Tag: bay leaves

Pauper’s Pea and Ham Soup

I bought a bacon shank while I was out because I had a fancy for pea and ham soup…. and because I haven’t been paid since September, I am being very cautious with what is left of my cash.

What could be better, then, than a thick and savoury soup, where the ingredients come to less than £2?

Pea and ham soup... and Aunty Mary 038

99p for a big and hefty bacon shank….

Pea and ham soup... and Aunty Mary 046

49p for 500g of split peas

A couple of carrots, some onion and a few bay leaves from the tree on the balcony and you have all you need to make a delicious supper.

Pea and ham soup... and Aunty Mary 048

The thing is, it does take time to do this but the way round it is to start the day before. This amounted to a few minutes work and then leaving it to simmer for a couple of hours. That was OK by me because I knew that the following night I would come in to a perfectly cooked soup that would just need a few minutes work.

I’m a great fan of food that you can spend just a short time on and then leave it to cook quietly….. I work full time and I don’t always want to spend hours cooking when I get in at night.

So…. carrots cut roughly, as was the onion, and then they were put into a pan with the bacon shank

Pea and ham soup... and Aunty Mary 049

I poured in the full bag of split peas

Pea and ham soup... and Aunty Mary 050

And then brought everything up to the boil.

See? That isn’t much work, is it?

You do have to hover about every now for the first ten minutes or so  because you need to scoop off the froth that come up…. but it’s no real hardship

Pea and ham soup... and Aunty Mary 052

Doesn’t take long though and once it’s done, put the lid on and leave everything to simmer for a couple of hours.

Pea and ham, fruit smoothie 001

Pea and ham, fruit smoothie 004

That’s it, for one night… just turn the heat off and leave it, you will finish it off the following night.

So, when you come in the next night, you will find a big pan of cold and solid soup. That’s good – it shows that the bacon shank has done its job.

Heave the shank out of the pan… and I do mean heave….I had to lever it out

Pea and ham, fruit smoothie 005

Look at how it has set!

 

Pea and ham, fruit smoothie 006

 I like a smooth texture with a few split peas, so what I do is take out a couple of ladlefuls of the peas, remembering to remove the bay leaves and blitz the rest to a glorious silky smooth base

Pea and ham, fruit smoothie 008

Now all you have to do is shred that shank….

Pea and ham, fruit smoothie 009

There’s a lot of meat on there…

Pea and ham, fruit smoothie 010

Remember I said I took out a couple of ladles of the peas before I blitzed the rest? I put them back in now to give just a bit of texture to the smooth base

Pea and ham, fruit smoothie 011

… and then add that lovely, shredded bacon

And just to show how easy it is, I made foccacia bread.. this time chopping  sage leaves and garlic into the mix

Pea and ham, fruit smoothie 013

It really is the easiest bread in the world to make and takes maybe 15 minutes in the oven

Pea and ham, fruit smoothie 015

Another 30p maybe for the flour? Pennies for the yeast and salt and oil? The sage leaves I got from the pot on the balcony….

Still under £2, then.

Pea and ham, fruit smoothie 017

And truly, the work involved for soup and bread was minimal… a bit of chopping the night before, scooping off the froth from the boiling peas and then leaving it to do its thing…and tonight? Shredding the bacon and blitzing half the soup… mixing some dough….

Pea and ham, fruit smoothie 022

Pea and ham, fruit smoothie 028

That made 4 huge and sustaining bowls of soup…..

……the bacon shreds were delicious bites in the silky soup…. ohhh it was delicious.

I loved it and my purse loved it. I’d make this even if I wasn’t almost penniless.

Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit…………… ragu

While I was in the north and at the butcher’s, I spotted some rabbit

 Bear Bars and Rabbit ragu and tagliatelle 035

£2.20! I bought that and started to think of things to make with it. Because the rabbits are wild they have very little fat on them but they are high in protein… a very delicious meat but they need to be cosseted in order to get the best from them. I thought a lovely rich ragu, slowly cooked until the rabbit was tender and served with pasta would be gorgeous.

What you will need is rabbit, of course, carrots, onion, some streaky bacon, a couple of bay leaves and some peppercorns. You’ll need either fresh tomatoes or a tin of the lovely Italian plum tomatoes, some wine, garlic and some butter.

Bear Bars and Rabbit ragu and tagliatelle 045

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I got the bay leaves from the tree on the balcony

Bear Bars and Rabbit ragu and tagliatelle 044

You will need pasta to serve it with – I make it when I have time but just buy some if you want to.

It was the weekend so I had the time to do this….. first of all, if the rabbit isn’t jointed, then do it now. Mine was, so that saved me a job. If it isn’t then you need to take a sharp knife and carefully cut through the joints. If you have poultry shears snip down the ribs. Get it into roughly evenly sized pieces.

                                                                 Bear Bars and Rabbit ragu and tagliatelle 037

Heat your casserole and some oil and then start to brown your rabbit. What you are about to do is get the meat ready and make a delicious stock that you will add to the tomato sauce to pour over your pasta.

                                                                                         Bear Bars and Rabbit ragu and tagliatelle 041

Bear Bars and Rabbit ragu and tagliatelle 047

While the rabbit is browning, get the rest of the stock ingredients together

Bear Bars and Rabbit ragu and tagliatelle 046

 

Chop the carrots and onion, get some black peppercorns and add that to the browned rabbit. Add some water – don’t entirely cover the rabbit – and see all the lovely browning caramelisation mix with the water already……

 

Bear Bars and Rabbit ragu and tagliatelle 048

 

Bear Bars and Rabbit ragu and tagliatelle 050

Just leave that to simmer quietly for an hour and a half or so until the rabbit is tender and falling off the bone.

Now get cracking on the ragu…..Bear Bars and Rabbit ragu and tagliatelle 053

Usual routine… chop the onion, start to sweat it gently…

Bear Bars and Rabbit ragu and tagliatelle 057

Never put the garlic in with the onion as it burns too quickly.. so while the onion is gently softening, chop the garlic

Bear Bars and Rabbit ragu and tagliatelle 055

Then the bacon… chop that and add it

Bear Bars and Rabbit ragu and tagliatelle 059

Once that has started to cook down, add the tomato. Chopped plum tomatoes in a tin are fine… excellent, in fact. You should always have tins of them in the cupboard.

Bear Bars and Rabbit ragu and tagliatelle 064

The juice sticks to the side of the tin so pour some red wine in and swish it round… then pour it in

Bear Bars and Rabbit ragu and tagliatelle 065

Well, you might as well get the last of the tomato out and you don’t want to dilute the delicious ragu with water, do you?

Bear Bars and Rabbit ragu and tagliatelle 066

Now that, too, can simmer for a while…..

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 001

See how rich it is looking?

Back to the rabbit…..

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 002

See? It is tender and starting to come away

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 003

Get it out and put on a plate.. don’t throw the stock out! Look at how the wooden fork can gently pull the flesh away ….

Meanwhile, strain the vegetables from the stock.. you don’t need them but you do need the stock

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 005

Boil down the stock with a good old slug of vermouth for a few minutes so it reduces slightly then add it to the ragu…. I decided to blitz it as I wanted a smooth base to go with the soon-to-be shredded rabbit

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 006

Start shredding the rabbit… well, you don’t need to shred, it just falls apart when you pull at it

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 007

Do watch out for the bones though.. a rabbit always seems to me to have more bones than are necessary… look at them

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 009

Still, you get a lot of meat for your £2.20

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 010

Then, add the lovely, tender, delicate rabbit to the gorgeously smooth sauce

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 017

Stir it round.. that rabbit need to be covered in the sauce

While that is gently simmering, get some pasta ready

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 019

And then…? Well then you put the two together…

Crumpets, ragu, chicken pie 027

That is something I will be doing again. There was enough rich and tasty ragu there to easily feed 6 of us. Pity there was only the two of us……. don’t you wish you had been passing and had called in to share?