Come on in, the watercress is fine...

So Hugh FW has decided to go on about watercress this weekend. As well he should - it's coming into it's own this time of year, and - in contrast to just about everything else green and seasonal in March - it's got a striking flavour all its own.

I personally love a bit of peppery watercress, though I'm not a big fan of it in a salad on it's own. The bitterness can be just a bit too much. Where it's at it's yummiest is in a sandwich with fish (as Hugh FW mentions in the link above) or in a straightforward honest soup.

Two weeks ago for Mothering Sunday I served watercress soup as a first course and it went down a treat. There are many good versions out there (I quite like Delia's to use to get you thinking), and I've settled on these proportions, with the addition of silky natural yogurt at the end.

Watercress soup 

(serves 4 as a starter, serves 2 as a lunch)

2 bags of watercress, with stalks removed (use in a stock later ideally)
30 g reduced fat butter + 1 tbsp olive oil
2 large/3 medium leeks, chopped (with dark green/yellow parts removed)
500 g potato, peeled and chopped into cubes
2 tbsp bouillon powder + 1.25 l freshly boiled water (or 1.25 l of your own stock)
100 g natural low-fat yogurt 

a few reserved leaves for garnish
salt and freshly-ground black pepper

Do all the ingredient prep before you start cooking - time will then fly by. Heat the butter/oil in a large pot and add the watercress, potato and leeks. Season with pepper and allow to cook over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes.

Like in Delia's recipe, add the stock and bring to a simmer (a light simmer) and let continue like that for about 15 minutes. Use a hand-blender to puree the soup.

Now, you could eat the soup like this, but on special occasions, I like to strain the soup, and this one's an easy one to do. In batches, put the soup through a strainer (a fine metal colander will do) and use the back of a wooden spoon to get all of the liquid through.

Return it all to the pot (making sure it's off the heat) and mix through 3/4 of the natural yogurt and season well. Put the pot back on a very low heat and serve immediately. (If you aren't ready to serve immediately, do the yogurt at the last minute.)

Garnish with a last daub of yogurt, a few leaves of watercress, and a last grind of pepper.

Calories: I didn't add them up, but it's got to be pretty low. And if it's good enough for Liz Hurley and John Lydon, it's good enough for you.

winter foods: turkey

Gobble gobble. This bird must spend the second half of the year dreading his fate. Poultry is often dry, and turkey suffers the worst of this. But there’s lots that can be done with turkey, before or after the big day.


Mexican turkey soup
Shredded turkey with salsa, black beans and soft tortillas, topped with a bit of cheese, avocado and fresh coriander.


Turkey curry
Every time I hear of this dish I think of Bridget Jones' mum Una and her "turkey curry buffet". Sounds positively awful. But it doesn't have to be - this turkey and parsnip curry sounds quite nice (but make your own curry paste). Or this turkey, lemon and coconut curry.

Cold turkey with potatoes and anchovies
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe for leftover roast turkey sounds lovely - I definitely want to make it on the 26th or 27th of December this year.

Turkey sandwiches
In an ideal world, we'd eat our sandwiches with loads of brie, stuffing and cranberry sauce alongside the turkey. But there are plenty of other, healthier ideas, such as turkey, beetroot and avocado or turkey, feta and green olive tapenade.

a belated update to Sunday lunch

Sorry it's so late, but Sunday lunch was fabulous. For those who are just tuning in, I served:

Roast pheasant with clementine, onion, celery and rosemary stuffing (thanks to Crazy Squirrel for the inspiration)

Colcannon (I used a Hugh recipe, always trustworthy)

Steamed purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots

Sauteed leeks (with just a few sprays of olive oil)

And for dessert, poached pears in red wine (many thanks to Heston for his easy-to-follow version), with a dollop of reduced-fat creme fraiche and a square of Lindt dark chocolate.

Comments, concerns, complaints:

Roast pheasant dries out easily, despite constant basting. And although the breast meat is low fat, there's a congealed layer of fat between the skin and the meat. It's bitter and slightly annoying. I'm not sure I'll tackle it again at home; I'd like to see how someone else sidesteps this issue.

Colcannon - basically a mixture of potato, cabbage and onion - tastes lovely. But to get it right, I suspect, one needs to use bacon fat to fry it until crispy. I tried a mix of olive and groundnut oil, and could never get that crispness. But the mixture is lovely - colcannon mash it is!

The star of the show was the poached pears - it said to serve 2 per person, but that was more than enough! Next time I will poach them a bit longer - it will ensure that every bit of flesh gives in to that ripe lovely red colour.

sausages served with parsnip and apple cakes and steamed cabbage

The inspiration for this dish struck on a Saturday, about a year or so ago. I remember as it was Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall’s first food column in the Guardian Weekend, and it was all about apples. His recipe for parsnip and apple cakes struck a chord in my heart, I think it’s fair to say.

My first thought was to pair these cakes with sausages and a dab of Colman’s mustard. But sausages aren’t exactly the healthiest option on the block. Last time I made these, I only allowed myself two sausages, but they were approximately 180 calories each, which is quite a lot, especially considering the saturated fat content.

But voila! I was walking through the supermarket last week and spied Sainsbury’s extra lean Cumberland sausages. I was immediately suspicious, and snatched them off the shelf to check pork content – miraculously, over 70%. But only 75 calories a sausage – hooray!

But the taste test had yet to ensue. Not only did these extra lean gems had to pass muster with me, they had to please the Yorkshire-born and bred husband, who is, shall we say, partial to sausages. He’s very protective of which ones we eat, and I did wonder if extra-lean ones would somehow demasculinise him. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, I had successfully convinced him that we should purchase them, under the understanding that if he did not enjoy them, we would never, ever, ever buy them again.

Phew. We made it out of the supermarket unscathed. But come Saturday evening, it was the final test.

Parsnip and apple cakes
(serves 2)
click here for Hugh’s recipe.

Basically, you need 300 g of grated parsnip, 300 g of grated apple, 2 tbsp of flour, 1 egg (beaten) and plenty of salt and pepper. Mix together.

(I contemplated adding some thyme into the mix, although I decided against it as I didn’t want it to overpower the delicate flavours.)

Make into eight patties, squeezing out excess juice (this part is crucial). Fry in two batches in groundnut oil. Hugh calls for enough to cover the pan generously, but I maintain you should stick to about 2 tsp of oil per batch. You just need to keep an eye on them and make sure the heat isn’t too high, so that they burn.

Fry for 10 minutes on one side, then flip and cook for another 5 minutes. Keep the first batch warm while you do the second.

Serve with grilled sausages, steamed shredded savoy cabbage, and a dollop of Colmans.

Calories: 450 for 2 sausages, 4 parsnip and apple cakes, 150-200 g cabbage, 1 tsp of Colmans

The verdict? My husband loved the sausages and said he’s happy for us to buy those again. He had three sausages with dinner, which is a good way to bulk up the meal for anyone who’s especially hungry.

food TV

Well, we left 2007 in a haze of Nigella Express, Jamie at Home and Heston Blumenthal. Oh, and Gordon. He’s always on. What’s new for 2008, you ask?

Channel 4 is encouraging us to think before we eat. Interesting, they’re not asking us to think before we watch. Can someone do a documentary on Channel 4? Anyway…

Lovable tree-hugger Hugh of the River Cottage is back on television following his fish book and his fantastic column in the Guardian weekend. (I missed him over Christmas – Angela Hartnett is great, but I love Hugh’s back-to-basics approach.)

His show – Hugh’s Chicken Run – aims to show us just what buying a battery chicken means. The kindly man wants to encourage us – and the supermarkets – to buy free-range. It sounds like this one could get a bit gruesome.

More chicken: Jamie is back (naturally) with Jamie’s Fowl Dinners. Evidently, 9 billion eggs and 900 million chickens are produced every year in the UK. We’re in for another lesson to learn about the different ways of rearing chicken and another debate about the reality of chicken production.

More and more gordo, our gin-soliciting man. In Cook-A-Long-A-Gordon, a one hour special, we’re going to see how to cook quickly without sacrificing anything.

Eat Yourself to Death is another You Are What You Eat without the poo-crazed lady running around. Be prepared to be disgusted by what food can do to you.

In what sounds potentially interesting, The Diet that Time Forgot takes us to Pakistan’s Shimshal people, who are said to eat the healthiest diet in the world. There are no additives, saturated fats or heavily-sugared foods.

The Raw Food Diet goes under the microscope in Health Food Junkies. We learn more about the diet that prohibits eating food that is about 45 degrees C.

What do you think? I myself am likely to check these out initially, but I’m not sure how long I’ll last. I’d rather spend my time in the kitchen…

boats of butternut squash

About a year ago, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall published an excellent set of recipes in which the butternut squash, cut in half, acted as a ‘boat’ to hold additional tasty passengers.

Lentils and blue cheese (preferably in my mind, blue vinney) were the best two ingredients he recommended. So last night, I used a combination of lentils, blue vinney, red onion, and rosemary in my mixture.

It takes time, but the preparation of the recipe is extremely simple. Simply cut the squash in half, prick with a fork, and roast for about 45 minutes. Remove most of the squash, leaving about a 1cm rim around the whole of the squash, and mix with the cooked lentils, onion and rosemary. Add the mixture back into the squash, top with blue vinney, and place back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

Absolutely delightful.

But don’t stop with squash – aubergine works a treat too. I remember a Rosemary Conley recipe (a bit naff but nonetheless commendable for her low-fat tricks) from years ago recommending stuffed aubergine with lentils and tomatoes. Topped with Swiss or Parmesan, it makes a fabulously simple meal.