Leaves – dishwasher doors – and one-pot soup-stews...

Is this just not the most exciting Christmas present ever?…. It is what is going to finally get me to grow edible, rather than look-atable, plants in the garden… All those wonderful spicy leaves that I have been getting in my Farm Direct deliveries from Cultivate London! (And if you do not yet have a cloche so cannot grow your own, I do thoroughly recommend leaves from both the above.)

And it looks so pretty! I wonder if its bow is rain proof….. Anyhow, once, if ever, the rain leaves off, I shall be out there and you can expect to be bored rigid by reports on my health-giving greens….

Meanwhile, I apologise to those looking for a little light blog reading over the last two weeks for the sad dearth of MBJ blogs… Attributable not only to Christmas festivities – although we did have 15 (staying) over Christmas and 23 on Boxing Day…, but to the blessed Virgin Media who upgraded our modem a few weeks ago thereby doing something very simple but virtually untraceable to the blog which remained happily up there in cyberspace but which firmly refused to let its owner (me) get into it. However, after some stern words from the Webmaster it was finally brought to heel – just in time for me to rave on about my cloche….

However, I hope that, in my absence, everyone has managed to negotiate the digestive and allergen-laden hazards of Christmas without too many ill effects. Alex, aka @HealthJourno, who now runs our Twitter accounts, tells me that our FreeFromRecipes Twitter account got loads of new followers over Christmas – with lots of RTs (retweets….) for our dairy-free brandy ‘butter – so I hope that you found several of the recipes useful. We will be leaving them up there until the next newsletter on January 5th as many of the dishes would be good at any time of year, not just Christmas – see here for more.

Whatever about what you ate, I do hope that you managed to avoid the dishwasher over the festive season….

I got an email yesterday from a long-time, allergic reader telling us how she had managed to get colour-free, liquid antibiotics for a gash on her leg caused by colliding with an open dishwasher. I was delighted to hear about the antibiotics (to which, at that point, she had not had any dodgy reactions) but it did cause me, yet again, to wonder why on earth people with dishwashers leave them open. Not only are they even more effective than Rosa Klebb’s shoes for gashing your leg but surely the whole point of having a dishwasher is to get all those dirty plates out of site and out of mind? Why, then, would you leave the wretched thing open, taking up most of the floor space in the kitchen, threatening life and limb of anyone trying to get past – and allowing all that nasty gunk to dry on the plates so that not even the most efficent dishwasher will be able whoosh it off?………

Enough already… Let us focus on something more useful!

I have just been brewing up the wonderful turkey soup which should form the main item of everyone’s diet for at least three days after every Christmas – and to my mind (oh shock and heresy) tastes far better than the turkey in its original state. It is really impossible to give any recipe for this concoction as it will depend on what you actually had for Christmas dinner. But my general theory is to put all remains – turkey, ham, sausages, veg, gravy, stuffing, maybe even the gluten-free bread sauce – into a very large pot, cover with water and a good slug of any wine left over from the festivities – and then to cook very long and very slow. The only boring bit is extracting the turkey bones – but the result is usually worth it.

However, while discussing this year’s brew, we also got onto my favourite winter soup-stew as one of our party suffers from a degenerative condition which makes eating a soft and flavoursome soup-stew a much more appealing prospect than battling with a knife and fork to get down something somewhat dryer which may well end up by choking her. As a result I spent some time yesterday evening setting out some guide ideas for a few of these delicacies and although they really do not class as recipes as such, I thought I would pop them in here to serve as ideas for other soup-stews – and maybe even inspire you all to come up with some new ones….

Which reminds me…. Sue Cane has just sent me an email about socca……… For another blog! Meanwhile……

Chicken and corn soup

2 drumsticks and either 2 breasts or 2 thighs of chicken (I would not advise a whole chicken as it is a pain digging out all the bones!)

2 medium onions chopped roughly

2 sticks celery, chopped roughly

1 decent sized parsnip or 1 sweet potato, grated

3–4 bay leaves

2 bouquet garni (easy to get at Tesco if you do not have any)

generous 2 litres of water

1 freefrom veg stock cube (you do not really need this as the chicken should give plenty of flavour on its own but why not give it a little extra help!! They usually tell you that 1 stock cube – I use Kallo – will make 500ml’s of stock)

good slug of white wine if you have it

2–3 tablespoons brown rice, if you want it to be rather more substantial

Bung it all in a large pot, bring very slowly to the boil, cover and simmer very gently for 2 – 3 hours by which time the chicken should be falling off whatever bones it has. Carefully remove the chicken bones (should be quite easy with a slotted spoon) and pull the chicken meat apart, if it has not already fallen apart! Season to taste with salt and pepper.

At this point you can add a small can of sweetcorn (or not, as you feel inclined) and you are ready to roll – although for added flavour a slug of sherry along with the sweetcorn adds as certain je ne sais quoi!!

Will reheat endlessly and if it ends up by being too thick, just add some more water/stock.

Lamb or beef soup-stew

1 tablespoon butter/coconut oil/dairy-free spread and 1 tbsp olive oil

2 onions, chopped roughly

2 sticks celery cut in quite large pieces

2 medium carrots cut in thick slices

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and halved

another root vegetable – celeriac, sweet potato, beetroot, turnip or whatever you fancy – roughly same weight as the carrots – peeled and cut in biggish dice

4–8 mushrooms, depending on size, halved or quartered

500g stewing beef or lamb, well trimmed and cut in to dice – you can often buy it ready prepared

6–8 small potatoes, whole or halved

4 bay leaves and 2 bouquet garni or some mixed herbs

1/4 – 1/2 bottle red wine

1 litre stock or water

salt and pepper

2 handfuls Brussels sprouts or 1/2 a green cabbage or 1/4 red cabbage or a bunch of chard or spinach

optional extras – for the lamb – some dried apricots; for the beef, some black olivesHeat the butter/spread and oil in a heavy casserole and fairly briskly fry the onions, celery, carrots, garlic, root veg and meat for 4–5 minutes or until they are starting to colour. Add the potatoes, herbs, wine and stock and season lightly. If you are using the lamb and want to use the apricots, add them now too.

Cover and simmer very gently for 2 – 3 hours. Add the greens and continue to cook for another 10 minutes or until they are done. Add more stock or water if you want it ‘soupier’. If you are using beef and want to include the olives, add them now too. Adjust seasoning to taste and eat!

Gammon and yellow split pea…….. approx measurements again.

Small joint of gammon or bacon, on the bone ideally (you could even use pork belly for this)

4 small onions

6 tablespoon yellow split peas

1 teaspoon black pepper corns

water

Soak your gammon for 2 –3 hours in cold water.

Throw out the water and put the gammon in a decent size pan with the onions, split peas and peppercorns. Cover generously with cold water. Bring slowly to the boil, cover, lower the heat and simmer very gently for 2–3 hours.

Carefully remove the gammon with one or two slotted spoons (it will be wanting to fall apart) and set aside. Allow the soup to cool then put it in the fridge so that the excess fat can rise to the top and solidify. Slice up most of the gammon for other uses but keep all the small bits.

When the soup has chilled and the fat solidified, carefully remove it off the top of your soup then return the small bits of gammon to the soup and reheat.

At this point you can decide if it is too thick (in which case, thin it with extra water or stock) and whether you want it quite smooth (in which case put it through a liquidiser or food processor) or quite bitty as it is. Season to taste – depending on the gammon you will/will not need salt and extra pepper – and eat!

Leaves – dishwasher doors – and one-pot soup-stews…

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