Sausage Barley Soup

Ingredients

• 1 pound Italian sausage(some commenters suggested hot, I used mild)
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 package sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 (48 fluid ounce) can chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 bag shredded carrots
• 1 package baby spinach
• 1/2 - 1 cup uncooked pearl barley

Directions

1. In a skillet over medium heat, cook the sausage, onion, mushrooms, and garlic until the sausage is evenly brown. Season with Italian seasoning. Remove from heat, and drain.
2. In a slow cooker, mix the sausage mixture, chicken broth, carrot, and barley.
3. Cover, and cook 3 hours on High.
4. About 1 hour before it's done, slice the spinach into shreds (you could just add it whole but I find that hard to eat whole wilted spinach leaves) and add to the slow cooker. Stir to combine. I stirred for the whole cooking time about once every half hour.

Carrot, Cumin, and Barley Summer Stew

Ingredients

For the carrots

• 500ml/18fl oz carrot juice
• large pinch of sea salt
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 6 carrots (ideally Early Nantes), skin on, scrubbed, halved lengthways then cut into 1cm/½in slices at an angle

For the barley

• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 80g/2¾oz white onion (about ½ a medium onion), chopped
• 2 Pasilla Bajio chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
• 150g/5½oz pearl barley
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 corn cob, cooked in boiling water for 20 minutes, covered
• 4 rainbow chard leaves, rolled and chopped; stems cut into 3cm/1¼in pieces
• 3 spring onions, finely sliced
• small bunch coriander, chopped
• ½ lemon, juice only
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

To finish

• 1½ tbsp rapeseed oil
• micro coriander (optional)

1. For the carrots, in a large saucepan over a medium heat, bring the carrot juice and 100ml/3½fl oz water to the boil, then add the salt and cumin. Add the carrots and simmer gently for 10 minutes, or until they are cooked through. Remove from the heat, remove the carrots and reserve the cooking liquor.
   
2. For the barley, in a medium, lidded saucepan over a medium heat, heat the oil and gently fry the onions and chillies for 5 minutes, covered with a lid, until softened. Stir in the barley and cumin and continue to fry for a minute. Add 500ml/18fl oz of the carrot cooking liquor to the pan. Bring to a gentle simmer, then cover with the lid and cook for 50–55 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the barley swells and is firm with a good bite. Check the texture, taste and season with salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes more, if necessary. Set aside in the pan.
   
3. To finish the barley risotto, using a long knife, carefully cut the kernels off the corn cob by running a knife along the central core. Keep 4 of the biggest lengths intact to use as garnish. Set these aside then release the kernels from the rest. Add the chard stems and leaves, spring onions and loose corn kernels to the barley pan and stir. Place the pan back on a medium heat and cook for 12 minutes. Add the coriander and cook for a further minute until wilted. Finally, taste and adjust the seasoning if required, then add the lemon juice to sharpen the flavour.
   
4. To finish, in a frying pan over a medium heat, fry the cooked carrot pieces in the rapeseed oil for 6–7 minutes, until caramelised. Add the reserved pieces of sliced corn to the pan and cook for 3 minutes, or until they begin to brown.
   
5. To serve, remove the caramelised carrots, add them to the barley risotto and divide the risotto evenly between four plates. Finish with a length of sliced corn and micro coriander, if using. Serve immediately.
   

Lemon Risotto with Peas and Leeks

The very first risotto I ever made --- plus, I learned what leeks were! 

 

Photo: Cooking Light

When we lived in Baltimore, we used to get a gigantic bag of fresh peas at the farmer's market (under the highway overpass). The peas were only available for a few weeks, and judging by the line, they were the IT veggie. Sometimes, this dish turned out to be more peas with risotto (rather than risotto with peas).

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup fresh green peas (or thawed frozen peas)
• 4 cups Chicken Stock
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 leeks, finely chopped
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 1 cup (uncooked) Arborio rice
• 3 Tbps dry white wine
• 1/2 cup Parmesan
• 1 tsp grated lemon rind
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh tarragon (or 2 tsp dried)
• 1 Tbsp butter

DIRECTIONS

1. To cook (fresh) peas: Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil. Add peas, cook 1 minute. Drain and rinse with cold water (and drain again).
2. Bring chicken stock to a simmer, keep warm over low heat.
3. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
4. Add leeks and shallots, cook ~7min, stirring frequently.
5. Add rice, cook 1 min, stirring constantly.
6. Add wine, cook 30 sec, stirring constantly.
7. Add 1 cup stock, cook 4 minutes (or until the liquid is nearly absorbed), stirring frequently (you'll learn what you can get away in this regard).
8. Continue to add the remaining stock, ~1/2 cup at a time, until each portion is absorbed (~25 min total). 
9. Stir in peas, cook 1 min.
10. Stir in cheese, rind, juice, salt, and pepper.
11. Remove from heat and stir in tarragon & butter.

Recipe via Cooking Light

Peanut Chicken Noodle Bowl

 
When you're combining the ingredients for the sauce, this is not the most visually appetizing dish, but do not be discouraged. It is delicious! Because the veggies are not cooked they are crisp and full of flavor. This dish would work really well with a number of veggies. I meant to throw in some broccoli in my fridge with which I am currently holding a staring contest, but forgot. If I had, I would have thrown it in for the last 45 seconds-1 minute of cooking with the noodles to blanche it. Given the relative intensity of the vegetables the kids were not into it. But, because I had the peanut butter out already I just made them some sandwiches and helped myself to seconds on the noodles.

INGREDIENTS 

• 7 ounces rice noodles
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper, optional
• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded 1/2”
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook noodles according to package directions and reserve.
2. Combine vinegar, soy sauce, peanut butter, fish sauce, water, honey, and crushed red pepper in a microwave safe bowl.
3. Microwave sauce for 30 seconds to soften peanut butter and stir to combine.
4. Marinate chicken in 1/4 cup of the sauce for about 20 minutes.
5. Grill the chicken 3-4 minutes per side or until juices run clear.
6. Toss reserved noodles, bell pepper, carrot, and green onion with remaining sauce. Top with sliced chicken and garnish with cilantro.

 Photo & recipe courtesy of NoMoreToGo.com
 

Chicken and rosemary lentil traybake

I used the attached recipe as a base for the meal pictured below. 

The dish was enjoyable, but the recipe raised a few questions. Either the liquid volume or the timings seemed way out to me, but I'll make it again with adjustments. Despite giving everything extra time, the chicken skin was pale (which is fine, if you're not going to eat it, but I like it when it's crisp) and there was still a lot of liquid in the dish. This picture is of a re-heat, so the chicken looks a bit more the way I like it.

http://www.morrisonsmag.co.uk/march_2015/chicken_and_rosemary_lentil_traybake

Not having red onions, I cut 2 small leeks into 1in pieces, used dried rosemary, a yellow pepper, and pressed some garlic, as it gives a stronger flavour than sliced. It was accompanied by baby potatoes. (They were Charlottes, Lizzie. I know you like to know :)

8 chicken thighs

• 1 red onion, sliced into wedges
• 2 pointed red peppers, deseeded and sliced into rings
• 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• 200g green lentils
• 600ml chicken stock, made from cubes
  

1. Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas 6. Make slashes in the skin of each chicken thigh, season and arrange in a large roasting dish. Roast for 10 minutes.
2. Scatter the red onion, peppers, garlic and rosemary around the chicken and toss well to mix the different elements together.
   
   Incidentally, I'm going to try using the leftover stock and lentils as the base for a soup. We'll see how that goes.
   

Kerala Prawn (Shrimp) Curry

For Valentine's Day dinner, we fancied a prawn curry.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1326/kerala-prawn-curry

• 2 red chillies split, cut into quarters lengthways and seeded
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 2½ cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped
• 1 tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil
• 1 tsp black mustard seed
• ½ tsp fenugreek seeds
• 14 curry leaves, fresh or dried
• ½ tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp cracked black peppercorns
• 250g jumbo prawns, leave some with their tails on if you like
• 150ml reduced-fat coconut milk

To serve

• a squeeze of lime
• chopped fresh coriander, plus a sprig or two
• freshly boiled basmati rice

We were very excited to find an Indian grocery store in the area that carried curry leaves. This was one of the ingredients and apparently there's no subbing on this so we went for fun to include them. Not to worry, though, it would be fine without it because it's not the flavor of curry that it brings but just a smokiness. We added a tomato to the food processor, just because there was an over-ripe one lying around.

We really enjoyed it. You'll have to ask Amy or Alistair what they thought since we brought them leftovers when we visited the next day.

Very Unrefined Chicken Soup

Here's a version of a soup which I put together fairly regularly. As Liz said, when I roast chicken, I keep the pan juices to "beef"-up the stock.  I Scotland I'd use "neep" (rutabaga) instead of sweet potato, and maybe a small leek, or cabbage, or any other vegetable that was to hand, but the onion and carrots are constants for me.
The soup in the photo was made this week, and it has Savoy cabbage in it. You could add any small pieces of leftover chicken.

Very Unrefined Chicken Soup

1 carton chicken broth
1 medium onion, diced
2 cups diced carrots
1 1/2 cups diced sweet potato
2 cups kale, finely chopped
1 or 2 garlic cloves, pressed
1/2 tsp dried thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

Bring chicken broth to a simmer, adding all ingredients as you do. Simmer for 45mins to 1hr..............ummm.....

that's it.