Today was such a horrible day, weather wise anyway. Really dreich, as they would say back home. The only thing for it was to make a stew or soup. As I hadn’t taken the beef out of the freezer to defrost, soup it was.
I tend to make soups out of whatever I have in the fridge or cupboards. Today, I had some chorizo and sweet potato and here is the recipe I came up with.
Ingredients:
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled & diced
1 ring of chorizo, sliced
2 carrots, peeled & sliced
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, grated or crushed
1 parsnip,peeled & sliced (not essential, I just had one that needed used)
2 handfuls red lentils
2 litres (or thereabouts) or chicken/vegetable stock
Method:
Put your chopped onion, garlic, carrots, parsnips & sweet potatoes into a large pot with some olive oil over a medium heat
Cook for around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until the onions are soft
Add the chorizo and cook for a further 5 minutes
Add the lentils and the stock and give a good stir. Season with salt and pepper
Simmer over a low heat for 20-25 minutes
Take off the heat and blend with a hand blender in the pot. If you don’t have a hand blender then let the mixture cool a bit and blend in a food processor
You have your soup!
I think that this would taste nice with some finely chopped chilli ir chilli flakes in it and a dollop of creme fraiche. I may try this tomorrow but was making it child friendly to start. Serve with crusty bread & butter. Yummers
This week we tried a couple of things that were a bit different and this is the first. I often find it hard to get my head around some of the mixes of savoury and sweet that I see on the little packets of food, so thought I’d give this one a go myself. Parsnip, Apple & Carrot.
Ingredients:
2 carrots
2 parsnips
1 sweet apple
2 Carrots, 2 Parsnips & 2 (very little) apples
Method:
Peel and slice the carrots and the parsnips
Boil them together for 15 minutes
While they are boiling peel, core and dice the apple
Add to the boiling water for the last 5 minutes of the cooking process
Drain but keep some of the cooking to one side
Whizz the ingredients together in a food processor or with a hand blender adding cooking water to thin it out if neccessary
I tried some of this myself and it was pretty good. You could even add some baby rice if you wanted it thick.
The Finished Article
Here’s the all important verdict though:
After a rocky start, he seemed to get into it in the end. May have to try it a few more times for full appreciation though!
I realise it’s very late for this post but I think it’s such a good idea that I want to give Karin over at Cafe Bebe my full support.
So here is my offering for today
Me and Mike - goofin around
This was taken in December 2007. I worked at a Management Consultancy called Bain & Company. Part of our “Christmas Event” each year was to spend an afternoon assisting the community in various ways. Some people would go to a homeless shelter, some would help people with job skills. Me? I ended up at Spittalfields Farm planting bulbs. It was always a fun day because you would spend it with a whole mix of people that you might not otherwise spend time with. In an office of over 400 people, not everyone knew each other and it was team building in the ultimate sense. I spent the whole of that day getting really grubby in the mud and having a real laugh with friends before racing home to scrub myself clean and get in my party frock for a fancy do later. I’m going to cheat a bit and show you me (and my pal Mike) a few hours later now too. (Sorry Karin)
Posted in Uncategorized on 11/21/2010 11:56 pm by Ness
Today has been wonderful. A real family day with friends and the first that we have had a child of our own. Usually we’re the ones enjoying spending time with our friends children but today we actually had one to look after!
We spent the afternoon at The Farmers Cart in York. The farmer’s cart is extremely family friendly with a cafe using produce grown and reared on the farm. It recently won Best Cafe/Restaurant on a farm! They also have the most wonderful farm shop I’ve ever encountered. Fabulous fresh meats in their butchery, home baked cakes and a massive array of fruits and vegetables. On Saturday they had the biggest carrots I’ve ever seen!
The weather was pretty miserable for our visit, but the place was still buzzing. The cafe was full and there were many families outside petting the goat (and watching him go over the Golden Goat Bridge) and the miniature pony. We also went to see the free range turkeys that they currently have (not for much longer though) I felt extremely guilty looking at them knowing that in around a month one of them is likely to be on my dinner plate.
All in all it was a fantastic day out and I look forward to when the Wee Man is big enough to fully appreciate petting a goat. Until then, I’ll just go and enjoy it for him. I just hope that they bring back the pig racing next year…you’ve got to see it to believe it!
The Farmers Cart, Towthorpe Grange
York, North Yorkshire YO32 9ST
01904 499 183
