Strong cold southerlies. Periods of rain. Even possible snow in hills of lower South Island. Brrrr!
It's time for return of winter recipes.
In a 4.5L slow cooker, I have just put:
* 1kg bacon hock
* 1kg dry split peas
* 2 onions & 2 cloves of garlic chopped and lightly pan fried
* Water to 2cm below the rim of the crock
And turned the cooker on "High".
No seasoning yet, as the bacon hock is quite salty. I intend to cook this for 4-5 hours before taking the bone out and check the taste, then season if necessary. Of course the meat off the bone will be chopped and returned to the soup. Still deciding whether I should put some herbs. Some recipes said bay leaves others say rosemary. Hmmm. Maybe a couple of fresh sage leaves, and perhaps a sprig of rosemary, from my herb pot garden?
Hardware of the day
ZIP Slow Cooker Model 222
(Technically it's whiteware. But whiteware is a type of hardware, right?)
[Update 20:45]
Resounding success!!
I decided to put some fresh sage leaves and a sprig of rosemary. Needed to cook for about 6 hours until it got to the stage where the meat came off the bone. After taking the hock out, the soup itself was quite thick and very filling. Taste was just right at that stage, but when I added the chopped meat, it got a little salty. So I added a little hot water to adjust the taste. :chef:
[Update-2 13:10 next day]
In the morning I discovered the soup had turned into a large pea pudding under clear broth! Stirring was rather tricky. But fortunately I was able to fit the crock in my microwave and stirring became easier after reheating.
I'm very happy with the outcome of this recipe and don't think I'd change my recipe much. I might try putting some pearl barley in for texture, but that would be about it.
[Update-3 20 June]
I've offered this soup to a few friends and received favourable feedback. I'm actually making another batch now, starting with almost the same recipe (only the hock is smaller this time, about 800g). As I commented above, I may add some barley later. Should be good for supper tonight (while watching Doctor Who).
[Update-4 21 June]
Hmmm. Barley wasn't such a good idea. Not only I put too much of it, which swollen up as barley does, its presence was more distracting than adding extra texture, and also made the soup tasting somewhat bland. Will be left out at next attempt.
This stuff can be salty cant it? Sometimes worth changing the water a few times
Yum… :chef:
I think if you were cooking a boil-up, you'd probably want to do that to get rid of the saltiness, because you'd be eating more meat. The soup itself should taste about right, I think. This is only my second attempt. In my first I couldn't get hock and used about 500g bacon bones and 500g dry peas and about 2L of water. The soup turned out quite mild and a bit thin. The meat off the bones was salty but the quantity wasn't much, so it didn't matter. The cooker hasn't quite reached the simmer yet. Smells good. I'll post an update when it's done. 🙂
Just had a bowl of home cooked soup as a supper. Nothing is better in a cold wintry night. Life is good. 😀
Its not really winter yet, the cold is yet to come :eyes: Soup and a real fire, thats how it should be 😀
Have ya tried covering the thing with foil? (shiny side in, its important) Take it off for a last blast to brown… 😀
You are right. Yesterday was actually not that cold. Today is a lot colder. It's just the first couple of cold spells at beginning of winter always seems worse that they really are. And guess what I just had for lunch! 😀
Hmmm. Turkey? I've got a whole chicken in the fridge. I'm deciding whether I take the joints apart and cook the pieces or do the whole thing in the microwave. (I know oven roasting is supposed to taste better. But I'm not good with the oven and always overcook the bird to bone dry)
Winter soup = christmas turkey, its the meal that keeps on 😆
Bung it in a curry instead, that'll keep you warm :yes: And it never dries out
No. Boring oven bag method. No crispy skin, but moist (and edible).
I think I'll nuke the whole bird. Taking joints apart can be messy and cold (handling the bird straight out the fridge). I can then make curry using the leftover tomorrow. Sounds like a plan 🙂
Microwaves are good tools… Why boil something when you can blast it in half the time?
I came here after a comment of Mimi's Mum on latest Erwin post … And so I see, when two persons of New-Zealand meet, what are they talking about : food !!Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:
Is it an expression you kept after the Rainbow Warrior's affair that ridiculed us (French, I am ! ) ? :bandit: … Poor bird ! 😆
Originally posted by arduinna:
😆 😆 Thanks arduinna. I've just got up late in another cold wet morning and saw your comment. You've already made my day! Great sense of humour. Much appreciated. ;)What's wrong with talking about food, by the way? I thought French were most enthusiastic about food. Beside we also talked about DIY in one of my photo albums, which is the real Kiwi thing. And I do have an outdoors (another Kiwi thing) blog elsewhere, which I'm considering moving over to My Opera.Originally posted by arduinna:
😆 Well I'm not a born kiwi and wasn't here when the bombing happened. So I don't really know. I've pick up this expression from neibougher's kids. DH didn't ask what I meant, so I assume this is fairly common expression. And that poor nuked bird gave us nice juicy breasts that night and warming chicken and brown lentil curry last night. And, No, we haven't shown symptoms of radiation sickness 😀 Thanks for stopping by, arduinna. 🙂
Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:
Just imagine that New Zealand is on the other hemisphere, uncommon landscapes… almost another planet … and you are just chatting about simple recipe, like people of my streets : it's brings the dreams down the Earth :rolleyes: or imagine you have win 1 million dollars … but , but they are Zimbabwean :cry:, and you'll feel what I mean 😉 !Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:
The pleasure is for me, and I must say that DH is jolly good fellow and where he is, there is always good humour. … !! Have a nice day.
Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:
Yes, good idea, the place is not too crowded, but with nice people, you will definitively find your audience with time. I browsed "Peaks & Valleys of Middle Earth", it's worth to be shared !!
Originally posted by arduinna:
Thanks for visiting there. I created that blog to share with my tramping friends. But they were mostly older than me and not interested in "sharing on the net" thing, though they did read them and told me nice, interesting, etc. I don't know if I actually shift the existing blog. I like to have a distinctive blog address starting with maunga (means mountain in the Maori language, BTW). But I might post a couple of articles here about my past outdoors adventures. I haven't been tramping since December 2008. So those articles will be retrospective yarns rather than reports of latest outings.I also have some outdoors photos on flickr under the username aokaparangi (name of a mountain on Tararua Main Range) You might want to take a look: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aokaparangi
The other pictures are beautiful too, exhilarating landscapes. Why not to start an album with what you can see from your window, even if its a small garden ? … Then another from a simple walk, then a new hike… Darkest Hour does that well for instance "Walkin' the dog" is nice to be discovered. Even a simple object may appear exotic for Opera user, so even a walk may look like an adventure. One day you may make an album for each of your previous adventures. By the way I have put my photos in free access, you will see nothing extraordinary, but Opera tools for a blog, album, now even Unite for mp3 are really nice software to share what you like. I am myself still astonished by that.
Making another batch now (as seen in Update) :chef: