Lamb and Pearl Barley Soup

I'm a terrible one for themed weeks of foods, but for some reason (well, it's seasonal, innit) LAMB is featuring a lot on the menu at the moment. And quite timely it is too, as I have to say, in these frostbitten days at the beginning of the year, there is something about lamb, something I can't quite put my finger on, that really hits the spot on a really bitter cold winter's day.

Of course, I say I can't put my finger on it, but that's not going to stop me from trying my very best to theorise. (Professor NibbleScribbler dons her scientific hat) I believe (and of course, I've got no cold, hard proof), that it has something to do with the fatty texture of lamb, the somehow simultaneously mellow yet robust flavour of the meat. I'm interested to know if anyone else feels the same way as I do here. But then, I'm probably just rabbitting on with noone listening as usual. Still, the birds in the garden like it, heck, I think they even understand me!

So this morning, off I waltzed down to the well-overpriced butcher's down the bottom of the lane, to request two nice generous strips of his best lamb's neck. Coming in at a whopping £9.50, I wouldn't exactly classify this under my previous frugal entries , however, it was a splendiferous-if-not-quite-economic soup which resulted, and you can rest assured that the amount would feed a hungry rugby team. Course, I'm reckoning that if you get yourself on to a cheaper butcher's and you could halve the price.

Anyway, where was I, oh yes, so: Lamb. Today's tummy-warmer was a beaut - 'Lamb and Pearl Barley Soup'. Rock 'n' roll.

Ingredients

1.5 lbs Lamb's neck
1 garlic clove, chopped, glug olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 sticks celery, diced
3 carrots, diced
(optional: 1-2 parsnips, diced)
1/2 tin chopped tomatoes
1 lamb stock cube + 1 litre water
handful chopped parsley, 1 bay leaf
1/4 tspn: dried coriander, cumin, ginger, turmeric
splash soy sauce and worcester sauce
couple handfuls pearl barley

Method

1. In a large casserole dish, brown the meat with the garlic in the olive oil on a medium heat. Remove into bowl, and, again in the casserole, cook the onion and celery until golden, then add the carrots and parsnips. Stir, then return the lamb to the pan.
2. Add the tomatoes, a dash each of worcester/soy sauce, then the lamb stock and liquid. Allow to simmer slowly, then add in the spices, parsley, bay leaf and pearl barley.
3. Put in a medium heat oven (sorry, can't be more specific as using an Aga at the moment) to slow cook for 2-3 hours, keeping an eye on it and stirring occasionally.

Easy as that really. Magic.

The Official New Theme/Challenge: Frugal Food

My previous post should give some enlightenment as to my personal circumstances, and why exactly I have this overwhelming obsession with frugal food. It seems like a lot (if not all) of my posts (bar the restaurant reviews, where I have been lucky enough to be taken out by a host of wonderful friends/family) have been detailing ways of getting more bangers for your buck, of stretching your ingredients just as far as they'll go, and occasionally reverting to using odd (yet delicious!) insides to get a cheap meal. Whilst I'll admit that a lot of this is due to the fact that I'm hardly what you'd call rolling in dosh at the moment, coupled with the fact that I think the theme is highly relevant in a time where people are starting to feel the financial strain of the recession, this is not the only reason I'm interested in frugal food. I'm interested because, well, I'm not by nature a wasteful person. I like the concept of simple living, of more frugality and less extravagent waste. Less materialism, more productivity. Cooking can very quickly and easily become a highly expensive past-time, unless you use your noggin. And it's this sort of brainy cooking that I like - creatively and cleverly using your ingredients to the max. BUT - the results must be tasty, not all weird and wonderful, like say kidney beans with...erm...(she racks brain trying to think of something really truly odd to mix with kidney beans)...cauliflower.

So over the next couple of weeks, as I'm left home alone in a big house, with just a big kitchen and a computer to keep me company, I am starting an official experiment. I'm going to try to feed myself healthily, nutritiously, deliciously and colourfully for under £30.00 in a week. I should warn you right at the beginning, I am going to cheat a little, as I have to go up to London at the end of the week, to remind myself what a social life is like, and to see some real, live people. I've heard rumours they're still out there.

To be slightly more exact then, this week I will be detailing my food frolics between yesterday (Saturday) and Thursday. 6 days - well counted.

There are some more conditions, and you can decide for yourselves whether you think this is just stretching things:

1. There is a storecupboard/pantry in the kitchen, which is full of lots of lovely basics - flour, tinned tomatoes, tinned - olives, capers, pulses, pasta, rice, etc. - I intend to exploit this for all it is worth. Expect details of some 'storecupboard meals'The Storecupboard: my first photo but I thought I would give it a shot. Not least because I am so proud at how tidy this is post a tidy-up session yesterday. Helping Ma Pea to generally get the house in order - this was a task I set my organisational skills to. I know, it's official. I AM A GEEK. (Lydia at The Perfect Pantry would be proud!)
   
2. The fridge has a friendly smattering of bits and bobs - cheese, bacon, ham, some vegetables and some cheese - left over from when Ma Pea vacated premises for her fancy holiday, and I fully intend to use these up/come up with innovative ways of getting them involved in any way shape or form. Think of it as social food, and giving them an excuse to join in the fun.
   
3. It is necessary to bear in mind that I am based from home, and not currently juggling a job at the same time (bar all my mini creative projects, which I may start to upload details of soon, if I can figure it out), therefore breakfast, lunch AND dinner can and will be cooked and eaten at home - something which would never, ever happen when I was back in the big smoke.
   
4. We have apple trees, and intend to use 'em. I already have my eye on a recipe by Hopie, flagged and tagged by Psychgrad at Equal Opportunity Kitchen - keep your eyes/apples peeled ('scuse the pun) for that one.

I'm intrigued to know whether anyone else is as interested in eating frugally as me, and if so what your success stories have been - what you've managed to stretch out the most into multiple lunches and dinners, how you've used apparently discarded parsley stalks in stocks, that sort of thing. If you stumble upon me, do share hints, tips and/or encouragement!

A Nag a Day...helps you Work, Rest and Play

Very, very (almost obscenely some might say) early this morning - a Sunday - I woke to find bright light streaming through my window. My bed was cozy. There wasn't particularly any reason to get up. So I lay and revelled in the warm comfort of my duvet, idly anticipating the icy cold of a my big British bedroom when I did eventually poke a toe outside. The wind whistled through the chimney. I dozed. And then, ten minutes later, given I'm incapable of lazing in bed, I bounced out of bed, skipped downstairs and started breakfast.

I'm going to get geeky in this post by the way. In depth details, and some little theories that have struck me recently.

At the moment I'm testing out a new way of eating - NOT A DIET - and I have to say, it has turned my life around. I am starting to follow the time old 'Ma Pea nags' and, now that I have time to let them all slot into place, they are working, and the combination of all of them mean that I am bursting with energy, my skin is fantastic, I'm looking the healthiest I have ever looked, and feeling the best I've ever felt.

Nag 1
Want to know the old addage which is helping me out? You heard it here (again) first.

'Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince, dinner like a Pauper'.

To do away with your sardonically raised eyebrows immediately (sigh, not another one of her harebrained theories), this translates as eating a large(ish) nutritious breakfast, a slightly less generous lunch, and a light supper. This means that you start your day the Kingly way, roaring about on the amount of calories your generous brekkie imparts, broken by a refuel at lunch and then, when your day is tailing off and you're getting ready to go to bed, a light supper, so your tummy doesn't have to cope with too much to digest when it's trying valiantly to recharge your batteries as you sleep for your next, action-packed day.

An example of a day's meals might be:

Breakfast: a small bowl of muesli with fruit, and some scrambled eggs on toast with roast tomatoes. Carbs, protein, fruit, veg. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am.

Lunch: a small amount of roast chicken, a big heap of veg (leeks, carrots, peas), a small portion of potatoes, a piece of fruit - again, protein, carbs, veg.

Dinner: a small bowl of soup (beef & veg, chicken & rice, carrot & celery - all soups which will be detailed in due course), with some oatcakes and pate. Yep, you guessed it - protein, carbs, veg.

Nag 2
All of this, combined with Ma Pea's second eternal yet, as I'm finding out, ultimately truthful nag: get outside, get some fresh air and do some exercise. So I've been cavorting about on a daily walk for about half an hour to an hour, breathing in the glorious country air, getting lost in my plots and plans/idle wonderings, and getting on better terms with nature. As a reformed cityaholic, I used to be one of those ones who couldn't bear to leave what was happening up in London. Who knows what excitement I might miss?! I was also one of those who wasn't keen on bad weather - a 'weather wimp' you might say. Now I'm a changed woman. I'm finding that I love all this big space, there aren't people jostling up against me, or tutting if you're slowing down to admire the view. There's nothing in window shops taunting you that you can't buy - but instead everything is there to admire for free - birds, leaves, trees. My illustrations have gone through the roof, I'm producing on a daily basis, and it is serving to continue to inspire me to cook healthy, nutritious but filling food. And, if the weather is bad, and it's wet and windy, I know it sounds crazy, but I put on a waterproof jacket and some extra layers! Who'd've thought it. I am getting seriously converted to the country life.

And The Unplanned Side Effects
The eating combined with the exercise means that - for once completely unintentionally - I am losing weight at a phenomenal rate. Who needs gyms when you have hills?! Who needs lycra when you have waterproofs?! It's proving much more fun this way. I'm not actually noticing that I've been working...

Looking at my life at the moment, I could easily say that, on the surface, I'm in the worst circumstances I've ever been in: I returned from my travels all excited and with a new direction, smack bang into the worst economic circumstances seen in many decades; directly as a result of this companies are firing rather than hiring and there are few (if any) jobs coming in for me to even look at; the few jobs that I have been gone for, been interviewed for, and got through to final rounds for have been frozen last minute as the companies realise they won't be hiring for a while; and, aged 26, after 13 years of living away, I have necessarily had to move back with my parents (before you flinch at the maths of this, I boarded from the age of 13); oh, and, of course post-travels (I know, I can almost hear your heart bleeding) and without any paid work for the time I was away, and then these two months since I've been back, all of my savings are kaput, and I have next to no money! Whoopee!

But wait! Halt right there! Before you start feeling desperately sorry for me (if the travels part didn't completely lose audience sympathy) my message was actually as follows: that, in spite of what appear to be dire circumstances, I am actually the happiest and the most positive I've been for a long time. Keeping healthy in body (see above) is undoubtedly helping the state of my mind, and concentrating on my many and varied creative projects is keeping me motivated and putting my energy into worthwhile causes (art, illustration, food, extra learning, setting up a small community project in West Sussex, doing some small marketing/PR projects for local food companies), spending valuable time with my family, and most of all realising that things are tough but a) it won't last forever and b) thank goodness for my family.

All of this combined makes me a very grateful, and as a result very positive and happy, girl at the moment.

O-mega Intake

Ok, one last wibbly wobbly entry and then I'll get back to the normal stuff, I promise.

On the hunt for more ways to get bang from my (increasingly limited) buck, I experienced a bit of a time machine moment when, standing in front of the fishmonger's counter, my beady little eyes alighted upon: Cod's Roe. Why the flashback, I hear you cry? Well, when I was a wee youngster, Ma Pea used to rustle us up Cod's Roe on toast and, yep you guessed it, I would snaffle it up. Quick and easy supper - tick, barely a penny spent - tick, packed with brain-enhancing nutrients - TICK. A match made in heaven then!

Fried Cod's Roe on Toast
Serves 2

1. Ask the poissonier (or fishman) for a generous handful of the roe
2. Drop these roe into a seasoned flour mixture, as per my previous kidney and liver recipes, and roll around until covered
3. Pop a piece of bread in the toaster and drop the floured roe into about a tablespoon of hot groundnut oil.
4. Fry gently until light golden
5. Serve on toast

A smooth, silky texture, and strong fish-taste means that this dish ain't for the faint-hearted. But for that quick and easy supper, it is perfect!

A load of old (w)offal

Cor, blimey guv'nor but I've been eating an offal lot of awful recently. I mean, erm, offal, OFFAL.

Those of a weak constitution I suggest you look away now, as I'm about to get grizzly on you.

Now, I should probably start off by telling you that I have a remarkable tendency to faint dead away at the sight or mention of blood, or indeed insides of any description. I must be one of the few people ever to attempt to donate blood and to FAIL. I failed to give an entire pint of blood in the allotted time - I was so tense that my blood omitted to flow fast enough for the requisite 15 minute maximum. Nurses across the world have had to rouse me from dazed stupors of such a description.

So it might come as a surprise that I am also, somewhat paradoxically, the sort of girl who wants, and indeed proactively seeks, to eat such (to some) grizzly innards as kidneys and liver. I'm also researching what other body parts I've yet to try. Ma Pea is eternally perplexed at how she has managed to produce an offspring who, rather than requesting sweets, manicures or undies, instead requests animals' insides.

In these penny-pinched times (yes, you've guessed it, this is another of my frugal goodies), eating the whole of the animal is not only not wasteful, but also terribly kind on your wallet. Calves' or lambs' liver and kidneys provide a very cheap and nourishing meal, jam-packed full of iron and nutrients. Some of you may find this abhorrent, but don't knock it until you've tried it! With a very particular, slightly creamy texture, it might take a little getting used to, but I think it is well worth persevering with educating your palate. It is also worth saying that, should you be funny (like I am - I know, wimp) about handling the slithery organs, ask the butcher to remove whatever needs removing, and then you needn't touch them at all. See why not below!

Inspired by an excellent article in Waitrose Food Illustrated interviewing Fergus Henderson, he of St John fame, and a vociferous advocate of 'nose to tail eating', I decided to try Ma Pea's own version of Devilled Kidneys. As Fergus says, rather considerately I think, "Once an animal has been knocked on the head, surely it's only polite to eat it all?". Well, quite.

Starting with the kidneys.
Devilled Kidneys
Serves 2

4 Lambs kidneys, skins removed and chopped into mouthfuls
2 tablespoons flour, seasoned with plenty of salt and pepper and a teaspoon of English mustard powder
Groundnut oil to fry
tsp Gravy Granules
Splash of Sherry
The Perfect Piece of Toast

Put all of your seasoned flour mixture onto an A4 sized piece of tin foil, and plop the kidneys into the middle of the mixture. Coat the kidneys by pulling the foil from either side so that they are rolled around in the mixture in the middle.
Heat the oil in a frying pan on a high heat, and lift the coated kidneys out into the frying pan, moving round in the pan until the kidneys achieve a brown crust. At this stage add your gravy granules and a small dash of water (you can at this stage add some cream and some dijon mustard if you are feeling really swish) and season generously. Once the kidneys are curled but not overcooked, serve them on your buttered toast. Deglaze the pan with a dash of sherry, and pour the decadent mixture over the kidneys and toast.

I feel rather like a squire or a count when I eat this dish - there is something naughty and decadent about it. Offally good show ol' chap. I say. Wot wot.