Christmas Ham

Ham is a pretty simple thing to cook, but I had never done it before. Now I've done it twice. In both cases, the essential process was the same:

1. Take a ham (or gammon, if you will).
2. Place in a pan and cover with cold water.
3. Bring to the boil; drain.
4. Cover with cold water, adding vegetables and spices to the pan.
5. Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes per 1/2 kilo.
6. Drain and transfer to a roasting dish.
7. Glaze and bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes.
8. Turn, glaze, and bake for 10-15 minutes.

In the first instance I used fresh vegetables and black pepper for the boil. In retrospect, since I wasn't reserving the stock due to lack of freezer space, it would have been as good to do what I did in the second instance and use vegetable stock to season.

The Christmas Day ham had a half-and-half honey and mustard (English) glaze, but Arya didn't go for that. Since honey and mustard mix up nice and runny, the glaze could be applied cold.

The New Year ham had a variation on a marmalade and brown sugar glaze, using a couple of tablespoons of good marmalade and one of black treacle, heated to mix and bring to a good consistency for painting onto the ham with a brush.

Spicy Pumpkin and Potato Soup

This was a recipe improvised to make use of a lot of leftover pumpkin. The end result could pretty much stand a spoon.

1 medium onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, crushed and chopped
4 rashers of bacon, cut into small strips
1 tbsp olive oil
1.5kg of diced pumpkin and potato
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried coriander
1 tsp garam masala
1 litre water
2 stock cubes (chicken or vegetable) or equivalent

Heat the oil in a large stockpot.

Fry the onion, garlic and bacon.

Remove the bacon once cooked, then add the vegetables to the pan. Stir well, pour over the spices and continue stirring to mix evenly.

Add the stock, bring to the boil and turn down to a simmer.

After about 45 minutes, when the potato is soft, blitz the soup with a stick blender, restore the bacon and cook for another 5 minutes.

Serve with grated cheese and bread.

Apple, raisin and cinnamon porridge

Serves 3

1 apple, finely sliced or chopped
100g raisins*
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp hot water

150ml jumbo rolled oats**
150ml cold water
150ml semi-skimmed milk***

Finely slice or chop the apple. Add to a pan with the raisins, cinnamon and water and heat on a medium ring, simmering until the apple is softened and the liquid largely evaporated.

Add the remaining ingredients and stir together.

Bring to a gentle boil, stirring regularly. Once the porridge is bubbling vigorously, reduce to an easy simmer for 1 minute.

* This is very approximate; adjust to preference.
** I find that the jumbo rolled leave a pleasant bite to the finished porridge.
*** Whole milk (or skimmed, if you're a monster) could be substituted. Scots may prefer to use another 150ml or water, but if you're that much of a Scots porridge purist, I probably lost you at 'apple'.

Veg Box

This weekend, we mostly cooked using Hannah's organic veg box. Ingredients from the box are marked with an asterisk (*).

Friday - Chicken Casserole
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 medium carrots*
350g chicken breast fillet, cubed
500g mushrooms, chopped*
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp oregano
2 medium leeks, sliced*
1/2 glass white wine
2 chicken stock pots
1 red pepper, sliced*
1/2 cup rice

Heat the oil in a large stockpot over a medium-high heat.

Add the onion, garlic and carrot. Stir well, cover and sweat until the onion begins to soften.

Add the chicken and mushrooms and the paprika and oregano. Keep turning until the meat is sealed on all sides and beginning to brown.

Add the leeks, stir, then add the wine and one of the stock pots, stirring until it melts. Melt the other stock pot in 500ml of boiling water.

Add the stock, stir and cover. Bring to an easy boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add the peppers and the rice and simmer until the rice has absorbed enough liquid to be al dente.

Saturday - Lamb Tagine
This is the same recipe as my last entry, but with lamb shoulder from the local butcher. Being mostly fruit, we didn't use the box veg.

Sunday - Chicken Soup
1/2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped*
1 leek, sliced*
200g chicken breast fillet, cubed
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp black pepper
500ml chicken stock
2 nests rice noodles

Heat the oil in a saucepan.

Sweat the onion, garlic and carrots for a few minutes, then add the chicken and leek. I was using the chicken from frozen, so I actually sweated the vegetables in a separate pan until the meat was defrosted and sealed.

Add the herbs and stock. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the carrots are almost cooked through.

Add the noodles and cook for 5 minutes.

Sunday - Sausages and new potatoes with cabbage and bacon

1 tbsp olive oil

6 sausages (I used Fen Farm venison and pork, which at 100% meat are also entirely gluten free)

6 medium new potatoes, roughly chopped*

2 small carrots, roughly chopped*

1 tsp rosemary

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 cloves garlic, halved

1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

3 rashers unsmoked bacon, chopped

1 medium cabbage, shredded*

Coat the base of a large roasting dish in oil. Arrange the sausages, potatoes and carrots in the dish and season with the garlic, rosemary and pepper.

Place in a preheated oven at 180C, turning the food in the dish every 10-15 minutes for 30-40 minutes.

After 30 minutes, heat the oil in a saute pan. 

Sweat the onion, garlic and bacon until softening, then add the cabbage a few handfuls at a time, stirring and adding more as it reduces in size.

Cook the last of the cabbage for about 5 minutes and then remove from the heat. Cover the pan while cooking if you want to soften the crunch.

Serve the sausage and potatoes on a bed of cabbage. The carrots in this recipe were the last in the box, included mostly for show (and because we know that our baby daughter will eat them), but they could be scaled up easily.

The veg was excellent quality. The carrots and cabbage were notable for their flavour, and the richness of the mushrooms created a much darker and earthier casserole than I had been expecting.

Lamb and Apricot Tagine with Moroccan Spiced Quinoa

This was a slightly experimental mish-mash based on what I did and didn't have in the cupboards. I had to improvise on the spices due to an absence of ras al hanout, mace, allspice, saffron or coriander leaf. The end result was very successful, however; sweet and spicy, and the meat just about right.

The recipe would work just nicely with couscous, for a fraction of the price, but quinoa is gluten free, as well as being the miracle superfood of our age. If using couscous, the cooking time is much less than quinoa. I imagine you'd pretty much mix it with the spice and onion, then cover with the stock and leave for five minutes.

I've used my approximate amounts, which served two and a baby, but it would double up nicely for a party.

ETA: I did this again a week later, replacing the slightly fancy lamb leg steak with about 400g of shoulder (once I'd trimmed out the fat and bone and cubed the meat). I had to cook it for about another 20 minutes, but the result was wonderfully succulent. As an additional lesson, be careful in sourcing the dried fruit; if the figs are very sweet you might want to consider adding a little more of the sharper spices (mainly turmeric and cumin).

I also don't have a tagine, so I cooked this in a saucepan.

Tagine
250g lamb, diced
1/4 tbsp plain flour
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground paprika
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Put the lamb, flour, turmeric, paprika and cinnamon into a bag and shake to coat the meat in the spiced flour, then shake off the excess flour.

1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, chopped
200ml chicken stock
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground coriander
150g dried apricots, halved
75g soft figs, quartered
1 tbsp honey

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan on a medium-high heat. Add the paprika and cinnamon to the oil and mix well.

Add the lamb to the pan, turning to brown all sides well.

Add the onion and garlic and cook with the meat until the onion begins to soften.

Add the stock, pepper and coriander to the pan and stir well. Reduce to a simmer and cover.

Put the fruit in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to stand for 20 minutes.

Drain the fruit and stir into the pan with the honey. Recover and simmer for another 20 minutes.

Quinoa
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp ground paprika
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 small onion, finely chopped
50g dried apricots, chopped
150ml quinoa (I realise that quinoa is traditionally measured by weight, but like rice it absorbs liquid at about a 2:1 ratio, so volume is more useful)
300ml chicken stock

Rinse the quinoa in cold water.

Heat the oil in a small saucepan.

Add the spices, onion and apricot; stir together and sweat until the onion begins to soften.

Stir in the quinoa, then add the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover for about 20 minutes, until the stock is absorbed and the quinoa become transparent.

Chilli con Carne

This is one of my favourite one-pan recipes; excellent with rice or wrapped in tortillas with grated cheese and sour-cream.

1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
Up to 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper*
240g drained red kidney beans
1-3 chillies*, finely chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, chopped

500g beef mince
1/2 glass port

400g tinned tomatoes

1 tsp dried oregano or 1/2 handful fresh
1 bay leaf

1 beef stock cube or pot

* The level of chilli should be varied according to taste. A single chilli will make a mellow dish; three plus cayenne will have some serious kick (if it doesn't, check your chilli supplies). If you like it volcanic, you can go higher, but that's as much as I'd want to do.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat.

Add the spices and mix into the oil, then turn the heat up for about 30 seconds to get the oil really hot without giving the spice time to burn.

Add the beans, onions, garlic and chillies to the pan and stir well. Reduce the heat again, cover and cook until the onions start to soften.

Add the mince, stirring and cutting with the spoon until it breaks up and browns. Make sure that the spice mix is well mixed in with the ingredients.

Add the wine, then the tomatoes, stirring well. Finally, stir in the herbs and stock cube until the latter is melted/dissolved and stirred thoughout the pan.

Cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes. If the heat isn't too high it won't suffer from being cooked longer, especially if you add some water to keep it from getting dry.

Dim Sum Buns

This is a dim sum recipe which Hannah turned up and has made a few times. They're actually pretty healthy, being full of veg as well as nommy starchy goodness.

300g plain, white flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 carrots, coarsely grated
1 tbsp grated ginger
Large handful of chopped parsley or coriander
150ml coconut milk
Juice of 1 lime

The recipe also involves crushed cashews and a pinch of salt, but we tend to skip that.

Mix the flour and baking powder.

Make a well in the centre and pour in the coconut milk and lime juice, folding the liquid into the flour to make a soft, sticky dough.

Roll into a long, sausage of dough and cut into balls. Place the balls into cupcake cases.

Cook in a steamer for 10-15 minutes.

-

We use gluten free flour and it works, although rolling out the dough isn't happening, so instead we spoon the dough into cupcake cases.

We've also used beetroot instead of or as well as carrot, which works but makes for a very red dim sum.

A filling can be put inside the buns before steaming, say, slow-cooked pulled pork mixed with barbecue sauce; nom.