Jerusalem artichoke soup

This is the world's simplest soup to make, just beautiful nutty jerusalem artichokes cooked and blitzed in a tasty stock.  I used to think that life was too short to make stock at home but I now make almost all that I use.  I tend to buy only whole chickens and then joint them, saving the carcass and bones in the freezer for making stock.  The aromatics can be varied to your tastes, I usually add ginger, garlic and star anise if I'm intending to use the stock for an asian style broth.  A key is always not to salt until you use the stock as you then have a base that you can freeze and reduce without it becoming overbearingly salty.  If of course you hold with my former view you can easily use a stock cube, or when it's a big part of a recipe (as it is here) store bought fresh stock.

Ingredients

500g Jerusalem artichokes
2 onions, halved (skin on)
2 large carrots, halved (skin on)
4 sticks of celery
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 chicken carcass, raw or cooked (omit if making vegetable stock)
Small bunch of parsley stalks (optional)

Method

1)  Add all of the ingredients bar the jerusalem artichokes to a large pan.  Cover with cold water and bring to the boil.  Once just simmering skim any scum from the surface and simmer gently for 4 hours if making chicken stock, 1 hour if making the vegetarian option.  I cook on a range so I often leave stock on a very low heat in the oven for up to 24 hours.

2)  Strain the stock through a sieve and add 500ml to a saucepan, bring back to the boil.  You will have excess stock, freeze this for later use.

3)  Peel the jerusalem artichokes and cut into quarters, add to the stock and boil until completely soft, this should take around 30 minutes.

4)  Using a stick blender blitz until completely smooth and then add salt to taste (you will need more than you may imagine as the stock is entirely unsalted).

5)  I served this with a hard ewe's milk cheese on toast to bring out the sweet nutty flavour of the soup.

Use this stock to make gravies, soups and casseroles, it's always great to have some in the freezer and the ingredients are very flexible, so use any veg that you have in the 'fridge!

Raw cauliflower salad

Another very simple post, almost too simple to be considered a recipe.  We have fantastic cauliflowers grown locally and in season, as I've stated before I'm a big fan of their distinctive flavour, be it roasted, in a curry as a classic cauliflower cheese (with a bit of truffle and jamon slipped in if I'm feeling cheffy).  However sometimes it seems a shame to do too much to that raw crunchy flavour and texture hence this very simple approach.

Don't worry if you don't have all of the ingredients, as ever experiment away.  Anchovies are a good substitute for capers, you can add a creamy or mustardy dressing if you prefer, cumin and paprika work well in there, as does chilli, basil, parsley and coriander.  I'm giving the recipe for the version pictured but I make it differently every time I do it.

Ingredients

1 small cauliflower

1 small red onion

1 tbsp capers

1/2 sweet red pepper

1 tbsp chopped mint

1 tbsp good rapeseed oil

1/2 tbsp cider vinegar

Salt and pepper

Directions

1)  Finely dice the red onion, cauliflower (stalk and all) and red pepper.

2)  Combine all of the ingredients, toss and taste.

It really is that simple.

Try, taste, and let me know how you get on!

Smokehouse at the Obar

This is a little bit of a departure for me. I was asked to review a local pop up and, to be entirely transparent, was offered dinner.  I went with the intention of being totally honest (dinner for two doesn't buy my loyalty) and so honest I shall be.

The Smokehouse is a US style barbecue themed pop up, upstairs at the Obar on Braunstone Gate in Leicester.  I agreed to review the restaurant after scoping the menu online. It looked promising and was limited to 4 or 5 small and large meals with optional sides all of which sounded tempting.  Anyone who reads my blog will know that I am a huge fan of doing a few things well with locally sourced ingredients and the menu delivered on this.

We arrived for dinner and ordered a pint, with chatty, friendly service we were taken up to our table.  The room was quirky with art for sale on the walls, mismatched furniture and blues playing at a respectable volume. In short there was a lot to like about it.

I ordered St. Louis cut barbecue pork ribs with a fennel and jalapeño slaw as I'm a sucker for a big chunk of meat on the bone. My other half ordered pulled pork and pork chilli, with garlic and rosemary mashed potatoes with house gravy (we'd read another blogger raving about the mash).  Our food arrived after a reassuring pause, with more good service.

My wife's pulled pork was incredibly, meltingly tender, delicately spiced and smoky, complimented by a tasty vegetable rich chilli and smooth buttery mash.  My ribs were big and meaty (due to the hard to get hold of 'St Louis cut'), crispy on the outside and subtly smoked with a heavier barbecue spice flavour. The ribs were delicious if a little tough, although as the flavour was so good this wasn't a major concern.  The fennel slaw worked perfectly with the pork and the jalapeño added a nice chilli spice kick.

Somehow we found space for dessert and shared a sticky toffee pudding with a salted caramel sauce spiked with bourbon.  This was a revelation and we fought over the last mouthful - enough said.

I think that the American barbecue theme worked perfectly here, the concept was a very good one and the food tasted wonderful.  I was glad to see that there was no option for the ubiquitous 'fries' on the menu as they really weren't required when there were so many interesting tasty alternatives. Fries would be doing the rest of a menu a disservice.  As you'd expect from somewhere that was primarily a bar, there was

a great American craft beer list to go with the food.

With drinks our dinner for two came in at £40ish, a reasonable price point for well executed, great quality food.