out of the magazine containing this recipe (see above) is a bit ragged and splattered but this is the recipe as it appear all those years ago - the TV recipe of the week!
I substitute the pine nuts with almonds and I reckon you could make lots of other substitutes. It’s not haute cuisine (I think I had simpler tastes back then and the kids liked it) but it's simple and cheap and a great way to use up left over roast meat (if you have any!).

Roast chicken pie

Ingredients
Short and puff pastry bottom and top
½ roast chicken shredded
1 tbsp olive oil
3 rashers smoked streaky bacon, chopped into lardons
1 leek or onions, sliced into rounds
45g butter (or less)
45g plain flour (or less0
120ml milk
100ml chicken stock
50g peas
Sliced mushrooms (2-3)
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
25g pack parsley, roughly chopped
1 egg, beaten, to glaze

Makes 1 lg(23cm) pie or if you have lots of filling 1 lg and 1 sm.

Method
Heat oven to 220C/200C fan.
In a large, non-stick frying pan, heat the oil, then fry the bacon. Once browned, reduce the heat, add the leeks/onions and cook until they have softened. Mix the butter and flour into a paste and add to the pan, stirring to coat the bacon and leeks. Add sliced mushrooms and cook a couple of mins. 
Slowly add the milk, stirring constantly to ensure the mixture doesn’t get lumpy. Add the chicken stock and peas, cook for 2 mins, then add the mustard and remove from the heat.
Add chicken to the pan with the parsley.

Line pie dish, spoon in filling and top with pastry. Crimp and seal the edges. Brush with the beaten egg, then cut a few slits in the middle for steam to escape. Bake for 45 mins until golden. 

Chooks note: I sprinkle the top with slightly crushed fennel and/or carraway seeds. The pie freezes well. The pie in the pic was made with all short crust pastry but s flakey top is lovely.

Slow cook Rabbit stew

 

Ingredients
1 small rabbit, cleaned and jointed (into large chunks – maybe 4)
Flour for dusting
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
2 rashers of smoky bacon cut in large strips
1 onion diced plus 2-3 spring onions cut in batons
1 medium carrot cut in chunks
1-2 bay leaves (I find they can be astringent so use your own judgement on number)
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 whole Allspice berries
100ml red wine
150ml chicken stock
1 Tbsp tomato paste
2-3 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped OR half tin of diced tomatoes
A spring of dried oregano or 1/2 tsp dried oregano
Parsley stalks
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Optional 1-2 shiitake mushroom – fresh or dried (I simply chopped the dried mushrooms and buried them in the pot)

Method
Wash the rabbit pieces well, then pat dry and dust with flour. Heat the olive oil in a large pan and lightly fry with the bacon. Place meat in slow cooker
Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot. Season with a little salt and pepper and cover the ‘crock’ pot (this can also be done in a slow oven).
Cook on high for 45 mins then reduce heat to low and cook for 5-6 hrs until the rabbit is tender. Check and give a light stir occasionally.
You can thicken the sauce near the end if it is too liquid but serve with risoni or rice and that will sop up that delicious juice (almost the best part).

Depending on size of rabbit, this will serve 4-6 people.

Chooks note:  I haven’t tried this but my taste buds say that fennel would go very well with this dish. Recommend you quarter a few fennel bulbs, lightly fry in EVO and add to the pot an hour or so before the end of the cooking time.  A nice garnish would be a handful of crispy butter-fried sage leaves but the dish really stands alone.

If you’re lucky enough to get the heart and kidney, save them for a breakfast fry-up with a tiny bit of mustard, tomato paste or Worcestershire sauce, onion and bacon.