Tag: traditional

Lentil Soup

The taste of this soup hangs on a bay leaf and white pepper. My take on a traditional winter soup. This one is blended, but you could make a broth type soup by chopping the veg finely, and not blending. If you don’t like chopping – blend!

Ingredients:
1 & 1/2 cup of red lentils
2 medium onions
3 medium carrots
2 medium potatoes
4 sticks of celery (big outer ones for flavour)
1 big tomato
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp white pepper
salt to taste

Chop the onion and fry in your soup pan untll soft n browning. Peel and chop the carrots and potatoes – add to the pan.

Chop the celery – short pieces across the grain – it blends easier. Add to the pot, along with the bay leaf, and lentils.

Add enough boiling water to submerge the veg +1cm. Boil till the lentils are falling apart, and the veg softened. Blend! Its easier with a wand blender, but any will do – watch out for splashes, its hot. If you’re opposed to blending, then go at the veg with a potato masher at this point.

Add the white pepper and salt to taste.

Sables

200g plain flour
80g icing sugar
pinch salt
3 egg yolks
130g unsalted butter, cold & diced
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg beaten, to glaze

Mix the flour, sugar and butter to a ‘fine sand’ then add the egg yolks to make a firm dough. chill for 15 mins in the fridge.

Roll out to 5mm thick, and cut to rounds with a fluted cutter. place on a baking sheet and brush with egg. chill for 15 mins. brush again and nake at 180˚c for12 mins

Current Squares

Pastry-
12oz plain flour
6oz butter
pinch salt
Cold water

filling-
6oz currents
2oz peel
2oz brown sugar
1 grated apple
1/2tsp mixed spice
1 lemon rind
1-2tsp lemon juice
1oz butter

Make a short crust pastry, and roll 1/2 into a 12″x8″ swiss roll tin

mix filling and spread evenly on the pastry

cover with other 1/2 of pastry & prick with fork

bake in a moderate oven for 25-35mins, dust with castor sugar and cut into squares whilst still hot.  allow to cool before removing from tin.

Tripe & Onions

OK -first the warning. I’ve never made this dish. My mum told me about Grandma (Aunt Nora) making this. She told me the tripe was cooked in milk, and I’ve sniffed round the internet to find a Lancs recipe for Tripe and Onions – for the sake of history rather than gastronomy.

Tripe is a cow’s stomach lining. You can get blanket, honeycomb or thick seam – depending on which stomach it comes from – 1st, 2nd or 3rd respectively.
Tripe is usually sold cleaned and parboiled. (AKA white tripe). Undressed tripe is green tripe, and usually only tackled by a butcher (who cleans it and par boils it)

1 lb dressed white tripe
1 pint full milk
3 medium onions,  sliced in 1/2 moons
pinch of grated nutmeg
1 bay leaf (optional)
salt and pepper to season
1 oz butter
3 tbsp plain flour
chopped fresh parsley, to garnish

In a saucepan cover the tripe with cold water, bring to the boil for  couple of minutes then drain and rinse under running cold water. Cut the tripe into 1 inch pieces.

In the pan, add the tripe, onions, milk bay and nutmeg and seasoning. Simmer for 2 hrs, or until tender. Strain off and keep 1 pint of ‘stock’ back.

 In a pan, make a white sauce with the butter, flour and milk stock. (melt the butter, add the flour, and stir till the roux is thick, add a little milk at a time, and cook out till smooth and thick. repeat till you have a sauce of the right consistency)
Add the cooked tripe and onions back to the sauce and serve. parsley on top for a spot of decoration.
 

Tartiflette

      I’ve been trying to find a good recipe for this savoyard region – and this is a bit of a mix of a few. I’ve seen a few recipes with cream, but am pretty sure this is wrong. I’m going with the bacon, spuds, onion and cheese version.
      • 5 medium potatoes (waxyish, or something that won’t fall apart)
      • pancetta (cubed smokey bacon. 1 big handfull/ 2 supermarket packs.)
      • an onion, sliced 
      • 1clove garlic
      • 1 petit reblochon cheese (bottom crust cut off
  1. Boil the potatoes and slice.
  2. fry the lardons, add the onions and finally garlic. (don’t overcook the garlic, it’ll taste nasty)
  3. In a dish, layer the potatoes with bacon/onion mix,  potato = top layer.
  4. Place the cheese on top (crust up). it’ll melt around the dish.
  5. Bake in a moderately hot oven until the cheese melts and bubbles.

Job done. You’re now a french peasant.

Beef Stew – Quick & Slow

I’ve bought a slow cooker, to prep meals for when we all come home at night.  First day I made the fastest slow cooked meal ever – before going to work I loaded the cooker in about 5 mins and turned it on. Got back at 6 to a stew all ready to eat. Yessss!

1lb lean beef
1 large Onion , diced
2 large carrots, diced
1 parsnip, diced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 can plum tomatoes
1 can equiv of water

seasoning.

Set on low for 8 hrs – might need to thicken the sauce a spot.