Twin set

We managed the first soup of the holiday within hours of our arrival down here in Ashburton, having brought most of the necessary with us.

Just needed a quick visit to Gribble's to get a couple of slices of pork - and to admire a fine bit of fore rib, cut from a South Devon. We agreed that such a cow was certainly a proper colour for a cow, a brown cow indeed.

Given the absence of full sized sauce pans - or even full size soup pans - we elected to make the soup as a twin set.

Part 1 was made with red lentils, maybe a  pint of water, half a chopped onion and a chopped clove of garlic. Bring to boil and simmer for an hour, remembering to stir from time to time towards the end of the process. Rather good, although I have to say that BH put a little salt and pepper in hers.

Reasonable showing on the dead fly front, despite these particular lentils only having been in our possession for a couple of weeks or so. See reference 1.

Part 2 was made with maybe two pints of water. Add the pork, sliced into chunks about 20 by 10 by 5 mm. Bring to the boil and simmer for half an hour. Add rather more than a pound of whites, cut into chunks of around a cubic inch. Simmer for a further 15 minutes. Add chopped mushroom stalks. Add chou pointu to taste. Bring back to the boil, add the mushroom caps (gills down) and simmer for a further 3 minutes. Very good - and I might add that having fresh pork was a great improvement on the frozen we usually use for such purposes, this last often being a bit stringy.

What little was left of part 1 was added to what was left of part 2 and reheated for a warming, winter breakfast.

PS: we ought, I suppose, have used the more conventional butcher on East Street, but he keeps more conventional hours and was shut by mid Saturday afternoon. I shall make a point of taking some of his sausages in a day or so.

Reference 1: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=dead+flies+lentils. Never managed to get an honest answer from one of our supermarkets about this, and, to my shame, we did not manage to visit the agricultural research place at Ottawa when were there, a place where I am certain we would have found people who would have known all about the problem, with Ontario to the south being the centre of the red lentil universe.

A light lentil

A lentil soup for lunch today, for one.

Two pints of water for four ounces of red lentils. Add a few tablespoons of finely chopped left over potato and carrot. Bring to the boil, simmer for a few minutes. Leave to stand for a few hours.

Bring back to the boil, add three stalks of celery. Simmer for a while.

Meanwhile slice two and a half onions in the way of the segments of an orange and fry gently in a little butter. Chop three rashers of bacon and add them.

When the onions and bacon are cooked, blend them with the lentils and serve with brown bread. At the watery end of the spectrum, with a modest number of dead flies, but entirely suitable for the lighter lunch. For an early mention of dead flies see reference 3.

It was the first time that I had used the new frying pan noticed at reference 1. Entirely satisfactory.

The bacon was described as Sainsbury's smoked streaky, carefully selected and trimmed by hand. I dare say an aggressive barrister armed with the trade descriptions act of 1968, as updated by the consumer rights act of 2015, could have had some fun with it. See reference 2.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/aga.html.

Reference 2: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/11/enacted.

Reference 3: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=hedda+gabler.

Chicken soup

It seems to be around two months since I lasted reported on chicken soup, at reference 1, so having had a good one today, it seems right to notice the recipe.

Take one small chicken and discard most of the flesh. Place the carcasse in a large saucepan with 3 pints of water, four stalks of celery, three small carrots, two medium onions and one peppercorn. Boil for around 3 hours then strain. Wash the debris through the strainer, into the strained liquor to get the last knockings.

Add two and a half coffee jar lids full of red lentils and bring back to the boil. Turn heat off and leave to cool.

Following day, add a pint of the gravy which had accompanied the flesh of the chicken, together with the jelly from the roasting juices. Slice crosswise any celery that might be left and add that.

Bring back to the boil and simmer for an hour to finish cooking the lentils.

Slice two large carrots crosswise. Coarsely chop any cold boiled potatoes that might be lying around. Coarsely chop 200 grams of saucisson sec. Add to the simmering soup about 10 minutes before you want to serve.

Thinly slice any stump of white cabbage that might be lying about. Say 200 grams worth. Add that about 5  minutes before you want to serve.

Serve with brown bread. By which time the lentils should have almost dissolved and there should be a scattering of lentil fly floating on top. See reference 2. The soup should be thick with plenty of lumps, but it should still be wet and you should still be able to strain a yellow liquor from it. Not like, for example, custard or the sort of creamed soup you get from tins.

I think I can say, with no false modesty, that after around 50 years, I have finally got the hang of chicken soup with lentils.

PS: a pity that we did not make it to the experimental farm at Ottawa when we were there back in 2014, where I think they would have been more forthcoming about dead flies in the lentils than our supermarkets have proved.

Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/chicken-soup.html.

Reference 2: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/candid-camera.html.

Lentils

The first lentil soup today for a while, so I thought it worth while setting down the recipe.

12oz red lentils, 4oz grated boiled potato, made up to 2l with water, brought to the boil and simmered for around an hour. Managed to boil it over a bit, despite what I had thought was adequate watching.

Stood for a couple of days in the fridge until we were ready.

Add a little more water and slowly bring it back to the boil, stirring regularly to stop it catching. Add about 16oz of carrots, coarsely sliced but not peeled. Too much of the texture comes off with the peel. Simmer for about half an hour, after which the carrots should be soft but still retain some texture. They should still have an outside and an inside.

Meanwhile, peel three medium onions, cut into segments (as in orange). Simmer in a little butter with about five black peppercorns (after pounding them).

Cut about 8oz of smoked loin of bacon into 1cm cubes. Add to the onions.

When the onion is soft and translucent, add butter, onion and bacon to the lentils. Simmer for a further five minutes and serve. Managed not to catch it at all. Some dead flies, concerning which see reference 1.

At the point of serving it amounted to around 3.5l, of which we ate around half in the first sitting. Taken with fresh brown bread, a couple of hours out of the oven. All very successful.

PS 1: some left over boiled white rice was added to what was left to pad out the second sitting.

PS 2: bacon from the butcher at reference 2. He usually has smoked loin, also white puddings and black puddings. Sometimes he has oxtail and sometimes he has lots of fore rib in, most of which last one supposes is intended for some institutional order, this last being a good bit of his trade. He had, for example, a lot in today.

PS 3: at the point of serving, at 3.5l, the large saucepan was far too full for cooking. It only worked because at that point one was combining the soup with the onions, rather than cooking either.

Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/important-updates.html.

Reference 2: http://www.masterbutchersepsom.co.uk/orders.html.

The larger lentil

Following the light lentil soup reported at reference 1, today we had something a little more substantial.

Start with three and a half pints of water. Add eight ounces of red lentils and the inward parts of a stick of celery, sliced crosswise. Bring to the boil and simmer for about an hour, then take off the heat. This being around 0730.

By 0900, the temperature had dropped to around 60C.

By 1200, it had dropped to around 30C. Turn on the heat again and bring back to the boil, or rather to the simmer.

Peel half a dozen medium potatoes and cut into chunks of about a cubic inch. Add to the soup.

Take half a dozen carrots, top, tail and slice crosswise.

Take four onions, slice into segments. Start cooking them, in oil, in the sauté pan, around 1245. Chop half a dozen rashers of Sainsbury hand-trimmed smoked streaky into half inch lengths and add that, taking care to spread it out, given its tendency to clump. Stir occasionally.

Add the carrots to the soup around 1250.

At 1300, transfer the onions and bacon into the soup, stir and serve with brown bread. We probably did about two thirds in our first campaign.

PS 1: a wet soup, nothing like as thick as we used to make it. One advantage being that a wet soup is much less likely to stick or burn. And, as it happens on this occasion, just a few dead flies. For a previous report, see reference 2.

PS 2 : the next day: the remaining third was rejuvenated with a middle size leek, a nest of soft noodles and a little water. Down in one.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/light-lentil.html.

Reference 2: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=bug+alert+flies.