Mustard and parsley sauce using Greek Yoghurt

As you know I often use crème fraiche in my sauces etc instead of cream.  I wanted to see what I could do with Greek yoghurt.  A little googling suggested that it would split in a sauce unless you stabilised it.

I lightly whisked together the Greek yoghurt (plain) with an egg white, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and a ¼ teaspoon of cornflour (corn-starch). 

This was then heated very gently and Dijon mustard was added.  Right at the end I added chopped parsley.  It was an ok sauce (and I guess, healthier) but a bit more fussy to make than I would like.

Pea & Parsley Soup with Bacon

This Pea & Parsley Soup with Bacon was somewhat more refined than my Slow Cooker Pea & Bacon Soup.  This was thanks to seeing James Martin doing it on his show Home Comforts.

The first thing you need to do is to cook your ham hock – because I used the slow cooker I did it a day ahead – but you could use a stock pot on the stove and have it done in 3 hours or so.

For the ham hock:

Put one ham hock into your slow cooker along with an onion (quartered), some garlic infused olive oil (or some garlic), a carrot (thickly sliced), a couple of stalks of celery (thickly sliced), 3 sprigs of parsley, a sprig of thyme (I used ½ tsp of dried), 6-10 whole black peppercorns and a bay leaf.  Cover all that lot with water and cook on low until the ham hock is meltingly tender.

Take the ham hock out and when it is cool enough to handle take off the skin and any bones and then shred the meat (not too fine) and put aside for the soup.

Strain the liquid and discard all the bits.  This might seem a waste but the taste in them will have almost entirely gone into the broth.  It is this strained ham broth that you will use for the base of the soup.  I had quite a lot of it so froze quite a lot of it for later.

For the soup:

25g butter

750m Ham hock liquid (strained)

Equal quantities in volume terms of frozen peas and fresh parsley (approx 400g of each)

Cream – a small bottle – keep some for the garnish

So you melt your butter and then add the ham hock liquid, the peas and parsley and then your cream.  Bring it up to almost a boil and then blend it.

Heat it up again (without boiling it – that's the only tricky bit).

Serve it into a bowl with some of the shredded ham hock on top (but it won't float!) and drizzle with olive oil and cream.  I do advise you to get the ham up to at least warm so that it doesn't chill off the soup too much.

This was truly delicious and I'll be making it again – or something using a similar technique.

Lemon Mint Cream Sauce

I was cooking some lamb and wanted to make a different sauce.  This one went magnificently with lamb and was also great as a salad dressing.  And on a sandwich with leftover lamb the next day.

Ingredients:

1 pottle of sour cream

2-3 tablespoons of cream

Zest and juice of a lemon (I used home dried zest)

4 tablespoons in total of finely chopped fresh mint and parsley

Salt and pepper

Just mix it all up  with a spoon and then taste it to see if it needs a little more salt, pepper or lemon juice.

Delightful, fragrant and delicious.

Pea & Parsley Soup with Bacon

This Pea & Parsley Soup with Bacon was somewhat more refined than my Slow Cooker Pea & Bacon Soup.  This was thanks to seeing James Martin doing it on his show Home Comforts.

The first thing you need to do is to cook your ham hock – because I used the slow cooker I did it a day ahead – but you could use a stock pot on the stove and have it done in 3 hours or so.

For the ham hock:

Put one ham hock into your slow cooker along with an onion (quartered), some garlic infused olive oil (or some garlic), a carrot (thickly sliced), a couple of stalks of celery (thickly sliced), 3 sprigs of parsley, a sprig of thyme (I used ½ tsp of dried), 6-10 whole black peppercorns and a bay leaf.  Cover all that lot with water and cook on low until the ham hock is meltingly tender.

Take the ham hock out and when it is cool enough to handle take off the skin and any bones and then shred the meat (not too fine) and put aside for the soup.

Strain the liquid and discard all the bits.  This might seem a waste but the taste in them will have almost entirely gone into the broth.  It is this strained ham broth that you will use for the base of the soup.  I had quite a lot of it so froze quite a lot of it for later.

For the soup:

25g butter

750m Ham hock liquid (strained)

Equal quantities in volume terms of frozen peas and fresh parsley (approx 400g of each)

Cream – a small bottle – keep some for the garnish

So you melt your butter and then add the ham hock liquid, the peas and parsley and then your cream.  Bring it up to almost a boil and then blend it.

Heat it up again (without boiling it – that's the only tricky bit).

Serve it into a bowl with some of the shredded ham hock on top (but it won't float!) and drizzle with olive oil and cream.  I do advise you to get the ham up to at least warm so that it doesn't chill off the soup too much.

This was truly delicious and I'll be making it again – or something using a similar technique.