Chicken, leek and sweet potato soup

We had a roast chicken on Monday evening as The Woo had been thinking about one all day.  Plenty for Sam, her and I on the night and a little left on the carcass for me to pick off today before making a lovely light chicken stock from the bones.  Into a stock pot went the picked over carcass, a roughly chopped carrot, a quartered onion, a chopped leek, a stick of celery, a couple of bay leaves and a few peppercorns.  There was plenty of salt still on the leftover chicken skin and I also bunged in the onion, lemon, thyme and garlic that I had stuffed into the bird's cavity before roasting.  This was all covered with water, brought to the boil and then simmered slowly for about an hour or so.

Once cool I passed the whole lot through a sieve and discarded everything except the stock.

I decided to use the leftover chicken, bulked up with some fresh from the supermarket; in a chicken, leek and sweet potato soup.

Into the stock went four peeled and chopped potatoes, a chopped leek and carrot and a sliced onion all of which had been slightly softened in a little butter.  Brought to the boil and simmered for about 30 minutes until all the vegetables were cooked.  Blitzed together until smooth.  Into this then went two diced sweet potatoes, two sliced leeks and four chicken thighs which had been cut into bite-sized pieces and then browned in butter.  Once again was careful not to get too much of the butter into the soup as I didn't want it to become greasy.  About five minutes before serving I added the leftover chicken which had been picked off the carcass from Monday.

We had ours with some experimental cheesy Yorkshire puddings which I had flavoured with paprika and oregano.

Sausage pasta bake

The Woo was up and out fairly early (for a Sunday) to watch Jack have his first horse ride.  We then looked after him for a bit while his Annie helped out with some horsey stuff and then Ben dropped her off for a late lunch as he has to work.  We had some smoked sausage and chorizo that needed using up so I nipped into town for a few extra food bits we needed and got myself a new diary at the same time.  Sausage pasta bake for the grownups and a plate of cheesy chips for the Jackaman.

The pasta sauce was made as previously blogged and then mixed with a couple of packets of elicoidali pasta. All into a large dish and liberally sprinkled with a good few handfuls of grated cheddar.  Into a 180* oven for about 25 minutes until the cheese had melted to a golden goodness.  Four of us eating so I made enough for eight so as to have enough for a bit of lunch tomorrow.

Elicoidali pasta - medium sized tubes similar to rigatoni but slightly narrower and the spirals on the outside are slightly curved rather than straight as on rigatoni.  Commonly used in casseroles so ideal for this sort of thing; although rigatoni or penne will do the job just as well.

Chicken and sweetcorn soup

So this evening it's the promised variation on a soup theme as there's plenty left over from yesterday.  I decided to do a chicken and sweetcorn soup with a bit of a chilli kick to set us up for the weekend.

Firstly I removed all the chunky vegetables from the soup base.  These will be returned later to warm through but I didn't want them to lose any of their bite by overcooking.

Whilst the soup base was warming up I cubed half a dozen chicken thigh fillets into bite-sized pieces.  You can use breast if you prefer but we find that the thigh meat has far more flavour and you get a lot more for your money.  These I browned in about 25g of butter and a splash of olive oil in a large frying pan.  Once done they were added to the soup and the whole thing brought to the boil and then left, covered, to simmer gently.  I was careful not to get too much of the butter/oil into the pan as I didn't want the finished soup to be greasy.  To this I also added a couple of cloves of garlic and about 1" of ginger which had been pureed together in my pestle and mortar.

I cooked this on a low simmer for about 30 minutes to let the chicken get nice and tender and flavour the soup with lots of meaty goodness.

When optimum chicken tenderness point was reached I returned the vegetable pieces to the pan along with a couple of small cans of sweetcorn and a couple of sliced red chillies..  All cooked together for a few minutes to let everything warm through.

Served with a little chopped parsley stirred in at the last minute and a good sprinkle of mature cheddar over the top.  The cheese is a great addition, if you fancy it, as it melts into the hot soup.  Luvverly Jubberly!

Christmas leftover vegetable soup

Went out into the shed cum utility area at the side of the kitchen yesterday evening and found a bag of vegetables left over from Christmas.  Oops!  That's what having flu on Christmas Day does to you.

We decided to use some of them and have a nice hearty vegetable soup for supper this evening.  Quick, easy and tasty was the remit so here goes.

In a large pan I softened five finely sliced shallots in about 25g of butter.  To this I added four medium sized potatoes which had been peeled and roughly quartered, three peeled and sliced onions and a sliced leek.  This was all stirred round in the shallotty butter to get everything mixed up.  In went a couple of bay leaves, a half a teaspoon each of dried oregano and thyme and some some salt and pepper.  A couple of pints of fresh chicken stock (vegetable would obviously work as well but I had the chicken to hand) together with the same quantity of water were added and the whole lot was brought to the boil and then simmered for 20 minutes until all the vegetables were soft.

Once cool enough to handle the bay leaves were removed (don't forget to do this otherwise the soup takes on a certain crunchy note!) and the whole lot was blitzed, using a hand blender, until smooth.  You can use a blender unit, obviously, but that creates a lot more washing up!

This was left to cool whilst waiting for The Woo to get in from work via her dad's.

What you have here is a really easy, bulk standard soup base to which you can add virtually anything.  Into mine went a diced up swede, a bag of 'top and tailed' chantenay carrots, three chunkily sliced leeks and three diced potatoes.  The whole lot was then brought to the boil and simmered until the vegetables were just cooked.  If you make sure everything is more or less the same size when it goes in then they should all be fairly evenly cooked.

We had ours with some finely chopped parsley, stirred in on serving, with a liberal sprinkle of really mature grated cheddar.

There's loads left over so whatever The Woo doesn't take to work tomorrow I'll do a bit of a conversion job on for another budget soupy supper.

Bargain!

Carbonara night

This evening it was spaghetti alla carbonara for supper which I have blogged about before; so if you fancy it, use the new search feature and have a go if you haven't already.  It's as authentic a recipe as you'll get in the UK - without all the cream and other nonsense stuff some restaurants put add in an attempt to make it creamy.  All you need for creaminess is the parmesan/pecorino/egg mix with a little of the pasta cooking water.

This evening I used streaky bacon instead of pancetta (to use it up) and only parmesan instead of a mix of the two cheeses.  It's a forgiving dish if you need to play around with it to use stuff up in the fridge - just stick to the basics and you'll be fine!

Settling in now with a glass of vino and waiting for the new Attenborough to start at 9pm.  Africa - looks great from the trailers - and just our cup of tea!

New Year's Day dog walk

As promised here are some photos from today's dog walk.  It was beautifully sunny, for the most part, but the recent heavy rain has certainly taken its toll on the footpaths.

This is the field at the other side of the kissing gate at the bottom of Quincewood Gardens; just past where it meets Greenfrith Drive.  It's almost solid clay here at the best of times so this water will take ages to drain away unless we get a serious dry spell.

This bit of the walk is further down the way.  Following the footpath to the right of the field and through the gap you emerge onto what is currently a stream leading up to The Yews and then on to Coldharbour Lane.

This rather stunning stand of trees is close to one of the ponds at the top of the bridleway which joins Coldharbour Lane adjacent to the Fairlawne grain silos opposite the Trench Farm cottages.  The sun is still so low at this time of year that any picture taken in silhouette can be really effective.

It was a gorgeous sunny day and the late afternoon clouds really took my breath away.  It's great to get a proper wintry day with such a startlingly blue sky as a backdrop.

One of the trees in The Bonfire Field for those of you who know it.  It's only in recent months that the right of way round this field has been re-established so I try to walk it as often as possible.  Now they've put a proper access gate at either end the footpath has become more walkable as it's no longer being churned up by inconsiderate horse riders.

I love this one.  The light at this time of year in the late afternoon is almost orange.

And so back almost to the starting point in the field behind Quincewood Farm.  I was only out about an hour and a half but the sun was dipping well towards the horizon in that short time.  A lovely walk and four very tired (and exceptionally wet!) dogs.

Happy New Year

A very Happy New Year to anyone who happens to read this today!

It's been a bugger of a year at Quincewood Farm and we're all hoping for a much better 2013. I haven't blogged much over the Christmas period due to a bout of Man-Flu which took hold on Christmas Eve and still hasn't gone yet but one of my many resolutions is to put a bit more effort into keeping up with foodie and other events on here.

So what interesting resolutions have you made?  Mine are to write more, blog more, run more, eat more (to compensate for all the running!) and drink less.  There may be others to add to the list but that will do for starters.

It's a beautiful day here today so the dog walk a bit later should be lovely.  I might even take the camera and share some piccies.  Watch this space, lovely people, and fingers crossed for a good year for us all.