Chipotle Bloody Mary

It’s a bank holiday in the UK. It’s cold and raining so we haven’t been out other than to get the newspapers. The boy loves a Bloody Mary and I found this recipe from Tabasco, and thought I would ring the changes. I prefer mine without the vodka. The boy doesn’t.

The recipe uses American cups – UK cups are marginally larger but as you should taste and adjust to you preference to go along, this won’t matter.

¾ cup vodka

3 cups tomato juice

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

3 ½ tsp Tabasco Chipotle Sauce

1 ½ tsp celery salt

¾ tsp black pepper

Garnish

Lime wedges

Celery stalks

Salt to rim the glasses

This recipe doesn’t need instructions but my thoughts on the ingredients….

Use a good vodka – the boy likes Russian Standard. As this is mostly tomato juice, choose a good brand. Our choice is Libby’s or Princes. Increasingly we like Lidl’s own brand. Del Monte is insipid and a waste of time. Whichever brand, it needs to be “from concentrate” and not freshly pressed for the same reason.

Chipotle is made from smoked jalapeno’s. I make my own chipotle in adobo from dried ones – there is a recipe on here. Tabasco’s version comes in a bigger bottle with a wider opening than their usual red sauce as it is thicker.

Start with getting the glass rims ready. Rub a lime wedge around the rim and dip into a saucer of salt. Our favourite is Fleur Du Sel, a damp salt from Brittany, but a flaky salt would be good too. Cut the celery stalks into a suitable size - they should be thin as well as fairly short.

Mix the Bloody Mary ingredients and pour into a jug. Refrigerate. I don’t hold with ice as it just dilutes it, though it does need to be cold. We have been known to pop a jug into the freezer when we are impatient.

Pour into the salt rimmed glasses and garnish with the celery and a lime wedge.

Consume the newspapers with the boy.

Discuss the world at large.

Greek Bean Soup

It is freezing for August. The boy and I are layering up  as we refuse to put the heating on in mid-August. A hearty soup is the answer.

500g dried haricot beans (or other white beans)

A good glug olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

400g can of chopped tomatoes

1tbsp tomato paste

2 carrots, chopped

1 celery stalk chopped (keep the leaves)

1 small dried chilli

1 small green bell pepper, chopped

1 litre water

Pepper

Bread, olives and pickles to serve

You need to soak the beans overnight. I find this supremely satisfying. I love watching them plump up ever so slowly. Next morning put on some Rembetika music and drain and rinse them. Put them in a pan with water to cover – bring to the boil and then let them simmer for 30 minutes. They shouldn’t be quite tender as they will finish cooking in the soup. Drain and put to one side.

The boy has done a fair bit of the chopping, so he may as well sauté the veg. They need to be soft. Meanwhile blend the tomatoes and tomato paste. I admit to buying a huge can of Greek tomato paste because I love the design on the tin. Once washed I will keep pencils in it.

Once the onions, carrots and celery are soft, add the green pepper and celery leaves. Crumble in the chilli. Pour in the water – ideally boiled in a kettle first, and tip in the drained beans.

Give it a stir and that is pretty much soup. Simmer for an hour to 90 minutes. This will allow some of the beans to break down and thicken the soup. You may need to add more water so it is still recognisably a soup. Nothing to do now, but wait. The boy is playing with his cat.

When it is ready, grind in plenty of pepper. Serve with bread- I think any kind with sesame seeds would be really good. I’ve put out a small side plate for each of us with a selection of olives and pickles. The sharpness cuts through the chalkiness of the beans. I notice that the boy avoids the pickled chillies, even though they are the big mild ones. Never mind. More for me.

Sauerkraut

It has turned decidedly cool for August – the boy thinks cool enough for making Sauerkraut, so we have sought out some tight white cabbages.

This recipe is very scalable and really depends on the size of your container. However as it takes a while to ferment, I think it’s worth making a fair amount.

2kg cabbage

50g salt

1tsp caraway seeds

The boy’s favourite way to remove the stalk of the cabbages is to whack it hard, stalk side down on the kitchen surface. That way you should just be able to pull it out. Remove the outer leaves and finely shred the rest. Our food processor is too small so it’s a knife job for us. The boy gets his consignment even finer than mine. Well done him.

Layer the cabbage into your container – we’re using the fermentation tub that we use for brewing beer. Sprinkle salt on each layer , but turn them and mix as you go along and sprinkle in a few caraway seeds as you go. There is some debate about what salt to use but I think the cheap table stuff will be fine.

Put a weighted plate on top – we’re using a couple of tins of tomatoes- to press it down.

After about a week, a brine will form so we will remove the cans but leave the plate on. Just check that the top of the cabbage remains submerged. If it isn’t, add some more brine – 25g salt in 1 litre of water.

It needs checking every couple of days. Once it starts fermenting a foam will form on the top which you need to skim off. After about 3 weeks this should stop which means it is ready to eat. Just give your serving a quick rinse and drain it first to get rid of some of the salt.

I like the sour hit of it as it comes though the boy likes his in the German style, gently fried in butter, and with plenty of good sausages. This will be ready in mid-September when my thoughts turn to mellow fruitfulness and the boy’s turn to sausages with sautéed sauerkraut.

Real Sage & Onion Stuffing

I’m posting this as I reckon 90% of all sage and onion stuffing is made with Paxo, which is crazy when it’s such a simple thing to make. The boy is a traditionalist and a Sunday roast is an unmovable feast in our house.

My Mum used to make a version of this but also used a small box of Paxo so it was half hers and half Paxo’s. No need.

500g white onions, chopped

125g fresh white breadcrumbs

60g butter or dripping

3tbsp sage, chopped

Salt and pepper

The boy has chopped the onions and predictably, they made him cry. Pat him on the shoulder and say “there, there”. I think they need to be the white onions rather than the red ones.  I actually don’t measure any of this out but give the above as a rough guide. It’s about 2 medium onions.

Grate the bread coarsely or give it a quick whiz in the food processor, but don’t get it too fine, This is easiest if you use yesterday’s bread.

Gently fry the onions in the butter or dripping so they are very soft but not browned. I don’t let the boy do this as I don’t want them crispy!

Sophie Grigson recommends pouring boiling water over the sage and letting it sit for one minute to tone down the medicinal taste. I probably wouldn’t do this if using shop-bought hothouse sage, but the stuff from the garden is quite potent.

Put the breadcrumbs in a mixing bowl and add the (drained) sage and salt and pepper – plenty. Tip in the onions with all of their cooking fat from the pan.

Mix well and stuff your meat. The boy prefers the stuffing separate, rather than inside a chicken or rolled in a meat joint. In this case, gently add a little boiling water, mixing the stuffing well until it is just moist and plumped up. Let it sit for 10 minutes then put in a greased tin and dot with butter. Put it in with the roast for the last 20 minutes until it crisps up on top.

Make the boy his Sunday Bloody Mary while you wait for it to cook

Campbell's Tomato Courgette Medley from the 80s

I really like old cookbooks and the boy likes ones associated with grocery brands. He found a book by Campbell’s soup from the late eighties. We both love soup and so always have some in the larder. 

There are a lot of things in the book that I would never want to try and are destined to remain in the 80s – i.e. a potato salad made with a can of cream of celery soup. But we did fancy this one.

1 can Campbell’s condensed cream of tomato soup

3tbsp grated Parmesan

1tbsp lemon juice

½ tsp grated garlic

½ tsp dried basil

875g courgettes, sliced

1 medium onion thinly sliced

1 green pepper, deseeded and cut into strips

The original recipe suggested garlic granules but I’m not going that far. The dried basil is a concession. Normally we have Heinz tomato soup in the house but you need Campbell’s for this as it’s condensed and it is from their book after all.

This is hardly a recipe – Put everything in a large saucepan and toss gently so it is all coated. Simmer over a low heat for about 10 minutes , without letting it boil, as this will spoil the soup. This should just cook the vegetables but leave them firm. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan.

The book also offers a Microwave version, which is “Cook on High for 15 minutes”. I suspect that is based on an 80s microwave and that it would need considerably less these days. (Do microwaves still have a High setting?)

It apparently serves 6-8. This must mean as a side dish – either that or we didn’t eat much back then.

Enjoy with Nik Kershaw or Howard Jones (depending on your allegiance), blasting out as loud as the neighbours will bear.