Domestic Science

I don't care what the weatherman says...

…It might be raining a hailstorm out there, but I am too busy in the kitchen to notice.  After a quick trip into Crouch End for some essential ingredients, I’ve been hard at work.

First up was the ceremonial Starting of the Homebrew.  The Other Half has invested in a complete kit to make 40 pints of Woodford Wherry, and we got it going this morning.  Should be ready for Christmas. 

Next up: mincemeat.  Suddenly realised that it wasn’t that far off until Christmas and I had no mincemeat at all, as I used up all the old stuff in fruitcakes.  So there is a large tray of fruit and spices cooking slowly in the oven.  I follow the recipe from Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course, though I exercise a fair bit of latitude as to the actual fruit involved.  I like sultanas, raisins, figs, dates, and no candied peel whatsoever.  I also add any odds and ends lurking in the cupboard, which this year involved a few organic apricots and a packet of dried cranberries that came free with an Ocado delivery; I am sure the lady who introduced Cranberry mania to the British would approve.  That’s got another 2 hours to go before I add the rum and bottle it.  I put the fruit for the Christmas cake to soak at the same time and I’ll make that tomorrow. 

Then there was the tomato plants.  The last fruits are never going to ripen, so I gave in and made chutney.  Fortunately I had a punnet of ripe tomatoes from the veg box, and another punnet of ripe-ish ones that I picked last week and have been ripening indoors, so its going to be a nice red colour and definitely different to the dark sticky chutney we already have from the big bag of green tomatoes our friends gave us this time last year.  Not that I am knocking the traditional dark chutney, but the donors of last year’s green tomatoes also gave us a jar of  amazing red tomato relish and I am trying to replicate that.

I am running out of bacon, so I bought a slab of belly pork this morning and that is now dry-curing in the fridge.  Can’t wait till it’s ready and I can try out the new hand-cranked slicer (just like my Mum’s) that I bought on eBay a while back.  The nice butcher boned the pork for me, and the bones are now in the slowcooker with some lamb bones I had stashed in the freezer, making stock.  I roasted them first, and added some instant veg stock so it should be nice and tasty.

We also had a milk glut.  I haven’t been eating enough porridge, I think that’s the problem.  So I am making English muffins, and also broccoli, cauliflower and Stilton soup.  Both use up milk, and the soup not only deals with the chunk of Stilton lurking in the fridge, but also the problem that this week’s box had both broccoli and cauliflower AGAIN!  And the Other Half won’t eat either of them. 

I wanted to bottle my latest batch of ginger beer too, but I can’t as I have run out of large saucepans to mix it in.  So that will have to wait until tomorrow; I can do it while I am baking the Christmas cake.   I’ll also be slow-cooking a pheasant, as they had them on offer at 3 for £10 at my butchers.  Such good value. 

But that is tomorrow’s work; for now, I am frankly exhausted so I am just going to sit here and knit, while my chutney reduces, and look forward to the ribeye I bought as a treat for our dinner.

My kitchen is a war zone

The other half has started the new year by declaring war on mice.  We live in a Victorian terrace, and mice are as inevitable as cracks in the plaster.  You just make sure your food is inaccessible, and live with the wee furry critters.  However, the dratted beasts have been more active than usual in recent weeks, making a complete mess in the under-sink cupboard, and running around the kitchen in full view of dinner guests. 

Which is why, whenever I’ve gone into the kitchen today, I’ve found the other half stalking them under the units with a Maglite, mixing up ever more enticing baits from peanut butter and chocolate, and constantly moving the trap to new locations.  His currently favoured spot is just in front of the bin, where I run the risk of treading on it whenever I put any rubbish out.

Work tomorrow, so I’m brewing up some soup.  New year, resumed healthy eating regime.  We failed to eat up all the root vegetables over Christmas, so it’s curried parsnip on the menu, with some of that bread I made yesterday that somehow failed to rise.  At least, it rose before I put it in the oven but then sort of deflated in the oven.  It tastes fine, but just looks a bit flat. 

Almost instant soup

This week I am making soup for work lunches.  I suddenly remembered that soup doesn’t have to be a  big palaver involving my largest pan and hours of chopping.

Last night I got in from choir practice at 10pm and by 10.30 I had a pot of Tomato Rassam soup (okay spicy tomato and lentil then) ready to reheat for work this morning.  All I did was fry an onion in some oil until nice and soft, add about 2 tsp curry powder and some shredded ginger from a jar, chuck in 1/2 cup of red lentils, a tin of chopped tomatoes, 2 tsp Marigold veg powder, and then 2 tinfuls (the empty tomato tin) of hot water.  Turn up the gas, and 15 minutes later you have spicy lentil soup.  Yum!

Tonight’s soup was even easier.  Fry a small pack of ready chopped pancetta in some olive oil till the fat runs.  Add a chopped onion and fry that till soft and a bit brown.  Add 1/2 cup red lentils, 500ml boiling water, and 2 tsp Marigold powder.  Boil for 10-15 minutes and you have kind of daal (watch you don’t boil the pan dry - it’s really quick to get from lentils in water to lentil mash).  Beat your lentils soundly with a wooden spoon and then add more hot water until its more soup than mash.

Okay I guess you have to like lentils to get into this.  But I’m not a big lentil fan really, and I still like these soups.  Trust me.  They aren’t worthy, knit your own beard, macrobiotic health food kind of soups.  They are dee-lish.