it may be just me because i am a greedy old sod, but i just love winter food.
saw a couple of meals being cooked by a young lad on FB, thought i would try em. and the turned out delicious.
first was a simple kind of cockaleekie souple.
2 leeks, 2 chicken breast, 1 onion, half a cabbage all sliced up thin a fried off in some olive oil.
2 pints of stock and a big cup of pearl barley. all boiled up and simmered. gorgeous
2nd meal was belly pork braised in beer.
some nice fatty belly pork from butchers, browned off in a oiled pan.
remove it and sprinkle it with some seasoned flour.
3 brown onions fried off in pan and replace the belly pork
add a big bottle of your fave beer/lager/cider. i used saltaire cascade blonde.
bring to the boil then simmer for 45 minutes.
served with carrot, swede and parsnip mash and roast spuds. bloody delicious.
whats your winter fave.
I've just cooked up a big batch of chilli con carne.
I love it, it's easy to cook up, freezes well and goes with almost anything. Rice, jacket potato, couscous, mash, or even just on it's own. Very warming with a nice touch of spice.
Bambi stew/casserole with mash and ..wait for it..SPROUTS 😊
It's been grim weather up here today, so this has gone down well.
Has now got me thinking about a venison pie for Boxing day
Toad in the hole with the sausages wrapped in streaky bacon, onion gravy and veggies
The best thing about autumn/winter is breaking out the slow cooker. I work from home 3 days a week and take a proper break at lunchtime by heading to the kitchen and putting something together that can slow cook all afternoon.
Personal favorites are chicken, ham and leek casserole
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chicken-ham-casserole-with-mustardy-dumplings
Or Delia’s braised beef goulash
Yesterday I made chicken jambalaya. We had some leftover chicken and bulked it up with some mushrooms. Delicious and very warming.
You can’t beat a corned beef hash too! Again, Delia’s recipe is the best. Soak your corned beef in Worcester sauce all day and top with fried eggs. It’s absolutely bloody delicious!
We've had Mac Cheese, sausages and peas tonight. Two of the major food groups coved, processed meat and cheese. Also had beer this afternoon, so there's the third.
Took out a rolled lamb shoulder yesterday 2.1kg. chopped rolled in flour browned in batches along with a dozen or so shallots. Chucked in casserole with 1kg of tatties and a bottle of passatta and some stock
Oven at 150 for 4 hours. Oh so good.
Enough for a few meals and one to the in-laws and my parents.
Toad in the hole is the best thing about autumn.
I'm about to reheat some cauliflower cheese in a pie topped with mash and cheese.
Herby dumplings are also a winner cooked on top of anything runnier than dumplings.
Made Chicken and Leek pie yesterday, son loved it and asked if we can have it every weekend. Fine by me.
Ah - a reminder that I need to pop along and buy some venison in order to make some chilli.
Mrs Binners thought we’d have a change from the usual Sunday roast, so made steak pie and chips for tea.
Who doesn’t love pie? 😃
I made beef shin stew this morning, just had it earlier. So good.
Pasta and meatballs today. Will do a stew type thing tomorrow
Ham and veg soup made with ham shank offcuts from the butcher, loads of veg and Batchelors dried peas for thickness. Yum. Today though was a chicken casserole with dumplings. Oh and red wine.
Campfire stew today! https://pinchofnom.com/recipes/campfire-stew/
We had a fully cooked from scratch lasagne tonight. Amazing.
We went out last week for lunch and I had chicken goujons and bacon inbetween two waffles, drizzled in maple syrup and honey. Amazing comfort food!
Just made a huge pan of leek and potato soup. The breadmaker's primed ready for lunchtime.
The Small is dead excited because he gets "Grandad Soup" tomorrow, it's his favourite.
Big batches of stew to keep repeating with dumplings. Hopefully have some more venison dropped off soon.
Toad in the hole is a year round thing here.
Bit late for it now but we were feasting on Pumpkin soup last month, so fricken easy. We had two large pumpkins which were cheap as chips (well cheaper), fed us and the neighbours for a couple of weeks & yet ppl whine they can't afford food (& order takeaway)
- 1 tbsp olive oil (or coconut oil)
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 inch piece fresh ginger, grated or minced
- 4 cups cubed fresh pumpkin or 1 (15oz) can pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
- 3-4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
- 1 can (13.5-14oz) full-fat coconut milk
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
we added dried lentils to this, and it only improved it.
Soup - Once you have the base of potato and onion, then any combination of veg/meat/pulses will do. I always sweat mine first in butter for 20 minutes and pop into the slowcooker with hot stock.
Mary Berry has some great stew, casserole and hotpot recipes, again can be done in the slow cooker. Always brown any meat off first.
It's making me hungry.
Toad in the hole today. Not had it for a very long time. With thick onion gravy and garden peas.
Stew season. 👌
Definitely stew season.
Lurgey-enforced rest day. Inspired by this thread I managed to shuffle to the shops and back with my 70l rucsac for the weekly shop. Stew ingredients in the slow cooker then off to my bed for the rest of the day. Quick Yorkshire filled with stew - feeling better already.....
Beef bourgignon - got Matthew Ryle's book 'French Classics' recently and there are some belters in there.
Our cooking doesn't vary a lot across the seasons but the other day when we made lunch (we rarely eat lunch together but this time we did) there was a small amount of leftover tomato soup (home made with tomatoes from the allotment) and some leftover cauliflower cheese (as above, except for the tomato) that we'd had with belly pork last night. Mrs Bigjohn whizzed it all up together in the liquidiser and heated it up. It was so good we're going to make sure we've got plenty of leftover next time.
And speaking of leftovers , I always make too much risotto or paella so I can make arrancini the next day.
Keema Aloo hits the spot this time of year, pretty simple and quick to make (I don't use the naga chillies from this recipe, mainly as they're not easy to get hold of) but as with most curries it tastes better the next day, I usually have it with pilau rice
Split pea and ham soup from the 'Jamie does:' book.
Did a lovely venison and beetroot stew at the weekend.
Sausage, parsnip, potato and carrot bake is always a winner. Brown sausages and an onion in a pan then put in a tray with the veg, some seasoning and chicken stock. Bake in the oven until coloured and spuds are soft. Serve with dipping bread.
Adding root veg to mashed potato always makes it feel wintery.
I also find cheesy polenta (plenty of salt, pepper and parsley as well as parmesan so it tastes of something!) makes a great accompaniment to most red meat stews.
30 mile ride this morning. i dont eat breakfast nowadays, first meal at 12ish.
today i was hungry once i got home.
Bambi stew/casserole with mash and ..wait for it..SPROUTS
Sprouts in stew is one of my secret tricks, especially with my favourite chicken thigh stew.
The mash just disintegrates and acts as a thickener, I assume? I sometimes sprinkle a bit of Smash in if mine is too runny. Think I picked that up from Keith Floyd.
I was amused that Latif mentions he was using his Mom's old wooden spoon. I still have my Mum's old wooden spoon which is no longer used plus her old aluminium ladle which is used for serving chicken broth. It's the law.
Oh and I have my German Oma's dinner service which will be well over 100 years old now.
Throw loads of veg in a baking tray and roast it. Chuck a healthy number of sausages on top for the last 20 minutes. Smother in mustard and gravy. Takes zero effort, tastes well good.
@ton - feed me this right now:
some nice fatty belly pork from butchers, browned off in a oiled pan.
remove it and sprinkle it with some seasoned flour.
3 brown onions fried off in pan and replace the belly pork
add a big bottle of your fave beer/lager/cider. i used saltaire cascade blonde.
bring to the boil then simmer for 45 minutes.
served with carrot, swede and parsnip mash and roast spuds. bloody delicious.
Just made a huge pan of leek and potato soup. The breadmaker's primed ready for lunchtime.
The Small is dead excited because he gets "Grandad Soup" tomorrow, it's his favourite.
I made an absolutely banging chill con carne yesterday.. Basically I roughly followed the hairy bikers recipe but with extra veg and spices.. So it was like a cross breed between chilli con carne and a south Asian curry.
This’ll be going in the slow cooker tomorrow, with a couple of extra chilli’s and some smoked paprika Another winter favourite…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chorizochickenandchi_87895
Being a half-vegetarian household, I'd struggle to make some of those awesome looking recipes up there.
However, we did have Cauliflower Cheese and sausages for tea last night, and the best bit is I have the leftovers for my dinner today! Top top is to add a small heads worth of Broccoli in with the cauliflower for a bit of color and taste variation.
Jamie Oliver's book pork belly 2 nights ago and I'm with Ton... Tartiflette season is here.... and here ....and here.
Absolutely with you on it now being Tartiflette season. We firmly embraced it last weekend. I could feel my arteries hardening 😀
Winter traybake for the win: potatoes, parsnips, onions, sprouts and pepper tossed in za'atar, with chicken marinaded in ras el hanout. Hmm, this gives me an idea for a campfire bivi meal....
I'd never heard of tartiflette, but I'll be cooking one next week!
Shepherds pie.
That's a second round waiting for myself and youngest...
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And he's eaten all the second round!