Pea & Ham Soup

Yesterday I cooked a ham shank in the simmering oven of my Aga for our tea. I had put it in the oven just before I left for the school run in the morning, which meant that it would be ready by tea time. I had added about a pint of boiling water, an onion and a carrot to the casserole dish so I thought that I would save the stock at the end of the cooking time, meaning that I could make pea and ham soup for tea tonight.

Recipe

Firstly I peeled and chopped one large red onion and one large potato. I put them into a large pan, and stirred in about a tablespoon of oil to thoroughly cover. I put the lid on, and put in the roasting oven for 15 minutes. After this, I took out the pan and added the pint of stock (left over from the ham shank, but it can be substituted with a pint of boiling water and a ham stock cube), and about 12 ounces frozen peas. I put the pan onto the boiling plate to bring it to the boil. To this I added a small amount of salt and quite a bit of black pepper for seasoning. I put the lid back onto it and put in the simmering oven for 40 minutes. I then pureed the soup with my hand blender and added the left over ham from the shank (about 4 ounces), which I had chopped up. Finally, the pan went onto the simmering plate to heat the ham through, and then I served it with crusty bread and butter.

It was delicious!

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Tea Loaf Recipe

I have always enjoyed making loaf cakes, and this tea loaf recipe is a family favourite. When we lived in a house with a conventional oven, I used a silicone 2lb loaf "tin" with a liner inside which made my life a lot easier. I wasn't sure if the silicone "tin" would like being in the Aga, but I thought that I might as well give it a go. The recipe that I use for my tea loaf is inspired by a recipe that I found in a cook book a while ago.

Ingredients:

• 7 1/2 fl oz Tea
• 12 oz Sultanas (Or you can use a mix of other dried fruits)
• 4 oz Brown Sugar (You can use demerara sugar if you have it in the cupboard)
• 1 Egg
• 8 oz Self Raising Flour
• 1/2 tspn approx. Mixed Spice

Method:

Put the sultanas and sugar in a bowl and pour over the brewed tea. Mix slightly, cover, and leave to soak for about 4/5 hours. You can leave it overnight if you wanted to.

After this, add the egg (beaten), flour, and the mixed spice, and mix together.

Pour the mixture into the lined silicone "tin", and place on a baking tray.

I put the cake onto the shelf which I had put on the floor of the roasting oven. I then placed the cold shelf above it.

I left the tea loaf cooking for 20 minutes, but nothing really seemed to happen, so I left it for another 20 minutes, and then put it in the bottom of the simmering oven, with the shelf on the floor, for another 20 minutes. It was then cooked.

The loaf should then be lifted onto a cooling tray, still in the liner, and left to go cold. The loaf can now be eaten, or wrapped in cling film or foil and left for a day. I like to eat it with butter, and a mug of tea.

Now the part that we have been waiting for! Did the silicone "tin" survive? YES, it lives to see another day!

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Roast chicken in an hour???

Friday tea. I thought that I hadn't done much cooking this week, so I thought that I would treat the family to a roast chicken dinner with nearly all the trimmings. The chicken that I bought weighed 1.25kg. The Mary Berry cookery book says that a chicken this size will take approximately one hour in the roasting oven. I put the chicken in an ordinary roasting tin (I will have to put an Aga roasting tin on my Christmas list), and spread a small amount of stork margarine over the top. I decided not to put foil over the breast to just see what would happen. With the shelf in the top oven on the bottom set of runners, I put the chicken in for an hour.

 

I also put some parsnips, which I had cut into finger sized pieces, in a small tin with vegetable oil on the floor of the roasting oven to cook for the same length of time. Next, I prepared potatoes, and vegetables as previously described in my blog post about cooking the ham in the cola (http://me-and-my-aga.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/slow-cooked-ham-in-coke_22.html).

 

After an hour, I took the chicken out and although the juices ran clear, I decided that another ten minutes in the roasting oven wound definitely make sure that it was well cooked. This extra ten minutes convinced me that the chicken was then fully cooked, as when using a conventional oven, a chicken of this size would normally take over an hour to cook. I then put the chicken onto a plate and covered with foil to rest. After this, I put some frozen Yorkshire puddings into the Aga to cook. Very lazy I know, but one day I will try to make proper Yorkshire puddings in the Aga, and post it on here.

Thank you Mary for this successful recipe, I will definitely feel more confident when cooking a chicken again.

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