Rumpy Pumpy Soup

In the Hairy Bikers' cookery book " Mums Know Best" there is a recipe intriguingly called Rumpy Pumpy Soup. It turns out that this is not what you may think but refers to the well known flatulence causing effect of lentils.

This is my version of a very tasty and economical soup

2 onions
3 carrots
2 sticks of celery


Add more or less any other veg you like, I had a leek and some raw swede left over so added that.

2 litres of chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup red lentils, washed
salt and pepper

Finely chop all the vegetables

Sweat off the onion carrots and celery in a little oil for about 5 minutes add the other vegetables, the lentils and the stock. Bring to the boil, stirring frequently to make sure the lentils don't stick to the bottom of the pan. Simmer until the lentils and vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes. Season to taste. Either leave the soup as it is or whizz it up with a stick blender to form a smooth soup.

You could spice up the soup with curry powder or add left over ham or chicken, the possibilities are endless.

Holly Bell’s Cupcake Course

Back in October I became aware that Holly was running classes via a friend on Facebook. I’m not sure if I decided that I needed to get in touch with my feminine side or just wanted to meet Holly, who had really impressed me on the Great British Bake Off. Whatever the motive, I did book for the last course before Christmas on 13^th December 2011.

I travelled by train to Market Harborough and stayed 2 nights in the Premier Inn just outside the town. I needed to book a taxi to the Bridge 67 Cookery School where the course is held, since it is somewhat off the beaten track and not accessible by public transport.

When I arrived at 9 a.m. I was warmly greeted by Holly and a friend who was helping run the day. Coffee was provided in the dining room above the kitchen, while the rest of the group arrived, together with croissants for those who were hungry. I had already eaten a full English breakfast so the coffee was enough for me. Introductions were made and we were all made to feel very welcome and put at our ease. Holly is a warm, open, friendly individual with a charming manner and gave no sense of considering herself to be a celebrity.

After the general house-keeping and safety chat, we moved down to the kitchen. There were only 5 of us on the course and Holly explained that she keeps the numbers low so that everyone gets the most out of the day. As the day progressed we made cupcakes and learnt to make really delicious butter icing and how to use fondant icing. Holly is a very good teacher and has structured the day so that each technique builds on a skill you have already used.

Before I attended the course, I did wonder how it could take so long to make 12 cupcakes, but the time just flew. We were kept supplied with drinks throughout the day and a very pleasant lunch was also provided.

I did have some difficulty getting my cakes home since the box provided is quite large and I did not take a big enough bag to hold the box horizontal. Fortunately my only luggage was a backpack so I did manage to get my cakes home more or less in one piece, via two taxis, three trains, a double-decker bus and a walk in the rain.

As my wife predicted, I was the only male in the class on the day I attended, but I felt very much at ease with Holly, her friend, and the other members of the group. I learnt some skills that I have already used at home and no doubt will use again in the future.

I can thoroughly recommend the course but if you are dependant on public transport, I would suggest teaming up with a like-minded friend to share the taxi costs, and take a big bag, I would suggest one of those large supermarket ones.

Update

I haven't done much in the way of new dishes recently. I did make a mushroom risotto based on a Jamie Oliver recipe last week, using dried ceps and a selection of supermarket mushrooms. It was very tasty.
I was going to make a rabbit dish tonight from the Two Greedy Italians' Cookbook but our supermarket didn't have any polenta in stock. So I've reverted to Plan B. Bangers and Mash. That is always a good back-up.
I'm looking forward to meeting Holly next week and learning a few baking and cake decorating skills.

Pepper and Lentil Gratin

In keeping with my aim of cooking at least one vegetarian main course every week I made this old family favourite last night. We just ate it on its own and kept coming back for extra helpings so: Feeds 4 or 2 very hungry people

Prep 10 minutes Cook 60min

175g red split lentils

1 tbsp light olive oil

2 medium onions, 1 red, 1 brown if possible, chopped

1 clove garlic finely chopped

1 green pepper, deseeded and cut into approx. 1cm squares

1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into  approx. 1cm squares

150g mushrooms sliced

½ tsp chilli powder or to taste

¼ tsp smoked paprika, optional

½ tsp sweet paprika

1 tbsp tomato ketchup

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

seasoning

Topping

25g panko breadcrumbs, or ordinary breadcrumbs

25g pine kernels

25g pumpkin seeds

25g cheddar cheese grated

25g parmesan grated

Pinch sea salt

Pinch cracked black pepper



Pre heat oven to Gas Mark 5, 190C

Wash and drain the lentils and add to 600ml of boiling water, return to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes until tender. Drain in a sieve to remove any excess water.

In a large pan fry the onions and garlic gently in the olive oil for about 5 minutes until the onion is translucent but not browned. Add the peppers and the mushrooms, cover and sweat on a low heat for about 10 minutes. Add the lentils, spices, ketchup, and soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Stir well and put into a greased oven proof dish.

Mix together the ingredients for the topping and spread over the vegetable mixture. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 30 minutes.

　

My take on Boeuf Burguignon

This was very nearly Beef Gonrong! As I said a couple of days ago, I read a number of recipes from different sources before deciding how to make this dish. When it was time to eat, the sauce was too thin and too acidic and the meat was edible but still a bit chewy. There was ample for two meals so the next day I boiled it up again then transferred the stew to my slow cooker and let it cook in there for about 4 hours on low. What a transformation! The meat held its shape but you could cut it with a fork. So what follows will be the way I intend to cook it next time:-

900g shin beef cut into 5cm chunks

150g streaky bacon cut across into approx 5mm wide strips

40g butter

Light olive oil

2 medium onions finely chopped

2 carrots about 5mm dice

3 cloves garlic finely chopped

2 cups red wine

2 cups beef stock from cube or Knorr Stockpot

Heaped tbsp tomato purée

2 bay leaves

Pinch smoked pimento ( optional)

Bouquet garni sachet

200g button mushrooms or closed cup mushrooms quartered

12 round shallots peeled

Handful of chopped parsley

Plain flour

Salt and pepper.

Serves 4 - 6 people

This is a long process and cannot be rushed. Preparation time about 15 minutes. Cooking time about 7 hours.

Shin beef contains lots of connective tissue, which increases the flavour but needs long slow cooking to become tender. Make sure that the wine you use, if not Burgundy, would still be wine you would be happy to drink. If you don’t want to use wine you could use beer or stout. It will not be Boeuf Bourguignon but it will still be very tasty.

Put some plain flour on a plate and season with pepper. Coat the pieces of beef in the flour and shake off the excess.

Heat a little oil in a large pan approx. 23cm dia. Add the bacon pieces and fry over a low heat until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Increase the heat slightly and add the pieces of beef to the pan and brown on all sides then remove these also and set aside. Do not crowd the pan and brown the meat in batches, you want to get some colour on the meat not stew it.

Pour off any excess fat, then melt 20g of the butter and add the chopped onions, garlic and carrots with the pinch of pimento if used. Stir well, reduce the heat to low, cover the pan and sweat the vegetables for about 5 minutes until the onion is translucent.

Add a little of the wine to the pan and with a wooden spoon scrape the bottom of the pan to remove any crusty bits or particles stuck to the bottom. Add a bit more wine if it evaporates before you finish. Add the rest of the wine, tomato purée, bouquet garni, half the mushrooms and the bay leaves then bring to the boil.

Return the beef and bacon to the pan together with any juices and add enough stock to just cover the meat and vegetables. Bring back to the boil then transfer the contents of the pan to a slow cooker. Cover the surface of the stew with a cartouche of greaseproof paper and cook on slow for about 6 hours or until the meat is really tender.

Heat half the remaining butter in a frying pan with a little olive oil to stop it from burning and gently fry the whole shallots until golden brown. Remove and set aside. In the same pan add the last of the butter and sauté the mushrooms until golden and set aside with the shallots.

About half an hour before you want to eat transfer the stew back to the original sized pan. Remove the bay leaves and bouquet garni. Add the shallots, mushrooms and chopped parsley, reserving some parsley for garnish and cook for a further 30 minutes.

Check and correct the sauce consistency, seasoning and acidity. Serve with potato and celeriac mash or boiled potatoes and seasonal vegetables.

When things go wrong

When I started this blog, one of my aims was to encourage more people to cook from scratch. Obviously we can’t all be Michel Roux, Raymond Blanc or a domestic god(dess) and things do go wrong. We all have culinary disasters or near misses. I think the important thing to realise is that if we could all cook perfect dishes at the first attempt then life would be too easy. There would be no sense of achievement at mastering a tricky dish or even putting a plate of edible food on the table.

Recently I have cooked two dishes which have been too acidic. One was a dish I have made countless times before without a problem and the other was from recognised recipes, even though I adapted the version I made. In neither case did I add or subtract ingredients which would have affected the acidity of the dish.

In the case of the ragu I corrected the acidity by adding sugar. The other dish was the beef stew, and I did not really want to add sugar. After some research on the Internet, the suggested solution was to add a small amount of baking soda ( sodium bicarbonate). This caused the stew to foam like a fermenting bed of lava. Once this initial reaction had occurred I was able to taste, then add a little more bicarb until I was happy with the result. I think it would be important to add a small amount at a time otherwise it could become too salty. Remember the old adage, you can add but you can’t take away.

Beurre Manié

The unconventional Bouef Bourguignon cooking method worked well but the gravy was too thin. I did not want to use cornflour (corn starch) to thicken the gravy so I used beurre manié. This consists of equal quantities of soft butter and plain flour mixed together to form a dough which looks rather like marzipan. Pieces of this can be stirred into the sauce without any danger of lumps. Because the flour is raw you need to keep stirring for a few minutes to cook it out.