Ninja Style Soups

Those that are regular visitors know I have a slight, if not disturbing infatuation with Ninja range of machines, and obviously use them all the time. The one machine I thought I would not use too much was the blender/soup maker. However, I was wrong and love making soups.

I have made so far;

• Tomato & Basil
• Curry Cauliflower
• Butternut Squash
• Chicken Noodle
• Leak & Potato

Today I decided to make root vegetable with chicken and barley, and yes, it was delicious, so much so I have just made a second batch so I can take some to work tomorrow for lunch. The photos are of the last two soups I made. On the left is chicken noodle, and on the right is today’s soup Root Veg with Chicken & Barley, and I have included the recipe too.

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Ingredients

• 750ml chicken stock
• 50g pearl barley
• 2 sticks of celery
• 1 onion – chopped
• 1 large parsnip
• 2 carrots
• 3 chicken thighs – boned and cut into chunks
• 1/4 swede or 1 whole turnip
• bay leaf
• salt & pepper
• Thyme or rosemary – your choice
• Chopped parsley (keep till the end)

Chop all the vegetable into bit size chunks.

Ninja users – Put all ingredients into the pot and press chunky soup

Pot user – simmer the stock with the barley for 20 minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes.

Everyone – when cooked remove the bay leaf, serve in bowls with chopped parsley on the top.

Enjoy!

Dog Biscuits, Homemade…

Here the biscuits that I said I would be making in a previous post.  Needless to say, the dogs love them.  So, if you want to make your dogs some, here is the recipe I used.

Ingredients

• 180ml Chicken Stock (Cold)
• 120ml Light Olive Oil
• 300g Wholemeal Organic Flour
• 90g Skimmed Milk Powder
• 25g Light Brown Cane Sugar
• 1 Egg whisked

Add all the dried ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.  Make a well in the middle and add the egg, oil and stock and mix to form a dough.

Need for a minute or two until it is the texture of pastry, and roll out until it is about half an inch (13mm or about 1.5cm).

Grab your cookie cutter and get to work cutting, placing each of the shapes onto a floured baking tray.

Pop them into the oven for about 30 minutes at fan 130, conventional 150c/300f or gas 2.  Let them cook and then treat your best friends to some delicious biscuits.

You do not have to use chicken stock, you could use beef, pork or lamb.  I would avoid vegetable stock though as it would be a little bland for them.

The next ones I make I will be adding parmesan to the dried mix, and maybe a teaspoon of garlic granules.

As well as making the dogs their biscuits, I also made them lambs liver and made a doggy gravy, however, I cheated with the gravy as I can buy dog gravy granules, so after frying the liver, I removed it and chopped it all up into chunks, added about 350ml water to the pan, stirred it to get all the meaty bits stock to the bottom of the pan then added the granules, then put the liver back in to the pan to get a thorough dowsing of the gravy, then decanted it all into a dish and popped it onto the fridge to cool down.  I served this with carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, and a hand full of cooked rice as I still had some in the fridge.  Again everything was eaten in record time, so they obviously loved it.

Baking – Soda Farls

My Hubby is Irish, so many many years ago I learned how to make proper Irish Soda Bread, Wheaten Bread & Soda Farls.  Since winter is well and truly on its way, and it is lashing with rain outside I thought I would make us some.  I thought I would share my recipe and do a show and tell.

Ingredients

• 250g Plain Flour
• 1 teaspoon of Baking Soda
• ½ teaspoon of salt (I use sea salt)
• 250ml Buttermilk

 

Place all dry ingredients into a bowl and mix.

Make a well and add the buttermilk, although do not add it all as you can keep adding whilst mixing rather than make it too wet.

Mix and knead the dough on a floured surface, but be gentle, you really only want to knead it into shape.  Slice a cross into the top with a sharp knife that has been floured.

Pop the farl onto a hot griddle pan, or if you only have a frying pan, that will work nicely, but again, be gentle, don’t go in at too high a temperature or you will end up with a crispy dough ball.  I use a tepanyaki grill plate to make mine and have the temperature about 150c.

Partway through cooking flip it over and cook the other side.

Again flip it over, and tap the base to see if it is cooking, it should make a hollow sound, and if not carry on cooking.

As you can see the farl has split where the score marks were and have browned nicely.  Finally, when you are happy with it, wrap it in a tea cloth and set aside, this will ensure that it finishes off cooking and traps moisture, and makes it chewy, and brings out the subtle soda taste.  I used to use a proper Irish Linnen tea cloth, but alas it bit the dust some time ago.

It should take about 20 minutes to cook through.

Once it has cooled split it into four, then slice through the side horizontally, so you end up with 8 quarters if you cut it all at once.  Toast and enjoy with lashings of butter and a slice of mature cheese like cheddar.  Also delicious with bacon and egg.