If you simmer a pork hock slowly, over several hours – maybe even all day, it will reward you with a rather lovely stock and some very tender meat that makes a fabulous soup. By trial and error I’ve discovered it’s easiest to cook the pork hock the day before and then let everything cool down overnight (or for an hour to two at least) and then strain off the stock and extract the meat – that way you can pull the meat out from under the fat easily – when it’s freshly cooked it all kind of falls apart and it’s quite an extraction job to get to the good bits.
So I cooked the hock on Friday and then on Saturday morning it was just a matter of cooking some celery, carrot, garlic and a little turmeric, adding the stock back with the pulled meat and a cup of split green peas and then letting it simmer away – add the spinach and parsley just before serving for a green boost of goodness.
This is a great Friday night supper on a number of levels. For a start it’s roast chicken – always a winner , smells great while it’s cooking and as easy as putting the chicken in the oven to roast. You can get a bit flash with sticking things in the cavity (lemon / garlic / herbs etc) but if you can’t be bothered I reckon even just slamming the bird on a tray in the oven with a bit of salt and pepper still gets a fine result.
You can make the salad in advance so that when the pre-dinner slump hits and all you can think about is a large glass of wine then you can kick back with your large glass of wine, put the TV on for the kiddos and smell the chicken roasting. Sweet. Also, all that raw veg in the salad is super-healthy so you can treat yourself to an extra wine safe in the knowledge your brightly coloured vegetables are busy de-toxing your liver for you while you drink it.
To make the salad, grate up whatever vegetables are to hand. I used my lovely swirly grating machine (which for those of you feeling like your life is incomplete without one (I did get that comment this week so I know the sentiment is out there!) is a Tefal fresh express – got it from Moore Wilsons for about $90 I think. I used courgette, carrot, beetroot and celery – also put some grapes in because I wanted to crumble in a little blue cheese at the end and grapes and blue cheese are a very happy pairing. The ‘super grain’ part is a mix of white, red and black quinoa and amaranth that you’ll find from Ceres in the organics section (you can get it ready mixed all in one bag). I feel healthy just writing it and it has a nice mild nutty flavour that seems to go down OK with the kids (it’s gluten free as well). You just simmer it for about 15 mins in boiling water and then cool it for the salad (you can rinse it in cold water using a sieve if you don’t have time to let it cool on it’s own). I put some olive oil, apple cider vinegar and lemon on to dress the salad but it would carry any dressing well.
If you’re looking at the salad photo and thinking it might be a bit of a hard sell to the little guys then it’s easy to cut them some sticks of the vegetables with maybe some mashed avocado to dip them in and to give them a serving of the super-grains on the side. That’s how my little dudes like it but all kids have their own strange ways.
The final hurrah of this fantastic Friday supper is that you get a chicken carcass, and maybe even some leftover chicken if you have a slightly less greedy (or smaller) family than mine. You can put it straight on to boil for stock and then you’ll have a lovely batch of stock to cook with over the weekend. You can also make the salad bigger than you’ll need as it’s a great BBQ accompaniment or pizza side which make Saturday’s meals a bit easier.
Bolognese is always a good idea. It has a cross seasonal appeal and an ability to soak up a little of the day it’s made in. Yesterday, the wind eased back and left a beautiful sea fret hanging over the house. I find the wind disconcerting, but there is something magical about the low mist that sometimes follows. In honor of the magic mist, I used a batch of fresh chicken stock in the bolognese , which then slowly simmered and reduced all afternoon creating a rich and rather lovely sauce.
I have been using Nigel Slater’s bolognese recipe for a while now but needed to adapt it today due to having a glut of celery but no carrot and having lost the nutmeg (yes apparently I live in a house where it is possible to loose a jar of nutmeg) and also didn’t think the usual quantity of wine made it very baby friendly.
Garlic, onion, celery and mince cooked together until mince brown then add salt and pepper and some tomato paste – a pint or so of fresh chicken stock (I’m not sure there is a huge art to making chicken stock – I just sling in the carcass in a pan after a roast and cover it with water – maybe some herbs if they are to hand and maybe some garlic cloves and salt and pepper – apparently the longer you cook it the better but we’re not really clock watchers over stuff like making stock around here).
I’m sure it could have been enhanced in all sorts of lovely ways had I not been racing out the door with 4 little people to get to a swim class, but it was pretty fine as it was when we came home. (Add some milk about 20 mins before eating it to make it even richer, and of course, have it over pasta of some kind with lashings of cheese).
Chopping vegetables in the relative calm of the early afternoon when at least some of the kids are out of the house has benefits that go beyond the obvious. The most important from a nutrition perspective is that garlic activates if it’s given time to sit at room temperature after it’s chopped. I don’t know about the science but if you’re interested in you can google it. I heard it from the naturopath I work with (Nourish-ed). Also , on a more frivolous note, if you preparing some of the food in a calm environment rather than the chaos that is often as known as ‘witching hour’ the pre-dinner hour in a house full of small children then you can just enjoy it a little more and that kind of makes it all a bit more of a positive vibe. If you’re a frustrated artist you can even put your veg into colour contrasting bowls and take a moment just to marvel at how beautiful they look.
For the soup I used a base of garlic, chili, celery, leeks and bacon, then added leftover roast chicken from last night, chicken stock, chopped potatoes , cup of red lentils and quite a bit more water because I cooked it long and slow and lentils kind of dissolve but absorb a lot of water. Add the corn closer to the end of cooking and also some sour cream and parsley if you like that kind of stuff.
(Inspired by Nigel Slater’s Chicken and Smoked Sausage Chowder in Real Food)
The salad was the star tonight. Put a couple of carrots and a couple of zucchini through the twirly whirly grater machine , chopped up celery , grapes and crumbled in some blue cheese. Dressed with olive oil, red wine vinegar and runny honey.
Chicken roasted with a lemon shoved up it and a little salt and pepper – nothing else.
Shaved zucchini, chunks of avocado, finely chopped cucumber and celery – crumbled the feta over – oil and balsamic dressing… livened up last night’s leftovers by having this on the side.
Onion, garlic, celery, carrot, zucchini, button mushrooms – cook down for a few minutes in olive oil with salt and pepper, added good beef mince and brown then a jar of passata (400g) cup of red wine, cup of veg stock – cover and simmer for an hour and half, add a cup of milk and simmer uncovered for another 30 mins.
One of the downers of living with a gluten free (almost) hubby is that the old weekend lunch staple of bread n cheese n chutney just isn’t that great anyone – because gluten free toast is just about passable for breakfast with jam but it really can’t replace freshly baked crusty bread … so it makes the weekend lunch a bit harder – unless there are leftovers , which today there weren’t. So not feeling very energetic I looked at the fresh packs of soup but just couldn’t bring myself to pay $6 for a tiny pack knowing I could make a nicer batch, way more so they’d be lunches in the week and way cheaper.
Chopped onion and garlic and grated fresh ginger (couple of spoons), softened in coconut oil, chopped in a couple of sticks of celery and about 500g of organic carrots with skins on. Covered with boiling water and salt / pepper and cooked for half an hour – then added a tin of coconut cream and blended – served the kids then added some fresh mint leaves and a small spoon of chili powder.
When I have time I quite like making a proper risotto – the type where you stand stirring the pan and easing the stock in bit by bit. With all the kids under feet I’ve worked out a way of cheating which involves cooking the onions, garlic, celery and bacon together – then added the leftover roast chicken from last night , some sage leaves, a cup of risotto rice and the chicken stock made from last night’s bones. Let the whole thing simmer for half an hour until all the stock absorbed and it’s good to go with parmesan. B announced it’s his favourite meal even eating the celery despite having a free pass to pick it out so I guess it counts as a success.
