A nice vegetable side dish (fennel, peas and lettuce)

Serves 1 or 2

1 small bulb fennel

1/2 small iceberg lettuce

1 glass frozen peas

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

Salt and pepper

Trim, wash, quarter, de-core and thinly slice (~2-3 mm) the fennel.

Do a similar thing to the lettuce slicing into 1cm widths.

Add all ingredients to a frying pan with a lid along with 1/2 small glass of water.

Bring rapidly up to a simmer.  Cook with lid on for circa 5 minutes.  Remove lid.  

Stir well then boil and stir uncovered until liquid is reduced and absorbed.

Chicken pasta soup stew

Vague recipe, sorry.

Roast a chicken.  Allow to cool whole.  Observe how nice it looks after having rested for an hour!

Saute onion, celery, carrot, adding dried oregano and garlic towards end.

Add boiling water and a chicken stock cube (or chicken stock).  Simmer 15 mins.  Blend (pulse a few times) half of it .  Return all to pan.  Add cream and lemon juice.  Add pasta.  Simmer 5 mins.  Add frozen peas or other green vegetables.  Simmer another 5 mins.  Add cut up chicken.  Simmer together another few minutes.  Taste and adjust seasoning.

Minestrone soup (2 stage)

Basically you boil/poach the meat first then make a soup with the meat and the stock...

Serves c.8 generously

Full ingredients list

1 bacon hock (preferred), or 1 very large slice (300g) of slab bacon (like unsliced streaky bacon; not pancetta)
300g of stewing steak (eg. skirt; chuck; brisket)
1/2 btl red wine
5 onions
4 carrots
1 thing of celery
4 cloves garlic
2 cans whole plum tomatoes
Large bunch of thyme
1/2 spring or other tender cabbage
Handful green beans
Handful garden peas (assuming frozen here)
c. 100g small pasta shapes eg. little stars or orzo
3 tbsp very finely chopped flat leaf parsley (measured when chopped)
4tbsp vegetable oil
100g butter

To serve:
Grated parmesan cheese; extra virgin olive oil; ground black pepper

Stage 1

Place the bacon in a small pan.  Cover with cold water and bring to a boil with the lid on.  Boil for roughly 5-10 minutes.  This is to rid the joint of excess saltiness and is a vital (and easy) step.  Dump it into a sink, wash it with cold water.

Place the bacon, beef, and some of the stock vegetables, all finely sliced, in a snug pot.  Ie. 3 onions; 2 carrots; 3 sticks celery; all the thyme.  Add a bay leaf/parsley stalks/whatever else you have.  Pour over the wine and top up with cold water.  Bring to a simmer.  Simmer off any scum that arises then adjust to a very slow simmer.  It takes time to adjust it to the right level, over the heat, because if your heat is at its lowest level the boil will be very sensitive to exactly how 'ajar' the lid is.  Poach like this for 4 hours.

Stage 2

Empty the above into a colander over a bowl once cooled for 20 minutes.  It's practical here to put the liquid and meat (separated) in the fridge until the next day.  Discard all the other vegetables in the stock.

Chop all the remaining vegetables finely.  In the vegetable oil sweat them adding each five minutes after the last in the following order: Onions; celery; carrots; garlic (briefly) then add the canned tomatoes.  Slice these against the back of a wooden spoon.  Cook like this for 5 minutes.  Chop the meat small then add this along with the stock.  Add more liquid if you think there isn't enough (this is bulk cooking!), and cook at this point for 1 hour.

Add the cabbage, finely shredded, and green beans cut into 1cm lengths.  Simmer another 20 minutes.

Add the pasta shapes and when they are nearly done add the frozen peas which only need to simmer briefly.

Add the chopped parsley at the very last moment and season well with salt and pepper.  You can also adjust the flavour with sugar if there is insufficient sweetness or red wine vinegar for acidity.

Top each serving with grated parmesan cheese, and pour a little extra virgin olive oil over then finish with extra pepper.  Should work!

Petits pois a la Francaise

This dish can be made in a small frying pan with a lid, using large lettuce leaves that are blanched in boiling water then used to line the pan fanning out and folded over, with a couple of leaves forming a top and base to the parcel.  I had a load of mini lettuce hearts left over from putting coronation chicken in the larger leaves, so I used them whole.

Petits pois a la Francaise

1 onion, finely sliced
14 lettuce hearts (or see intro)
Peas (If fresh add 1 tsp of sugar.  Omit if frozen.)
25g butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 glass dry white wine
1/2 glass water
2 tbsp finely chopped mint
Salt and pepper

In a large ovenproof pan with a lid, melt the butter in the olive oil then soften the onion without colouring.  Season with salt early on to help draw out the moisture.

Add the lettuce and saute gently until it has picked up a little colour.  Add the peas, allow them to defrost if frozen, season with pepper, add 1 tbsp of the mint and stir around.

Add the wine and allow to reduce until syrupy.   Add the glass of water, bring to a simmer on the hob then cover and place in a low oven (say 160C) for 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and place back on the hob to drive off any unwanted moisture if you need to.  Add the remaining 1 tbsp of mint at this point, stir and serve.

Lovely with some seared scallops and bacon pieces.  You could sear the scallops in a little bit of the fat rendered from the bacon.